Low Testosterone Levels Affect Aging
Low testosterone levels in your body is not good for your health. Testosterone is the male sex hormone responsible for many of the traits that we consider to be typically masculine. That includes muscle mass, low body fat, a big jaw, thick brow, aggression, confidence, body hair and a deep voice. Keeping appropriate testosterone levels in the body is essential to sustain the overall health and well-being of a person, male or female.
A common misconception is that testosterone is only a male hormone. In reality, adult females also produce testosterone, although in much lesser quantities, like eight to ten times less than adult males. Maybe you didn’t know it, but women do need a small amount of it for maintaining muscle and bone strength.
What Testosterone Does
Testosterone is present in the body even during fetal development of the person. It starts the development of the male internal and external reproductive organs and is indispensdable in the creation of sperm in the adult male.
The production of male testosterone increases during puberty, but as the person starts to age, testostereone levels start to decline.
Testosterone also makes us feel great. The top athletes produce lots of testosterone because it makes them stronger, more energetic and better at recovering. It also makes us happier (low testosterone is associated with depression), more virile, better in bed and generally more alpha.
But a huge proportion of men in the Western world have chronically low testosterone. And this only gets worse and worse, the older we get. Low testosterone levels have serious consequences to the health and well being of a person. Heart health and low testosterone are related. In men, the risk of having a heart attack is increased. So is the chance of becoming obese. This is in addition to having a low sex drive, being tired all the time, depression, and getting weaker.
How Can You Tell If You Have Low Testosterone
The bloodstream contains 359 and 1230 nanograms of testosterone. These are considered the normal levels in an average adult male. The only way to get this data is by having a low testosterone test in a medical laboratory.
Getting a low testosterone test should be done if you are an older male who is experiencing the symptoms noted above. You may also consider this as the andropause period of a man.
Here are some signs for low testosterone diagnosis:
- Semen volume is low
- Difficulty getting an erection
- Experiencing hair loss
- Muscle mass decrease
- Bone mass decrease
- Increase in body fat and the difficulty in getting rid of it.
Reasons For Low Testosterone
This is not just a problem for elderly pensioners. Rather, it is just as much an issue for guys in their 40s and 50s and it’s a MUCH bigger problem now than it was even 30 years ago.
Why? Several reasons:
- We spend less time outdoors
- We spend more time on the computer
- Our water and many of our products contain estrogenic compounds
- We are often encouraged to pursue less classically ‘manly’ activities
- We are less active
- Many are malnourished
This then right away highlights some of the things we can do to get our T levels back to normal.
- Spend more time outside
- Exercise more (using compound movements)
- Drink water from a filter
- Avoid shampoos filled with chemicals
- Make sure you eat well.
How To Treat Low Testosterone Naturally
There are also a few powerful tips you can employ that will serve as testosterone boosters.
For example, eating more saturated fats will make a big difference. That’s because these contain cholesterol and cholesterol is what the body actually uses to make testosterone. Eat this just before bed because you produce maximum testosterone at 4am in the morning.
Another tip is to get more sleep then! Deeper sleep leads to more T, so make sure you do everything you can to prioritise good sleep.
Also: get more vitamin D. Vitamin D is the reason that time outdoors is related to testosterone. It acts like a master controller for your hormones and we produce more when we get exposure to sunlight. If you can’t be outside more, then take a supplement to get your fill!
There are many herbal supplements and vitamin products that are touted to boost low testosterone. The only way to find out is to try them out yourself. Many of these products come with free trial samples or a money back guarantee for a certain period of time. Certainly you need to test these out for at least a few weeks or months before you can see the results. Just keep in mind that these supplements do not work 100% for everyone.