other strenuous activities • A vegan diet • A diet with too few Omega 3 fats or zinc • A high-sugar diet • A high-grain diet • Too much body fat • High alcohol consumption • Some prescription and over-the-coun- ter medications
• Intense emotional stress • A history of head injury
A Treatment Plan Considering low testosterone can
have numerous causes, treatment of it should be customized to a man's unique health situation.
Testosterone Replacement Therapy: There are several versions of testos-
terone therapy. Initially, testosterone shots may be given in the doctor's office. They load the body and saturate testos- terone receptors resulting in more rapid response. This is usually followed by a pre- scription for topical testosterone therapy. This may be a brand name gel like An- drogel, Axiron or Testim. Some physi-
cians prescribe individually compound- ed testosterone creams or gels, which are more concentrated than those made by pharmaceutical companies resulting in a smaller volume to spread over the body. Topical testosterone is best applied to the inner aspects of the arms, the forehead, or the top of the chest near the collarbones. For best results, a man should avoid putting testosterone on fatty or hairy areas of his body. Men need to wash their hands after
application to avoid contaminating their family members with the testosterone. Family members need to avoid touching those parts of the man’s body to which testosterone has been applied for a minimum of 2 hours—and better yet 6 hours—as the testosterone is gradually absorbed.
Some men fear testosterone therapy
will cause them to develop prostate cancer. While testosterone doesn't cause prostate cancer it may feed a tiny prostate cancer that isn't detected using PSA tests or digital rectal exams. So, any man who is on testosterone replacement therapy should have his prostate monitored very closely for the first two years of treat- ment.
It's also important to remember that not all men with low testosterone will need testosterone therapy. In some men, supplements and lifestyle changes may be all that are required to normalize testosterone levels.
Other Prescription Medications: Aromatase is the enzyme that con-
verts testosterone to estrogen. Alcohol, caffeinated drinks and obesity speed up aromatase. Studies have shown that the inhibition of aromatase can increase testosterone production in elderly men who have low or borderline-low testos- terone levels. It can be blocked with anastrozole (brand name: Arimidex), a drug often used in the treatment of breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
Supplements: Chrysin, which can be taken orally or compounded into a cream, works like anastrozole to block conversion of tes- tosterone into estrogen. Supplements like fish oil and di-indole methane (DIM) benefit the prostate and help a man maintain healthy sex steroid metabolism. Zinc along with saw palmetto inhibit 5 alpha reductase; the enzyme which
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