Men's Health: How to live better and longer

When we talk about men’s health, the first thing that comes to mind is the cover of a magazine with a bodybuilder flexing his arms and a title that reads “10 best exercises for building muscle’’. If not, you will read in the news about the importance of detecting early prostate cancer but not how to prevent it. All these are common topics related to men's health but not focused on how to live better and longer.

Most men after their 50s, and sometimes earlier than that, start to see a decline in their health. (1) This leads to having a greater risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, but it slowly starts to appear by exhibiting any or all these symptoms which are treatable:

Low libido and sex drive
Sexual dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction
Lowtestosterone
Obesity (2)
Poorperformance
Brain fog
Low energy
Muscleloss
Irritability
Depression

Early as we gain weight, we start to lose muscle mass, become sedentary, we start felling fatigued and cannot recover fully from a bad night’s sleep. Also, what many men do not talk about is how it affects performance in the bedroom and temporarily being solved by prescribing a blue pill.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could combine all these, and men’s health could be about preventing all disease and at the same time help us stay fit and look great? Well now we can and it’s all about combining men’s overall health and enhancing performance. ‍

How do we test for men’s health and performance?‍

There are various advanced lab testing available that we use to assess men’s health. Itis always important to start with the general check-up that we usually get at a conventional medical visit. You always want to rule out if there are any genetic predispositions to certain diseases that might need a different treatment. Once that is completed, we then start testing for metabolic disease and hormone imbalances. These will teach us what we need to know about what is going on in the body and allows us to structure a tailored treatment to tackle disease and start enhancing performance.‍

What is a metabolic disease?‍

Metabolic disease means any disease or disorder that disrupts our metabolism, which is the process of converting food to energy at a cellular level.

Examples of these are:

Increased blood pressure
High blood sugar
Excess fat around the waist and between our organs
High cholesterol and triglyceride levels in blood
High uric acid

All these lead to the diseases we all know or heard of like Hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. A very common issue in men is having a Metabolic syndrome, which is having a combination of all the risk factors stated above and that makes us a good candidate for disease. They can all cause or coexist with hormone imbalances. ‍

What causes hormone imbalance?‍

Many hormones drive our metabolism and are commonly imbalanced.

Sex hormones affect our libido, sex drive and muscle growth like testosterone. Other non sex hormones like thyroid, insulin, cortisol, and growth hormone can affect how we store fat, how we recover and use sugar as energy. All these can be tested, and the results allows us to know which ones might be deficient or out of balance.‍

Hormone imbalance can be affected by many factors:

What we eat
How we sleep
What type of activity or exercise we do
Chronic stress
Environmental Toxins
Chronic Infections‍

What treatments are available?

‍A functional medicine approach is ideal for this sort of situations. You would want an integrative approach in correcting metabolic disease and hormone imbalance before proceeding with more complicated treatments like hormones and peptides. Most of the time you have great results by addressing diet and lifestyle with the help of a few supplements. Many clinics nowadays go ahead and prescribe treatments with hormones and a huge list of unnecessary supplements without addressing first the root cause. (3) Treatment with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, commonly known as BHRT, and peptides might provide benefits for a short period of time, but patients will eventually feel the crash afterwards. They must be used properly and in the right order.‍

What are Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and peptides? ‍

Bioidentical hormones replacement therapy or natural hormone therapy is the use of hormones that are identical to the hormones we produce. What this means is that the supplements we use are genetically indistinguishable from what’s created naturally, by your body. As such, these treatments help support male health in a natural and holistic way.

Hormones are commonly used to treat cancer or as replacement therapy when the body can no longer produce it. ‍

Peptides are something totally different. They are not hormones but rather active transmitters that you can take orally, topically, through your nose or injected. They stimulate your body to produce your own hormones, kind of giving it a big push. There are fewer side effects since they are natural and depending on the peptide, they can treat different conditions. For example: help burn fat, promote muscle growth, slow down aging, heal new and old injuries, better sleep, fight depression and anxiety, heal gut issues, helps hair growth, and the list goes on. It is important to get a medical evaluation first so a doctor familiar in peptides can prescribe the right one. ‍

Does BHRT and Peptides really work?‍

Yes, and luckily, you can use both. A functional medicine approach allows us to apply these treatments with the goal of achieving overall health and performance. Wenow have men in their 50s and 60s with energy and physique that feel better than when they were 20. (4) It is hard to believe but we now have the best tools to bio hack our biology and reverse aging. Men are not only feeling better but look better as well.‍

When can I start treatment and how long does it last?‍

We first assess all hormones, nutrient values, and potential toxins through cutting edge advanced lab testing. These advanced labs are only done in a few clinics and labs around the world. We look for anything that could be disrupting hormone performance. This is also important for treatment to be successful.

We then complete a detailed medical history to analyze any relevant risk factors like genetics and epigenetics. Depending on the results, we can then start with the right treatment and results typically takes a few months to show.‍

How can I have faster results?‍

Results take a few months to show because of the body’s natural capacity to heal and respond to treatment. We take this a step further and combine treatments with Ozone(O3) and Bio-resonance therapy. These treatments are natural and free from side-effects, it enhances your own healing capacity. Many patients that have plateaued or have not had good results in the past, have found these to be helpful to boost their treatments and get faster results.‍

Disclaimer

These treatments might not be suitable for everyone. Certain conditions might contraindicate their use and it is always best to have your doctor provide information of the risks and benefits. Conventional treatments will never be removed, they can only be discontinued by your treating doctor. Most of our treatments are natural which provide the best results with very few side-effects and most of the time can be combined with your existing medications and supplements. Treatments are not the same for every patient, they are tailored to the patient’s needs. All treatments are prescribed after a complete medical visit and review of lab results.