Low testosterone is bad for you & how to boost it ….
Today's post: Friday, 10-26-2007
A recent headline in Yahoo News said that: “Older men with low levels of the hormone testosterone may die sooner than other men their age with normal testosterone levels, a study suggests.” And, “Older men with low levels of the hormone testosterone may die sooner than other men their age with normal testosterone levels, a study suggests.”
The article went on to discuss whether or not a drug that boosted testosterone would improve things or not.
The very clear answer is already known. It’s both YES -- AND, it’s NO sometimes.
The good news is that you can improve things in each category of that answer without waiting for a drug to be developed or given the FDA OK to be used.
1. First, the YES answer:
Al Sears, MD often writes on this subject & is one of the most knowledgeable doctors on this subject.
He finds that low testosterone harms both health & quality of life and does so for BOTH men AND women.
(Healthy younger women DO have testosterone. They just have less of it than men. And, when it gets too low women of all ages have many of the same problems that men with low testosterone experience.)
He has found that simply boosting too low testosterone levels directly DOES improve health & quality of life. And, he said in a recent email that he’s found that it works even better for women than men.
He has separately said that strength training AND the kind of cardio he recommends, repeated intervals of high intensity cardio followed by a sort rest & recovery period for several of these intervals over a relatively short time, perhaps 10 to 15 minutes, reliably boost testosterone levels.
(This is one of the reasons regular exercise improves mood & sex lives for BOTH men & women, by the way.)
And, he has said that taking the supplement tribulus &/or taking the lesser known supplement, Tongkat Ali, which comes from a tree native to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, boosts testosterone.
Lastly, he has found that eating lots of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, & cabbage tends to lower excessive estrogen levels & seems to boost the effective blood level of testosterone & boosts its effects.
He’s found that both for both men & women low testosterone produces feelings of being tired, low in stamina, depressed, & apathetic, and dramatically lowers libido. And, it tends to produce people with overfat, flabby bodies. He also said that he finds that low testosterone levels also increase risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, and depression. This is in addition to the tendency towards getting too fat & obese that he mentions. This certainly explains or helps explain the recent research finding of an increased death rate in people with low testosterone.
So, clearly, YES, directly boosting testosterone improves mood, improves energy enough it makes it more likely you’ll feel like exercising, helps you lose excess fat, & can often restores your youthful libido & zest for life.
And, in addition to the direct health improving effects of boosting low testosterone, each of THOSE effects tends to also improve your health.
So, again, YES, simply boosting low testosterone is health protective. Interestingly, though Dr Sears finds doing so with his methods works well for men, he finds it often works spectacularly well with women.
And, again the good news is that you can do it NOW, starting today. You do NOT need to wait for new drugs to be developed & approved.
2. But the other part of the answer is NO, sometimes boosting low testosterone by itself may often NOT be enough to improve the lowered death rate.
This is when the low testosterone is caused by something and that cause is NOT reversed.
Significant illness, unrelieved chronic stress, depression from other causes than low testosterone, and NEVER getting regular exercise also cause testosterone levels to fall to low levels & they tend to cause, or be closely linked to, increased death rates & poor health.
But if you successfully treat any significant illnesses & depression; get adequate stress relief, & start regular exercise and continue it, these causes can usually also be reversed. This will tend to increase your testosterone level. And, it will also directly help avoid the higher death rate leaving these causes untreated can produce.
3. These things are interactive as well. If you boost testosterone with supplements, you may well find your energy improves enough to do regular exercise. And, the higher level of testosterone & exercise each tend to eliminate depression. Exercise also tends to relieve stress somewhat & increase the amount of hassles you can deal with without becoming stressed.
Similarly, if you improve your mood and energy level & testosterone level by getting regular stress relief, your ability to survive & recover from significant illness goes way up.
Lastly, Dr Sears has found that boosting too low testosterone levels helps people get better muscle tone & lose fat even without exercise or improve results from exercise. He finds this effect to be quite strong for women.
By the way, boosting low testosterone, particularly if you include regular strength training & vigorous cardio exercise, also will tend to dramatically improve your sex life.
Today's post: Friday, 10-26-2007
A recent headline in Yahoo News said that: “Older men with low levels of the hormone testosterone may die sooner than other men their age with normal testosterone levels, a study suggests.” And, “Older men with low levels of the hormone testosterone may die sooner than other men their age with normal testosterone levels, a study suggests.”
The article went on to discuss whether or not a drug that boosted testosterone would improve things or not.
The very clear answer is already known. It’s both YES -- AND, it’s NO sometimes.
The good news is that you can improve things in each category of that answer without waiting for a drug to be developed or given the FDA OK to be used.
1. First, the YES answer:
Al Sears, MD often writes on this subject & is one of the most knowledgeable doctors on this subject.
He finds that low testosterone harms both health & quality of life and does so for BOTH men AND women.
(Healthy younger women DO have testosterone. They just have less of it than men. And, when it gets too low women of all ages have many of the same problems that men with low testosterone experience.)
He has found that simply boosting too low testosterone levels directly DOES improve health & quality of life. And, he said in a recent email that he’s found that it works even better for women than men.
He has separately said that strength training AND the kind of cardio he recommends, repeated intervals of high intensity cardio followed by a sort rest & recovery period for several of these intervals over a relatively short time, perhaps 10 to 15 minutes, reliably boost testosterone levels.
(This is one of the reasons regular exercise improves mood & sex lives for BOTH men & women, by the way.)
And, he has said that taking the supplement tribulus &/or taking the lesser known supplement, Tongkat Ali, which comes from a tree native to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, boosts testosterone.
Lastly, he has found that eating lots of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, & cabbage tends to lower excessive estrogen levels & seems to boost the effective blood level of testosterone & boosts its effects.
He’s found that both for both men & women low testosterone produces feelings of being tired, low in stamina, depressed, & apathetic, and dramatically lowers libido. And, it tends to produce people with overfat, flabby bodies. He also said that he finds that low testosterone levels also increase risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, and depression. This is in addition to the tendency towards getting too fat & obese that he mentions. This certainly explains or helps explain the recent research finding of an increased death rate in people with low testosterone.
So, clearly, YES, directly boosting testosterone improves mood, improves energy enough it makes it more likely you’ll feel like exercising, helps you lose excess fat, & can often restores your youthful libido & zest for life.
And, in addition to the direct health improving effects of boosting low testosterone, each of THOSE effects tends to also improve your health.
So, again, YES, simply boosting low testosterone is health protective. Interestingly, though Dr Sears finds doing so with his methods works well for men, he finds it often works spectacularly well with women.
And, again the good news is that you can do it NOW, starting today. You do NOT need to wait for new drugs to be developed & approved.
2. But the other part of the answer is NO, sometimes boosting low testosterone by itself may often NOT be enough to improve the lowered death rate.
This is when the low testosterone is caused by something and that cause is NOT reversed.
Significant illness, unrelieved chronic stress, depression from other causes than low testosterone, and NEVER getting regular exercise also cause testosterone levels to fall to low levels & they tend to cause, or be closely linked to, increased death rates & poor health.
But if you successfully treat any significant illnesses & depression; get adequate stress relief, & start regular exercise and continue it, these causes can usually also be reversed. This will tend to increase your testosterone level. And, it will also directly help avoid the higher death rate leaving these causes untreated can produce.
3. These things are interactive as well. If you boost testosterone with supplements, you may well find your energy improves enough to do regular exercise. And, the higher level of testosterone & exercise each tend to eliminate depression. Exercise also tends to relieve stress somewhat & increase the amount of hassles you can deal with without becoming stressed.
Similarly, if you improve your mood and energy level & testosterone level by getting regular stress relief, your ability to survive & recover from significant illness goes way up.
Lastly, Dr Sears has found that boosting too low testosterone levels helps people get better muscle tone & lose fat even without exercise or improve results from exercise. He finds this effect to be quite strong for women.
By the way, boosting low testosterone, particularly if you include regular strength training & vigorous cardio exercise, also will tend to dramatically improve your sex life.
Labels: better mood, depression, exercise, longevity, men's sexuality, more energy, testosterone, women's sexuality
posted by David at 1:37 PM
2 Comments:
It might also be worth looking into taking the testosterone precursor, DHEA.
Taking 25 to 50 mg a day of DHEA can be a good idea for people over 40 or 50. It seems to do better for women than men in enhancing sexual response. But it likely does help with muscle repair for both sexes.
For people where it's otherwise low, it also strengthens willpower according to what I've read.
The bad news is that it may be banned at some point. Since it may also increase logevity, I think that's a very bad idea that I hope doesn't happen.
Meanwhile the other supplements listed in the post seem to work if that were to happen.
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