Sex Hormone Binding Globulin: The part of sex hormones you are missing... →

Bluestone Health Group LLC

Sex Hormone Binding Globulin is the transport molecule of the sex hormones. It is the vehicle that takes sex hormones from the sex organs and delivers them to the target tissue, like the muscles or brain. This is perfect when the levels are ideal and sex hormone production is perfect. SHBG also acts to protect the body when the environment isn’t ideal. Even with perfect sex hormone levels, if you have high SHBG you will appear and be sex hormone depleted at the tissue level. It’s similar to a traffic jam. When too many cars are on the road (SHBG) you can’t get the people (sex hormones) to the location (target tissue). I am beginning to see this issue more and more and that is the reason for this article.

SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) preferentially transports DHT (dihydrotestosterone) and testosterone over estrogens. So when SHBG is high, it leads to a circumstance in your body where the amount of DHT and testosterone available for use by the tissues is low. At the same time it is also promoting a higher estrogen environment. This can happen even when your testosterone levels are great. It is dependent on the SHBG levels.

SHBG ideal levels - 25-30 nmol/L - men; 65 nmol/L - women

I have begun to look at SHBG levels as the indicator to see if you are living the Testosterone Lifestyle for men and the Sex Hormone Lifestyle for women. Women function better with total balance between estrogens, progesterone and testosterone, whereas men are a bit simpler with a more singular focus on testosterone. SHBG is a great indicator to see if your body is using sex hormones appropriately.

Different things that can greatly impact SHBG (leading to increased SHBG):

Dehydration. This is one of the most important components. When the tissues are chronically dehydrated, they protect you from yourself and your hormones by increasing SHBG. From my experience, >70% people don’t drink enough water and around that same number show cellular dehydration in their lab numbers. This can take a few months or longer to improve if you haven’t been drinking over 3L of water a day for at least a year.

Diet. There are a few caveats to diet. The first part of diet in having ideal sex hormone function, in both men and women, is to eat enough protein AND calories. Typically this means following a Paleo or Ancestral type diet. This diet has proven over time to be the best food approach to ideal hormones. Timing and macros can vary as to how metabolically flexible you are. (I will cover this another time.)

Another part of diet is eating enough. I have only seen a few people who overeat calories during a single day. I find this to be very rare. What I do see, is many people chronically under eating and gaining weight because of the hormone changes associated with the stress of under eating and lowering thyroid and sex hormones levels. If you have sluggish hormones, you will not be able to lose weight. Chronic dieting, under eating and calorie restriction all lead to lower hormone output and a high stress state in the body. Eating the right amount of food is required for healthy hormones and a balanced SHBG.

The final part of diet for a balanced SHBG is carbohydrate intake. This one applies more to lean, highly trained people. A large proportion of people who lift and workout a lot have a habit of eating a low carb diet for extended periods of time. Once a person gets lean enough, under eating carbs will begin to impact the body in a negative way. This is ONLY the case for highly trained people who are very lean (lean = low % body fat). This is NOT the case for people who have extra fat to lose or do not train hard 4+ times a week or over 6 hard hours a week. If you have extra fat to lose, refer to the other two diet strategies before coming to carbs.

Hormones that directly impact SHBG:

Testosterone. This, of course, is the biggest culprit. If you have a total testosterone lower than 700, you will need to work on this immediately. I have an article written on how to begin to boost T, My Personal Testosterone Plan. High T will lower your SHBG, if it is too high. If you have normal or great T, yet high SHBG, we will have to refer to some of the other categories to assess and begin to apply.

Estrogen. High estrogens, due to a whole number of factors, are ruining men’s and women’s sex hormone balance. High estrogens in a man come from excess fat, marijuana, alcohol, non-organic foods, fast and junk foods, high stress lifestyle, toxins from personal care products, foods, lifestyle, etc., lack of proper nutrients, detoxification issues, gut health and genetics/epigenetic changes impacting the ways the body eliminates estrogens. Women have all the same areas with the added issue of birth control. Almost all birth control is either synthetic estrogen, progesterone or a combo of both.

Estrogen will lead to a high SHBG number in the blood because the body is looking to protect itself. It doesn’t want all that estrogen exposure and activity, so it will bind it up with SHBG. As we learned earlier, this will further exacerbate a low T environment because SHBG preferentially binds DHT and T. If estrogens are high, an estrogen detox program is in store.

Checking Estradiol numbers in both men and women can give great insight to see if estrogen is too high in both men and women. An even better indicator is where both men and women store fat. The quads and the upper hamstrings are the most sensitive areas to estrogenic activity. If you have excess estrogenic activity in the body, you will have excess fat in the quads and hamstrings and this is a definite indicator you need estrogen detoxification support. (Give my office a call if you want to get this assessed. My Body Comp Analytics System has a proprietary way of assessing estrogenic activity via subcutaneous fat distribution.)

Growth Hormone & IGF-1. For the sake of this article, I am going to lump these together into a group called GH. GH lowers SHBG when it is in the right ranges and functioning the way it should. GH in terms of lifestyle has a few components we can all appreciate. Sleep is when GH surges. If you are not getting quality sleep, and enough of it, you will not have optimal GH. I suggest using a WHOOP tracker to optimize sleep. I also have quite a few articles written on sleep and many different strategies to improve. Check out The Sleep Endeavor. Once you master sleep, different nutrients and supplemental strategies play a huge roll.

Glutamine and arginine are both massively important amino acids when it comes to supporting GH production. We can take that even further and say, gut health and the NO systems are required for optimal GH. Glutamine is the most abundant AA in the body and is the main energy source for your gut cells. It helps muscle mass and gut health. Arginine is required for healthy NO production. Arginine of course diminishes in function as we age, and the NO system is quite complex. Working on artery and vascular health with anti-inflammatory strategies along with supplementing NO nutrients like arginine, beet extracts, citrulline, etc. are all highly important if is this deemed a way to improve your NO production.

The way you exercise plays a large role in how GH functions. If you are doing excessive cardio you are not getting the most out of your workouts when it comes to supporting GH production. Lifting heavy and lifting volume, together, is the best workout strategy to boost GH. This of course must be accompanied with the diet and sleep plans listed above. Being strong is your best friend here.

Strategies to reduce and optimize SHBG:

  1. Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate. One gallon of water per day. Clean, filtered, flat water. In the morning add 1/2-1 tsp of Celtic Sea Salt and 1 Tbsp of lemon or lime juice to a 20oz glass of water. The salt will help with hydrating the tissue and supporting your adrenals.

  2. Eat enough. Eat Paleo. Make sure you are eating enough food for your body and exercise schedule. Undereating will lead to low thyroid hormone, high stress, higher estrogens and low testosterone. This will also lead to high SHBG. Eating paleo will help support optimal sex hormones along with lowering SHBG.

  3. Use carbs (insulin) to your advantage. IF YOU ARE LEAN AND HAVE A SIX PACK, you will have to eat some carbs to maintain a lower SHBG. If you have excess fat, low carb is still for you. If you are lean and workout 4x per week, lifting heavy and really working, you will need some carbs.

  4. Sleep. You will need to sleep. Use the WHOOP to track and make sure you are optimizing. 8+ hours a night and with optimal amounts of REM and Deep Sleep.

  5. Live the Testosterone Lifestyle.

  6. Supplement your deficiencies. GH supplementation. Testosterone supplementation. Proper post workout nutrition.

  7. Call my office and set up an appointment with me.