Importance Of Hormone Balance For A Man’s Health

Men's Health Through Testosterone Therapy

The Importance of Hormone Balance for Men's Health

Although people talk a lot about hormones in women, we don't talk as much about the importance of hormone balance for men. We associate the reckless nature of youth as a symptom of hormones, and we recognize that Testosterone Deficiency leads to sexual dysfunction.

Still, hormonal dysfunction can affect us at any point in our lives and significantly affect our ability to participate in a healthy and active lifestyle.

Men Need Hormone Balance Too

Just because you're a man doesn't mean that your health and well-being aren't mainly at the whim of your underlying balance of hormones. Hormones are the primary tools that the body uses to regulate itself, and if they get out of whack, you may be in for some serious trouble.

Hormone Imbalance can cause countless medical issues. Did you know that obesity may result from a chemical imbalance that tells your body to store too much fat? Did you know that the overproduction of cortisol and other hormones can contribute to frighteningly high-stress levels, which can even break down your immune system?

These same kinds of imbalance can even prevent you from getting a whole night's sleep. All that tossing and turning put a damper on your health. Even hormone imbalances can cause your body to forget to tell you when you are full, making it incredibly easy to overeat.

Short Term Effects of Hormone Imbalance Correctable; Long Term Effects can Become Chronic

Although the short-term effects of most of these issues are reversible, if you let things go wrong for too long, you can find yourself in some metabolic severe trouble. Diabetes is one of the most devastating chronic illnesses in the United States today, but Type-Two Diabetes is ultimately the result of human choice and inaction.

By choosing not to regulate your hormones more effectively earlier in life, you put yourself in a position where you will take insulin for the rest of your life.

Just think. All of that can happen because your body is slightly out of tune.

The Importance of the Endocrine System

The endocrine system is ultimately in control of everything your body does. The endocrine system is this vast array of chemical messengers the brain uses to send and receive information and navigate functional peptides throughout the body.

One medical researcher, Dr. John McLachlan, likens the endocrine system to the Internet of the human body. The Endocrine system is responsible for non-neural long-distance communication throughout the body and sending important deliveries to disparate organs.

Example One: Human Growth Hormone

Take a hormone we've all heard of Human Growth Hormone. The signal for Human Growth Hormone production starts in the hypothalamus. Upon stimulation, the Hypothalamus releases a hormone known as Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone, carried to the Pituitary Gland, where it stimulates the production of Human Growth Hormone.

After Human Growth Hormone is released from the pituitary, it induces a number of changes directly. Still, most Biological HGH is delivered directly to the liver, where it is converted into a third set of hormones, known as Insulin-Like Growth Factors. All of these Growth Factors stimulate metabolic processes throughout the body.

Most HGH absorbed by the Liver is converted into a particular Growth Factor known as IGF-1, which is vitally essential for muscle health, bone metabolism, and immune health, just to mention a few.

HGH Negative Feedback Mechanisms

As the body recognizes that it has received a sufficient level of Human Growth Hormone, excess HGH and another hormone known as Somatostatin circulate back to the Hypothalamus and Pituitary, where they send the message back to the hypothalamus to cut back on the production of GH-RH.

In addition, hunger also stimulates Human Growth Hormone Production because the hunger hormone, Ghrelin, stimulates HGH production similarly to GH-RH.

Insulin also acts as a Human Growth Hormone inhibitor, so, upon satiation, the body cuts back on HGH production, especially if you consume foods that encourage spiking Insulin Levels.

Restoring Healthy HGH Balance

There are many effective ways to maintain healthy Human Growth Hormone Levels. The first is to maintain a healthy diet. Eating too much sugar causes insulin levels to spike, and Insulin is a Human Growth Hormone Antagonist.

Exercise is another effective way to boost HGH Production. Vigorous exercise that puts anaerobic pressure on the muscles stimulates large pulses of Growth Hormone to be released. HGH is also released heavily during restful sleep, so getting your eight hours is a surefire way to improve HGH Levels.

Human Growth Hormone Supplementation with Hormone Replacement Therapy

Of course, Human Growth Hormone is inevitably sensitive to age, and as you grow older, these holistic methods of restoring Hormone Balance may just not be enough. At this point in your life, it may be in your best interest to turn to Human Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy or Sermorelin Acetate Injections to supplement your body's waning Growth Hormone Production.

HGH is Just One Example

Now, look back at that long web of chain reactions. If any of those hormonal processes go haywire, the entire system suffers. Too much Insulin? Diabetes and HGH Deficiency. GH-RH Deficiency? HGH Deficiency. Although the Hypothalamus and Pituitary gland are the two primary organs in charge of the endocrine system, organs throughout the body participate in this complex interplay of chemical messaging.

In the male body, the testes, thyroid gland, adrenal glands, pancreas, liver, and kidneys all participate in a system that is heavily regulated and precisely tuned. Because of the level of precision involved with healthy endocrine function, even slight alterations in proper function can lead to significant issues.

The endocrine system is entirely controlled by a myriad of positive and negative feedback mechanisms, which all work together in a delicate interplay to create a healthy human being. Any change that introduces distortion to this delicate system over time can negatively influence several other systems that may seem unrelated.

Disruptions in hormones meant to control pain can cause depression. Disruption in systems that control sex hormone production can induce fatigue and cause you to become weak in the knees.

Importance of other Hormones for Healthy Balance

The rest of this article will explore how various hormones (other than Human Growth Hormone) contribute to overall health and how you can recognize if you are suffering from the symptoms of hormone imbalance.

Epinephrine and Cortisol: The Stress Hormones

Whether in a life-or-death situation or anxious about a dinner date, your body responds to stress through the exact biological mechanisms. When you are in a situation that induces stress, your Hypothalamus recognizes cues from both memory and environment and responds by secreting high levels of two specific hormones: Epinephrine and Cortisol.

The Fight-or-Flight Hormones

These two hormones are in charge of your Fight-or-Flight response. The brain recognizes a threat and prepares your body for action. Stress hormones simultaneously speed up your pulse and open up your bronchial tubes so that your heart provides additional oxygen to the brain.

These physiological changes also correspond with increased alertness and awareness regarding your senses. In addition, these two hormones also stimulate the diffusion of glucose and fat into the blood, increasing the energy available for your snap decisions and actions.

Stress Hormones Vitally Important, but Prone to Imbalance

Even in today's modern world, these are still essential hormones that could save your life. Cortisol and Epinephrine give you that extra half-second that you need to dodge a car, and these hormones are also responsible for certain unequivocal feats of strength that still save countless lives today. The problem is that most of us carry too much stress daily.

Stress hormones are supposed to help you rise to action, but these hormones often keep people nervous and exhausted in this modern society. Suppose you don't take steps to alleviate stress. In that case, this physiological state will eventually lead to several health problems and can even increase the risk of life-threatening conditions such as heart attack or stroke.

How does Stress Hormone Imbalance Endanger Health?

Cortisol and Epinephrine imbalance can lead to simple physiological changes that lead to significant problems down the road. Because these stress hormones release sugar and fat into the bloodstream, constant stress causes your body to adapt and send signals to maximize fat storage, causing you to pile on the pounds. And that's not the worst of it.

Stress also increases the accumulation of fat around the hips and midsection. This type of fat is known as adipose fat or visceral fat. The fat cells in your midsection contain more receptors for cortisol than any other area of the body.

Excess cortisol production is one of the worst things about healthy Testosterone function. Adipose fat cells can convert Testosterone into Cortisol directly, and if you maintain stress and fat levels too high, your odds of developing Testosterone Deficiency skyrocket.

How to Avoid Stress Hormone Imbalance

There are some easy ways to avoid Stress Hormone Imbalance, however. The most effective way is to start exercising! Just one hour per day, three times a week, is enough to significantly decrease the rate at which your adrenal glands and hypothalamus send signals for Cortisol and Epinephrine Production.

Combining diet and exercise can also be an effective way to decrease Cortisol production. If you shrink the size of your fat cells, you can significantly reduce the rate at which your fat cells produce Cortisol.

Simply taking steps to mitigate stress in your life is an obvious and effective way to restore Stress Hormone balance. Take time out of your day to engage in meditation or yoga.

Spend time doing things you enjoy. Simply taking the time to slow down and take things easy for a while can have a fantastic effect on your overall health and stress levels.

Another way to decrease exposure to these two hormones is to consume organic foods as often as possible. An oft-used pesticide has been scientifically proven to increase the release of Cortisol and Epinephrine, known as Atrazine.

Although there are limited human studies regarding Atrazine, numerous studies have analyzed the effect of Atrazine on birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, and these studies have uniformly shown that Atrazine exposure hurts Stress Hormone Balance.

In one study using rats, Atrazine was shown to produce a reaction that was biologically identical to the physiological reaction the rat experiences when being held down by force. Although seeking Organic products is the most effective way to prevent exposure to Atrazine, you can significantly limit exposure by ensuring that you always properly wash and clean your vegetables before eating them. If you work directly with Atrazine, wear a mask to limit exposure.

If you are a frequent gardener, we strongly suggest against using this chemical in your garden because Atrazine exposure is most dangerous to people who work directly with the chemical. Hence, it's best just to leave it alone.

Hormones that Control Weight and Hunger: Insulin, CCK, Ghrelin, and Leptin

Importance of Ghrelin

In addition to stress hormones, another group of hormones that is especially susceptible to imbalance is those associated with hunger and satiation. Ghrelin is the primary hormone in charge of the feeling of hunger.

As your stomach empties and the body completes the digestive process, the stomach starts to increase the production of Ghrelin, which circulates through the bloodstream to the brain and is absorbed by the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then tells the rest of your brain that you need more food.

Importance of CCK

Another hormone, cholecystokinin, also known as CCK, is responsible for the opposite process. As you eat and your stomach begins to stretch, it releases CCK, which is delivered to the Hypothalamus, and your hypothalamus sends messages to the rest of the brain that you are full. CCK is one of the most potent means of appetite suppression that the human body has.

Peptide YY and Insulin

After the release of CCK, several other hormones begin to decrease your desire for food. As food begins to leave your stomach and cycle through your digestive tract, you start to produce another hormone known as Peptide YY, which gives more signals to the brain that you have had enough to eat.

In addition to this, the pancreas starts to secrete Insulin to control and regulate blood sugar, which also has a suppressive effect on digestion.

Digestion Signals Satiation

When your body starts the process of serious digestion, it stops being interested in eating. This is why you always hear the suggestion that you should eat slowly and chew your food for long periods. The longer it takes to eat, the less food you will eat before your brain starts to shut down your appetite.

Importance of Leptin

On top of all this, fat cells throughout your body produce a hormone known as leptin, which serves a similar purpose to Ghrelin, telling the Hypothalamus that you don't need to eat anymore. Upon stimulation by Leptin, the Hypothalamus releases Alpha-MSH, another power hormone that eliminates the desire for food.

Hunger is Complicated

All of these different hormones play their unique role in cultivating the delicate balance between satiation and hunger. You may wonder why so many hormones are involved in your sense of hunger. This is because your body gets nearly everything it needs through digestion, and all of these hormones promote different aspects of hunger and fullness to ensure you get a healthy amount of all the nutrients you need without overdoing it.

Obesity, a Modern Dilemma

The problem is that our bodies are streamlined for a different environment than what exists in the first world or even the modern world in general. There has never been a time in the history of the world where so much food has been available to so many people. Even the hunger that persists in the third world is not the result of a global lack of food but because of the combination of waste and poor international distribution.

In our evolutionary past, we spent our days doing everything it took to survive, hunting and gathering for food and eating what we could. Because of this, our bodies developed a fantastic ability to store fat to help us survive periods when food wasn't readily available. Until recently, this ability was vitally important to the health and propagation of the human race.

Today, however, sugars and fats exist in tremendous abundance, and because of this, our bodies tend to absorb too much, far beyond what we need in modern America. Upon accumulation of body fat, our bodies even resist fat metabolism.

If you don't engage in healthy exercise combined with diet, your body will burn energy from your muscles before it starts burning fat effectively. This is why it is crucial to diet and engage in cardiovascular and aerobic exercise.

Dangers of Digestive Hormone Imbalance

So how do you know if your hunger hormones are in a state of balance? Are you still hungry? Have you had enough? Your stomach isn't nearly as trustworthy as you should believe, especially if you have poor eating habits. When you pack on extra pounds, your fat cells start to produce much lower levels of Leptin.

When you are in a relatively healthy state, your fat cells release Leptin in response to weight gain, encouraging you to eat less. But once you pass a certain threshold, your body starts to function differently.

High levels of insulin and sugar over time hurt proper Leptin production. Sugar and Insulin can shut down the signals that your fat cells release, telling you to slow down.

Without these signals, you may still experience feelings of hunger nearly immediately after you have completed your meals. In the worst cases, you will always feel starving, almost no matter what you eat. Over time, eating habits that encourage excess hunger and over-stimulation of the pancreas can cause you to develop a resistance to Insulin, leading directly to Type-Two Diabetes.

Another issue is that your liver can become overworked, causing fatty liver disease. Fatty liver disease is a dangerous disorder in which your liver no longer can process fat coming into and out of your system correctly.

As a result, your liver starts developing fatty lesions that damage and inhibit the organ.

Take Control of your Hunger

Fatty Liver Disease and Type-Two Diabetes are irreversible, so it is up to you to take control of your health before these chronic illnesses take root. Regarding increasing Leptin production and corralling Insulin levels, the best two things you can do are lose weight and cut back on your sugar.

It's essential to do both. Even a person at a healthy weight can develop Insulin Sensitivity if they consume too much sugar.

In America, the average adult eats or drinks around twenty-two teaspoons of sugar daily. AHA guidelines suggest that men should have no more than nine teaspoons of sugar per day. There are many ways to limit your sugar intake, but be careful about sources of sugar you may not regularly think about. Everyone knows High Fructose Corn Syrup is terrible, but any source of simple sugars is just as bad.

One of the most nefarious sources of sugar consumption is juices. A twelve-ounce serving of fruit juice has the same amount of sugar as a can of soda.

Relearn What Full Means

Another way to improve your health and sense of hunger and satiation is simply to be patient. CCK becomes less effective at regulating fullness if you have a history of poor eating habits. If you eat too much food too often, your stomach starts to recalibrate, not considering yourself full until you reach a certain threshold.

This is one reason a diet's initial week or weeks can be so challenging. Your stomach slowly recalibrates to the new normal regarding your eating habits, but it takes time. In that initial period of dieting, your digestive system floods your body with hunger signals because it is not filling up as entirely as it is accustomed to.

The most important aspect of cultivating hormone balance between hunger and satiation recognizes the difference between what your body wants and needs. In doing so, your body will slowly change to reflect the new state of homeostasis that you encourage.

This is also why you shouldn't crash diet. Changing too much too fast makes it harder for your body to recalibrate, causing you to be far more likely to go back to your old and unhealthy ways.

Testosterone and Men's Health

Testosterone is the single hormone that most powerfully calls forth the ideals of manhood and masculinity. Testosterone is intricately connected to male health, and Testosterone Deficiency induces a state where a sense of manhood is difficult or impossible to achieve.

Although the Testes primarily release Testosterone itself, Testosterone is produced by the human body due to a chain of hormone interactions that begin in the brain. Testosterone production is controlled by releasing two hormones: Follicle Stimulating Hormone and Luteinizing Hormone.

These hormones are important for producing both male and female sex hormones; they simply activate at different target organs.

The Hypothalamus uses a Gonadotropin-releasing Hormone (GnRH) to stimulate the production of Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle Stimulating Hormone.

Luteinizing Hormone circulates from the Anterior Pituitary to the Testes, where it directly stimulates Leydig Cells to produce Testosterone. Leydig Cells are small organs attached to the Testes which have the critical job of providing Testosterone to the body.

Although not directly responsible for Testosterone Production, Follicle Stimulating Hormone is a hormone that is vital for procreation. Follicle Stimulating Hormone promotes the formation of sperm cells in preparation for sexual activity.

Why is Testosterone Important?

Testosterone is essential primarily concerning five different aspects of male health:

Libido and Sexual Ability

Testosterone is the hormone primarily responsible for male sexual desire and erectile function. Upon arousal, Testosterone production amplifies significantly, causing men to take on characteristic sensuality and promoting the release of Nitric Oxide, which directly leads to the male erection.

Low Testosterone Levels prevent males from experiencing desire effectively and limit the body's ability to express that desire physically.

Mental Balance and Happiness

Everyone knows about Testosterone and Sex, but most people don't realize that Testosterone is essential in preserving male mental health, just like Estrogen promotes the same mental balance in women. Without healthy levels of Testosterone, the brain starts to have trouble signaling pleasure hormones in the brain, which increases the risk of depression.

In addition, Testosterone contributes to numerous psychological traits associated with manhood, including assertiveness and aggressiveness. Many men with Testosterone Deficiency find themselves depressed and unable to create positive change in their lives.

Muscle Development and Maintenance

Regarding muscle development, Testosterone is probably the most effective hormone at inducing physiological muscular development. Testosterone is the singular reason men develop muscle tissue more efficiently than their female counterparts.

Testosterone Deficiency makes it harder to build muscle effectively and leads to muscle atrophy and frailty over time.

Energy and Metabolism

Testosterone is also associated with the burgeoning energy levels associated with a healthy male lifestyle. Along with erectile dysfunction, Low-T can cause men to lose their ability to distribute energy effectively.

Muscle fatigue and weakness are the most vivid symptom of this change in metabolism. Men with Testosterone Deficiency often suffer from bouts of muscle fatigue which cause them to have a lot of difficulty standing or engaging in work.

Bone Health

For both males and females, Testosterone, as well as Human Growth Hormone, are intricately involved in normal bone health. Testosterone encourages organs within the bones known as Osteoblasts to remodel and maintain the structural integrity of bone. Severe Testosterone Deficiency is one of the most potent indicators of Osteoporosis in aging men.

What causes Testosterone Deficiency?

There are a number of issues that directly lead to Testosterone Deficiency:

First, Testosterone is primarily produced through physical activity. If you lead an inactive lifestyle, this causes Testosterone Levels to remain abnormally low.

Second, Testosterone Deficiency is caused by the accumulation of excess body fat. You see, body fat directly correlates with decreased levels of Testosterone. Adipose fat cells can absorb Testosterone and convert it into Cortisol. The more fat that you have, the less Testosterone your body will be able to sustain.

Third, poor sleeping habits are linked to poor Testosterone production, and sleep apnea caused by obesity, or simply poor sleeping habits, can cause your Testosterone Levels to plummet.

Finally, human physiology and the aging process inevitably reduce the body's ability to produce Testosterone. The older you get, the less effective your body can produce Testosterone. Although some men remain functional with lower levels of Testosterone, many men will be able to benefit from Testosterone Replacement at some point during their lives.

How can I boost my Testosterone Levels?

All these issues can be alleviated or resolved through modern Testosterone Replacement Therapy. With a simple patch or cream, men can experience normalized Testosterone Levels, which help them live a healthier, happier, and more active lifestyle.

For patients that do not qualify for Testosterone Replacement Therapy, there are a number of holistic approaches to increasing Testosterone Production, including:

Physical Exercise - Physical activity induces significant increases in Testosterone Release. The harder you work out, the better.

Good Sleeping Habits - Men who have poor sleeping habits are among the most likely to experience Testosterone Deficiency

Stress Reduction - Stress hormones eat up resources your body uses to make Testosterone. By relieving stress, you can increase your body's capacity to produce Testosterone.

Weight Loss - Adipose fat cells contain enzymes that can convert Testosterone into Estrogen and divert resources from Testosterone production to Cortisol Production. By losing weight, you reduce the number of these enzymes and their efficiency in limiting your Testosterone Production.

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