Master Your T: The Definitive Guide to Raising Your Testosterone Naturally

by Christopher Walker

How Testosterone Exerts its Effects in The Body Now the testosterone is freshly produced and your leydig cells release it to the bloodstream. What happens next? How does the hormone exert the effects? It doesn’t just float around the blood for nothing. Right? Well of course not… Here’s what happens next: As the fresh baby testosterone enters the bloodstream, it’s called “free testosterone”. This is because it’s literally free, as it’s not bound to anything yet. But then your liver also releases this carrier protein called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). And this is where things get complicated. About ~98% of the fresh “free testosterone” is bound to either SHBG or albumin (another carrier protein), and when testosterone is bound to either one of these proteins, it cannot effectively enter cells anymore, and it has really hard time binding to the androgen receptors. Meaning that ~98% of the testosterone is not really that “active”. Simply put, the more of the carrier proteins (SHBG and albumin) you have in your bloodstream, the fewer testosterone molecules actually remain bio-available. The remaining testosterone that isn’t bound to carrier proteins (free testosterone), freely circulates around your body, just waiting to be bound into a receptor. Then for example, let’s say that you’re lifting weights at the gym. Your androgen receptors in the muscle tissue activate and free