Male hormone health risk warning

After the age of 30, men's total serum testosterone levels will naturally decline at a rate of 1% to 2% per year. Nearly 60% of them will accelerate the decline due to bad habits such as sitting for a long time, staying up late, and eating high sugar. 80% of the risk of early low hormones can be reversed through lifestyle adjustments. However, if warning signs are ignored for a long time and intervention is delayed until metabolic syndrome, bone density decline, and severe sexual dysfunction occur, not only will the difficulty increase by more than three times, but it may also cause irreversible health damage.

Don’t believe it, the 34-year-old Internet programmer I treated last week is a typical example: he stayed up until 1 o’clock every day for three consecutive years, and basically stayed at home to catch up on sleep on weekends. In the past six months, he was out of breath when climbing the third floor. His waistline increased by 12cm without knowing it, and he couldn’t improve his married life. I was so excited that I bought a bunch of kidney-tonifying health products and took them for two months, but there was no improvement. My serum total testosterone was only 280ng/dl, which is 20 units lower than the normal lower limit for adult men. I even touched my belly and said, "I'm just too tired recently, just take a rest."

This insensitivity to hormonal risks is all too common among adult men. Many people either think that "hormones = sexual ability" and don't need to worry about it if they don't have that problem. ； Or I get nervous if my hair falls out a little bit, and I think my testosterone is too high and I'm going to have male baldness. In fact, androgenetic alopecia is a problem of dihydrotestosterone metabolism and is not necessarily related to total testosterone levels. To make a blind guess, it is better to draw half a tube of blood and check six hormones.

Let me tell you something that many people don’t know: the diagnostic criteria for “late-onset hypogonadism” in the academic community are not yet completely unified. European and American andrology guidelines are relatively loose. If total testosterone is less than 300ng/dl and there are clinical symptoms such as fatigue and loss of libido, exogenous testosterone supplementation can be considered. ； However, many domestic andrology experts are more conservative and believe that the threshold for Chinese people should be adjusted to 260ng/dl. If it does not reach the pathological value, lifestyle adjustments should be given priority. After all, although exogenous supplements have quick effects, they also have hidden dangers of increasing the risk of blood clots and inhibiting one's own testosterone secretion. If it is not necessary, there is no need to take medication.

I have been in clinical practice for almost 10 years. To be honest, 80% of men who come for hormone testing in the age group of 30 to 40 have low testosterone due to "manufacturing". Last week, a 28-year-old fitness coach came to me and said that he went to the gym every day, but his testosterone was still lower than normal. When I asked him, I found out that he had been low-carb for three consecutive months in preparation for the competition, and his fat intake only accounted for 10% of the total calories. The synthesis of testosterone requires enough cholesterol to participate. He is starving, and it is useless no matter how much he practices.

There are also those who follow the trend and buy testicle-stimulating supplements from Internet celebrities. I just received a patient a while ago. After taking the so-called "pure natural testicle-stimulating supplement" for three months, the testosterone dropped directly from 320ng/dl to 210ng/dl. I only found out about the product after he sent it for testing. I illegally added exogenous testosterone analogues to it. After taking it for a short period of time, I did feel energetic and in good shape. However, my body mistakenly thought that "it has secreted enough testosterone" and instead shut down the secretion pathway. After I stopped taking the medicine, I went straight to the bottom. The gain outweighed the loss.

In fact, the early signs of hormone decline are not difficult to detect at all, but many people are accustomed to blaming the problem on "old age" and "too tired". For example, I used to be able to recover after a day of drinking and sleeping for a day, but now I still feel sore after sleeping for two days. ； I used to be able to play wildly with my children for two hours after get off work, but now when I get home I just want to collapse on the sofa and scroll through my phone, not even bothering to talk. ； Even though I eat less than before, my waistline keeps rising and I can't reduce it anymore. These "something wrong" that last for more than two or three months are actually warnings from my body.

Let me tell you a story about myself. I was 35 years old last year. I was busy with assignments for 3 months. I stayed up until after 12 o'clock every day. I also cut my weekly strength training from 4 times to 2 times. During that time, I obviously felt that my training status had dropped significantly. I used to squat 120kg easily, but squatting 100kg during that time was difficult. My physiological reactions in the morning were also much less. I took a blood test to check that my testosterone was just 310ng/dl, which is stuck at the lower limit of normal. I didn't prescribe any medicine, I just drank most of the time, tried to lie down before 11 o'clock, added strength training to 4 times a week, and ate more nuts and deep-sea fish. After less than two months, I checked again and it was back to 380ng/dl, and my condition was obviously back.

To put it bluntly, men's testosterone reserves are like mobile phone batteries. When they are 20 years old, they are fully charged and can be charged while playing. After the age of 30, the battery capacity has been declining year by year. If you operate it under high load every day and do not charge it properly, the battery will naturally lose power very quickly. Wait until the battery drops below 20% in low battery mode before trying to replenish it. It is easy to suffer from empty battery. It is better to adjust your usage habits earlier and slow down the battery drain.

Nowadays, everyone is talking about health care and anti-aging. For men, testosterone level is actually the most intuitive barometer of health. Don’t always think that “men will get over it once they carry it.” Those small discomforts that you don’t care about will become big problems after a long time. If you are really unsure, go to a regular hospital to see an andrology or endocrinology department, and a six-item hormone test will only cost a few tens of dollars. It is much more reliable than buying health care products worth tens of thousands of dollars, right?