What did @donxstarke actually say?
The claim is straightforward: four micronutrients, zinc, vitamin B12, selenium, and copper, "control" testosterone and estrogen. If you're deficient, your body can't produce enough sex hormones, and you'll end up with a "fried face" instead of sharp, gendered features. The fix? Get your daily vitamins in. That's the whole argument.
To his credit, the creator doesn't push a supplement stack or claim these nutrients replace medical treatment. He's making a narrower case: nutritional sufficiency is a prerequisite for normal hormone production. That part is defensible, even if the framing around it goes off the rails.
Does the science back this up?
Partially, but the word "control" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and it doesn't hold up. These micronutrients support enzymatic processes involved in hormone synthesis. They don't act as direct levers you can pull to raise testosterone or estrogen on demand.
Zinc has the strongest evidence. A study by Prasad et al. (1996, Nutrition) showed that zinc-deficient men had significantly lower testosterone, and supplementation in genuinely deficient individuals restored levels toward normal. Key phrase: genuinely deficient. If your zinc is already adequate, adding more doesn't push testosterone higher. Research by Koehler et al. (2009, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition) confirmed this ceiling effect in healthy subjects.
Selenium plays a role in thyroid function and oxidative protection of the gonads, but direct evidence linking selenium supplementation to meaningful sex hormone changes in humans without deficiency is thin. B12's connection to testosterone is even more indirect. It supports neurological and metabolic function, which affects overall health, but calling it a hormone "controller" is a stretch. Copper's role in steroidogenesis exists at a biochemical level, but the clinical relevance in non-deficient people is not well established.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
The biggest factual problem is the word "control." These nutrients don't control hormones. They support the machinery that produces them, which is a meaningful difference. Framing deficiency correction as "hormone optimization" conflates two different things: fixing a deficit versus genuinely elevating hormones beyond your normal baseline.
The "fried face" claim, the idea that suboptimal hormone levels visibly age or masculinize or feminize your appearance, is vague enough to be unverifiable. There's legitimate research connecting hypogonadism to skin quality and body composition, but the mechanism he's describing is speculative and not established in peer-reviewed literature for healthy, non-deficient people.
What he got right: if someone is deficient in these micronutrients, hormone production can be impaired, and correcting deficiency matters. That's real. A review by Fallah et al. (2018, Journal of Reproduction and Infertility) confirmed zinc's role in testosterone synthesis and male fertility. The problem is that most people watching a TikTok about "looksmaxxing" are not clinically deficient, and the video gives no guidance on how to know whether you actually are.
What should you actually know?
Correcting a real deficiency is not the same as optimization. If your zinc, selenium, or B12 is low, fixing that matters for your overall health, including your hormonal health. But if your levels are already normal, taking more of these nutrients is unlikely to meaningfully raise your testosterone or estrogen, and high doses of some, particularly copper and selenium, carry toxicity risks.
If you actually suspect a hormone imbalance, a blood panel is the starting point. Total testosterone, free testosterone, estradiol, SHBG, and relevant micronutrient levels give you real data. A telehealth provider or endocrinologist can interpret those numbers in context. Supplementing blindly based on TikTok advice is not the same as optimization. It's guessing.
The category this video lives in, TRT and hormone optimization, involves medications and clinical protocols that go well beyond vitamins. If your labs confirm a deficiency or a clinical hormone disorder, treatment is a medical conversation, not a supplement purchase.
Bottom line
This video isn't dangerous, but it's imprecise in ways that matter. Calling micronutrients hormone "controllers" overstates the evidence. Framing deficiency correction as "optimization" misleads people who are already nutritionally replete. Get your labs done before you spend money on supplements. Deficiency is a clinical question, not a vibe.