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14.07.2025

More testosterone through intensive physical exertion plus supplementation with biotin

Combining intense physical training with supplementation with the B vitamin biotin may increase testosterone production. This is suggested by a spectacular animal study from Iran published in Heliyon.

Study
Researchers at Shiraz University conducted a four-week experiment with 40 adult male rats. The researchers divided the rats into four groups. One of these was the control group, which received no treatment.

The biotin group received a substantial amount of biotin orally every day. If the rats had been adults, they would have received approximately 110 milligrams of biotin daily. This is an astronomical amount. The daily requirement for biotin is 30 micrograms. The rats received more than 3,000 times that amount. Although there is no evidence that biotin is toxic in these extreme doses, we wouldn't dare consume more than 5-10 milligrams of biotin per day.

The swimming group swam in an aquarium two to three times a day for 10 minutes.

The swimming + biotin group swam in an aquarium two to three times a day for 10 minutes and also received biotin daily.

Results
Biotin supplementation, with or without exercise, increased the testosterone concentration in the animals' blood by about a third after 28 days. This combination of exercise and supplementation also increased the concentration of the hormone LH.

The figure and table below illustrate this. Click on them for a larger version.

The standard deviations in the table above aren't impossible, but they are remarkably modest. Unsuspecting and naive as we are, we don't draw any major conclusions from this. But because we want to properly inform our readers, we'll mention it anyway.

The combination of exercise and supplementation resulted in a statistically significant increase in testicular weight [Figure] and sperm count [Figure].

HDL
The effect on HDL was simply sensational. It shot up by almost ninety percent in the swimming + biotin group. You can see this in the table below. Frankly, we can't believe it. In the quarter-century we've been reading animal studies with (perhaps too much) interest, we've never seen such a colossal effect on HDL levels.

Doubts
The results of this study and its potential applications are fascinating. Therefore, and because this isn't the first study in which biotin increases testosterone production, we are writing this web post. However, we have our doubts about this research.

Source:
Heliyon. 2025 Feb 4;11(4):e42468.

More:
Heavy dose of biotin for more testosterone | Animal study 30.08.2024

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