Monday, July 16, 2012

Importance Of Testosterone

By Dillard Smith


I am sure that you know what testosterone is. You are more than likely well aware of how important it can be in a man's life.

This stuff makes men. It is the hormone that creates our unique sex drive, our deeper voices, and causes us to grow facial hair. Without this, or with low levels, our libido will drop and many other aspects of our life will be affected as well and cause us to feel less like a man.

You may not know what causes low levels of this hormone, however. You may also want to know how you can keep your levels of testosterone at a healthy level, even as you age.

First, we will need to describe what we mean by low testosterone.

You can get a blood test done to see what your levels of this specific hormone is. The range of this can vary widely. For example, many healthy adult males have levels between 270 and 1070 nanograms per decileter. That is a huge difference. The basic rule of thumb is that if your levels are below 300 ng/dl, then you should be diagnosed for low hormonal levels.

Be sure to keep in mind that a man's testosterone levels fluctuate during the day. Levels are usually highest around 8 a.m. and lowest around 9 p.m.

Due to this, usually doctors are going to want to perform the blood test as early in the morning as possible. This will ensure that they will get a constant reading over time.

You may also want to inform yourself of how exactly this hormone is created. It is a well known fact that the testes produce a majority of it. However, you may be unaware that before this happens, signals come from the pituitary glands and the hypothalamus. Those signals are actually what tells the testes to produce more.

You see, these signals are just as important as the acutal testes.

Last but not least, allow me to reveal the three most common causes of low testosterone.

The number one reason is actually aging. For the average male, levels of testosterone will start to decrease dramatically around the age of 40. After that age, it will start to decrease at a pretty constant rate of 1% each and every year that passes. At that rate, by the time you reach 70, your levels have deminished by somewhere in the range of 30%.

The number 2 most common reason would have to be medication. The use of opiates, which are common for pain, will almost certainly effect your hormonal production of testosterone.

Head trauma and tumors would have to come in at the third position. These types of injuries could cause damage to the part of the brain that send the signals to your testes to get to making.




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