Driven Sports' Activate Xtreme Review: An Effective Testosterone Booster?

"Through the powerful combinations of the ingredients found in Activate Xtreme™ you can expect rock hard muscle, rapid increases in strength, high levels of testosterone, estrogen control, and a strong sex drive. Activate Xtreme™ utilizes a new Extended Release Technology™ introduced by DS to ensure that these effects are felt all day long, furnishing your body with the ideal anabolic environment for building mass. Activate Xtreme™ is the future of testosterone optimization."

Activate Xtreme may be a recognizable name for those familar with Designer Supplements' product line, but Designer Supplements is now officially out of business...and the formula is now being produced by Driven Sports. Like the old ActivaTe Xtreme, the current version is also designed to provide "total testosterone enhancement" via several different pathways.

Does it work? Depends on the ingredients...

As is frequently the case, Activate Xtreme is a proprietary blend. The individual components are:

Divanil™: Divanil is an extract from Urtica dioica (Stinging Nettle) that's standardized to 95% 3,4-Divanillyltetrahydrofuran. In-vitro research has shown it can bind tightly to sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), so theoretically, it has the potential to increase bioavailable (free) testosterone. There are no human—or even animal—studies, however, so at this point, the ability of oral -(-)3, 4-Divanillyltetrahydrofuran to enhance free testosterone is somewhat speculative.

Icariin: As noted in the ingredients, this is from another standardized extract, Epimedium...which is also known as "horny goat weed." Horny goat weed is a medicinal plant and reputed aphrodisiac. Icariin—a flavonoid—is thought to be the active principle. It's described as a "testosterone mimetic" in one, small Chinese (rodent) study, although a different, non-hormonal mechanism may be responsible for its libido-enhancing effects. Several animal-based studies have found icariin is a PDE-5 (phosphodiesterase type 5) inhibitor, similar in function to Viagra.

Rhodiola rosea: Rhodiola is an adaptogenic herb used in Russian folk medicine. Positive effects on physical/emotional stress have been documented in several animal studies and small human clinical trials. Anecdotally, I've used Rhodiola before and liked it—it did seem to improve my ability to rebound from a hard workout and keep me going throughout the day.

Proanthocyanidins: These are flavonoid polymers with antioxidant properties.

Proanthocyanidins are found in a variety of foods, including red wine, berries and dark chocolate.

Grape seed and pine bark extracts—the source used in Activate Xtreme—are rich sources.

Pine bark extract has been shown to enhance nitric oxide (NO) production and vasodilation in animal and human experiments, which is likely the reason that Driven Sports refers to this ingredient as a "sexual enhancer" on the product web page.

Indole-3-Carbinol: I3C is a phytochemical found in cruciferous vegetables (i.e., cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale).  It's the precursor to diindolylmethane (DIM)—to which it is rapidly metabolized in vivo. DIM has been investigated as a possible therapeutic agent for breast cancer, due to its effects on estrogen metabolism. DIM increases the proportion of inactive (C-2 hydroxylated) metabolites relative to active, potentially carcinogenic (C-16 hydroxylated) ones. This ability to modulate estrogen metabolism is the reason some bodybuilders recommend using it to reduce/treat gynecomastia ("bitch tits").

On the flip side, noted author and researcher Thomas Incledon has advised against the use of I3C, since it's an endocrine disruptor that reduced testosterone in mice. However, the doses used were quite high (250–750 mg/kg in the mouse experiment)—even in human equivalent terms—thus, it's unlikely that significant testosterone suppression would be seen in humans taking lower doses.

And what's a reasonable human dose? Studies in women suggest 300mg/day is required to significantly alter the urinary ratio of C-2 to C-16 metabolites. Presumably, the amount in Activate Xtreme is sufficient, although there's no way to verify this.

Basella Alba: Basella alba is also known as "Malabar Spinach"—a tropical vine eaten as a vegetable in Asia and Africa. A handful of cell-culture and rat experiments (performed by the same research group in Cameroon) demonstrated that Basellla extracts could increase testosterone production, but there is zero data in humans; nor any info on what constitutes an effective dose.

Zinc Aspartate: This is a form of zinc used in ZMA. Zinc has important antioxidant, immune and anti-inflammatory activities. More importantly (at least from a bodybuilding perspective), zinc plays a role in normal reproductive and sexual functions for both men and women. It's well known that marginal zinc deficiency can impair testosterone production in men.

So how do the ingredients in Activate Xtreme add up?

I'm not entirely sold on the Basella alba or I3C...in the case of the former, there's little proof it can improve testosterone in humans. And while the latter may reduce the active, C-16 estrogen metabolites (in the right dose), it's unlikely to reduce the actual aromatization of testosterone to estrogens...nor have a positive effect on the HPTA (hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis)—which regulates testosterone production.

Nonetheless, assuming 3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran is all it's cracked up to be, Activate Xtreme could be a moderately useful supp for improving free T, stamina and libido. I'd also expect to see an enhanced "pump" in the gym, thanks to the icariin and proanthocyanidins. In addition, the zinc could also improve testosterone status in deficient trainees.

Thus, Activate Xtreme looks like a supp worth experimenting with. It doesn't strike me as a huge mass-builder, but could potentially be useful for fine tuning your results in the gym.

Interested in Activate Xtreme? It's available here from bodybuilding.com, our recommended online retailer.

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