Male Menopause

By Author: M-Washman
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Estrogen Toxicity...Not for Women Only!!!

By now you may be aware of the findings of the Women's Health Initiative released in the summer of 2002.

For those of you who aren't here is a brief summary of this study which involves many thousands of women. Like all studies of this size it is loaded with mistakes and problems. None the less it changed the approach to menopause in women perhaps forever.

Simply put, pundits of the study stated Estrogen is bad for postmenopausal women. It increases the risk of heart disease, stroke blood clots breast and uterine cancer and perhaps even dementia's like Alzheimer's Disease.

I will certainly address these findings in the future and my approach to hormone replacement in women called 'Bioidentical Hormone Replacement' so don't fret!

But today I'd like to address the issue of Estrogen toxicity in men.

The male equivalent of menopause is called andropause. Unlike women, men can go through this process very slowly and at ages ranging from late 20's to early 80's. The hardiest of men never seem to go through it at all. I personally feel this pre ...
... selects them to live a long time!

Previously it was thought that the whole process was due to either testicular failure, or hypothalamic-pituitary failure.

In other words the testes could fail to make testosterone or the signal from the brain called LH could drop off.

In my personal experieince, younger men tend to suffer from pituitary failure and older men from testicular failure although this is by no means universal.

Those of you who own my 'Hercules Factor' CD on Growth Hormone know that HGH plays a critical role in fat metabolism. As one ages and HGH levels go down fat accumulates.

In both men and women, fat cells contain a lot of an enzyme called 'aromatase'.

This enzyme is responsible for converting testosterone into estrogen.

You can see the cycle: you age HGH goes down body fat goes up, estrogen levels go up which causes you to make more fat cells which creates more aromatase, which leads to more estrogen which leads to more.....you get the picture.

In men, estrogen excess also signals the pituitary to make less LH which leads to decreased testosterone secretion in men form the testes.

The final nail in the coffin occurs when these high levels of estrogen cause a rise in a carrier protein in the blood stream called sex binding globulin. This gloms onto testosterone sites and decreases the availability of free testosterone which may already be declining from the aging process.

While this may sound very complicated there are a few simple take home points.

1) In both men and women excess estrogen is bad.

2) Excess estrogen in men is intimately tied in with the aging process and creates a 'vicious cycle' perpetuating its own continuation.

What are the signs and symptoms of 'andropause and estrogen excess'?

1) Low sex drive
2) Increased weight and fat in the middle of the body
3) Depression fatigue and low energy
4) Poor response to stress, like eating
5) Loss of body hair
6) Loss of muscle tone
7) Shrinking testes
8) Erectile dysfunction
9) Memory loss and poor concentration accompanied by low self esteem
10) Prostate enlargement and prostate cancer

There is also an intermediate between estrogen and testosterone in men. It is called DHT.

DHT has some very bad effects including hair loss, acne, and of course increased conversion to estrogen.

If all of the above are happening in your body and you have estrogen dominance, DHT becomes your primary male hormone. Without getting in to more detail, this is NOT GOOD.

So what can you do to avoid the phenomenon of estrogen dominance?

1) Exercise hard. My personal favorite routine is Combat Conditioning at www.newmed4u.info.

2) Lose weight! Remember the more muscle and less fat you have the more likely you are to avoid estrogen dominance.

3) Consume broccoli for it contains chemicals called Indole 3 carbinol which is a potent chemical to enhance favorable estrogen metabolism in both men and women. Raw broccoli is best! I3C and its metabolite DIM (di indole methane) are available commercially if you don't like broccoli.

Take large doses of Pharmaceutical Grade Fish oil.

Athletes know that this is a great way to boost your performance for many reasons. For our purposes today, Fish Oil inhibits the enzyme called 5 alpha reductase which takes testosterone to the bad DHT and then to estrogen!

Fish Oil blocks this transformation and leaves more free testosterone to enhance your performance. And its 100 % legal in all levels of competition, and by all sanctioning bodies!

Some of Fish Oils other benefits to the athlete include:

1) Increased oxygen delivery to the muscles

2) Enhanced recovery due to the anti-inflammatory effect

3) Improved cellular cross talk leading to increased Growth Hormone levels

4) Rebuilding of cartilage in the joints

5) Improved memory capacity leading to faster mastery of complex tasks

Please note that the information in this article represents my own research and opinion of a topic that many doctors don't even know or believe exists: andropause, or 'male menopause'.

As such you will have a hard time discussing this with your personal doctor and are likely to get (as usual with my stuff!) anything form a perplexed look to a rude remark!

I assure you that it is only a matter of time before these very same people will be quoting this stuff as if it was there own!

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