What is all the rap about testosterone? Is it that important? Is it really that powerful?
Testosterone is a sex hormone, an androgen produced by both men and women.
In males, testosterone is produced in the testicles or testes. In women it is produced firstly in the ovaries and secondly in the adrenal glands.
Is it really “all that” important and “powerful”? Testosterone is not an active hormone until it is transformed into its active components: Dihydrotestosterone and Estradiol/E2. It helps men and women build lean muscles, build bones, feel strong and energetic. It also helps the body process sugar, so it reduces the risk of developing diabetes, high lipids (popularly known as cholesterol), heart disease, strokes, and Alzheimer’s.
Testosterone can decrease blood pressure because it helps relax the blood vessels smooth muscle (vasodilation). And it reduces INFLAMATION inside the body. This androgen has also been shown to cause a decrease of major cardio (heart) vascular (blood vessel)events or MACE. References:
Lastly but not least, testosterone can increase a man or woman’s sex drive, and in males it improves the quality and growth of sperm.
So how do you know you have low testosterone? Are you overweight or cannot get that extra weight off? Are you tired but not necessarily exhausted? Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you feel foggy minded? Is your sex drive not where you it used to be or where you would like it to be? Do you feel “down” even if you are not “depressed”, easily irritated, moody? Are you working out, but you don’t seem to have the same strength, stamina, results as before? These could all be symptoms of low testosterone.
Many factors can lower levels of testosterone, even if you have a “healthy” diet. Maybe you live and or work in a polluted urban setting, a furniture store, a car garage, a factory. Even a highly disinfected environment where chemicals are used. Perhaps your lifestyle includes “recreational drugs”, body building steroids, taking medications to treat seizures, antipsychotics. Perhaps your diet is rich in preservatives and other ingredients that could be acting as hormone receptor disrupters. Even if you have had your testosterone levels checked and were told you were within a normal range, but you still have some or many of the symptoms give me a call. Let us partner together to resolve your symptoms.