When should you honestly consider testosterone replacement?
I mean, the fact is is people talk about it a lot, and I think a lot of times it gets
swept under the rug simply because it either gets overshadowed by performance-enhancing
drugs, which in my opinion are something completely different, or people are just afraid of it.
The reality is I'm someone that came out of the healthcare spectrum, and I understand
that world.
I understand that there is an application for people that may need testosterone replacement.
So this video is going to be designed to help you understand when it's maybe time to look
into that as an option.
I'm Thomas DeLauer with Antler Farms, and today we're breaking down how the body works
when it comes down to your sex drive, when it comes down to muscle mass and overall testosterone
production.
You see, we have what is called follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone.
These two hormones basically communicate with each other to ultimately signal the body to
produce more testosterone.
So as we age we have natural declines in testosterone that usually occur from the brain not being
able to send as much of a signal to the testes.
Now there's a lot of different reasons as to why testosterone can decline, but the main
purpose of this video is to help you understand what testosterone replacement is and when
it might actually become an option.
Because it's not necessarily a bad thing, but in my opinion it's something that, if
you can put off for a while or put off until the absolute max, you'll be much better off.
You see, testosterone replacement is where you're giving yourself an exogenous dose of
testosterone, of course administered by a doctor or prescribed by a doctor, that's going
to allow you to keep your blood levels of testosterone at a nice, even, stable level.
We're not looking to bring testosterone levels up to a really high degree like we would with
performance-enhancing drugs.
We're looking just to keep it balanced so that the body can continue to function and
so your libido can stay high and so that you can still continue to build muscle.
Now what we have to remember is whenever you add some kind of exogenous form of testosterone
into the mix, your body is not going to want to produce it as much naturally, especially
as you get older because then you lose the ability to have the hormone signal from your
brain down to your testes.
So when you're young and you go on some kind of testosterone replacement, there is a chance
that you can come back naturally.
So, in other words, if you went to the doctor at the age of 30 and you got put on testosterone
replacement and then you came off a year later, there is a chance that through proper HCG
therapy and through proper medical intervention, you could get your testosterone levels back
up to a normal level.
Although, again, it's still a long shot because the longer that you're on testosterone replacement,
the harder your body shuts down.
That's a literal term for it.
They call it shutdown.
So what you have to be aware of is once you commit to going on testosterone replacement,
you need to be okay with being on testosterone replacement, quite frankly, for the rest of
your life.
So it's not necessarily a bad thing, but the hard part is if we find out five, 10 years
down the road that synthetic testosterone really causes a lot of problems even at a
low dose, you have two choices.
You could either stay on the synthetic testosterone and run your risks.
Again, not saying there are risks right now, but if we find them.
Or you can go off and have your testosterone levels go really low and have your estrogen
levels go high.
So the biggest risk in my opinion is that, is not being able to commit.
So in my opinion, you want to exercise all efforts to get your natural testosterone levels
higher before you go down that path.
You also have to ask yourself why are your testosterone levels low and why are you wanting
to fix it.
Are you wanting to fix it because your libido is low?
Because you have to factor in that there's lots of ways like utilizing Maca root and
utilizing kava kava and utilizing wild yam extract, that you can get your libido up.
You can also increase your levels of boron that you consume that end up releasing more
of your free testosterone.
So a lot of things that you can do that are going to increase your libido.
So you have to ask yourself, "Do I really want this?"
The other thing is you have to remember that testosterone isn't the only driver of muscle
mass.
There are plenty of people out there that have relatively low or moderate levels of
testosterone but still carry a good amount of muscle.
One of the benefits to having moderate to even moderately low levels of testosterone
is it also means a lower level of estrogen within the body, which means less water retention.
So you're going to look drier.
You're going to look harder.
Your muscles are going to look more dense, and that's a very powerful thing.
So, of course, we want to have some of that.
I'm not trying to just throw testosterone replacement under the bus.
I'm just trying to give you all the options.
Another thing that you can look at when it comes down to muscle building is looking at
things like deer antler velvet.
Okay, deer antler velvet is going to help you with IGF production.
It's even been show to have some relation with testosterone.
So you can exercise your options like that.
Another thing that you want to utilize is heavy compound lifts.
Okay, studies have shown that if you do more of the heavy compound movements where you're
incorporating a lot of your body, like squats, like dead lifts, like bench press, the more
you engage your body, the more testosterone you produce just as a natural androgen response.
So before you go down the path to committing to testosterone replacement, you have to do
what you can nutritionally and physically.
Now another thing you also have to factor in is if you don't use it, you lose it.
Now this is a little bit crass, but the reality is sometimes the feedback loop between your
brain and your testes can slow down if you're not actively acting upon your libido.
Okay, if you have the urge, you should use that urge.
That's the point.
Because eventually your body is going to create a feedback loop where it just doesn't see
the need to create it.
It doesn't see the need to create more testosterone and drive that libido up.
So there's a lot of different pieces that we have to factor in.
So my honest opinion for the end of this video is do the most that you possibly can nutritionally
first.
Higher-fat foods, follow a ketogenic diet, healthy cholesterols, good amount of eggs.
Okay, next up is going to be supplementation.
Okay, so we're talking about deer antler velvet.
We're talking about things that boost IGF a little bit.
We're talking about wild yam extract.
We're talking about boron, things like that.
Third is going to be change your exercise routine and, quite honestly, have sex more.
Fourth is going to be your last option of going down the testosterone replacement route.
Before you completely go down that route, talk to your doctor about human chorionic
gonadotropin, going the HCG route, before anything else.
I can expand more on this video if you want to see a little bit more about this topic.
But as always, keep it locked in here with Antler Farms, and I'll see you soon.