Testosterone and other deficiencies

“It’s about time we take testosterone away from the athletes and return it where it belongs, in the testicles of 80-year-old men!” comedian Bill Maher

Rosy and her husband, Tony, breezed through the front door of my office and brushed quickly past my receptionist. Rosy needed to see me post-haste. Out of breath, they plopped themselves down in two of my comfortable leather chairs, and Rosie’s eyes signalled an emergency.

At age 45, Rosy had looked at herself in the mirror that morning and suddenly realized that Father Time was making his marks upon her youthful face and body. On the advice of her girlfriends and Dr. Oz, she had already undergone Botox® (Dysport®) injections and Restylane® and Radiesse® fillers that were designed for facial touch-ups, but these were not sufficient in slowing the passage of time’s effects upon her face and body. Indeed, these excellent cosmetic products only promised to ‘refresh one’s appearance’ and not reverse aging. Such is the state-of-the-art of modern day cosmetic dermatology.

Surgically, Rosy had even tightened the fine skin layers of her eyelids, but unfortunately, this procedure had left a pencil-fine red line horizontally positioned over her eyes. Lastly, she had travelled to Columbia and had had her own stem cells extracted from her blood and re-injected into her facial indentations (naso-labial folds). In frustration, she finally burst out with a request for me: “Dr. Lippman, please tell my husband and me how to avoid the underlying causes of aging. We want to be 30 again!” Rosy exclaimed in a desperate, rasping, Piaf-like voice.

Multiple deficiencies adversely affect health and aging

I carefully considered my reply. Five years ago, I would have answered them with Jack Nicolson’s glib remark and movie title, namely “This is as good as it gets.” But times have changed. Medical technology has advanced considerably during recent years. I finally answered that new remedies are available that do not involve cosmetic or surgical treatment that will reverse some aspects of aging. These remedies are based on the elementary medical fact that nearly everyone over the age of 50 has multiple hormone deficiencies that adversely affect health, aging.

I reminded them that these new remedies are built upon a solid foundation of eating correctly, getting some daily exercise, and consuming special nutrients. They answered by requesting a quick, one-pill-a-day solution for their aging. I gently explained that a magic bullet solution only exists in the imaginations of the marketing departments of prominent pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, the steps outlined in my book, Stay 40, will achieve the results they desire. These steps require daily commitment to a healthier lifestyle for slowed or reversed aging. The closest researchers have come to a one-pill-a-day magic bullet is found in my patented formula called ACF 228™. But this excellent remedy is not enough by itself.

We still need daily commitment to some basic health principles. In other words, eating junk food and being a couch potato is doomed to fail.

Better diet

First, I asked them to reread my book, Stay 40. Good health and slowed or reversed aging begins with a proper diet, not with a great deal of the food now served in North America. This means, for example, that these two should eliminate sugary Starbuck’s drinks, dairy, and sweet rolls and substitute them with a more protein-based breakfast. For example, the Japanese eat fried fish (protein) for breakfast along with spiced rice, dried seaweed (a complete food in itself), and hot green tea and importantly, four or five finely diced fresh raw vegetables. Australians substitute fish for steak and eggs. Brits eat beans (high protein) on toast or a ‘proper British breakfast’ of very lean bacon and eggs (all protein) along with hot tea and a grilled tomato. The French refuse to consider breakfast a meal, and thus, they eat little early in the morning but consume a semi-raw protein- and vegetable-rich diet during other meals.

Aging bodies need raw protein and vegetables, not the usual sugar-water, cereals, dairy, sweet rolls, or sugary energy bars that are the breakfast norm in North America if the objective is to sustain healthy skin, muscles, and organs. Cereals such as corn flakes were invented more than a hundred years ago, and they are far from healthy. During aging, muscle maintenance requires protein rich in Omega 3’s and not cereal, sugar and dairy.

If you doubt my advice, I challenge you to visit the above-mentioned countries and observe that these people are significantly thinner than Americans are and have significantly lower rates of diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases. For example, if you were to visit Sweden or Japan, you would see that more than 90% of these citizens are lean, and the remaining percentage have only gained weight due to their declining amounts of hormones due to aging. Even across the pond, our British cousins are leaner than Americans are and experience less than half the rate of heart attacks that Americans suffer. The evidence is clear that proper diet is a major key in supporting the body, its skin and its organs. Drop the cheese, dairy, bread, and sugar in your life and feel better.

At least some exercise

Second, Americans need to do a minimal amount of daily exercise just as people do in these other countries. This does not mean numerous weekly trips to gym sweat-palaces. People in other modern countries typically WALK about two hours daily, and this vital leg exercise is sufficient for maintaining excellent health and reduced aging.

Minimal exercises combined with proper diet are essential for allowing the body’s hormones and genes to do their job and repair and replenish damaged cells, organs, and skin.

Hormone testing critical to improved health and avoiding the diseases of aging

Last, I explained to my patients, Rosy and her husband, that if we hope to defeat aging, we must work together to bring their hormones into balance and back to where they were when my patients were in their twenties. On a practical level, we must measure their hormones with blood and urine tests. I explained that I could not, in good conscience, treat them blindly with an assortment of hormones and send them out the door. This revolving-door style of medicine is dead wrong. At a minimum, we must draw blood for a hormone panel that includes such key hormones as testosterone, estradiol, HGH (growth hormone), DHEA, cortisone, and thyroid hormones T3 and T4. When the testing lab returns its hormone scores, I can then begin to treat the two for their hormone deficiencies or imbalances. Please remember that these tests are free, or nearly so, with a small co-pay as mandated by Medicare and HMOs. Thus, I was only requesting a few minutes of their time to complete blood draws. We believe this would be a no-brainer for most people.

Hormone correction therapy for men

I could see that a light bulb had switched on in the minds of Rosy and Tony. I sent them to a blood draw, and the results were reported back to me in a few days. As I suspected from my meticulous physical examinations and questioning of Rosy and Tony, both were deficient in the key hormone testosterone. Rosy showed signs of declining sex drive and lack of assertiveness during recent years. But Tony’s low testosterone manifested itself in his recent lack of humor and cheer as he approached age 50. Indeed, during a previous visit, Rosy had complained that Tony was not the same person she had married twenty years earlier. Tony had become a grump instead of the happy-go-lucky guy who had found life to be ‘funny.’ (By funny, I mean having a spring in one’s step, a smile on one’s face, a friendly word for everyone, and last, an easy laugh at life’s many adversities.)

On the other hand, if he were to visit a psychiatrist, he would be briskly diagnosed as mildly depressed and would receive an expensive anti-depressant medication. Once again, more expensive, revolving-door medicine in action! Indeed, Tony’s current inability to find life ‘funny’ is a strong indicator of low anabolic hormones in general and testosterone and IGF-1 in particular. But I started Tony on a mild course of hormone correction as he was adamantly against injecting weekly testosterone cyprionate into his buttocks. In fact, he stated emphatically, “It’s painful injecting with a 25-gauge needle, and I refuse.”

Instead, I prescribed Tony the natural herb terrestris tribulus, 500mg twice daily and a single capsule of DIM-Pro™ once daily. These remedies are simple, cheap, and painless. Within 48 hours, Tony phoned me to say that his energy and humor had improved. If he had not improved significantly, I would have started him on Andro-Pro™. But three months later, he told me his sizeable potbelly had diminished after combining my two simple remedies with a better diet and some exercise. Tony was pleased, and his testo scores were up.

A critical brain protein that also increases testosterone production naturally

Eventually, if Tony becomes sufficiently motivated to explore anti-aging technology to the fullest, I will want to start him on daily injections of HGH (human growth hormone) and IGF-1 (a critical brain protein that also increases testosterone production naturally). Note that these injectables require only a non-prescription 31-gauge syringe that holds an extremely thin needle. This needle is so thin that it's virtually painless when injected into the fat of the stomach. In fact, due to this thin needle’s lack of physical sensation, practitioners must watch while injecting into subcutaneous fat to be sure they have actually completed the job.

I will also want to include in the same tiny syringe a small amount of MSH (melanocyte stimulating hormone). These three natural substances are synergetic with one another in improving health and reversing the signs of aging and the underlying causes of aging. Thus, this cocktail maximizes a firm body by tightening sagging cheeks and correcting for drooping bellies, thighs and eyelids.

The eyelids are especially tightened where the skin layer is only 0.6 mm thick. This is the thinnest skin on the body and thus, it's a barometer where the skin first wrinkles during aging. And, of course, skin wrinkling and health reflect the health status of every cell and organ in the body. This remedy is preferable to eyelid surgery. In many clinical studies, this combination cocktail revives and enhances the brain’s neurons as seen glowing in Figure One below. If you doubt these statements, please read Dr. Thierry Hertoghe’s excellent medical book, The Hormone Handbook, Vol. 2, and examine more than 240 clinical studies explaining the benefits of IGF-1, especially if combined with other key hormones and nutrients.

Figure One.

The brains neurons are highly dependent upon sufficient IGF-1 and IGF-2 that repairs neuron architecture and methylates critical proteins, especially easily damaged DNA. Indeed, when DNA methylates sufficiently with adequate IGF-2, brain weights increase by an average of 30 grams, and diseases such as schizophrenia and autism are ameliorated (1).

If you are reluctant to daily inject the aforementioned cocktail, I can recommend the growth hormone secretor (secretagogue) sermorelin. But in my experience, secretagogues usually work best in patients under 50. This is because the pituitary gland becomes sluggish during aging and refuses to secrete adequate amounts of growth hormone and other substances critical to slowing aging and repairing the body.

Allow me to say parenthetically that I will be testing Tony in the future with another hormone panel. If his results show elevated estradiol or E2 (a key female hormone) with a lab value of over 32 pg/mL, I will began treating him with anastrozole (Arimidex®) in a low dose of 100 micrograms three times weekly (now available as Anastro-Pro™). This drug inhibits testosterone’s conversion to the female hormone E2. Elevated E2 may eventually result in a swollen prostate gland (called BPH) and/or enlarged male breasts (called ‘gyno’ or gynecomastia). But men need some E2 for normal health, as this is a key hormone for the neurons, the brain, and thinking. Please note, however, that excess E2 often results in BPH and gynecomastia, especially as men age.

While we are on the subject of brain health, I also recommended to both Tony and Rosy the wonderful nootropic supplement Gamalate™ that improves neurological function while you're sleeping. Gamalate is not expensive, and a single tablet at bedtime will significantly improve dreaming, which is essential to a good night’s sleep and healthy brain function the following morning. Try it!

Hormone correction therapy for women

It is well known that women also require some testosterone (testo) for normal health, a normal sex drive, and for maintaining a resolute attitude during their daily lives. If women are low in testosterone, they usually require a tiny amount of testo applied daily to their wrists, labia or ingested in the form of terrestris tribulus capsules. Another new and exciting testo booster which contains this and more is Andro-Pro™, based on excellent research with fluctoborate.

If men opt for sexual enhancement, women should also be given a boost. For purposes of enhancing libido in women, my doctor colleague, Mike, will apply a pea-sized drop of testo (4mg) cream to his girlfriend’s genitalia. One hour later, after napping, she will feel a special tingle in her genitalia. Further enhancement of libido in women can be achieved by 40 mg of sublingual oxytocin or one tablet of Viagra® or Cialis® or Levitra®—the three rock stars of increased blood flow to the genitalia of both genders. In addition, oxytocin causes mono-orgasmic women to become poly-orgasmic (2).

I sincerely hope that women will strive for enhancement, as all too often I have met aging husbands who have increased their libidos with the three rock stars only to discover that their aging wives were unwilling to engage in conjugal bliss. As another colleague of mine mused, “They (the men) are all dressed up but have nowhere to go!”

References

1. Pidsley, Ruth, Dempster, Emma, Troakes, Claire, Al-Sarraj, Safa, Epigenetics, Vol. 7, No. 2 pp. 155–63, Feb. 2012. Institute of Psychiatry; King’s College, London

2. Hertoghe, Thierry. Passion, Sex, and Long Life, Int. Med. Books, Luxemburg, 2010.