Moringa Protein Drink Increases Testosterone and Anabolic Status in Men with Hyperlipidemia - A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

Sep 15, 2026

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Testosterone is essential for health, sexual function, body composition, and athletic performance, yet metabolic syndrome is associated with declining hormonal levels. Moringa oleifera has shown testosterone benefits in metabolic syndrome through prior work, but human evidence and underlying mechanisms remain limited. This randomized, repeated-measures pilot assessed whether four-week Moringa protein-drink supplementation improves resting testosterone, related hormones, lipid profile, and anabolic status during hypertrophy weight training. Results indicated significant improvements vs placebo in resting testosterone and anabolic responses, without lipid-profile changes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

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Introduction

Background on testosterone in health and performance

Testosterone and hormonal-metabolic links

Rationale for Moringa supplementation

Study design context

OPEN ACESS [https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/turkjkin](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/turkjkin) ORIGINAL RESEARCH Moringa protein drink increases testosterone and anabolic status of men with hyperlipidemia: A randomized controlled pilot study Ciara Angeli. G. JUAN College of Human Kinetics, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. Abstract. Testosterone is important in health, sexual function, body composition, and athletic performance. However, hormonal levels decrease with metabolic syndrome. Moringa oleifera, traditionally used as an aphrodisiac, has been shown to improve testosterone levels in metabolic syndrome. However, there is a dearth of studies on humans, and the mechanisms involved remain to be elucidated. This randomized, repeated measures study aims to determine if four-week supplementation of Moringa leaf powder in the form of a protein drink can improve resting levels of testosterone and related hormones, and whether any improvement translates to improved anabolic status during hypertrophy weight training. Relationships between hormonal levels and lipid profile were also explored. Three young men (28.33 ± 2.08) with hypercholesterolemia but normal testosterone levels were blood tested for hormonal levels and lipid profile at three time points: baseline, after Moringa supplementation, and after placebo supplementation. Pre-exercise and post-exercise testosterone and cortisol levels were measured on each testing day. Significant differences were found between Moringa and placebo in resting testosterone, anabolic status, and acute exercise-induced anabolic response. No significant difference was observed in any of the markers of lipid profile. Fourweek supplementation of Moringa leaf powder in the form of a protein drink significantly increased resting testosterone and anabolic status in men with hyperlipidemia but with normal testosterone levels. Men with hyperlipidemia showed blunted anabolic response to a hypertrophy weight training protocol, which was attenuated by Moringa supplementation. Mechanisms may be independent of improvements in lipid profile. Keywords. Anabolic status, cortisol, exercise, moringa, testosterone, weight training. Introduction Testosterone is known to play a role in health, sexual function, and athletic performance. The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the possible role of testosterone in disease severity and mortality, with either very low or very high levels associated with poorer outcomes in men (Ghazizadehet al., 2020; Mohamed et al., 2020; Wambier & Goren, 2020) . Suboptimal testosterone levels may predispose men to endothelial dysfunction, thrombosis, and impaired immune response (Gargaglioni & Marques, 2020; Giagulli et al., 2020; Pozzilli & Lenzi, 2020), as the hormone exerts antiinflammatory effects directly by inducing antiinflammatory cytokines and inhibiting proinflammatory ones, stimulating nitric oxide release, and modulating coagulative factors (Bianchi, 2018; Giagulli et al., 2020). Indirectly, it helps reduce adipose tissue that secretes pro-inflammatory markers (Sattler et al., 2014), and potentiates insulin signaling (Rao et al., 2013) which is involved in innate immunity (Ieronymaki et al., 2019) . Testosterone also plays a key role in the metabolism of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. It controls gene expression of regulatory proteins involved in glycolysis, glycogenesis, and lipolysis (Kelly & Jones, 2013) . As the primary anabolic steroid, testosterone upregulates androgen receptor (AR) activity, protein synthesis, satellite cell activation, and other hormones involved in muscular hypertrophy, such as growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1 (Kraemer et al., 2020). Studies on athletes also support the role of testosterone in athletic performance (Majumdar & Srividhya, 2010), recovery (Kargarfard et al., 2018), fatigue (Bosco et al., 2000) and motivation (Crewtheret al., 2016) . Seru

FAQs

What was the main purpose of the randomized controlled pilot study?

To determine whether four-week supplementation with Moringa leaf powder in a protein drink improves resting testosterone and related hormones, and whether these changes translate to improved anabolic status during hypertrophy weight training.

Who participated in the study and what were the key measurements?

Three young men with hypercholesterolemia but normal testosterone levels underwent hormonal and lipid-profile testing at baseline, after Moringa supplementation, and after placebo; pre- and post-exercise testosterone and cortisol were measured on each testing day.

What were the study results regarding testosterone, anabolic status, and lipid profile?

Moringa significantly increased resting testosterone and anabolic status and improved acute exercise-induced anabolic response compared with placebo. No significant differences were observed in lipid profile markers, suggesting mechanisms may be independent of lipid changes.

Sep 15, 2026

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