Below Dr. Ross explains the important facts you should know and what to expect when looking into getting testosterone replacement therapy.
Transcript:
Hello, I’m Dr. Ross VanAntwerp. Today we’re gonna talk about men’s health, and especially about men’s hormonal changes.
A lot of people think this is something that just happens late in life. It doesn’t. And for many men now, even in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s…
They have problems with hormones, and it often comes in kind of unexpected ways.
For instance, I see a lot of young men in their 30’s who suddenly have a loss of libido, they have erectile issues, they gain weight, they lose muscle… They really lose drive.
That’s unexpected often at that age, but we often find many, even at that age who have hypogonadism. (low hormones) and that can be for a variety of reasons.
A couple of big classifications I see…One is men that have had a history of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). Head injuries can mess up the body’s thermostat, if you will, that controls testosterone, and these men have profoundly low testosterone.
As if the injury wasn’t bad enough… they end up with depression, they end up with loss of libido, they have erectile issues at a time of life when that is not at all normal. Not that it’s ever normal.
We have another classification of people that have had toxins, weight gain, various things that have messed up their testosterone. So in general, 40% of men over 40, 50% over 50, 60% over 60 have low testosterone, and there’s a lot of things that go along with this.
They gain weight, especially belly fat. They lose their performance in the gym, they’re having a hard time maintaining their muscle. They sleep poorly. There’s a variety of things, and those are associated with low testosterone.
So to begin with, we do have a very thorough evaluation. A laboratory assessment that looks at health in general. I’m not just interested in testosterone. We look at how the body metabolizes sugar, whether they’re at risk for developing diabetes. We look at how the body handles cholesterol. We do a deep dive into cholesterol.
A lot of problems that go along with that, especially with weight gain that they’ve experienced. We look at all of these things, and then come up with a plan to optimize their health.
Another concern that we’re seeing a lot recently is that people are concerned about gaining weight, and if they’ve gained a lot of weight, that increases their risk, now that we have the COVID-19 crisis. Second to age, the number two risk factor for COVID-19 is weight. And these people that are way overweight, they need help with that. There are things you can do to harden the target, as it were, with the COVID-19, would that include normalizing testosterone, doing weight loss, and we can often help with weight loss, with testosterone and other medications, and exercise, and we go through a whole list of things,
intermittent fasting, low-inflammatory diet, medications that promote the body’s own production and utilization of growth hormone.
So growth hormone helps to build muscle, and muscle burns fat. It also blocks a step in the metabolism of sugar and pushes the body to burn fat, so there it promotes lean muscle mass. So we use growth hormone and other substances that can help with weight loss.
Yes, so the problem with COVID-19 is cytokine storms. That’s what people die from, cytokine storms. It’s an inflammatory condition.
And obesity – people don’t realize, is that by its nature, it’s an inflammatory condition, so we, with treating with peptides that reduce inflammation – Thymosin alpha 1, Thymosin beta 4, BPC-157… These are substances that reduce inflammation, and when we have people who are obese we start out with that for at least a month, to calm the body down before we then use the growth hormone-promoting peptides. And so they work together, hand in hand, both at decreasing the risk, we believe, of COVID-19, and by assisting them with weight loss.
Yeah, we do a consultation, we do a very thorough evaluation and a very thorough consultation so that people know the risk factors are, what they can do to modify it, and how we can help.
If you want to learn more about testosterone replacement therapy or what to expect with TRT, check out our FAQ section or give us a call at (410) 844-6654
