Ted_Shepherd
Recycles dryer sheets
I mentioned my interest in anti-aging medicine in another thread. Since one or two or more expressed interest in the subject, I started this thread where we can exchange views on the subject.
The basics of anti-aging medicine are the same as basic good health practices for people in general. These include diet, exercise, social connections, smoking and drinking and "recreational drug" habits, and regular medical check-ups. Beyond those considerations, there are medical treatments that are particularly useful or appropriate for people as they age. One of these is hormone replacement therapy. I've had happy experience with this. I'll devote the rest of this initial post to that subject from a male point of view. (I have less information about hormone supplementation for aging women.) Please chime in.
The normal range for testosterone in men according to one much-used blood test is 280 to 800 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter). The units don't matter so much as that large range does. It seems that a typical doctor, if he is willing to test a man's testosterone level at all and finds a reading in that normal range, will consider that no supplementation is appropriate. A better informed or more kindly doctor might say "Your reading is in the normal range, but toward the low end. With supplementation, we can raise that reading significantly while staying in the normal range, and you will FEEL better." Generally, a man's testosterone level peaks in his twenties or thirties but by age forty, an annual decline of about 1% sets in. Those of you here who are in your forties or fifties are not too young to consider this therapy.
I found a urologist in Beverly Hills who prescribes testosterone supplementation for me. I have a lot of confidence in this doctor whose qualifications include having been Chief of Surgery at UCLA and Chief of Urology there too. (Truth in posting: I'm an alumnus of UCLA, BA and MS, and that might just slightly color my opinion. Go, Bruins!) The testosterone therapy is a cream that I rub into my shoulder or shoulders each morning. Early morning application is best because that matches the body's own daily cycle of testosterone production. I choose the shoulders because mine are naturally hairless. To get the hormone into the blood stream, the cream needs to go directly on bare skin, not saturate hair. (Research indicates that shaved skin is just as permeable to the hormone.) I chose the upper body since circulation is best there, although application to arms, legs, torso, or neck is also medically acceptable. Transdermal delivery of the hormone is about 10% efficient; the cream I have used is 10% testosterone although I moved up to 15% testosterone recently. My testosterone level was toward the bottom end of the normal range. It is now in the middle of that range. I'm willing for it to go higher. I combine this therapy with regular sweaty workouts with weights in my local Gold's Gym. It pleases me that even at my age I can still make progress there. In the last two years, I have added some muscle without gaining any body weight, so I have lost some fat too.
The commercially available hormone creams for transdermal delivery of testosterone are Testim and Androgel. A Business Week article from October 29, 2009, (available online) starts with this: "Testosterone Is Sure Looking Virile; despite legal setbacks and FDA delays, youth-crazed boomers are making it a billion-dollar industry." I don't consider myself youth-crazed and I'm not a boomer. The point was the billion dollar industry. I once asked a phamacist if he filled a lot of prescriptions for Testim and Androgel. His exact words were "Oh, my, yes!" Evidently my question was naive. Lots of men use testosterone supplementation therapy but it seems they don't talk about it much so I didn't know.
The medical profession has had a great concern that testosterone supplementation will accelerate the growth of prostatic cancer. Evidence for their concern is lacking as I can explain in some detail in another post. Anyway, the doctors want to monitor my PSA (prostatic specific antigen) level twice a year while I'm on the testosterone, rather than just once a year as is part of a standard annual physical. The normal range for PSA is 0 to 3.5 or 4.0, although a sudden jump within that range can be significant too. My PSA reading has been steady at about 0.9 from before starting the testosterone through two years of using it. I don't use Testim or Androgel but proprietary formulations from my doctors that are stronger.
Side effects from testosterone therapy may include mood disorders, scalp hair loss, excessive hair growth elsewhere, and acne. I have had no such problems, but then my dose is not large. I'm getting about 100mg a week, delivered through the skin into the blood stream. That's minimal. A safety precaution is not to have skin-to-skin contact with another person, particularly a child, for a couple of hours or so after using the cream.
The basics of anti-aging medicine are the same as basic good health practices for people in general. These include diet, exercise, social connections, smoking and drinking and "recreational drug" habits, and regular medical check-ups. Beyond those considerations, there are medical treatments that are particularly useful or appropriate for people as they age. One of these is hormone replacement therapy. I've had happy experience with this. I'll devote the rest of this initial post to that subject from a male point of view. (I have less information about hormone supplementation for aging women.) Please chime in.
The normal range for testosterone in men according to one much-used blood test is 280 to 800 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter). The units don't matter so much as that large range does. It seems that a typical doctor, if he is willing to test a man's testosterone level at all and finds a reading in that normal range, will consider that no supplementation is appropriate. A better informed or more kindly doctor might say "Your reading is in the normal range, but toward the low end. With supplementation, we can raise that reading significantly while staying in the normal range, and you will FEEL better." Generally, a man's testosterone level peaks in his twenties or thirties but by age forty, an annual decline of about 1% sets in. Those of you here who are in your forties or fifties are not too young to consider this therapy.
I found a urologist in Beverly Hills who prescribes testosterone supplementation for me. I have a lot of confidence in this doctor whose qualifications include having been Chief of Surgery at UCLA and Chief of Urology there too. (Truth in posting: I'm an alumnus of UCLA, BA and MS, and that might just slightly color my opinion. Go, Bruins!) The testosterone therapy is a cream that I rub into my shoulder or shoulders each morning. Early morning application is best because that matches the body's own daily cycle of testosterone production. I choose the shoulders because mine are naturally hairless. To get the hormone into the blood stream, the cream needs to go directly on bare skin, not saturate hair. (Research indicates that shaved skin is just as permeable to the hormone.) I chose the upper body since circulation is best there, although application to arms, legs, torso, or neck is also medically acceptable. Transdermal delivery of the hormone is about 10% efficient; the cream I have used is 10% testosterone although I moved up to 15% testosterone recently. My testosterone level was toward the bottom end of the normal range. It is now in the middle of that range. I'm willing for it to go higher. I combine this therapy with regular sweaty workouts with weights in my local Gold's Gym. It pleases me that even at my age I can still make progress there. In the last two years, I have added some muscle without gaining any body weight, so I have lost some fat too.
The commercially available hormone creams for transdermal delivery of testosterone are Testim and Androgel. A Business Week article from October 29, 2009, (available online) starts with this: "Testosterone Is Sure Looking Virile; despite legal setbacks and FDA delays, youth-crazed boomers are making it a billion-dollar industry." I don't consider myself youth-crazed and I'm not a boomer. The point was the billion dollar industry. I once asked a phamacist if he filled a lot of prescriptions for Testim and Androgel. His exact words were "Oh, my, yes!" Evidently my question was naive. Lots of men use testosterone supplementation therapy but it seems they don't talk about it much so I didn't know.
The medical profession has had a great concern that testosterone supplementation will accelerate the growth of prostatic cancer. Evidence for their concern is lacking as I can explain in some detail in another post. Anyway, the doctors want to monitor my PSA (prostatic specific antigen) level twice a year while I'm on the testosterone, rather than just once a year as is part of a standard annual physical. The normal range for PSA is 0 to 3.5 or 4.0, although a sudden jump within that range can be significant too. My PSA reading has been steady at about 0.9 from before starting the testosterone through two years of using it. I don't use Testim or Androgel but proprietary formulations from my doctors that are stronger.
Side effects from testosterone therapy may include mood disorders, scalp hair loss, excessive hair growth elsewhere, and acne. I have had no such problems, but then my dose is not large. I'm getting about 100mg a week, delivered through the skin into the blood stream. That's minimal. A safety precaution is not to have skin-to-skin contact with another person, particularly a child, for a couple of hours or so after using the cream.
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