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Testosterone is the drug of the future

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Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#251

Post by driverdan »

johnward wrote: post #112
freshfey wrote: post #10

As someone who went from 430 ng/dl to 1024 ng/dl naturally in about two years time (from age 23 to 25) the only thing I can say is don't jump to too many conclusions here. - Your testosterone should be naturally high if you're below 30 (and male) - If not, something is wrong and you need to fix it (start with blood work, check your diet, move) - If you testosterone is in the normal ranges (blood work recommends betwe…

" I didn't get huge muscles or less body fat with more testosterone (huge myth that I thought would change for me)". For me I almost always drop 20lbs on T and am much leaner than I am off or on clomid. On clomid I generally gain weight. "- TRT is a problem if you keep going for too long, because your body just doesn't produce testosterone as it used to, because it expects it from the outside, so below 35 or rather b…

> For me I almost always drop 20lbs on T and am much leaner than I am off or on clomid. On clomid I generally gain weight.

Were you working out? Taking test isn't a panacea, you still need to be active to get significant body composition changes.

> You can counteract this by taking ancillaries while on T. There are drugs that can restore the LH and FSH that get suppressed by testosterone but this is a valid concern. 100mg of T per week made me basically infertile but clomid brought me back to normal after a few weeks.

The body's endocrine system is closed, it has a tight feedback loop. It sounds like you're referring to cycling on / off which is different than taking it continuously long term.

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#252

Post by driverdan »

paganel wrote: post #29
toolz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- I didn't get huge muscles or less body fat with more testosterone (huge myth that I thought would change for me) The many studies done on this subject show that testosterone makes a huge impact on muscle growth. Take this 10 week study for instance, http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199607043350101 . The placebo group working out didn't experience nearly as much muscle gain as those taking testosterone did…

> The many studies done on this subject show that testosterone makes a huge impact on muscle growth Genuine question: Why this emphasis on increasing "muscle growth"? What benefits does it bring us (men)?

Something others haven't mentioned is better quality of life as you age. One of the biggest causes of decrease in life quality in the elderly is reduced mobility. As you age your muscle mass decreases. By increasing your muscle mass when you're younger (and able) and maintaining physical activity you will have a much better life when you're older.

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#253

Post by bootload »

davak wrote: post #55

MD here. Just remember that women live longer than men. Although it'll never be proven that hormones are part of that provess, I think it's a good assumption. Many males as they get older become more lovable and more pleasent to be around because of natural hormone declines. There are a ton of health issues such as balding, coronary artery disease, prostate cancer, obstructive sleep apnea that are related to testoste…

"... health issues such as balding ..."

health issue? MD in what, from where?

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#254

Post by driverdan »

hellodevnull wrote: post #87

>I was just at the gym watching the 30-year-olds at the pull-up bar building muscles in three weeks. And I’m at the pull up bar and nothing’s happening While many of you are thinking that he's making excuses (he might be) or that the other guys worked long and hard to build muscle, I can relate: I've been lifting weights three times a week for the last four years. I still look average, and yes I'm eating and exercisi…

When was the last time you changed your workout routine? If you do the same thing for a long time it's easy to get stuck in a rut with minimal / no gains. Switch up the exercises, volume, and intensity if you haven't already.

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#255

Post by scribu »

FreshlyMinted wrote: post #234
kingmanaz wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Don't succumb to the reductionist fallacy. The body is complex, and more than the sum of its parts The above needs to be repeated more often, particularly on HN. Tech culture is overdue for an epistemological yin to its empiricist yang.

>Tech culture is overdue for an epistemological yin to its empiricist yang. What a wonderful sentence. I grew glasses reading this.

Upvoted for the fun "growing glasses" phrase.

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#256

Post by cgh »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #250
davak wrote: post #55

MD here. Just remember that women live longer than men. Although it'll never be proven that hormones are part of that provess, I think it's a good assumption. Many males as they get older become more lovable and more pleasent to be around because of natural hormone declines. There are a ton of health issues such as balding, coronary artery disease, prostate cancer, obstructive sleep apnea that are related to testoste…

I just finished a run of pro hormones designed to increase T. See my twitter as proof. Within a week my shoulders got bigger and I dropped 6lbs. I had no other change in diet and swam (my workout) less because I'm developing swimmer's shoulder. The downside? I just couldn't take it any more. My mind raced about sex (complete with random boners) and raged about everything else. It was like being 18 again. I realize no…

I had a look at your Twitter feed but I didn't see where you named the specific supplements you used. Can you list them here? Curious to see what they are. I've only ever found tongkat ali to produce a noticeable effect.

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#257

Post by lectrick »

davak wrote: post #55

MD here. Just remember that women live longer than men. Although it'll never be proven that hormones are part of that provess, I think it's a good assumption. Many males as they get older become more lovable and more pleasent to be around because of natural hormone declines. There are a ton of health issues such as balding, coronary artery disease, prostate cancer, obstructive sleep apnea that are related to testoste…

Obstructive sleep apnea increases cortisol levels which in turn decrease testosterone levels.

Source: I have obstructive sleep apnea and low testosterone, both of which are being treated finally, and my income rose by... triple? quadruple? ever since

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#258

Post by pbowyer »

kingmanaz wrote: post #203
vannevar wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't succumb to the reductionist fallacy. The body is complex, and more than the sum of its parts, including its hormones. It's entirely possible that the process that produces testosterone naturally also has other effects that mitigate the downside of testosterone.

>Don't succumb to the reductionist fallacy. The body is complex, and more than the sum of its parts The above needs to be repeated more often, particularly on HN. Tech culture is overdue for an epistemological yin to its empiricist yang.

Can you put the yin bit into layman's speak please? How does it differ to empiricist?

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#259

Post by threeseed »

vadman wrote: post #170
golemotron wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. If testosterone is the culprit for increased risk of coronary artery disease, prostate cancer and sleep apnea, then doing things that naturally increase testosterone will increase risk also. Don't succumb to the naturalistic fallacy. The body doesn't care where it gets its chemicals from.

"The body doesn't care where it gets its chemicals from" Sometimes it does, or maybe the supplements are not formulated quite right. E.g. I saw this at LessWrong: "turns out that fish oil pills suck, and you’d need to take approximately 9 times as much to have the same effect as eating fish, at which point they’d have dangerous blood thinning effects." Link to the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12848287

Even more concerning with supplements is what has been seen in New York. A significant percentage of herbal supplements sold contained large quantities of bulking material and in some cases that was all they contained.

Which means everyone out there taking supplements would likely be less healthy than people eating food in a balanced manner.

Re: Testosterone is the drug of the future

#260

Post by dhimes »

blaabjerg wrote: post #240
rsync wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a link to the lesswrong discussion where you learned this ? Thanks.

Google to the rescue: http://lesswrong.com/lw/jrt/lifestyle_interventions_to_incre...

Interesting article. However, this early sentence did set off my detectors:

Mental and physical performance are strongly correlated, meaning maintaining your body will help maintain your mind.

Of course, the conclusion is not supported by (only) the correlation.

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