The Secrets of Morning Wood

How to Effectively Use and Supercharge this

Leading Indicator of Testosterone, Health
and Manliness…
By Logan Christopher

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 1

 Disclaimer
The advice contained within this report is for educational purposes only and is not
intended as medical advice. Please consult your physician before engaging in any of the
ideas found in these pages. The author and publisher of this report are not responsible in
any manner whatsoever for the use, misuse or dis-use of the information presented here.

That being said, let’s help get your dick harder…

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 2

 Why Care About Morning Wood?
It seems like an odd thing to read a special report about. As weird as that is, I actually had
to do lots of research and write it! 

But it is important. Let me tell you why.

Every man knows what morning wood is. Cast your mind back to your teenage years and
just how hard and frequently it happened.

(Even in math class…)

Now you’re probably older. Testosterone and other male androgens drop naturally as you
age. This is compounded by the toxic and estrogenic environment we live in today.
Plastics, pesticides and much more contribute to all these hormonal problems.

Testosterone is responsible for a lot. It makes you feel like a man.

It gives you the confidence and power to “Take on the World.”

It’s even been called the “Success Hormone.”

With it you add muscle mass and have better workouts. Without it you have increased
chance of injuries.

And you can kiss your sex life good-bye.

Plus, you may get depressed, anxious and irritable when T is low.

And here’s the big idea of this report. Morning wood is linked to testosterone. When
we dive into the detail we’ll show you how.

But for now, understand that your morning wood, can be used as a leading indicator for
how healthy your testosterone and other hormones are. Thus you can look at and feel how
you’re doing.

My name is Logan Christopher. For years now I’ve been interested in health and
performance, to help me become as strong as I possibly can. I do strength and acrobatic
feats like bending horseshoes, deadlifting 500+ lbs, back flips and more. Since I wasn’t
born strong or athletic I’ve always sought out different things that could give me an edge.
It was that genesis that led me here today.

And when you do some of the things I suggest here you’ll see just how much better your
morning wood can be, bringing with it all the other benefits that come too.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 3

 The Science of Morning Wood
The technical term for morning wood is nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT). Nocturnal
meaning night, penile meaning penis, and tumescence meaning the quality or state of
being swollen. (I don’t really think of it as swollen dick when I wake up, but that’s the
technical definition.)

Other common names include “morning glory,” “pitching a tent,” and “raising the flag”,
though morning wood is the most common.

But perhaps we should start using the term “Morning Steel” as this conveys something
stronger than wood. We’ll get to why this statement of quality may be important in a bit.

Morning wood is a natural part of the sleep cycle, occurring multiple times a night. There
are several different stages of sleep which we cycle through several times in any given
night. Many people know that the REM, or rapid eye movement, stage is accompanied by
dreams. And it’s also accompanied by wood.[1]

The interesting thing is that your entire body is paralyzed during dreams, through
neurotransmitters, except your erections. One of these is norepinephrine which causes
vasoconstriction of penile blood vessels which prevents erections from occurring.

But during REM sleep, norepinephrine slows down specifically in a part of the brainstem
known as the locus coeruleus. While this happens testosterone increases. Testosterone,
which operates on a daily cycle, has its highest point of the day, in the early morning
time. Here testosterone causes vasodilation of the penile tissue, resulting in an erection.

The locus coeruleus has several androgen receptors which your testosterone will activate.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 4

If you have sufficient free testosterone, with a few other factors likely at play too, then
morning erections will occur.

One of the purpose of this happening is oxygenation of the tissues. This helps to repair
and maintain functionality of the penis. So it operates as sort of a backup, in case you're
not getting enough erections in your waking life. In addition, research urologists found
that the increased blood flow helped to prevent excessive collagen from forming inside
the erectile tissues.

It’s basically use it or lose it. And without morning wood, some men would likely lose its
functionality all together.

And here’s a fun fact. Did you know that spontaneous erections occur even when in the
womb? This is likely caused by the testosterone surges that helps a boy become a boy
during the gestation, rather than a girl.

Another contributor to morning wood can be a full bladder. This is called a “reflex
erection” as the full bladder stimulates a region of the spinal cord. The reason for this
would be to prevent urination while sleeping. But it’s not the only reason it happens.

However, this poses its own problems, as any man with a massive erection can attest to.
Going pee when you wake up in this state can pose a challenge. For that reason, this
handy infographic can help you out…

Otherwise known as the Manliest Form of Yoga

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 5

 Analyzing Your Morning Wood (aka NPT Monitoring)
NPT monitoring (yes, that's a technical term) is often done in cases of erectile
dysfunction to determine if there are physiological or psychological problems. In the
early days something similar to postage stamps were placed around the dick in order to
see if it got hard at night and broke the proliferation.

Nowadays, there’s more scientific measurements, including a tool called a RigiScan.

Recent research looked at several different factors including:[2]

1. Tumescence activity unit

2. Rigidity activity unit values
3. Total erection number
4. Erection times

They even went so far as to distinguish between tip rigidity and base rigidity. To put this
in laymen’s terms its four different qualities.

1. Girth
2. Hardness
3. Number of Erections
4. Length of Erections

Now when I think of scientists measuring these things I get an image of them connecting
my dick to various wires. I don’t know if that’s what they actually do, but it doesn’t
sound comfortable or like a fun procedure, unless I suppose if it was all hot, female
scientists. 

In any case, we can look at these factors ourselves in order to better understand what our
morning wood (or lack of it) is telling us, without needing any equipment.

Looks like Donald Duck is doing some NPT monitoring himself!

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 6

Some of these are easier to measure than others. I don’t expect you to take out a
measuring tape so let’s do away with girth. Besides, unless you have fine measuring
skills this isn’t likely to change too much from day to day.

Hardness or rigidity is going to be the strongest factor to look at. Instead of causing any
sort of pain by seeing how hard your dick is to bend, I would simply rate in on a scale of
0 to 10 (with 0 being flaccid and 10 being strong as steel, and a 5 being you could
probably use it for sex at this point). So here you see why “Morning Steel” is our aim. Of
course, this is subjective, but using a scale like this, will help you to know better over
time.

The number of erections is something you can note down if you wake up multiple times
in the night or morning and notice wood each time. You could do the other measurements
with each of these or just for your longest, hardest one.

The length of your erection is another important cue. Sometimes with morning wood you
wake up with it and its gone almost right away. Other times it just won’t seem to go
down and lasts for many minutes. This is the kind where urinating becomes difficult.
Once again, you don’t need a stopwatch for this, just give a ballpark number. Does it go
away fast, last about a minute, last about five?

In addition to these factors you’ll want to note down any special practices, diet changes,
herbs or supplements you’re taking that can be effecting these results.

You might even be able to tell the difference between a full bladder “reflex erection” and
one that isn’t caused by such. If you do any other sort of sleep tracking or “hacking” this
is just a couple more data points to look at.

As an example, this morning I woke up with a hardness of about 8. Good solid wood, but
not quite steel. This one lasted for probably over five minutes as I fell back to sleep. Later
when I woke up I had some less hard, less long lasting ones, but there were multiple.

To help out I put together this handy chart on the next page. I recommend you print this
out, multiple copies, and keep it by your bedside so that you can take down the
information as it arises (pun intended).

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 7

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 8
 Testosterone and Morning Wood
Let’s dive a bit deeper into the testosterone related action, as that’s where this idea that
morning wood is an important indicator of health comes from. I noticed this effect in
myself and others long before I was able to find the research to back it up. But after a
long search I was able to find these details.

As reported by Malcolm Carruthers, M.D.[3], with emphasis added:

“Although usually brief, these spontaneous morning erections are an important sign that
the erection mechanism is working properly and has been primed by the testosterone
surge which normally occurs around waking time. Their loss in andropausal men is
probably due to the overall decrease in free testosterone which I have found to be
the key diagnostic feature and by the reduction in the daily variation of testosterone
levels with increasing age observed by me and reported by other researchers. This view
is supported by the fact that early morning erections are one of the earliest signs
that potency has been restored by testosterone, and often happen within a week or
two of starting treatment.”

And here’s another report, The endocrinology of sexual arousal, which a bit more
technical, with emphasis added.

“Nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT), the occurrence of spontaneous erections during

rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, is relevant. The neurophysiological basis of NPT is
still disputed, but one plausible explanation is that REM sleep is associated with a
‘switching off’ of the noradrenergic cells in the locus coeruleus (l.c.) (Parmeggiana &
Morrison 1990) which, via their spinal projections, are probably associated with
inhibitory tone in the penis. Thus, the reduction of inhibitory tone during REM permits
what can be called ‘excitatory tone’ to be expressed as erection. NPT is clearly impaired
in hypogonadal men, and restored to normal with testosterone replacement. The l.c.
has testosterone receptors (Parmeggiana & Morrison 1990), and this putative
‘excitatory tone’ can be regarded as testosterone dependent. Carani et al. (1995)
evaluated the effects of exogenous testosterone on NPT in eugonadal men.
Intramuscular testosterone enanthate had no effect on sleep parameters, and did not
affect frequency, degree or duration of NPT, when assessed as penile circumference,
but did increase, modestly but significantly, penile rigidity during NPT.”[4]

My personal experience, as well as many others, is it’s not just rigidity that can be
increased but much more. But I haven’t been taking straight testosterone either. Perhaps
that doesn’t work as well as the things I‘m about to share with you.

So with my personal experience and several others to back it up, this is why morning
wood, especially the qualities of it described earlier, can be looked at as in indicator of
testosterone in the body.

Does this mean you should get testosterone replacement? Probably not, and here’s why.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 9

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is certainly needed in some cases. The benefits
are significant while there seems to be few (but some) side effects. Even so, it can be
expensive and time consuming, requiring a doctor to administer it.

So why not try a natural approach first? There are quite a few lifestyle changes that can
be made that support more testosterone from strength training to diet.

And there’s a supplemental approach much easier than TRT. Natural herbs can help in a
big way, not just to supply testosterone from the outside, but to up-regulate and assist
your body in producing more, in addition to having several other helpful hormonal
effects, like detoxing bad estrogens, limiting conversions of testosterone into estrogen,
and lowering sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG).

It’s less risky, less expensive, and in any case should be tried first. On that note I want to
tell you about two of the best herbs to help you boost your morning wood, and thus all
the hormonal health that accompanies it.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 10

 Pine Pollen
This is the original one in which I noticed the “morning wood effect” that set me on this
investigation. Pine pollen has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years but
most people are not aware of its amazing benefits.

Many people involved in health have heard of phyto-estrogens. These are compounds in
soy, hops, licorice and other herbs and plants that have estrogenic effects in the human
body when consumed. Thus, in most cases, they’re best avoided, or definitely limited, in
men, so as to not have excess estrogen.

(These are different than xeno-estrogens, from things like pesticides and plastics that are
man-made and often far worse. While you can certainly cut back on how many of these
you get, by eating organic and limiting plastic use, they’re not completely avoidable,
which is why we’re seeing more hormonal problems these days, not less.)

What most people haven’t heard of are phyto-androgens, because they appear to be rarer
in nature. Pine pollen is the richest and best source of these. As the “male seed” of the
pine tree, they have a variety of novel plant compounds like gibberellins and
brassinosteroids, hormonal plant compounds which have positive testosterone actions in
the human body.[5]

In addition, they actually have human androgens, in small but effective amounts,
including:

 Androstenedione
 Testosterone
 DHEA

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 11

 Androsterone

This is not a steroid and you won’t have any side effects of those drugs. Instead with all
the natural co-factors and the small amounts available, these will work with your body
for adaptogenic effects.

Furthermore, pine pollen is full of vitamins, minerals, including many trace elements, is a
complete protein with 18 amino acids, and has a host of other antioxidants and more. It’s
been called the “Superfood of the 21st Century” because it can do so much.

The pine pollen powder is really a food and can be used as such. While it does have these
powerful effects, it is going to work with your body to help regulate and optimize your
hormone levels. Since most men are not optimal, this means it will increase them.

It’s also available in an alcohol extracted, tincture form, which delivers the phyto-
androgens directly into your bloodstream. The hormonal effects of this are even more
powerful.

The good news is the pine pollen is relatively inexpensive. You can find more details and
pick it up here. https://lostempireherbs.com/pine-pollen/

Here’s what a few people said regarding the morning wood effect. Of course this was
accompanied by many other benefits from better sex to greater energy, concentration and
workouts.

“Lets just say that this morning, when I woke up, had I fallen forward, I would have been
in trouble. Wow, this stuff works!!!!!!” - Mark

“I can say I wake up in the morning with an extreme erection every morning. By the way
I am 67.” - Travis

“I was skeptical about the claims. But even the first day I had tremendous energy. As far
as the male benefits, the day after I took the pine pollen I woke up with morning wood
that could dent a car door. I will definitely be ordering again.” - Todd

“Makes you feel like a diamond, haha.” -Michael

One man, John, took both the powdered and tincture forms and his testosterone roughly
doubled while cutting his estrogen in half. The results were Total Test=723
(before=382) and Estradiol=43 (before=97).

On this page you’ll see our specific recommendation to test out the “Morning Wood
Effect” for yourself.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 12

 Tongkat Ali
In English this translates “Ali’s Walking Stick“. And they weren’t talking about an actual
stick from a tree! It reminds me of that scene from Austin Powers 3 where Mini Me is
described as a tripod. Tongkat Ali, also known as Longjack, is the root of a tree that
grows in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is highly revered.

You can see what these Indonesian tribesmen are packing

Tongkat Ali has been shown to restore testosterone levels, lower estrogen and SHBG,
boost several parameters of sexual performance, including erectile function, hardness,
performance, and satisfaction, and so much more.

Tongkat Ali is theorized to trigger an enzyme in the testes to produce more testosterone
by converting pregnenolone precursors into androgens, possibly through the effects of
luteinizing hormone. It’s also been said to stop the negative feedback loop that would
normally shut down this increased production.

What’s highly significant is that Tongkat Ali works through three of the mechanisms
needed to ensure hormonal health in men:

1. Restore testosterone levels [6][7]

2. Anti-estrogenic by lowering aromatase [8]
3. Lowers SHBG [6][8]

Ronald tried pine pollen, and for whatever reason it didn’t work well for him. He asked
us what else was available so we sent him some Tongkat. Here’s what he had to say:

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 13

“I did try the Pine Pollen with the Nettle Root for a few nights, but didn't have that much
effect with the Morning wood. Then started with the TKA the next day after..... And
WOW!!!.... On the third day of using it I was getting massive results. Let's just say that I
couldn't watch a girl walking down the street without getting that feeling within my pants,
in other words it was hard (no pun intended) to contain it. Even the pretty faces of girls
on TV were doing it to me too. Lol.”

Just about every guy that gets on Tongkat Ali is wowed by it because its such powerful
stuff. You can check out more details on Tongkat Ali here:
https://lostempireherbs.com/tongkat-ali/

Of course, there are other herbs out there that can do the trick. But in my own experience,
as well that of many others, these two, pine pollen and tongkat ali, are probably the best
available. You can even take them at the same time.

While one or both of these work for about 80-90% of men, it’s not full proof. Here’s
why…

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 14

 The Cardiovascular Correlation
When looking at ED, the scientists tend to lump it into a two different categories.

1. Psychological
2. Physiological

Psychological basis means performance anxiety of one form or another, which can be the
result of fear, shame, anger, worry and much more. And truthfully, often these problems
overlap. Anyone that has had performance problems, knows that even if they start of
physiological, they then become psychological too, exacerbating the problem, because
you get worried if it will happen again this time...

And in this second group, physiological, we have two contributing issues: vascular and
testosterone. We’ve talked largely about the testosterone side of the picture but it’s
important to note the morning wood not occurring, or ED issues, can also be a result of
problems in your cardiovascular system. The blood cannot flow into the penis sufficiently
to get hard, or once in there, it can leak out, leading you to lose an erection you had,
before you may be done with it.

Viagra® and other ED drugs can help with some of these issues, but not in others. It’s the
same way with the herbs we described. Lots of men have insufficient testosterone. While
maybe not clinically deficient it’s probably far from ideal. If this is the case, and you’re
suffering down there from it, the two herbs described can be the perfect solution for you.

For others, while it may help, it might not completely solve all issues. We’re currently
conducting research and experimenting to find those herbs that will best help in these
blood supply issues as well.

If you try pine pollen and/or tongkat ali you’re likely to see some improvement. More
testosterone solves a lot of problems. But if don’t see improvements in performance, or
morning wood, then a cardiovascular issue is likely the case. This is great information to
know!

Once again, this is a leading indicator of health. If your blood flow, and vessels, aren’t
working properly in your dick, then there’s a foreboding sign that there are problems
elsewhere in your body.

If you’re taking down more accurate morning wood details as was described before you
may gain some additional insight into this. Morning wood but without the hardness or
length of time, can also be an indicator that there are blood supply issues.

We’ll be releasing more information on this issue in the future. Make sure you stay on
our newsletter list to get updates.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 15

 Female Morning Wood?
There’s actually a female equivalent. I came across this in my research, although I had
never heard of it before. And apparently when I asked around, most women aren’t aware
of it either. Nocturnal clitoral tumescence (NCT) is the swelling of the clitoris that occurs
in the morning. Since the clitoris is made of the same tissue as the glans of the penis this
isn’t too surprising to find it functions similarly. But as the penis has several functions,
the clitoris is known to only have one. It’s solely for sexual pleasure.

One woman I talked to about this, suggested calling it the “Morning Hood” which I
thought was both hilarious and appropriate.

Not a whole lot of research has been done on the function of this. Besides making sure
the area is working properly, as is one of the function in men, it’s unknown if this has a
correlation to hormone health in women.

For the women reading this (or the men who can ask women in their lives about this
subject) we’d like to hear reports.

Do you notice this effect? (Since it’s not as obvious as in guys you might need to start
paying attention to do so.)

And more importantly, is it like men, where there is a correlation between this and
hormone health or libido?

Then, when taking herbs like pine pollen or others, does this increase the effect? (By the
way both the herbs mentioned in this report are great for women too!)

My hypothesis is that since the clitoris is purely for pleasure, it may indicate libido more
so than overall hormone health. In women, testosterone, which they have in about 1/10th
the supply as men, is an important factor in sex drive.

Can you help me prove or disprove this? I’d love to hear your reports either way.

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 16

For more information on Pine Pollen click here:
https://lostempireherbs.com/pine-pollen/

For more information on Tongkat Ali click here:

https://lostempireherbs.com/tongkat-ali/

Sources:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1et5NgT6bQ
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11851769
[3] Carruthers, Malcom, M.D., Testosterone Revolution
[4] http://joe.endocrinology-journals.org/content/186/3/411.full.pdf+html
[5] Buhner, Stephen, The Natural Testosterone Plan: For Sexual Health and Energy
[6] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23754792
[7] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386995
[8] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23810842

Copyright 2014 Lost Empire Herbs. All Rights Reserved. 17