Testosterone replacement therapy

[KentG]

JeffWard, on 22 Nov 2013 - 10:23 AM, said:JeffWard, on 22 Nov 2013 - 10:23 AM, said:

KentG, on 22 Mar 2012 - 12:32 AM, said:KentG, on 22 Mar 2012 - 12:32 AM, said:

I wanted to see what other opinions were. I'm surprised there isn't much on it.

Here is what I do.

http://www.lowtcenter.com/

I know they are not all over the country yet and I feel fortunate they opened one within a reasonable distance from me. I am pretty much the poster boy for what they do. Its under a doctors supervision and I have been doing this for about 8 months.

I was initially about 150 and was retested last week after my 10 days and was 550. Means I may run around at 700 or so, maybe a tad higher on day 5ish. Since I have started down this path I have done a lot of reading on the subject and while I'm not a MD I have found out a lot of interesting things. One thing is mainstream medicine is starting to notice this and its becoming more accepted if not recommended. My internist of 20 years is still a bit skeptical but very happy with the results. I have lost 55 pounds plus and see another 20 or more coming off.

One of the most informative books I found was http://www.amazon.com/Testosterone-Guide-Second-Nelson-Vergel/dp/0966223128/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

The first half is the info and the second half is more oriented in fitness and diet but thats getting off point.

I feel better than I have in 20 years and my energy level is up along with all of the other benefits if ya know what I mean

Over the last 10 plus years eating better and staying active has not helped loose weight, getting my testosterone up has made it possible. I no doubt I would not be able to have the success I do on my own.

What makes me feel 100% comfortable with this is I am under doctors supervision with this and regularly tested and monitored along with seeing my internist. I no longer need to take diabetes medicine as my numbers have all gone back to a normal level after several years on the meds and several years earlier of high blood sugar numbers.

There is a couple side effects which to me are acceptable trade offs. For one my hair is growing faster and most noticeable if I don't shave for a day. I have always been high normal on blood pressure and it crept up over the last couple months so I am on a ARB blocker (I requested this family after learning about it as a part of what I learned on this whole issue). I'm now lower than I have been in some time on BP. Its a fairly common effect of this but as long as its treated a much better thing than fighting weight related diabetes which I no longer have.

I know this is a lifelong change for those who do this. Part of this process is my own body which made only so much testosterone now is pretty much making none since it sees plenty. And if I stop taking shots my body may not make it anymore regardless. Plus there is a couple of other minor issues that may happen to some users. I also had to be tested after my first month for FREE testosterone to get a more accurate dosing to get the results I needed. And as far as the estrogen issue that is part of what is tested for on a regular issue. As a precaution I take a very small dose of Arimidex every other day.

I know guys who use the gels with mixed results and honestly want nothing to do with the OTC snake oil stuff(IMO) If its not under a MDs supervision its just hype from what I have read after a lot of study.

Anyway its been the fountain of youth for me and my wife seems VERY happy as well. My insurance pays for it except a $30 copay for each shot and I have that figured into my flex health care fund at work so its pre tax dollars.

I kind of thought there would be more men looking into this kind of treatment. It may not be for everyone but if your over 40 and have some of the symptoms take a look.

THIS!

I'm a personal trainer for a living. My male clients over 45-50 who are on TRT get great results from exercise. My clients who are NOT on TRT get much lesser results. PERIOD. Healthy Test levels are CRITICAL to health, fat loss, muscle RE-gain, and overall energy and vitality.

The risks are greatly over-blown, and the medical profession is very quickly coming around to more recent studies showing VERY minimal sides and negative effects. While the UP-side is huge.

JeffWard

My weight is now down to about 190 and I hope to get more off. My goal isn't a number but how I look. Also like I mentioned going to every week for a shot vs every 10 days helps my level stay steady. After a couple years on this path I am even more convinced its such a life changer for me. My original weight was about 260-265 and its been a SLOW loss which is the best way.

AND I am feeling so good most of the time I could make a 20 year old girl beg for mercy. The wife seems to smile a lot nowadays.

Edited November 22, 2013 by KentG

[enroute]

I believe it is a LOT like blinker fluids: playing on sombody elses' ignorance to pump up a bottom line.

Start eating in a more healthy way for you: rotate your fruits and vegetables regimen, decrease portions sizing, increase the # of smaller meals you eat per day, whatever it is that keeps you motivated change it up until you find what you like and feels great for your body/mind.

Stop eating at fast food joints. Those meats are pumped up with so much crap it is unhealthy , that it kills lab animals. You know what happens when negative/toxic lab results come from lab animals? The client deems those results invalid as the subjects were not human. Here's the little secret many of you already know: fast food "meat" products are FULL of soy products and by-products, which is an estrogen mimicker. It tricks a male system into imbalance and literally shuts down your testosterone productions. Removing those estrogen mimickers from your diet is about 50-75% of the problem, depending on what your exercise regiment is like.

Exercise to muscle failure with low impact aerobic work out, THEN move on to whatever you sort of weight work you want to do, drink lots of water to flush out the acids your workout is making.

Stop drinking the energy drinks; Monster, 5 hour, NOS.

Start sleeping more, make these integrated living changes slowly into your daily regimen and you'll be relatively normal in no time at all. Most of us just have bad habits we developed over 20 or 30 years and undoing them takes more time than just a pill or a DR. office visit for TRT.

[Reshoot]

Ditto what enroute said!

I am amazed the human race has survived . . . even more amazed I was conceived! My parents did not have access to energy drinks, TRT and a cure for ED. I have never drank one of those energy drinks but, I do drink 2 ~ 3 quarts of water every day.

I work out daily, eat healthy and almost never eat at a fast food joint. I have to say almost never because I stopped at Wendys, after a gun show yesterday, for a cup of chili, fries and unsweetened tea. I will not eat one of their gut bombs, or any other brand of gut bomb. I am a big meat eater too . . . real meat that is.

[KentG]

I will gladly reply to the previous 2 posts. I do eat well. I avoid junk and fast food but once every couple weeks may have a burger.

Your "opinion" that we don't need the replacement theory is hogwash. Based on your logic we also don't need things like blood pressure meds, diabetic meds, and even silly things like inooculations from smallpox and chickenpox. I mean if dying young early from treatable conditions was good enough for mom a and dad by god it's good enough for us. Heck lets just shun all modern medicine and live on nuts and berries. Kind of like Euel Gibbons. Remember him? He dropped dead from a heart attack at a relatively young age. Let's not forget Steve Jobs. He turned his nose up at modern meds and went some kind of holistic healing crap. He figured out too late he was stupid because he admitted had he seeked out modern medicine earlier he would have survived.

You guys do what works for you. I KNOWS what IS working for me and a lot of us.

[Reshoot]

My "opinion" places prescription medications into different classifications. For example, high blood pressure and cholesterol lowering medications (among many others) are life saving drugs. Whereas, testosterone replacement and erectile dysfunction drugs are for non-life threating "social issues".

And it is, again my opinion, that social issues can be addressed through one's life style. That's all I'm saying . . . my opinion

[rowdyb]

I was on a medication for years that surpressed my pituitary gland so the hormone to tell my nuts to make testosterone wasn't happening. When I finally got a test from my GP, the result was 90ng/dl. We retested and it was 99ng/dl. So he gives me a consult with an endocrinologist and i start on Androgel. We monitor my levels and adjust my dose over a year. After the year has passed of me not on the offending medication I taper off and we retest. t1 and t2, free and bound.

Normal result, 525ng/dl. No more Androgel needed. Back to 'normal'.

While on a legitimate trt, under the care of a physician, this is what i experienced

-increase in muscle mass

-decrease in belly fat

-increased acne on back

-increased sex drive

-reduced aerobic capacity

-improved memory and cognitive ability

so i gained muscle, lost fat, had better errections but i couldn't run or bike the same and had breakouts on my back. but i did overall feel better and it was the right thing to do. i did not have any blood, prostate or gonadal issues.

I was 39 at the time.

[KentG]

My "opinion" places prescription medications into different classifications. For example, high blood pressure and cholesterol lowering medications (among many others) are life saving drugs. Whereas, testosterone replacement and erectile dysfunction drugs are for non-life threating "social issues".

And it is, again my opinion, that social issues can be addressed through one's life style. That's all I'm saying . . . my opinion

SO your saying if we just all eat the same we will be the same? Ever heard of genetics and that we are all a bit different? This isn't necessarily a "social issue". It may have escaped your attention that many of us on this also no longer need diabetic meds, loose weight which helps heart health which is the single biggest issue for men. IF doing this saves lives by being in an overall better state of health what does that do to your argument?

Not to try and be insulting but your in the old school mentality that wont look at what the good side of this can do. I see it all the time with people I work around. Guys who have the attitude that god made us to get slow down, accept being old, line up for dinner at the golden corral at 5pm. I also work with a many men who do this and are hand on the bible grateful for what it has done for them. When you work someplace that has 3K folks in it you do get to hear a wide variety of opinions.

I have had my eyes opened by this that men have been conditioned by society that when you hit a certain age or state of mind your supposed to accept it and start shopping for rocking chairs. Wake up. BTW I no where mentioned anything about needing ED meds. That was YOUR conclusion or need.

Get out of the cocoon and be a little more open to the modern world. Heck,, there is this new drug called penicillin you may not have heard of.

[KentG]

I believe it is a LOT like blinker fluids: playing on sombody elses' ignorance to pump up a bottom line.

Start eating in a more healthy way for you: rotate your fruits and vegetables regimen, decrease portions sizing, increase the # of smaller meals you eat per day, whatever it is that keeps you motivated change it up until you find what you like and feels great for your body/mind.

Stop eating at fast food joints. Those meats are pumped up with so much crap it is unhealthy , that it kills lab animals. You know what happens when negative/toxic lab results come from lab animals? The client deems those results invalid as the subjects were not human. Here's the little secret many of you already know: fast food "meat" products are FULL of soy products and by-products, which is an estrogen mimicker. It tricks a male system into imbalance and literally shuts down your testosterone productions. Removing those estrogen mimickers from your diet is about 50-75% of the problem, depending on what your exercise regiment is like.

Exercise to muscle failure with low impact aerobic work out, THEN move on to whatever you sort of weight work you want to do, drink lots of water to flush out the acids your workout is making.

Stop drinking the energy drinks; Monster, 5 hour, NOS.

Start sleeping more, make these integrated living changes slowly into your daily regimen and you'll be relatively normal in no time at all. Most of us just have bad habits we developed over 20 or 30 years and undoing them takes more time than just a pill or a DR. office visit for TRT.

So tell me how old you are? No way your over 40. Probably closer to 30. I was to about a million years ago. And I knew even more then than I do now!

[Reshoot]

Here is my testosterone replacement therapy . . . a proven method that has worked for men, and women, throughout the ages. Doc told me back in April, my testosterone is just fine.

Now, if I could just figure out a way to dry fire weak hand alphas while doing strong hand bicep curls . . .

Oh, you are not going to believe this! My first sign up, for Medicare and supplemental insurance, took place yesterday . . . AND . . . I can join a real gym at zero dollars out my own pocket! Life is good