This is a guest review post written by Chad Cilli:
In an era riddled with bad diet advice, bogus supplements, and fitness gimmicks promising miraculous results with no effort, Mike Mahler is a breath of fresh air. I first became familiar with his work a few years ago when I started researching natural testosterone boosting protocols. Since then, I have followed his YouTube videos, training advice, and hormone optimization articles. One thing I can tell you is that Mike Mahler practices what he preaches, and that in itself should tell you something. Unlike some fitness experts who recommend one thing to the masses and do something completely different themselves, Mike delivers big on quality information as he recommends training programs, diet, and supplements that he utilizes himself.
Most recently, I had the opportunity to enjoy his course, “The Importance of Optimizing Hormones” provided through the Entheos Academy. The textbook for this class is Mike’s book Live Life Aggressively. The course was a series of 4 classes, each covering one of the “master hormones” as Mike calls them. Too often we become overly focused on a single hormone like testosterone for example. I can’t count the number of ads I see these days about “Low T” and testosterone replacement therapy. These ads and propaganda miss the mark by failing to address why you might have low testosterone in the first place. Mike offers a natural approach to optimizing all of your hormones by focusing on optimizing the 4 hormones that control the rest of our body’s hormone production; leptin, insulin, adrenaline, and melatonin.
By optimizing those hormones, your own natural levels of other hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, growth hormone, prolactin, dopamine, and so forth will naturally fall into place without having to take expensive pharmaceutical products that can come with unwanted side effects. In this course, which is still available for download, Mike addresses each hormone individually and how to improve deficient levels. He covers what that hormone does, the negative effects of that hormone being deficient, and how to optimize it through lifestyle, diet, and supplementation. Mike always makes the point that you do not have to supplement, but if you want to supplement, you should take the lowest dose needed to elicit the results you are trying to attain. The take away message is that hormones are optimized when we do many things correctly and not just one thing will be a miraculous fix-all.
Mike addresses in detail what he refers to as the “Master Control Hormones.” Leptin is arguably the most important of the Master Control Hormones. Recently there has been some discussion about “leptin resistance.” Leptin receptors become “fatigued” and “worn out” from all the garbage like high fructose and overly processed ingredients of modern diets. You may hear people say “I’m always hungry,” which is a result of the brain no longer picking up the signal from leptin that you are satiated.
Obviously, as Mike points out, the first line of action is to make better food choices. Especially better food choices that are specific to you. Mike makes the point that no “one size fits all diet” is going to account for individual variability. You must choose foods that you are not sensitive to. Eat quality food, and especially when eating meat, you should eat the highest quality meat. Eating sick animals is not conducive to good health.
Additionally, you need to improve your digestion. Chew your food slower and better, take probiotics and glutamine for your GI tract, and digestive enzymes to help your body better break down and absorb food.
Next up was insulin, which is really just as important as leptin. High insulin and high inflammation go hand in hand. Our goal should be to optimize our insulin so that we are using as little insulin as possible to transport sugars. And again, this begins with diet. Avoiding high glycemic foods, high fructose, excess caffeine, and processed foods is necessary to help restore our insulin sensitivity. The ultimate goal is to adopt a healthy lifestyle with an intelligently balanced diet centered on quality food.
Adrenaline is the double edged sword of hormones. While it can help burn stored body fat, it can also wreck havoc on your system when you are excessively stressed. Adrenaline resistance, like leptin resistance, occurs when the receptors are over taxed. The brain senses that you are depleted, and so it increases your fat stores. Adrenaline, when out of control, is highly inflammatory and increases cortisol levels. To combat this, Mike recommends a variety of activities from tai chi and qi gong to meditation and deep breathing. He also notes that fat burners are a “deal with the devil.” While they burn fat, you gain that fat right back when you come off of them due to the adrenaline resistance and adrenal dysregulation that they can cause.
Finally, melatonin is the last of the Master Control Hormones. If you’re reading this, you probably already know that sleep is extremely important. Melatonin is critical for deep sleep and GH pulsation. Not only does melatonin help with deep sleep and growth hormone, but it also lowers estrone (the bad estrogen) and is a powerful antioxidant. Supplementing with melatonin sounds like a simple solution, but it can lower free testosterone and downregulate hormone production, so Mike recommends either cycling melatonin or focusing on other aspects such as meditation, black out curtains, and magnesium.
In the following classes, we addressed inflammation and how to reduce it through lifestyle, training, nutrition, and supplementation, we examined testosterone and more importantly DHT and how to optimize your androgen levels, and finally the course ended with a discussion of growth hormone and how to gain the most benefit from your natural GH pulsations. The real value in this course is learning how to adapt your diet and lifestyle to your specific needs. Not everyone needs to take a supplement like mucuna pruriens, but some people that may be exactly what they need.
Mike Mahler is truly a master of his craft and an expert in his field. Each week, I readily began integrating and implementing the new information that I learned in class, and I can tell you that even for someone whose bloodwork shows very healthy hormonal levels across the board, I feel even better since implementing Mike’s recommendations. The classes are extremely well organized and the information is presented in an easily digestible format so that anyone understand what hormones are and how they work with no endocrinology doctorate required.
About Chad Cilli
Chad Cilli is a former Crossfitter turned Strength Coach, and a former Zone Dieter turned Paleo. You can find more about him and his current projects at http://chadcilli.com
Mark Braden says
New research indicates that weight loss surgery can help women regulate their menstrual cycles and reduce excessive hair growth and skin problems that go along with extra weight.
cancerclasses says
The problem of hormone system normalization & optimization will continue to confound and will never be achieved by many people due to a lack of correct education & understanding of three critical preceeding factors that determine hormonal status and outcome of hormone therapy:
1. Continuing intake of Trans Fats in processed liquid polyunsaturated vegetable oils & processed “foods” containing them,
2. Insufficient intake of fresh whole & natural saturated fats & physiologically correct amounts of whole, fresh, natural, cold pressed, unadulterated parent omega-6 linoleic & omega-3 alpha linolenic essential fatty acids, and
3. Over intake of whole fresh & natural liquid polyunsatured oils (olive, sesame, peanut, etc.) beyond more than 3 or 4 percent of total daily dietary calories, required to ensure proper & optimum lipid content of all cell structures & organelles including membranes, mitochondria, cytoplasm, etc.
In her now 15 year old article ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS, LORENZO’S OIL AND BEYOND, lipid researcher Patricia Kane PhD. says:
“In our struggle to direct the biochemistry of the human system we have fallen into an abyss in regard to our understanding of lipids and therapeutic manipulation. Virtually every aspect of metabolism is completely dependent upon the fats we consume yet current opinion leads one to believe that the etiology of the catastrophic illnesses of our time all have an intimate connection to the consumption of butter, eggs and meat.
The entire spectrum of autoimmune disorders, endocrine imbalances, gastrointestinal disturbances cardiovascular difficulties and central nervous system involvement are all rivoted in derangement of fatty acid metabolism. The conflict is so deep that cardiologists and oncologists have completely opposing statements in regard to lipid consumption, one stating that fats be avoided completely and the other the exclusive use of polyunsaturated fats. American and European homes abound with polyunsaturates, unfortunately they are in the form of hydrogenated or trans fatty acids that are lifeless lipids that cannot support nutriture with anything more than calories.
The use of trans fats literally shuts down the fatty acid metabolism. The synthesis of prostaglandins-local hormones that control all cell to cell interactions within the body-are completely dependent upon the ingestion of high quality, unaltered fatty acids. The body requires specific fatty acids to create gastrointestinal integrity, bilipid membranes, hormones, neurohormones, prostaglandins and immune modulators all derived from fatty acids and these fats must be supplied and trans fats avoided if modulation of the faulty metabolism is to be achieved.
In our struggle to direct the immune, endocrine, cardiovascular and nervous systems we have neglected to use the very substrate that is basic to all biochemical interactions — fatty acids. Instead we have shunned lipids, removed them from our diets, blamed them for the ills of society-obesity, cancer, heart disease, degenerative illness-when in fact they are the critical substrates to the immune (cytokines, prostaglandins), endocrine (hormones, neurohormones) neuronal (myelin) components we attempt to manipulate.
The administration of hormones, for example, often fails when an individual exibits very low serum cholesterol which is the base substrate for the cascade of regulatory hormones. Thus when an individual is loaded with a hormone they are often unable to properly utilize the hormone due to a deficiency of substrate (fatty acids, coenzymes). Recently the addition of DHEA has been suggested but this often further complicates the patient’s chemistry rather than corrects the hormonal imbalance because the basic raw materials are missing and the ingestion of trans fats literally blocks fatty acid metabolism and hormonal production.”
Any attempt to normalize or optimize hormone systems without first addressing the three preceding critical factors will guarantee continued frustration & effort for the subject and continued profits for the subject’s practioner.
Mike Mahler says
Excellent info “cancerclasses”!
Norcal Mike says
I’ve heard MM on Super Human Radio a few times. He’s a sharp guy with deep knowledge and spirituality. Turns out he’s vegan, which put me in a very skeptical place at first. He said so many things that are spot on that I eventually realized that he knows what he’s talking about and he knows how to fill in the gaps that remain when avoiding animal protein. I appreciate Mike for opening my eyes to the fact that many different dietary paths can lead to a good place, you just have to pay attention to what you’re doing as you walk your path.
For those interested, check out SHR episodes 505, 679, 688, and 698. He talks about his book in episode 809.
Martin says
I find it all very interesting and will probably the buy the book.
I have one question I would be very interested in (and it applies not just to this program/course/book but all the others on the related topics):
In what way is it different from the general Paleo advise, as already offered by so many books, blogs, etc? Will Mike Mahler teach me anything new? Does he offer any new advise on eating, exercises, sleep, etc. that the existing Paleo resources leave out?
I still find the program interesting 🙂
Mike Mahler says
Hey Martin, clearly you don’t know who I am and what I am all about and that problem is easily solved buy you spending 5 minutes on my website at http://www.mikemahler.com
In addition to being a hormone optimization researcher, I am a strict vegan, and kettlebell expert. Three things that no paleo person is so that should tell you alone that you will not be getting redundant material from me.
Martin says
Mike, thanks for your response! I am now looking at your website and checking out your book at Amazon. It is very intriguing indeed how a vegan diet and hormone optimization could go together. Again, many thanks…
Mike Mahler says
Thanks a lot for the praise NorCal Mike
Matthew Caton says
“I can’t count the number of ads I see these days about “Low T” and testosterone replacement therapy. These ads and propaganda miss the mark by failing to address why you might have low testosterone in the first place. ”
That sounds like typical Big Pharma doesn’t it?
Mike,
How do you feel about increasing dietary cholesterol for supporting steroid hormone levels?
Do you feel that high meat consumption interferes with optimal hormone levels? I eat around 2 lbs of meat daily.
What do you think about D-Aspartic Acid?
Thanks in advance!
Robb Wolf says
I think that’s laying down good substrate…pretty much what I do.
Chad Cilli says
I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes if I hop in here, but I’ve read extensively on D-Aspartic Acid. Research does show that it can increase testosterone levels by increasing LH release as well as increasing sTAR’s ability to transport cholesterol into the mitochondria of the leydig cells.
However, research also shows that DAA causes oxidative stress to the testis, and so obviously this isn’t a good option for long term usage. Also important to remember, DAA increases prolactin (which can lead to gyno), and for many people it wrecks havoc on their gut. I know quite a few guys who have tried it and said they suffered diarrhea all day every day while they were on it.