Today we return to T-Nation and a very important topic. Although they used the study to try and sell you totally worthless “testosterone boosting” supplements, the main message is of importance, and it might not be as obvious as you think. However, it should be quite logical to anyone who understands biology and human physiology.
For many years, due to the backwards pseudo-science of modern medicine, testosterone has been commonly believed to be linked to an increased risk of heart disease and early death, in part because men (who have much higher testosterone levels than women) seem to have a greater risk of heart attacks than women, and they have these attacks earlier in life. Some of these misguided beliefs go back to an extremely retarded observational review, as mentioned by T-Nation’s Chris Shugart. Let’s see what he has to say and then we go from there.
“Male Sex Hormones Kill!”
“This Is Why Men Die Sooner Than Women!”“Those were the headlines from 2012. The clickbait worked and lots of people clicked, including doctors. So, what were these histrionic headlines referring to? Well, some researchers wanted to prove that testosterone was the reason why men typically live shorter lives than women. To do this, they studied eunuchs: castrated males.
They dug up a copy of the Yang-Se-Gye-Bo, a genealogy record of Korean eunuchs written in 1805. Back then, if you wanted to work in the Imperial court of the Chosun Dynasty you had to have your nuts lopped off. And sure enough, eunuchs lived longer than intact men of the time, about 14 years longer. The researchers concluded that it was the eunuchs’ low testosterone levels that extended their lifespans.
Pretty flimsy, right? These royal eunuchs also led privileged lives compared to most men at the time. They ate well, were more protected from contagious diseases, were less likely to be crushed by an ox, and didn’t do risky stuff to impress chicks.”
Well, contagious diseases do not exist, but that stupid reference is something we expect from people who have no understanding of biology or physiology — and from people who never thought outside the box, who never challenged the inverted and retarded current narrative.
But indeed, these eunuchs lived a privileged life while most other men of that era had to live on slave-like plant-based “foods” void of nutrition and full of toxins while working hard, punishing their bodies into an early grave. So, yes, a totally irrelevant comparison made by people with an agenda — an agenda to keep us sick, weak, and dependent on modern medicine.
“Also, related studies of castrato opera singers showed no lifespan differences from non-castrated singers. Still, the “testosterone bad!” mantra stuck, and many still believe it today. Luckily, a big new study disproves that notion.”
Yes, that is a good point. However, if you understand the most fundamental ‘laws’ of biology and physiology, there’s no need to ‘prove’ anything, and we’ll get to that.
The New Study
“This meta-study compiled the results of 11 previous studies looking into testosterone’s effect on longevity. All these studies followed men for five or more years. The men with the lowest T-levels were more likely to die of any cause (all-cause mortality). If you narrow it down, these men often died from cardiovascular disease.”
Actually it was a review of 9 studies providing individual participant data and 11 studies providing summary estimates. And as a short summary, men with below-normal testosterone levels had a 40 percent higher risk of death from any cause compared with men with levels in the high-normal range. Adding to this, men with extremely low testosterone were about 60 percent more likely to die from heart disease.
“How low is low? Well, men with baseline testosterone concentrations below 213 ng/dL died early. If the men were even lower, <153 ng/dL, they had a higher cardiovascular disease mortality risk.”
As a reference, normal testosterone levels in men are currently believed to be between 300 and 1,000 ng/dL. Also, it needs to be said that the study also mentioned low estradiol as a factor (estradiol, also known as E2, is the most potent and abundant form of estrogen.) Now, if testosterone is low, estradiol will also be low, and men need a certain amount of estradiol (and other estrogens) to feel good, to feel happiness and gratitude. And this is why it’s so extremely stupid and dangerous to prescribe aromatase inhibitors — medications such as anastrozole (Arimidex) or letrozole (Femara) that increase testosterone by preventing its natural conversion to estradiol.
A lot of bodybuilders that abuse testosterone, as in androgenic anabolic steroids, take these aromatase inhibitors to keep their estrogen from going too high and cause nasty female-like side-effects. However, these drugs pretty much negates all estrogen activity and the result can be severe mood swings, as in a short fuse, easily leashing out, getting angry over miniscule things, and having almost zero patience and thus getting frustrated very easily. In other words, what some people refer to as “roid-rage” is actually from lack of estrogens, and not from high levels of testosterone.
“I think I’ll trust a 2024 meta-study more than a single 2012 study that relied on an antique book. But still, we need to make sure there isn’t a “chicken or egg” situation happening here. As Daniel Kelly, a senior lecturer in biochemistry, put it: “Is low testosterone causing disease or is it caused by it?”
That makes sense: several disease states that kill you (especially obesity) also lower testosterone. Which came first? The illness or the low T?”
Which came first? Are you guys that stupid? Well, let me explain this in detail, and this goes back to what I said at the beginning of the article — the most fundamental ‘laws’ of biology and physiology.
As I’ve said many, many times. Nature is never wrong. Your body is never going to hurt itself. Your body, as any other living organism, is constructed for survival and to further the species. It’s built to adapt to any kind of environment and do anything to survive for as long as possible.
Now, hormone production is a vital and natural part of our physiology. This means that in ideal conditions, your body will produce the perfect amount of hormones, such as testosterone, to meet your current demands, such as physiological stress, need for sleep, need for recovery and repair, and to keep you mentally sharp and your reflexes high — everything needed to survive and be successful as a hunter, protector and provider.
This also means that very high natural levels of testosterone, as in being close to the 1,000 ng/dL upper range, or even above it, is totally fine and harmless. Your body would never produce anything in such quantities that it would be harmful in any way. That also means that anything produced naturally in your body, as in testosterone for example, can never be a cause of disease or any disorder. That can only happen if you take a drug that increases the levels way beyond what your body is capable of.
The only things that can negatively impact your body’s natural functions are what you expose it to — as in what you feed it, any external exposure to toxins and other harmful chemicals (as in pollution,) and anything else that can damage the body.
In other words, if your testosterone is low, it’s because your body is under distress — you are mistreating it. Likely from a very bad diet, as most people consume way too little meat and animal fat — and we humans are obligate hyper carnivores, constructed to consume the fat and protein of other animals while any kind of plant-based edible is incredibly toxic to us.
We also have a lot of endocrine-disrupting pollutants in our modern environment that can damage our hormone production, such as plastics (PCBs,) phthalates, BPA, pesticides, POPs, and parabens.
The question should instead be, “is it the toxic environment in the body from a bad diet and an overload of toxins, which also lowers your testosterone, that causes these diseases and a premature death, or is it solely the low testosterone?”
Unfortunately, most “scientists” and “researchers” are too stupid to think ahead and take that extra step and actually ask the right questions. You see, in the right conditions, we humans are perfectly tuned “machines.” Everything will work as optimally as it can depending on the demands we put on our body. While testosterone might slowly decrease a tiny bit by age due to wear and tear, it does not drop significantly without a reason.
So, I would say that it’s a combination. The driving force for “modern diseases” and premature death is that of a bad non-human diet, as in malnutrition and high toxicity, and that of a high toxic load from pollutants. As you know, animal fats, as in saturated fats and cholesterol, are needed for hormone production and all cell functions. A malnourished and toxic environment will impact your hormone production as there are not enough building blocks and your organs take damage from toxins. This will lower your testosterone, and low testosterone will decrease your body’s resilience, slow down healing, and it will also make you weak, grumpy, tired, and make you shy away from any kind of problems and challenges. In other words, with low testosterone you will be much less likely to take action or to make any effort to improve your life. It’s a vicious cycle.
What This Means to You
“Low testosterone and dozens of deadly diseases are caused by chronic inflammation and being fat. So, don’t be fat. That’s a good start.”
You guys are so behind it’s frightening at times. Diseases are NOT caused by chronic inflammation, you retards. It’s the other way around. Inflammation is our healing response from damage done to our tissues. Chronic inflammation is the result of long ongoing healing, as the body is constantly being poisoned and damaged by toxins and are too weak/malnourished to keep up, so the healing is stagnant.
Also, obesity in itself is not the problem. The problem is what caused obesity, as in constantly damaging the body with toxic foods that are void of real nutrition. It’s the food that you consume that makes you sick, that manifests in these ‘modern diseases,’ and not the increase in body fat — although that will hurt your joints and heart from moving that unnatural weight.
I covered this in my article, “What Makes You Fat?”
“You probably know the other common T killers, too: aging, excess booze, smoking, stress, no exercise, crappy diet, low vitamin D, poor sleep, environmental toxins, antidepressants, overtraining, etc. Some of these things we can control; others we can’t, like aging, job stress, and endocrine disruptors in the environment. So, get your blood tested and hop on TRT if needed.”
Aging does not need to be a big factor if you consume our natural species-appropriate diet and actually take care of your body and health. As for the other factors, yes, spot on.
And as for endocrine disruptors there is a lot you can do. I have a chapter about this in my coaching guides. Simply replace a lot of the toxic stuff you have at home for natural variants, such as soap, lotions, beauty products, deodorants, perfumes, detergents, softeners, and so on.
As for TRT, I will cover that in a future article, as well as different hormone compounds as people need to understand these and the risks.
After that, Chris Shugart plugged their worthless supplements. However, the question remains. Does low testosterone actually affect the risk of heart disease and premature death, or is it mostly the result of what you’ve been doing to your body that led to your low levels of testosterone? Again, I would say that it’s the damage from carbohydrates, vegetable/seed oils, and other toxins such as oxalates — all of that we already know contribute to cardiovascular disease that is to blame. Low testosterone is simply a result of nutrient deficiencies and the damage you have done to your body with these toxins. Hence, those who die prematurely and from cardiovascular disease have low testosterone because of the toxic environment they have created in their bodies. That also makes sense as the more damage you have done, the lower the testosterone will be, and the greater the risk of dying from all that damage, which was what they actually found in this study.
With that said, low testosterone on its own will contribute to ‘speeding’ you towards that early grave by making you a docile little wuss who is content by chugging down processed junk food and feeling miserable.
In these scenarios, where a man is not motivated or mentally strong enough to change his diet and life, some TRT might be the boost he needs to get out of it. But that’s for another article.
And finally, why does cardiovascular disease seem to be more prevalent in men? Likely because most men, once they get older, simply don’t care and think that they are invincible. They consume a lot more garbage than women and also abuse stimulants such as caffeine, which is extremely damaging to the heart — as well as many other factors. It all comes down to different exposures of toxins and stressors.
If you need advice or help with life quality issues, such as low testosterone, or with transitioning to our natural species-appropriate carnivorous way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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