Your Testosterone And Health Are Linked In A Number Of Ways, So The Fact that 700,000 Men In The Suffer From Hypogonadism Is Pretty Scary!
You may have recently heard about the rather shocking figure that approximately 700,000 men in the UK suffer from something called hypogonadism.
This is where the testes produce little and in some cases no testosterone.
Does This Stat Refer To You & How Does Low T Effect You?
Well if you’re a UK male, this could potentially be you. Your testosterone production doesn’t even need to be at the point of hypogonadism for it to be a potential risk to your health.
You can find out more about the health risks associated with low testosterone in the article below.
Testosterone And Health – The Impact Of Low T Article
To give you a high level idea, low T can lead to the following:
- Reduced muscle mass
- Increased body fat
- A lack of energy
- Depression
- Reduced motivation
- Increased risk of type 2 diabetes
- Increased risk of developing Alzheimers
- Increased risk of cardiovascular and heart health issues
As you can see above, testosterone effects your health in a wide number of ways, having low T doesn’t just negatively impact your health but having higher levels comes with a number of health benefits as well.
This is something you can find out more about on an article I put together below.
Testosterone And Health – The benefits of Higher T
If you live outside of the UK you may be thinking to yourself this doesn’t include me, sadly lower testosterone levels as a whole and for men in particular are proving to be an issue worldwide.
For the best part this is due to our diets, lifestyle and chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis.
There are a few different studies that have tracked how our testosterone levels have dropped over the years/ decades, a couple of which we will look at below.
Journal Of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism Study
This was a fairly in depth and in reality disturbing study. It was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2007.
The research indicates that male testosterone levels dropped 17% from 1987 to 2004.
What is even more worrying is this study took in to account conditions known to affect T levels like obesity and diabetes, which have also been increasing.
The study also found that not only individual males were losing testosterone as they aged (which starts to happen at a low rate from approximately 30 onward), but that the same aged men from later eras had substantially lowered T levels than their counterparts from previous decades/ generations.
As an example a man who turned 65 in 2002, had far lowered T levels than a man who turned 65 in 1987.
So that study implies that T levels as a whole are lower and a fair bit lower than our predecessors.
Rigshospitalet Clinic
The Rigshospitalet Clinic conducted research to look at the testosterone levels of 5,000 Danish men.
This study found that men born in the 1960s, on average had T levels that were 14% lower than males from the 1920s.
So again another pattern where male testosterone levels are becoming lower.
What Is Potentially Causing The Drop In Testosterone
As I mentioned earlier in the article, there are a number of things that can potentially lower testosterone and could be causing the continuing drop in average T levels. The main culprits likely include:
A lack of rest
Our lives are getting more and more hectic, we get less sleep, we get lower quality sleep due to use of mobile phones, tablets etc.
Poor Diet
We now eat lots of heavily processed foods, diets very high in sugar, low fat foods, vegetarian and vegan diets also potentially cause issues for T production.
Exposure to chemicals
We rely very heavily on plastics and other products high in chemicals like cleaners and bathroom products that are endocrine disruptors, these can affect hormone balance and production, including lowing testosterone.
Poor Physical Fitness
People are heavier than they used to be, we are less physically active and fit than we used to.
Being overweight and having less muscle mass are two things that lead to lowered muscle mass.
The above is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the things that lower testosterone.
I cover the multiple things in greater detail that can lead to lowered T. As a starting point, I’d advise to look at this article below.
Things That Lower Testosterone – What To Avoid
So What Should Your Testosterone Levels Be?
We’ve talked about the potential of having low testosterone and how you can potentially end up with low T.
What we haven’t actually looked at though, is what what would be considered low testosterone levels and where your testosterone levels should realistically sit.
So for men average testosterone levels at present sit anywhere between 300 – 100 ng/dl and anything below 300 ng/dl is considered to be low or around the hypogonadism mark.
I’d however suggest that at most times your levels should be a fair bit above the 300 mark and if you’re anywhere near there, you definitely need to be to look at increasing your T levels.
I published an article on what testosterone levels should be for men and women, so feel free to check out the Testosterone And Health – What Your T Levels Should Be article for more in depth information on this.
How To Know If You Are Suffering From Low T
There are some common symptoms and signs that you are suffering from low testosterone, such as lack of energy, reduced muscle etc.
You can find out a bit more about the common symptoms of low T in this Testosterone And Health – The Signs Of Low T article. The most effective way to know if you have low T levels is through testing.
This is something that can be arranged through your doctor, this can be quite a time-consuming process though.
This is due to doctors usually wanting to look at other things prior to getting T levels tested.
There are private services in most countries that provide home testosterone testing amongst a host of many other types of testing, these are usually very quick, confidential and easy to use services.
I’ve published an article on this, where you can find out a bit more about the typical type of service and what my recommended UK provider is, you can check this out in the article below.
Home Testosterone Test – My Recommended UK Service
Final Thoughts
I hope you have found this article useful and potentially somewhat of an eye-opener.
As we have covered, your testosterone and health are closely linked and lowering T levels is an issue happening around the world.
The UK is just the latest Country to have light shed on it. I do suggest you check out the other articles I’ve referred to, so you can work out if you have low T levels.
I’ve provided plenty of tips on ways you can increase T, which you can check out on this site.
If you have any questions in regard to this article, or on your testosterone and health as a whole, just drop me a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
Please feel fee to share this article with anyone you think may find it interesting, you can follow me on my social media sites as well. Where there are more tips in relation to testosterone and health.
