You all know my favorite three *f.a.t. topics in the world are sex, men, and hormone health, so it shouldn’t surprise you that after a posting hiatus of a week or so, I’m chomping at the bit and jumping back in with an article that covers all three in one! 

So, ladies, since it’s not all about us all the time, let’s talk about our men. You love yours, I love mi….I mean, if I had one, I’d love him. In fact, I’d love him to pieces and wouldn’t want any bad thing to befall him. But since I don’t have one, let’s talk about yours. Assuming you aren’t living your own version of Sleeping With The Enemy, I’m sure you want the best health possible for your husband, boyfriend, object of desire, Neanderthal-like animal creature you call significant other……you get the idea. 

So if you want what’s best for your guy, you need to learn about hormone health for him! Let’s face it - testosterone reigns king in a man’s hormonal makeup, and the fact that he has it means he’s probably not perusing little health blogs to learn about its existence, or lack thereof. (In fact, I think all men have a gene that causes them to equate the seeking of medical information or treatment to a form of torture) so you have to do it for him.

A deficiency in your man, of the big “T” means you may be waking up next to a slightly less attractive, taller version of yourself some day, and you don’t really want that. But more importantly, you don’t want your man to experience the health ramifications of low testosterone. So let’s get to learning….

The Endocrine Society Research Summaries Book - June 2007 - Gail Laughlin, Ph.D. authored a study which proved a link between a testosterone deficiency in relatively healthy men, with increased death from all causes over time. Nearly 800 men between 50-91 years were followed for 18 years. In the early eighties, when the study began, almost a third of the men in the study, had suboptimal blood testosterone levels for men their age.

Those with low testosterone levels had a 33 percent greater risk of death during the next 18 years, than the other men. The difference was not due to smoking, drinking, physical activity levels, or pre-existing diseases. 

As I’ve discussed before, inflammation in the body contributes to disease. It is depicted by elevated markers called inflammatory cytokines. Men with low testosterone were more likely to have these elevated markers, and were three times more likely to have a waist measurement more than 40 inches, low HDL cholesterol (the good kind), high triglycerides (levels of fat in the blood), high blood pressure or high blood glucose (blood sugar). All of these symptoms make a person prone to heart disease and diabetes.

Yet one more piece of evidence that proper hormone balancing can take you from fat to *f.a.t. (Fit After Thirty!) We women aren’t the only ones who struggle with the challenges of declining hormones as we age - it just usually happens more gradually in men - making their health problems more likely to sneak up on them, and less likely to be correlated to hormonal decline. Therefore, we women need to act as advocates for our men and make sure they are getting the right diagnostic tests. (Because God knows that they won’t enter a low testosterone discussion with their doctors on their own)!

So, ladies - grab your man and head to the lab for a blood draw on your next date. Or better yet, consider heading to a full service hormone specialist such as Holtorf Medical Group  or ordering some at home saliva testing kits from ZRT Labs, which will allow him to test in the comfort of his own home and mail the sample in, with emailed results soon thereafter. 

Watching football while spitting. Now, even low testosterone men will love that! And let’s face it ladies - when your man is at his optimal health, your sex life is bound to improve, which means you reap the rewards in the end!