Got Testosterone?

[Suwannee Tim]

120ng/dl in your 30s????!! What were you doing, watching Golden Girls or something?

Don't get me wrong Will, I'm not trying to make you feel bad for busting on somebody who had a misfortune. I think the inventor of "gallows humor" is an ancestor of mine and I'm at my best, humorifically speaking when I'm going before the judge, going into surgery or trying to explain a new $3K rifle. That out of the way, the answer is, from my experience, fighting tooth and nail, unsuccessful, against declining health and fitness and increasing weight. To give you an idea of where I started from, on my 20th birthday I ran my usual 4 miles which I could do in 25 minutes on a good day. I ran by a chin-up bar at the local school and stopped to see how many I could do. 20 chin ups and I hadn't done one in three or four years. At age 50 I had come to the point of despair, weighing 270 pounds (I'm six feet tall, medium build), watching my strength, fitness and health decline and weight increase, despite day long bicycle rides, hours in the pool and strenuous dieting. I had my testosterone tested and it was 70 ng/dcl. The answer is, no you don't watch the Golden Girls, you watch yourself slowly die. I'm now on the needle, my health has improved, my strength is doubled, endurance is way up and I'm just doing a lot better. My advice to every man over 50 and every man struggling with increasing weight and declining fitness and health, get it tested, get it fixed.

[WillBrink]

My advice to every man over 50 and every man struggling with increasing weight and declining fitness and health, get it tested, get it fixed.

Glad you hear you have turned it around. Personally, I recommend all men over 40 have a hormonal panel done yearly, including T. I have had my T tested since my 20s and can see it decline each decade. Waiting until one has symptoms is reactive medicine vs pro active medicine.

One does not (hopefully!) wait until they have had an MI to check their cholesterol/lipid levels...

[Suwannee Tim]

Forgot to mention thyroid. That's another saga. Firmly agree on annual hormone tests. It is imperative that one takes charge of their health insofar as it is possible for a layman to do. The internet is a big, big help in this regard. The doctor looks for two things, the easy stuff and the deadly stuff. There is a lot of nasty stuff in between easy and deadly. I remember a physician, Dr. Marshal A. Burns saying to his nurse in my presence "must eat like a pig." No, Dr. Burns it is was a medical problem, one you missed, thank you very much.

[WillBrink]

Forgot to mention thyroid. That's another saga.

Indeed. My full write up on that topic here:

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...hlight=thyroid

Lot of good info for those dealing with thyroid issues.

[Suwannee Tim]

Glad you hear you have turned it around........ MI to check their cholesterol/lipid levels...

Can't say I've turned it around yet but I'm working on it. Speaking of MI, heart disease is one of the effects of hypogonadism.

[WillBrink]

Can't say I've turned it around yet but I'm working on it.

One day at a time as they say.

Speaking of MI, heart disease is one of the effects of hypogonadism.

Addressed briefly in the OP.

I don't believe there are any direct intervention studies showing a reduced rate of CVD and or MI per se, but studies that exist are strongly suggestive that low T is a risk factor for CVD.

[WillBrink]

TESTOSTERONE DEFICIENCY AND DISEASE

My friend Dr. Steve Joyal discusses testosterone deficiency in men and it's relation to metabolic disease and other related topics.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cht3Qq9H6Y

[Doc Safari]

I got into this as part of the "want to feel better" crowd.

I knew I didn't want to go to straight testosterone, or any of the precursors like androsteindione.

What I did, and do, is alternate between the herbs that stimulate the so-called "luteinizing hormones" that cause your body to naturally boost its own testosterone.

I alternate between tribulus terrestris, catuaba, fenugreek, and I think there is another I can't remember the name of right now.

I have begun a limited experimentation (as in: occasional use) of D-aspartic acid, and the corresponding aromatose inhibitor (because DA can bacfire from what I understand and get converted into estrogen).

All seem to work to varying degree, but there is no "miracle boost" to any of them.

All in all, I think I feel better "with them" than "without them", although I cannot discount a possible placebo effect, either.

[WillBrink]

I got into this as part of the "want to feel better" crowd.

I knew I didn't want to go to straight testosterone, or any of the precursors like androsteindione.

What I did, and do, is alternate between the herbs that stimulate the so-called "luteinizing hormones" that cause your body to naturally boost its own testosterone.

I alternate between tribulus terrestris, catuaba, fenugreek, and I think there is another I can't remember the name of right now.

None of which have ever been shown to cause physiological relevant increases in T and or have never been shown to increase T. If one is low in T, none of those will fix that. There's a difference between trying to "boost" T levels and actual HRT, and regular blood work needed in addition to symptoms of low T, key for HRT.

My articles in "testosterone boosters" if interested:

http://www.brinkzone.com/articles/th...g-supplements/

[Doc Safari]

None of which have ever been shown to cause physiological relevant increases in T and or have never been shown to increase T. If one is low in T, none of those will fix that. There's a difference between trying to "boost" T levels and actual HRT, and regular blood work needed in addition to symptoms of low T, key for HRT.

My articles in "testosterone boosters" if interested:

http://www.brinkzone.com/articles/th...g-supplements/

Interesting. I want to delve into your site in-depth so I won't comment just yet.

Your write-up on that page suggests that the supplements I'm taking may be boosting things other than testosterone. I know that I seem to have more energy when taking them.

What is a good supplement, if any, to boost T naturally? In other words, not a drug?