Is Your Testosterone Too Low?
Testosterone is not just the hormone behind your sex drive and erectile function but is also the hormone that is behind your physical strength and behavior.
Testosterone is the hormone that also affects you psychologically and its levels determine your moods.
“Can increasing testosterone levels can be effective in treating depression?”
This is one of the difficult questions facing clinicians when testosterone is too low in older men.
One problem with answering this question is the physiological age-related testosterone decline. The “normal” range for testosterone is very different for 20 year old men compared to 80 year old men. So a simple blood test is not sufficient to answer the question of whether testosterone is too low.
But blood tests are best evaluated in the context of symptoms related to the tested parameter. This important relationship is highlighted in a New England Journal of Medicine study published this week.
Frederick Wu from the University of Manchester in England and colleagues conducted a study to define when testosterone is too low. The medical terminology for this problem is hypogonadism.
Over 3000 men between 40 and 79 years of age completed assessments of general, sexual, physical and psychological health. Levels of testosterone were measure in blood samples collected in the morning.
Nine symptoms were endorsed by men with low testosterone: three psychological (loss of energy, downheartedness, fatigue), three physical (inability to engage in vigorous activity, inability to walk more than 1 kilometer, inability to bend, kneel or stoop) and three sexual symptom (infrequent thoughts about sex, erectile function problems, infrequent morning erections). In multivariate analysis the sexual symptoms proved to me the key distinguishing variables.
This study provides an answer to when is testosterone too low. And the answer is:
  • When three sexual symptoms are present: infrequent thoughts about sex, erectile function problems, infrequent morning erections
  • And total serum testosterone level is less than 3.2 ng/ml
  • And free testosterone level is less than 65 pg/ml
Using these criteria produced a prevalence rate of late-onset hypogonadism ranging from 0.1% of men between 40 to 49 years up to a rate of 5.1% of men between the ages of 70 and 79.
So we now have an answer for a common clinical question. Since testosterone replacement is readily available more men will likely be pleased they asked the question “Is my testosterone too low?”
Testosterone replacement is not risk free. Testosterone may be related to risk for developing prostate cancer. An accompanying article in the New England Journal of Medicine found an increased rate of cardiovascular events in a group of older men involved in a testosterone gel trial.
Testosterone replacement should only be considered in consultation with a physician experienced in understanding the risk-benefit of such therapy.
Another alternative to testosterone replacement is herbal or natural supplements that can help increase testosterone levels in your body.
Such natural testosterone pills are safe and free of side effects. This is what sets them apart from other means of testosterone enhancement methods and products.
One of the best and most widely acclaimed Testosterone Booster for men is PROVACYL.
Provacyl is a 100% natural formulation that comprises of herbs and natural ingredients such as tribulus terrestris, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, long jack, l-arginine. It not only helps boost your libido bur also ensures powerful and longer lasting erections. It also increases your energy levels and elevates mood.
Not only this, it can also help you increase your muscle mass and reduce body fat. Over and above, it also stimulates HGH production in your body so that you can look as well as feel much younger.
No wonder, an ever increasing number of men are opting for this all natural testosterone booster!

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Source http://brainposts.blogspot.com/2010/06/old-man-asks-is-my-testosterone-too-low.html