Fix your Testosterone Crash now!

When your testosterone [T] is seriously low there is no mistaking it - you have a CRASH. 

This is a medical ‘urgency’ as it is harmful and dangerous to your long-term health so needs sorting right now.

How do you know you have crashed?

You feel fatigued; your mood is low [you may even be suicidal]; your sex drive has disappeared; your erection is weak or non-functional; your brain is fuzzy and it is difficult to be decisive. Hell- you are not yourself at all.

Action Stations

First: Get tested

Be decisive about one thing - get a T test urgently. Show this article to your partner - you may need their resolve behind you. Take your partner with you to the consultation, this is critically important to back up your story and help you if the GP is difficult.

In an ideal world

• You are able to access a GP quickly.
• You tell your Dr about the dramatic change in how you feel, say you believe it is low T and ask for a T test - and the GP agrees.
• Your Dr understands how to interpret the result [you need a level of 18-20+ nmol/L at any age to be symptom free and optimal] and is in favour of Testosterone Replacement Treatment [TRT]
• You get TRT, a test shows your T is restored and life returns to normal

You may have problems with any of the above – what to do is below.

What Test?

The test you need is Total T and because the level varies across the day it should be taken in the morning. 

Blood Pressure Part 2: Accuracy counts

How to measure blood pressure accurately

Take your BP regularly at home and you have a reliable and useful record of a major index of your cardiovascular and dementia risk [1], [2].

• It is the only way to identify correct levels of medication for high BP.
• It controls the anxiety and ‘white coat’ effect that increases BP in the surgery or hospital.
• It allows taking 3 measurements to get a more reliable indicator.

Here are the key messages:

• Get the right device
• Be in the right position when you take it
• Always use the same arm
• Have the correct cuff size
• Rest 5 minutes before and measure 3 times at 1-Minute intervals
• Establish a baseline including your BP lying down
• Measure on the first day of every month and record.

Blood Pressure Part 1 - Don’t blow your top

Blood Pressure - Know the risk and check at home

What is your blood pressure today – Yes, what is it right now? Well you don’t know, how could you… unless you measured it today or let’s say within the last 7-10 days.

This is really important: you can only know if you are in trouble if you measure your blood pressure [BP] and find it raised. This is why they call BP ‘the silent killer’. In other words, you get life threatening illness that could have been prevented if only you knew your BP was dangerously raised.

In one recent US study of 7328 individuals 54% had BP above the safe zone, half of those were completely unaware of their problem [1].

Actually 8/10 of the hypertensives had ‘uncontrolled’ BP ie a level that is seriously damaging. Looking at those 8 - there were 5 out of 10 uncontrolled because they didn’t check their BP and had no idea they were ill and 3 out of 10 because they were inadequately treated or not taking their meds.

Most were in the 50+ range and that is my focus, but 12.5% were under 44 so have your adult children get their pressure checked regularly, too, say once a year.

Why do you need to know?

High BP causes heart attack, stroke, dementia and kidney failure and therefore contributes to early death. Treating the BP reduces the risks and prevents the disease[2]. More importantly treating the BP intensively improves the outcome.[3] [4]

Update your vaccinations. And teach your children well!

Your vaccine cover may be waning or there may be new options you have missed

 Vaccination saves lives, prevents damaging illness and can eradicate diseases altogether [eg smallpox]. It really is the cleverest aspect of our medical progress and is now being used as a regular part of some cancer treatments, too.

Sex Hormone Replacement

Sex Hormone Replacement: Important Anti-Aging tools but are they safe? The Bottom Line

Testosterone Replacement Therapy for men [TRT] and Hormone Replacement Therapy for women [HRT] have major benefits in term of symptom relief and long term health.

A casual un-analytic search on the internet will bring up lots of negative information about potential risks for cancer or cardiovascular disease that is completely untrue for either TRT or HRT. The sex hormones testosterone [T] and oestradiol [E2] have many benefits in our pursuit of a longer HealthSpan, so I strongly recommend them to both men and women.

Testosterone Replacement for Men

Reasons why you should consider Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)

What happens to testosterone [T] with age?

First: available ie ‘free’ T declines with age.

Here is data from the European Male Aging Study.[1].

Dem Bones, Dem Bones – how to stop fractures

Osteoporosis means ‘bone with holes in it’ and is the cause of significant later life problems.

The figures are that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men suffer osteoporotic ‘fragility fractures ‘of the hip, spine ribs or limbs. The fractures usually occur over age 65 unless someone has additional risk factors such as taking corticosteroids, a history of anorexia [so bones thinned at an early stage of adulthood] or alcoholism.

Reducing Cardiovascular Risk – Statins

Maximum prevention of cardiovascular disease [CVD] – the safety and usefulness of statins

This matters because CVD is a major killer: both cardiovascular death or hospitalisation [Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events = MACE] are almost entirely preventable by lowering blood pressure <120/80, avoiding smoking, and reducing apolipoprotein B concentration [ApoB-‘bad cholesterol’ most of which is LDL-C – this being what is usually measured]. Few if any of you will be smokers in 2023, but many of you have non-optimal BP [see previous InfoSheet on this] and less than perfect cholesterol patterns.

Reducing Cardiovascular Risk – Blood pressure

Focus on… Self-Management

A normal blood pressure [BP] is 120/80 such as you would have in your 30’s.

This matters because …

BP is a silent killer; you can’t tell from how you feel whether your BP is normal or dangerously sky-high. Raised BP is part of the metabolic syndrome [insulin resistance + raised BP + abnormal cholesterol pattern + prediabetic change] associated with mid-abdominal weight gain and major cause of cardiovascular risk [heart attack and stroke].

Gastric Reflux: Critical Stuff & Common-sense Advice

Focus on … 

Three things you need to know:  

Associated problems
Investigations 
Treatments that work

Especially, what are practical measures to help symptoms and what unhelpful dietary or drug advice should I avoid?

How old are you actually?

Well I was born on … 

It sounds like simple arithmetic, but your body is like a motor car, it isn’t the year it was made that matters … but how many miles it has done, how hard it has been driven and if it has been serviced and well maintained! Wear and tear is the critically issue. Let’s call this wear and tear your biological age in distinction to your chronological age – the years since you were born. Ideally your biological age is lower than your age at last birthday i.e. your body’s working parts are well maintained. 

What is Ageing?

What is Ageing? This is a key question: if we want to slow ageing we need to know what we are aiming to influence.

Ageing is a combination of several processes: first loss of power in muscles and joints, leading to frailty. Frailty means being vulnerable to injury or accident because of muscular weakness, loss of physical coordination, which leads to falls etc. The difficulty with the process is that one should become frail, it becomes progressive - because you’re frail you are unable to exercise and retain your strength and therefore your capacity to do things diminishes making you even more vulnerable in a downward spiral. You will have seen this progression in people you have known.