His Testosterone Is 857 at 48 With Zero Drugs. The Sauna Trick He Uses (Frozen Meat) Protects Hormones Most Guys Destroy

Natural testosterone optimization after 40 isn’t reserved for the genetically blessed or those quietly cycling hormones.

Paul Saladino, a 48-year-old physician, recently tested at 857 ng/dL—without any pharmaceutical intervention—and he’s laying out the entire blueprint.

From strategic workout timing and forgotten sauna hacks to the exact foods and environmental tweaks that move the needle, this isn’t theory.

It’s a working system that challenges conventional gym culture, mainstream nutrition advice, and even how we think about sleep and technology exposure.

The Overtraining Trap Most Men Fall Into

Crushing yourself in the gym seven days a week might feel productive, but it’s likely destroying your hormonal foundation.

Overtraining elevates cortisol and tanks testosterone, creating a hormonal environment that works against everything you’re trying to build.

If you need preworkout to go to the gym, you are underslept and undernourished. Eat a steak and take a nap and go to the gym tomorrow.

Saladino suggests monitoring the DHEA-S to cortisol ratio as the most useful lab marker for overtraining, rather than just tracking testosterone alone.

When cortisol climbs while DHEA drops, your body is sending clear signals that recovery isn’t keeping pace with training volume.

The Sweet Spot: 30-45 Minutes, Not Two Hours

Saladino trains casually for 30 to 45 minutes most days, focusing on movements that support rather than demolish his system.

His routine includes sled pushes and pulls, backwards walking for knee stability, pull-ups, core work, and time on the heavy bag—nothing that requires heroic recovery protocols.

I feel like I can train casually 30 to 45 minutes every day and not overtrain. If you’re lifting weights super hard, you’re going to feel it when you’re overtraining, right? You’ll feel your libido go down. You’ll feel your energy go down.

Most people can handle three to four quality gym sessions weekly without hormonal consequences.

If libido crashes, energy plummets, or gym performance feels flat despite adequate sleep, volume reduction should be the first intervention—not another supplement.

Training Outdoors: The Underrated Testosterone Hack

Working out under natural light delivers compounding benefits that indoor gyms simply can’t replicate.

• UV exposure increases vitamin D synthesis, which is directly linked to testosterone production
• Infrared light improves mitochondrial function and triggers melatonin production in mitochondria throughout the body
• Full-spectrum natural light without blue enrichment supports circadian rhythm integrity
• Non-flickering light reduces nervous system stress compared to artificial indoor lighting

The research here is more nuanced than often presented. A 2016 study in Dermato-Endocrinology found that UV exposure can increase testosterone in men, but the effect appears dependent on adequate baseline vitamin D levels and may be modest in size.

The Sauna Strategy Nobody Talks About

Sauna use offers legitimate cardiovascular and longevity benefits, but there’s a testosterone-specific protocol most men ignore.

Heat exposure above 210°F has been associated with increased dementia risk in some populations, which is why Saladino always wears a sauna hat to protect his brain.

But the bigger concern for testosterone optimization? Testicular temperature.

There’s good evidence that if you’re in the sauna, this is affecting your fertility negatively. Decrease sperm count, decrease sperm motility. And you can say, ‘Oh, I don’t care about getting pregnant. I don’t want kids right now.’ But here’s the deal. I don’t think you can separate sperm production and hormonal health.

Saladino’s solution? Ice packs on the testicles during sauna sessions.

While it sounds extreme, the logic is sound—sperm production and testosterone synthesis both occur in the testes, and sustained heat exposure impairs both processes.

Protecting testicular function means protecting hormonal output, even if conception isn’t currently a goal.

The Diet That Moved Testosterone From 500 to 857

Saladino’s dietary shift from strict carnivore to a more inclusive animal-based approach coincided with a dramatic testosterone increase—from around 500 ng/dL to 857 ng/dL.

The difference? Adding back carbohydrates and being more strategic with fat sources.

What’s On the Table (and What Isn’t)

His daily food template includes:

• Grass-fed, grass-finished beef and bone marrow
• Organ meats—liver and testicles (or desiccated organ supplements)
• Pasture-raised eggs for selenium, B vitamins, vitamin A, and choline
• Raw milk when available
• Carbohydrates from squash, blueberries, oranges, apples, and avocados
• Raw, organic, glyphosate-free honey
• Beef tallow and butter as primary cooking fats
• Bone broth for collagen and minerals
• Five grams of creatine daily

What’s deliberately absent? Seed oils.

There is evidence that all of this food in many ways supports testosterone production. The first thing to think about is what is not on this table. There are no seed oils on this table. There’s actually evidence that consumption of seed oils shrinks your testicles.

A meta-analysis examining fat types found that higher saturated fat intake was associated with increased testosterone levels, contradicting decades of dietary conventional wisdom that demonized animal fats.

Macros That Matter: Protein, Carbs, and Individual Variation

Saladino targets one gram of protein per pound of body weight from animal sources—165 grams daily at his current weight.

His carbohydrate intake ranges from 200 to 300 grams depending on activity level, a stark contrast to his previous strict carnivore approach.

Adequate calorie consumption is non-negotiable.

Chronic restriction tanks thyroid function, which directly impacts testosterone production—both rely on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis functioning optimally.

We know very clearly that inadequate calorie consumption will tank your testosterone also. That’s going to hurt your thyroid, which is connected to your testosterone.

Individual variation matters here. Some men may thrive on lower carbohydrate intakes, but Saladino emphasizes checking thyroid markers and electrolytes to verify metabolic health rather than relying on subjective feelings alone.

The Organ Meat Advantage

Eating testicles and liver isn’t just ancestral cosplay—these foods contain concentrated micronutrients, peptides, and potentially microRNAs that support male hormonal function.

Saladino consumes fresh organs when possible, but relies on desiccated organ supplements (six capsules daily) when traveling.

His brand of choice actually fails informed sport testing because testicular tissue naturally contains trace androgens—not from contamination, but from the source tissue itself.

Whether these trace hormones contribute to the effect is debatable, but the micronutrient density and organ-specific peptides likely play significant roles.

Sleep Architecture: The Non-Negotiable Foundation

Poor sleep quality directly suppresses the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, reducing LH and FSH signaling to the testes.

When your brain doesn’t tell your testicles to produce testosterone, they won’t.

Saladino’s sleep protocol is methodical, addressing circadian rhythm, bedroom environment, and even air quality.

Morning Light: Setting the Circadian Clock

Within minutes of waking, Saladino gets direct sunlight exposure for at least 10 minutes—ideally while grounding barefoot on grass or near the ocean.

This is telling my body, okay, it’s morning time. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to blunt the morning cortisol spike, that cortisol awakening response, which is what you want.

Even on overcast days, outdoor light intensity far exceeds indoor lighting—typically 10,000+ lux versus a few hundred lux indoors.

This morning light exposure sets a biological timer that determines when melatonin production ramps up 12-16 hours later, creating natural sleep pressure.

Evening Protocol: Red Light and Radical Darkness

After sunset, Saladino switches exclusively to red lights—portable, zero-flicker LEDs that don’t suppress melatonin production.

His bedroom modifications include:

• All electronic devices removed or unplugged
• Phone on airplane mode, stored outside the bedroom
• Blue painter’s tape over every LED indicator, including the TV standby light
• Blackout modifications using tape or trash bags when Airbnb curtains are inadequate
• Room temperature targeting 67°F
• Natural fiber bedding—cotton or linen, never polyester

The CO2 Hack Nobody Considers

Saladino travels with a CO2 meter and actively manages bedroom air quality.

Research suggests that CO2 levels above 900 ppm during sleep can impair sleep quality, even if you’re not consciously aware of it.

Outdoor ambient CO2 sits around 410 ppm—that’s the baseline human physiology evolved with.

I’ll leave the window open during the day to get the fresh air. And then at night, the windows closed, but this is a crazy hack. I actually turn the bathroom fan on in the bathroom to exhaust some of the air, and that keeps the CO2 in the room lower.

This simple ventilation strategy keeps his sleeping environment around 650 ppm instead of 900-1000+ ppm in sealed rooms.

Small optimization? Maybe. But testosterone optimization is cumulative.

Sleep Aids Worth Using

Saladino uses nasal breathing strips to optimize airflow and silicone earplugs to minimize acoustic disruption.

He maintains consistent sleep timing—around 8 PM in Costa Rica, 9 PM in the States—and gives himself an hour of wind-down time before lights out.

Environmental Toxins: The Hidden Testosterone Suppressors

Modern environmental exposures create a constant low-grade assault on endocrine function.

Saladino’s environmental protocol focuses on minimizing plastic exposure and reducing RF-EMF (radiofrequency electromagnetic field) exposure—two factors that accumulate silently.

The Plastic Problem

Saladino never drinks water from plastic bottles, sourcing glass-bottled water even when traveling.

He buys meat from butcher shops that have tested lower for plastic contamination compared to conventional grocery retailers, and stores food in glass rather than plastic containers whenever possible.

Even clothing matters.

Saladino wears wool underwear, shirts, and shorts—avoiding synthetic polyester that sits directly against skin.

There have been interesting experiments in dogs and in humans showing that when you sling your nuts in polyester, this can negatively affect the formation of sperm.

Perfection isn’t possible—some meat arrives in plastic, raw milk sometimes comes in plastic containers—but conscious reduction across multiple exposure points adds up.

The EMF Reality Check

Saladino acknowledges this is where many people check out, but the data is harder to ignore than most assume.

Studies now show that sleeping with a phone near your bed can impair sleep quality, and that keeping phones in pants pockets may affect sperm parameters.

His RF-EMF mitigation strategy:

• Phone on airplane mode whenever it’s in his pocket or near his body
• No phone in the bedroom at night
• Speakerphone or wired headphones instead of holding the device to his head
• WiFi router turned off at night
• Faraday bags over routers during the day when maximum reduction is desired

Using an EMF meter, Saladino demonstrated the dramatic difference: background levels around 1,500 microwatts per meter squared jumped to over 2 million when a phone switched from airplane mode to active cellular.

Your single greatest exposure to RF EMF, radio frequency EMF, is your phone. The Wi-Fi router matters, but your phone is still the biggest exposure.

The research on RF-EMF remains debated, but the evidence suggesting potential biological effects continues mounting. A 2018 review in Environmental Research found that mobile phone exposure may negatively affect sperm quality, though effect sizes vary across studies and mechanisms aren’t fully established.

Non-ionizing radiation doesn’t need to break DNA bonds to disrupt biological processes.

Lab Testing: Know Your Numbers

Subjective feelings matter, but objective data prevents guesswork and confirms what’s actually working.

Saladino’s comprehensive male hormone panel includes:

• Total and free testosterone
• SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin)
• LH and FSH—to verify testicular signaling from the pituitary
• Complete thyroid panel—TSH, T4, T3, free T3, free T4, reverse T3
• Fasting insulin
• Lipid panel
• hsCRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein)
• Homocysteine
• DHEA-S to cortisol ratio

He’s repeatedly shared bloodwork publicly showing normal LH and FSH with testosterone at 857 ng/dL—proof that his approach supports natural production, not exogenous supplementation.

I’m not taking hormones. I don’t take steroids. I never have. This is completely natural. My testicles actually work because of all these things I’m thinking about in my life.

The Compound Effect: Why Every Detail Matters

No single intervention moved Saladino’s testosterone from average to exceptional.

It’s the cumulative effect of training volume, food quality, sleep architecture, and environmental hygiene working together.

The shift from 500 ng/dL on strict carnivore to 857 ng/dL on animal-based with carbohydrates demonstrates that even within “optimal” approaches, refinement matters.

Adding organs, protecting circadian rhythm, eliminating seed oils, managing EMF exposure, optimizing bedroom CO2 levels—individually, these might move the needle 5-10%.

But stack ten 5-10% improvements, and you’ve potentially doubled baseline testosterone production.

If it feels overwhelming, just do one thing at a time. Don’t be overwhelmed. But any little thing you can do is a step in the right direction. These are just all of the things I do. And it’s hard to know from a broad perspective which of these things are most impactful.

The protocol isn’t about perfection—it’s about systematically removing barriers to natural testosterone production while supporting the biological processes that generate it.

After 40, those barriers accumulate faster and impact harder, but the fundamentals remain accessible: train intelligently, eat strategically, sleep deeply, and minimize endocrine disruption.

Saladino’s approach proves that maintaining robust testosterone naturally into your late 40s isn’t genetic luck or pharmaceutical necessity—it’s methodical optimization across lifestyle domains most men never systematically address.

Sources

• Dermato-Endocrinology, 2016 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5031489/
• Environmental Research, 2018 (mobile phone and sperm quality review) – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935118300355