Got Testosterone? Part 2: The Primary Causes of Testosterone Inhibition and Reduced T-Hormone Potency

Greetings, Partisans! It’s been almost two months since I posted my last installment of the Got Testosterone knowledge series, but once again, real life affairs have kept me away from this labor of love. Sorry about that! What are you gonna do. Anyway, I’m back with this next installment of the Got Testosterone series!

In the last Got Testosterone post, we covered the basic roles of testosterone in male vitality, the male life cycle, and in men’s reproductive health. We also got into the signs and symptoms of “Low-T” (low testosterone). The short of it all is that testosterone is the prime male “get up and go” hormone that makes a man… a MAN; as we get older and lifestyle and aging take their toll, testosterone’s effects and levels drop, sometimes dramatically, leaving a man feeling poorly and even unmanly in a condition called “andropause” – like menopause, but for men.

Probably the most important concept introduced in the last post, and that deserves great emphasis, was the notion that there is a dual cause of andropause: falling testosterone levels due to aging (inevitable) joined with lifestyle-based effects (self-inflicted, and NOT inevitable) that reduce the desirable effects (a phenomenon known as “inhibition”) of any existing testosterone produced. As I emphatically mentioned in my interview with NC Scout on Radio Contra – Episode 163, the very best thing a man can do to avoid the Low-T blues is to get the lifestyle picture ironed out as early in life as possible through real exercise, good eating, low body fat, lowering stress as much as possible, and then NEVER letting go of that! Men in your 20’s and 30’s, take note! Low-T can be considered as much (or even less) an issue of low testosterone count as it is a matter of the body not “paying attention” to the testosterone that IS being produced, as I’m about to explain in more depth!

However, those of us who have gone down the rabbit hole of poor lifestyle can, with proper understanding and lifestyle change, reclaim much manhood by fortifying our existing testosterone production through lifestyle change (the most important step you can take), as well as potentially amplifying production by taking certain off-the-shelf supplements that are available, at least for now. A man doesn’t HAVE to get into TRT (testosterone replacement therapy – the “easy way out”, at a price) if he’s willing to make real lifestyle adjustments.

As such, today’s post – Part 2 – will focus on the elements that conspire to reduce the effects of existing testosterone production in older men. This post will get into the extremely important estrogen link to male testosterone metabolism to cover some of the main points of how estrogen and testosterone interact, as well as the effects of excess estrogen on male vitality. We’ll also look at other critical factors that blunt testosterone in the body, such as insulin resistance and the correlation to high body fat levels. Let’s get started!

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Excess Estrogen – The PRIME Enemy of Testosterone Sensitivity

Estrogen? Isn’t that the “female” hormone? Yes, it is! Again, just like a healthy woman’s body produces testosterone in small amounts, a healthy man’s body produces estrogen in small amounts. These two sex hormones have a balancing relationship with one another, and are also biochemically related – testosterone can actually become estrogen with some biochemical adjustments. This conversion of testosterone to estrogen is not a good thing for the man, as you can imagine; indeed, one of the main factors behind the onset of andropause’s symptoms and of reduced testosterone effects is a concurrent rise in the body’s estrogen production, in a form called estradiol. And as a man’s estrogen levels go up (note well: especially relative to testosterone levels, thus upsetting the aforementioned balance), he uh… don’t look or feel so good! One simple cause of estradiol levels rising in the male body is something as simple as zinc deficiency; testosterone can be broken down more readily by the body into estradiol when there isn’t enough zinc present – a lifestyle-based problem that can be remedied starting immediately. We’ll get into supplements for testosterone fortification in a future post in this series.

Another big cause of excess estrogen production in the body is an excess of insulin in the blood. Gee, why would that happen? Because of poor diet and lifestyle – ring a bell?? Y’all must be getting tired of hearing that word – “lifestyle”. But, it basically goes like this: you eat a lot of fast-burning sugars and flood the blood with insulin regularly, which promotes excess sugar to be stored as body fat. Then, the stored body fat itself produces estrogen, causing higher levels of estrogen that, in turn, diminish the existing testosterone’s effects, whose levels are dropping already due to aging! In this fashion, then, insulin can actually have an anti-male hormone effect that will make men fatter and more feminine. Estrogen is also produced especially much in belly fat (now, ain’t THAT a bitch??) through a local conversion of testosterone to estrogen, which results in a negative feedback loop where estrogen creates more belly fat and excess belly fat makes more estrogen, etc. And obviously, the more belly fat you’re carrying, the more testosterone-busting estrogen your body is producing. Not good!

Estrogen-Producing Belly with Bonus Man Boobs (a.k.a. “Bitch Tits”)… Sexy, Ain’t It? (Credit: Wikipedia)

So excess estrogen figures hugely into testosterone inhibition. In fact, what many men are interpreting as Low-T may be a simple case of high testosterone inhibition due to an imbalance in the ratio of testosterone to estrogen. Such an imbalance may even lead to a reduction in the effectiveness of TRT itself for those that are on it, if you think about it – you’ll have “adequate” levels of free testosterone (floating around in the blood) as far as diagnostic numbers go, but still not enough to surmount the heavy levels of estrogen in the blood, which a blood panel test may not even reveal! Beware the pitfalls of “going by the numbers”, which don’t tell the full story! Now wouldn’t it suck to get all them pharma injections for nothing?

Therefore, resolving excess estrogen issues may work wonders in and of itself on fortifying testosterone naturally. Just reduce your body fat using the many techniques I’ve detailed over the past year (here and here)! Making this lifestyle adjustment alone has truly COUNTLESS health benefits, but especially so for the man suffering from “Low-T”. If there’s any single step the “Low-T” man should take for testosterone support (and so much else), THIS is it! At the same time, together with fat loss, increasing muscle mass is the other side of the coin; muscle produces testosterone while fat produces estrogen. So up that muscle mass too! More on this in a later post. Right now, let’s further examine the insulin connection to estrogen and testosterone inhibition.

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More On the Quiet but Critical Relationship Between Insulin, Estrogen, and “Low-T”

As mentioned in a previous post, insulin resistance is when the body stops “listening” to the effects of insulin. Insulin resistance leads to testosterone resistance; insulin and testosterone have a lot of similarities and so, as your insulin levels rise and your body becomes resistant to it, it will eventually become resistant to the male hormone, testosterone, as well.

Interestingly, perhaps the biggest problem with testosterone as we get older is not so much estrogen per se as it is actually insulin resistance – a subtle, non-obvious cause of testosterone inhibition (via resistance). There’s a relationship between the building hormone insulin and the building hormone testosterone. Both hormones are involved in building muscle, but over time, the body becomes resistant to insulin if we are abusing our body with sugar, as described at length in my previous posts. Once the body becomes resistant to insulin, this “rubs off” and make the body become resistant to testosterone, thus “dampening” (i.e., inhibiting) the effects of existing testosterone that IS being produced – pay attention!

So, if you have insulin resistance – an outstandingly common issue among the general population, but especially among older folks – then you are also going to have a problem with testosterone, and that’s because insulin and testosterone cross-react in that they are both involved in anabolism (“anabolism” is another word for “building and repair”, which is the opposite of “catabolism”, which means “breakdown”). Again, the cross-reactivity of testosterone and insulin also means that there is also going to be a relationship between insulin resistance and testosterone resistance: if you’re starting to become less sensitive to insulin, the chances are pretty good that you’re going to be more resistant to testosterone too.

Yet again, we see here how it’s not necessarily that the male body isn’t making sufficient testosterone or truly has “Low-T”, as much as there is a problem of inhibition due to… lifestyle. Insulin resistance once again effectively means you’ll be less sensitive to your very own testosterone’s body-building, bone-building, repair, and well-being effects. You should be concluding by now that reversing and eliminating insulin resistance should absolutely be JOB ONE for ANY man interested in fortifying his testosterone’s effects. Are any drugs or interventions needed for that? No, just discipline and good lifestyle choices. What’s more, the insulin resistance effect could take any potential benefits acquired by TRT and throw them in the trashcan (just like excess estrogen, a related problem), despite all the poking, spending, and potential side effects. Wouldn’t that just suck??

And how do you know if you have insulin resistance? Got a belly? That’s a solid-as-can-be indicator, so take ALL appropriate steps to lose that built-in estrogen factory! Yeah, you can go to the doctor and get the usual diagnostic workup, but let’s be honest: you don’t really need that. EMPOWER YOURSELF and go by how you feel and by how you look; make the necessary adjustments along lines recommended here, and watch the transformation that takes place before your very eyes! You’ll look and feel better, re-sensitize your body to critical hormones (insulin; testosterone), and start to reclaim your lost and ebbing manhood!

Let’s tie it all in real quick: picture in your mind an older male body that is worn down by aging (inevitable), inactivity (not inevitable), and insulin resistance due to bad lifestyle (not inevitable), leading to a big belly / high fat levels pumping out lots of estrogen, and the resulting testosterone resistance downstream from said insulin resistance. In this crappy internal biochemical environment, estrogen can and WILL easily have an outsized effect and lead to all the shit that men loathe about the aging process: belly fat; “bitch tits”; low sex drive; low aggression; decreased strength; feminization; and decreased well-being.

And we haven’t even gotten to true Low-T levels! While levels of testosterone floating freely around the blood can be raised somewhat via natural means (and substantially via TRT), you are (hopefully) understanding by now that the so-called elephant in the room is testosterone inhibition and resistance more than it is actual low testosterone levels. That’s great news, though! It means we have powers and options at our disposal as older men that DO NOT require any special interventions, whether medical or natural.

Thus, my Partisan Brothers, at the risk of beating a dead horse, if there is any one step a man can take in order to correct countless symptoms of poor health – “Low-T” chief amongst them… it is this: CUT THE FUCKING CALORIES AND FAST-BURNING SUGARS, AND DO IT NOW. That big ol’ belly is more than just a big mound projecting in front of you. It is THE ENEMY. Go destroy it!!!

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Well, I hope that was enlightening for y’all! There’s still lots more to cover that’s important to know, though. The next post in this series will get more into details about estrogen toxicity and its dangers for the older man’s health, as well as the stress connection to “Low-T”. Thanks for reading!

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Got Testosterone? Series

Got Testosterone? How Older Warriors Can Stay in the Fight and THRIVE! (Introduction)

Got Testosterone? Part 1: A Closer Look at the “Male Hormone”

Got Testosterone? Part 2: The Primary Causes of Testosterone Inhibition and Reduced T-Hormone Potency