Manifestations of Male Hormone Health

Don’t believe the Internet celebrity fallacy that “more body hair and bigger muscles means higher testosterone”. The true health of male hormones (the core is free testosterone that exerts physiological effects) is essentially “you don’t need to deliberately rely on external supplements to maintain your condition. Your physiology, emotions, and functions are all at a stable level that matches your age.” It’s that simple.

A while ago, I accompanied two friends to check six sex hormones, and the contrast was particularly interesting: one is a well-known fitness blogger, his body is wider than ordinary people, and his beard is so thick that he shaves twice a day. In his videos, he always recommends various testicle-stimulating supplements to his fans. The result was that the free testosterone was 20% lower than the lower limit of the reference value. The endocrinologist directly said that his apparent characteristics are due to exogenous supplements, and endogenous testosterone secretion has been suppressed for a long time. The other is a thin-looking back-end programmer. He usually only takes a walk after get off work. He has never even touched a barbell. He has a regular work and rest schedule and does not smoke or drink. His hormone levels are all stuck in the optimal range. Would you say this is irritating?

Speaking of this, someone must ask, is it all wrong in the fitness circle to always use "muscle growth rate and whether strength can break through the bottleneck" as the criterion for judging testosterone health? Not really, this set of standards actually only applies to people who maintain systematic training all year round - if you don't go to the gym at all and can't even do squats to standard, this judgment is pure nonsense. Clinically, the judgment logic of endocrinologists is more universal: they will not look at whether you have big muscles or a lot of beard. The first thing they will ask is whether you have had unexplained fatigue for more than half a month, whether you have had an obvious loss of sexual desire in your early 30s, whether you have been depressed at every turn, and whether you have been inexplicably irritable. Combined with whether you have any abnormal changes in bone density and secondary sexual characteristics, you will basically not go wrong.

Some fans have sent me private messages before asking me if my short beard and thin body hair are due to unhealthy hormones? I specifically asked this question to the deputy director of endocrinology at Union Medical College, and he put it very bluntly: 70% of secondary sexual characteristics such as body hair and Adam's apple size are determined by genetics. As long as there are no problems with your pubertal development and these characteristics do not suddenly disappear in adulthood, even if you are born without a beard, it has nothing to do with hormonal health. What you need to be wary of is "sudden changes": for example, shaving twice a week was enough before, but suddenly your beard grows slower and slower for two or three months, and even morning erections rarely appear. Then you really need to go to the hospital for a check-up.

I met a 35-year-old ex-colleague a while ago. He used to complain that he was still tired even though he slept 10 hours a day. He couldn't bring himself to work and had a perfunctory life as a couple. At first, the whole family thought he was making excuses because he was too tired from work. Later, the annual physical examination included After taking hormones, I discovered that my testosterone level was only 1/3 of that of a normal young man. I later adjusted my schedule and took half an hour a day to go out for a brisk walk. I took zinc and vitamin D supplements for three months. Now I can still go hiking for 10 kilometers with my travel companions on weekends, and my condition is much better than before.

By the way, there is also a very hot topic on the Internet right now: "Is hair loss caused by high testosterone?" This is completely two schools of thought, each with its own truth: The consensus among dermatologists is that androgenic alopecia is indeed related to dihydrotestosterone (DHT, a metabolite of testosterone), but the core trigger is that hair follicles are sensitive to DHT. Even if your testosterone level is completely within the normal range, as long as you inherit the susceptibility gene, you will still lose hair.； But practitioners in the fitness circle also have their own experience: when many people use exogenous testosterone supplements that exceed physiological doses, they will indeed aggravate hair loss, but this is caused by artificially raising hormone levels. Normal and healthy endogenous testosterone levels will not turn you into a Mediterranean at all. Don't blame yourself for having too much testosterone when you lose hair. You are really wronging your hormones.

I have had my own little experience for so long. If you are too lazy to go to the hospital, you can probably get a feel for it at home: for example, whether you have regular morning erections that are not caused by holding in urine, whether your recovery speed after exercise is similar to that of your peers, whether you have been unable to get excited for more than half a month, and your mood will not be like a roller coaster that alternates between irritable and emo. Basically, there is no big problem. If you are really unsure, go to the hospital to get a blood test to check for six items of sex hormones. For a few dozen dollars, it is more reliable than reading ten internet celebrities’ popular science on the Internet.

To put it bluntly, hormonal health is not a "masculine charm indicator" worth showing off at all. It is just an ordinary parameter of your physical health. Don't be led astray by anxious marketing on the Internet. If you take testicle-stimulating supplements and testicular tablets, if you really suffer from endocrine disorders, you won't even have time to cry. Eat and sleep normally, don't stay up late and drink alcohol for a long time, it will be more effective than any sky-high-priced supplements.