The Low Down on Testosterone Decline
Episode 173
From focusing on the female hormones in previous episodes, today on Integrative Wellness Radio, we’ll be diving into hormone imbalances in men and how the testosterone decline has been on the rise recently. Dr. Nicole will shed light on some of the things that are connected to this decline and why most times the root cause is overlooked with the common run-of-the-mill testing. You’ll also learn about the adverse effects of taking unregulated testosterone on your body and why oftentimes it is just a temporary fix. Tune in to the end of the episode to not only correct the low testosterone problem but sustain that correction over time. Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! Noteworthy Time Stamps: 02:54 Setting the foundation 06:32 Understanding the biggest detriment to healthcare 12:57 Hormone disruptors 19:36 Testosterone receptors in the frontal lobe 23:16 Signs of low testosterone 30:21 Things that are overlooked in low testosterone 37:01 Taking testosterone is not always benign
Topics: testosterone, decline, hormones, root, learn, hormone, testing, unknown
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## The Low Down on Testosterone Decline
- Testosterone decline is a growing concern in men, with multifaceted causes often overlooked by conventional medical approaches.
- Standard medical testing may not uncover the root issues contributing to low testosterone.
- Using unregulated testosterone can have dangerous side effects and often only provides a temporary solution.
- Understanding the role of hormone disruptors and testosterone receptors is crucial for effective treatment.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on the road. **Unknown:** Hello everyone, we are back at it.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. I been up all night, no sleep. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick and Dr. Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. I feel like I'm always dreaming. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on the road.
**Unknown:** Hello everyone, we are back at it. So I have been really focusing on hormones from a female perspective, but today I'm actually talking more about hormone imbalances in men, and one of the biggest being testosterone decline. And this is something that unfortunately is coming up more and more, and it's thought to be somewhat benign that there's really, you know, no rhyme or reason as to why testosterone is low. And the most typical fix for a male with low testosterone is just to take some type of testosterone, if that's gonna be in a form of a pill, if it's going to be in the form of a lotion, or if it's going to be in the form of an injection.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to the use of testosterone, that kind of has its own side effects, which we're gonna talk about tonight. But more importantly is to help you understand a little bit more about why testosterone might be declining, number one. Number two is what are some of the things that are connected to it that might not be necessarily coming up in your run-of-the-mill testing? And then what are some of the things that we can do about it to not only correct it, but sustain that correction?
**Unknown:** Because unfortunately, I think that that's one of the biggest problems when it comes to a lot of approaches in conventional care, is that we're usually just trying to correct something in the moment, or we're usually trying to just Band-Aid symptoms, and we're not necessarily trying to correct the root cause, number one, but also we're not necessarily creating changes that can last. And what I mean by that is if you are a male that comes up for low testosterone, you know, you take the pill or you get the injection, and you feel better doing that, but then as soon as you come off of that pharmaceutical, you go right back to where you were. So it's really just trying to help you understand how you can create sustainability when it comes to fixing a hormonal problem. And again, you know, we talked all about female hormones, so for those of you that are jumping on that are females, if you go to our website, you can actually learn a little bit more about female hormones, but tonight specifically, we're diving into testosterone and this epidemic of low testosterone in men.
**Unknown:** But I'm going to kick off by kind of just really setting the foundation for what we're talking about, which is low testosterone in men, giving you insight as to why, understanding the limitations with the testing that exists, and then obviously most importantly, giving you solutions to understand how we can resolve this, but also to sustain that. So give me the next twenty minutes to really dive in with me and understand a little bit more about hormones, but also how are they affecting your day-to-day? How are they affecting your mood? How is the things that you're eating potentially causing your hormones to be imbalanced?
**Unknown:** I have a comment, uh, "Amazing point. I've settled for the new normal being fatigued." A hundred percent, and this is so many people. I can't tell you how many people have settled for feeling mediocre, but the worst part about it is that so many other people around us feel worse or about the same, which has further normalized it. So we're just like, "Well, isn't everybody tired?
**Unknown:** Isn't everybody achy? Doesn't everybody have poor sleep? Doesn't everyone get bloated when they eat pasta?" And what's interesting is none of these things are necessarily normal, um, we've just kind of adapted to it. And the point is too, and, and it's not your fault.
**Unknown:** It's not your fault that you've settled for that. It's not your fault that maybe you really have no idea why you feel the way you do. It's not your fault that you haven't had the right testing. It's not your fault that you don't know what doctor to go to.
**Unknown:** It's not your fault for any of those things. We've all been programmed to think a certain way about our health, and the most common thing that we've all been taught is, "Don't fix it until it's broke," number one. Number two is getting older is equivalent to feeling worse and worse. And if I hear one more thirty-year-old tell me, "Well, I can't remember anything, but I am getting old," or, "I'm really achy, but I am getting old," or, "I can't do the things I used to do because I'm getting old," and I'm just like, "You're not old, you're thirty.
**Unknown:** Like, you potentially have seventy more years ahead of you." But this is all what we've been programmed to think is normal, number one, and, and also too, for those of us that get that inspiration and we're like, "You know what? I wanna figure this out. I wanna try something new. I wanna change my diet.
**Unknown:** I wanna figure out maybe what supplements I should be on." We get online, we use Google University, which is an amazing tool, but at the same time, it's extremely paralyzing because there's the paleo diet and the keto diet, and there's intermittent fasting, and there's all these supplements that claim to be the best thing for your testosterone and your hormones. And we easily just kind of get overwhelmed and we're like, "Uh, I don't even know. I don't know what's for me. I don't know what's right.
**Unknown:** I'm just gonna quit."And I totally get that. But the key thing to understand is that depending or, or regardless of what comes up in your lab work, you could have a low functioning thyroid, you could have low testosterone, and, you know, one of your friends could have the same exact thing. But you need a completely different approach. Every single person is extremely, extremely different, and it really comes down to everyone deserves a personalized approach because your DNA is different than my DNA, and our genetics are different, and our bodies are different, and our mood is different.
**Unknown:** There are so many different factors to be considered. And we really need to start demanding more out of our approach to healthcare because it really comes down to knowing that it can be really, really specific if you use the right type of testing and the right type of approach. Right before we really dive into this testosterone topic, the first thing that I wanna have you guys understand is that one of the biggest detriments to how medicine is being done right now is that we are thinking that everything is separate, and we are seeking out the specialist or the subspecialist for whatever our ailment, our problem is. And we are assuming that all of our systems are segregated and are not interacting with each other.
**Unknown:** So we are assuming that our gut has nothing to do with our testosterone levels, and we are assuming that our cardiovascular system has nothing to do with our neurological system. And this brings me to the very basic point of the lack of understanding basic physiology. So ninety to ninety-five percent of your serotonin, which is your feel-good hormone, is made in your gut. So if you are battling depression, but you are also dealing with irritable bowel syndrome, how are you treating maybe your depression with an antidepressant when the root cause of it can potentially be the fact that your irritable bowel syndrome is not being managed properly?
**Unknown:** And the same thing goes for addiction and addictive behaviors and testosterone. And this is one of the things we're gonna dive more into. But when you have low testosterone, you actually are gonna have low dopamine levels. So if you have low dopamine levels, you're gonna have a tendency to have more addictive behaviors or compulsive behaviors.
**Unknown:** So you might be a big gambler. You might always be daredevil. You might be speeding constantly. You might be really angry and irritable.
**Unknown:** And this comes back to testosterone imbalances. So we wanna sit here and think that our neurological and mental health has nothing to do with our hormones, but they are extremely, extremely tied together. So we could be treating two different things independently when they're actually a hundred percent correlated. So this kind of brings me to, um, one of my recent case studies.
**Unknown:** So I had a thirty-seven-year-old male. He came to me because he was dealing with some different imbalances. His biggest complaints was he was dealing with fatigue. He was definitely feeling like his mood was really off, and his performance was off.
**Unknown:** Not sexually, but his performance was off from a, uh, physical fitness standpoint. So he was just like, "Listen, I just want you to, you know, kind of reevaluate my diet. I want you to look at the supplements that I'm taking in my pre and post-workout, and I really want you to, you know, just kind of tweak these things so that I can build more muscle. I can, you know, be better with all of the activities and the sports that I'm doing." So anytime I do my consultation, I'm gonna dig deeper.
**Unknown:** I wanna understand the bigger picture because so many of us have normalized things. So I ask questions, and it's always so funny to me because people are like, "No, no, no." And I ask the same question like seven different ways, and they're just like, "Oh, well, yeah. But doesn't everybody have that?" And it's always so interesting too because when I ask about injuries, and especially with males, they usually blow it off because they only think that if it was a, a concussion, it's serious. But really any head injury and any car accident above five miles an hour is all significant.
**Unknown:** But in the conversation, it turned out that this, uh, this guy, he actually had a concussion, and he definitely felt that he was never fully... I don't wanna say normal, but he just didn't feel a hundred percent himself since he had the head injury. So of course, I asked, "Well, where, where was the injury?" You know, "How did it happen? Was it severe?" Et cetera.
**Unknown:** So it turned out, um, he fell off a bike. He was a cyclist. He fell off a bike. He hit the, um, his forehead.
**Unknown:** He actually had a pretty big scar. He definitely had a concussion. He wasn't hospitalized or anything for it. Um, but he was disoriented for about a day.
**Unknown:** He had a pretty bad headache. And then, you know, about a day or two went by, and he was, you know, he was better. Uh, like I said, he wasn't a hundred percent himself, but he felt definitely better and was able to continue on with his activities of daily living. So the interesting part about this is that the front of the brain is where you have most of your testosterone receptors.So these testosterone receptors are extremely important for your body to utilize testosterone, number one.
**Unknown:** Number two is these testosterone receptors also play a very significant role in your dopamine production. So I started to kind of piece the puzzle together for this guy, and what the big culprit behind him not being able to get back to his physical fitness that he was hoping for, he also was having some minor prostate issues, and he also did report that he was having trouble finishing intercourse. Not always the most fun conversation that men want to have with their female doctor, but he was, you know, being really transparent about it after we were digging in, and he was able to make more sense of this. So really what it came down to is that it all started with the head injury.
**Unknown:** So the head injury created a lot of inflammation in the frontal lobe, which then compromised the testosterone receptors, which then compromised the dopamine levels. So he was having trouble with his fitness because of the low testosterone. He was also having trouble with finishing intercourse because of the low testosterone. And then on top of that, he was also dealing with some minor headaches, and he was also dealing with fatigue because he was not producing his dopamine properly.
**Unknown:** So this is something that going to a traditional physician, they would have said, "Oh, you have low testosterone. Here's a testosterone medication, or here is an injection, and let's, you know, call it a day." But that would have been the guy who felt a little bit better on that, you know, medication or, or injection, and then he would have came off of it, and he would have went right back to where he was because that was not the root. The root was never the testosterone. The root was the head injury.
**Unknown:** So some of the biggest things that come up when we're dealing with hormones is, and this is females and males across the board. So when we're dealing with some of the biggest things that are gonna compromise hormones, including testosterone, is a lot of the hormones we're exposed to through the diets that we consume and a lot of the animal products because of industrial farming. So I'm gonna briefly go through these right now because I'm going to dive deeper into them in just a minute. The other thing that is very overlooked is all the chemicals that are hormone disruptors in our personal products.
**Unknown:** And men, I know you're not, you know, wearing makeup and dousing yourselves in the half of the, the products that females are, but you're still using soap, you're still using shampoo, you're still using conditioner, you're probably using some, some type of hair wax, gel, whatever. Another big part of this is blood sugar instability. Unfortunately, there is a massive, um, population of men that are dealing with prediabetes or diabetes, which has a lot to do with hormone imbalance and testosterone decline. And another big thing is circulation.
**Unknown:** Men are not always super aware of their circulatory issues because what do they say? The first sign of a heart attack is a heart attack. So talking about, you know, circulation, uh, one of the big things about circulation is that most men are not aware that they have circulatory issues because females are a little bit more aware because they have a tendency to either have cold hands and feet, or they have a tendency to have varicose veins. Some men obviously do have vein issues, but not a ton of men are usually aware because it's usually not, unfortunately, until after the fact that they have some type of serious cardiovascular event that now they know that they are having cardiovascular issues.
**Unknown:** Another big thing too is stress. Men have a tendency to power through stress and stuff it down because, you know, they don't like to show that vulnerability or don't like to show that weakness. But sh- uh, what's so interesting to me about stress is that so many people say, "Oh, I handle stress well," or, "Oh, you know, it's just life, and I just have to power through, and I just have to keep moving on, and I have to put food on the table." But the thing is, is that, uh, genetically and, you know, genetically pretty much is that our bodies have not evolved that much. So back in the day when we were hunter-gatherers and cavemen, and we were put in a scenario that was life altering, like we were, you know, being attacked by a tiger, or we were running from, you know, some very scary situation that put our bodies into a fight or flight.
**Unknown:** And what's interesting is nowadays most of us are living in fight or flight because we're dealing with the stressors of everyday life, of having to get up and commute and deal with our crazy boss, or dealing with family drama, or dealing with our kids having issues. And your body doesn't know the difference of fighting a tiger or a crappy email you got from your boss. So it's very important for us to know that we all need to consider our stress levels and manage them in whatever way is appropriate. You know, I'm not gonna sit here and tell everyone to meditate, but sometimes it's just going for a run.
**Unknown:** Another big thing that affects our hormones is gut issues, but I don't want to just sit here and say gut issues. I want to say immune system stress in general, which I'm gonna talk a little bit more about as we continue through. First and foremost, I've already kind of scratched the surface with this. When it comes to testosterone, testosterone in men plays a huge, huge role in behavior.
**Unknown:** And what I mean by this is if your testosterone has declined, you are going to have a tendency to have lower dopamine levels. So dopamine and serotonin are two feel-good hormones. Serotonin is more associated with joy and, you know, really feeling happy and content and getting joy out of life. Dopamine, on the other hand, is very interesting because dopamine is when we have a lot of lack of motivation, we find it very hard to, uh, fini- or start and finishEither projects or, or, or different types of goals.
**Unknown:** And a lot of times, like, that's a complaint that we have, uh, as females with our spouses, is that, you know, men don't have as much attention to detail, or we don't feel like they're paying attention, or we find that it's really hard for them to complete something they told us they were gonna complete. And part of that can come back to these lower testosterone levels that are affecting the dopamine. So some of the signs of this should be, you know, is your husband, is your spouse, is your son dealing with some, like, vices or addictive behaviors? Are they constantly wanting sugar?
**Unknown:** Are they constantly needing to work out? Are they constantly wanting to go gamble? Are they constantly speeding in the car? Are they, uh, like, impulsively buying things online?
**Unknown:** These are all signs of a dopamine decline, which is going to be correlated back to testosterone. So the other thing too with, um, with dopamine is that this could be, you know, drinking problems, not being able to give up cigarettes, not being able to give up certain foods. So it doesn't always have to-- it could be, you know, something along the lines of drugs and alcohol, but it also can be an addiction to exercise and working out at the same time. So when it comes to testosterone and all those receptors in the frontal lobe, we can obviously have issues with our testosterone just based off of having a head injury as well.
**Unknown:** So the thing that I want you females and males to know about your kids is that the frontal lobe is underdeveloped in boys, and it takes longer to develop, partly because of all the testosterone receptors. So obviously your child is not gonna go through puberty until, you know, they're a teenager. So their frontal lobe is not fully developed, and it does not develop as fast as a female because of the late onset of puberty. So a lot of times we're sitting there, you know, diagnosing these young boys with ADD and ADHD when really at the end of the day, it's just a slow development of the frontal lobe due to puberty onset coming later in life.
**Unknown:** Obviously, there's extremes of this hyperactive behavior, but we need to really be able to weigh out, you know, is there something wrong with my child, or is it normal for them to be acting a certain way and maybe be a little hyperactive or not be able to fully concentrate because of, you know, the, the frontal lobe developing slower than a female. So a lot of times we're over-diagnosing this ADD and ADHD, but naturally the frontal lobe of the brain takes longer to develop in young boys. So when it comes to this frontal lobe and the testosterone receptors in older men, not necessarily kids, so because the, the testosterone receptors play such a significant role in dopamine, this has a very specific tie to memory loss. So when you're dealing with older men that are really struggling with their memory, and not necessarily just short-term memory, but when you're starting to notice that the long-term memory is going, that's when you need to be more concerned because this is a sign that the brain is degenerating, and this is a sign that they're on their way to dimension Al-Alzheimer's.
**Unknown:** So I'm not saying this to scare anyone, but I think that a lot of us are seeing this neurological decline in our loved ones, and we have no idea that there's anything that we can do about it. It's kind of just like, well, once the brain degenerates, and, you know, you start losing that memory, that's the end of the story, and there's nothing you can do about it. And I'm gonna tell you right now, that is not true, number one. And number two is we need to start taking things more seriously at younger ages.
**Unknown:** And what I mean by this is that there are so many people struggling with their brains. There are so many people that can't concentrate. They can't pay attention. They are n- they don't know where their keys are.
**Unknown:** They're walking into rooms saying, "What did I walk in here for?" And we're just blowing it off. And, and it's because, you know, maybe we're getting an MRI, and the MRI is like, "No, everything looks good." So I will tell you, by the time you see changes on an MRI, you have seventy percent decline in your white matter. So to keep that as simple as possible, is your brain is compromised by seventy percent by the time you're gonna see anything on an MRI. So let's not sit around and just do an MRI and say, "No, we're clear.
**Unknown:** There's nothing wrong with my brain." And part of that has a lot to do with how unstable our blood sugar is. So one of the biggest things that is causing problems with our neurological system is the fact that there is so much sugar, hidden sugar, in our food, in our beverages, and we are completely in this insulin crisis. And what's happening is we are having massive inflammation in our brain because of how imbalanced our blood sugar is. So to give you a way to kind of know, is my blood sugar imbalanced, is are you craving sugar?
**Unknown:** If you're craving sugar, chances are you have blood sugar instability. If you wake up in the morning and you're not hungry and you almost have an aversion to food, you're having a blood sugar issue. If you drink coffee, and then you don't eat until lunchtime, and then by the time it hit, hits lunchtime, you're starving, that's blood sugar instability. If you constantly have to have something sweet after you eat, that's blood sugar instability.
**Unknown:** If you need midday coffee, you have blood sugar instability. So unfortunately, almost everything that I said, most of you can relate to. So it's time to pay more attention to your blood sugar and see what you can do to improve this. Step number one is eat breakfast.
**Unknown:** Eat breakfast, and don't eat sugar.Eat protein, eat a hard-boiled egg, have an omelet, have a frittata, have something that is protein and fat based in the morning. It will completely transform your blood sugar and your brain for the rest of the day. I promise you. Try it.
**Unknown:** So some of the other biggest signs of low testosterone in a male is they're going to be dealing with low libido, having erectile dysfunction. They might be having a lot of fluctuations in their mood that is not warranted, meaning they're kind of having these highs and lows, they're getting angry, they're getting irritable, they're feeling low, but it's not necessarily triggered by anything. It's just like, "Why do I feel like this?" They start to have sweating attacks, and they also start to have loss of, um, muscle mass as well. Those are all signs of low testosterone.
**Unknown:** So the other really big thing is that when it comes to testosterone, there are many men that are having low testosterone, but they're actually having elevations in estrogen. And I'm gonna explain this a little bit more in depth, but one of the primary reasons why men are dealing with this seesaw of low testosterone and high estrogen has so much to do with food. And unfortunately, there is many, many things in our diet that are contributing to us getting exposed to different types of estrogens that are coming from a lot of animal products, soy, and even some grains. So number one is when you're at the store and you're seeing this grass fed, grass fish, organic, pasture raised, and you're like, "I have no idea what all of this means." Overall, the biggest thing is, is that people are looking for grass fed, they're looking for organic, they're looking for these things because they're trying to avoid the hormones that are being injected.
**Unknown:** The reason why the animals are being treated with hormone therapy is because if you inject them with hormone therapy, they get fatter, they weigh more, means they're worth more money. So then there's this tricky piece of the puzzle because maybe your chicken or your beef is not being treated with hormones, but they're being fed a soy diet. So soy is in a phytoestrogen. So this is something that mimics estrogen.
**Unknown:** So you might be getting your antibiotic hormone-free chicken, but that chicken may have been fed a soy diet, which is still giving you exposure to hormones. So I get it, guys. I know you're, like, probably ripping your hair out going, "Oh my gosh, this is super overwhelming," but this is the reality of it. We have to be our own advocates.
**Unknown:** We have to do better research. We have to work with a nutritionist. We have to understand these things because it's not black and white anymore. There is a ton of gray.
**Unknown:** And the way that we label food in the US is actually alarming. So the other thing too is that a lot of us are trying to get away from gluten. And as we get away from gluten, we're going to these gluten-free products, and a lot of those products are corn-based. So we're consuming a lot of these corn-based products thinking, "All right, well, this is good.
**Unknown:** I'm getting away from the co- or I'm getting away from the wheat." But what's happening is there is a lot of corn that is being treated and also growing in specific environments that it has something called mycoestrogens. Myco stands for mycotoxins, which is mold, toxins from mold, but there are very specific types of mold that can mimic estrogen in the body. So one of the most common mycoestrogens is called zearalenone. Zearalenone is most commonly found on corn.
**Unknown:** So again, guys, we have to be really careful. We have to make sure we're not overdoing the corn. We have to look for non-GMO corn. So do not sit here and underestimate your food playing an extremely big role in your testosterone decline.
**Unknown:** And one of the biggest things for you to know about your body shape if you have low testosterone and elevated estrogen is, do you have loss of muscle mass? Do you find that you're not toned, you have very, like, almost like your muscles feel mushy. I don't want that to sound bad, but it's, that's kind of the reality of it. And you also find that you're holding a lot of weight in your abdomen, and then also the higher the estrogen gets, you start to get fatty deposits in the, um, in the pec area, and you develop what we call gynecomastia, which is man boobs.
**Unknown:** So this is happening to a lot of young boys, and this is because these kids are eating all these processed foods that have all of, uh, all different types of soy and mycoestrogens in it. So just to make th- make this worse is that once the estrogen starts to become a problem, then there is this pathway called the aromatase pathway that starts to also dysfunction. So pretty much what starts to happen is that this aromato- aromatase pathway starts to take testosterone and funnel it and convert it all into estrogen, and this is partly because of blood sugar issues. So really just to keep this as simple as possible is the more unstable your blood sugar is or the more refined carbohydrates and sugar you have in your diet, the stronger the, or the more dysfunction you're gonna have in this aromatase pathway.
**Unknown:** So all of your or testosterone is gonna get funneled into estrogen, and then you're gonna go to your doctor, and they're gonna tell you you have low testosterone, and they might give you some way to, um, improve or increase your testosterone. Again, maybe an injection, maybe a pill. And you're gonna take that, and all that testosterone is going to continue to get converted into more and more and more estrogen because this pathway is not functioning. So before you go on this testosterone, uh, supplementation, fix your liver, which is where the aromatase pathway resides, and stop eating sugar and processed crap.
**Unknown:** Because if you balance your blood sugar, you will find that your testosterone will improve by itself. So the other thing is that when it comes to testosterone, it's going to compromise dopamine levels. So again, I know that we've already touched on this. So the dopamine is gonna play a very significant role in memory.
**Unknown:** But the further your dopamine declines is how we start to develop Parkinson's disease. So Parkinson's is a massive, massive decline of dopamine. So when we're dealing with Parkinson's, this can be for a lot of different reasons, but one of the pieces of the puzzle can be associated with low testosterone. So again, I...
**Unknown:** This is not about, "Oh my gosh, I have low testosterone. I don't want Parkinson's. Let me go take a te- a testosterone pill or injection." This is about why.What is the root? What is the cause?
**Unknown:** Why is your testosterone low? And we really owe it to ourselves to figure that out. So in addition to that, when it comes to one of the biggest things that is extremely overlooked when you are getting diagnosed with low testosterone is, do you have something that is stressing your immune system? And this is not just for men, this is females as well.
**Unknown:** One of the biggest things that derails our hormone balance is if our immune system is busy, if it is dealing with some type of infection that we are not necessarily aware of. And this happens so often with men because have you ever heard of a male say that they have a urinary tract infection? Never. I have very specific technologies in my office that can pretty much evaluate the urinary tract within a, a couple of minutes.
**Unknown:** And, and it evaluates a lot of things, but I can look at the urinary tract specifically. So I will see different bacterias come up in the urinary tract for a male, and I'll ask them, "Do you have any symptoms? Do you have any burning in your urination? Do you have an odor with your urination?
**Unknown:** Do you have cloudy urination? Do you have bubbly urination?" "Nope. Nope. Nope.
**Unknown:** Nope. Nope. Nope." Females, on the other hand, we are usually pretty aware when we have a urinary tract infection. We end up being a lot more symptomatic.
**Unknown:** So what's so fascinating is the most typical thing that resonates with a man when I, when I'm doing their consultation is, do you get hot when you sleep? Kick the covers off, want the fan on, need the air low, et cetera. And men are like, "Oh yeah, I'm always hot when I sleep," or, "My husband's such a heater, I can't even touch him when he's sleeping 'cause he's so hot." That is a sign that your body is dealing with a low-grade infection. So most of the time, no doctor is looking for a low-grade infection.
**Unknown:** They're looking at, do you have an acute sore throat? Do you have an acute fungal infection? Do you have an acute sinus infection? Nobody is necessarily looking for a low-grade infection.
**Unknown:** But what I will tell you is when we are dealing with certain types of infections, maybe it's in the urinary tract, maybe it's in the gastrointestinal system, maybe there's a lot of reflux, there's GERD, there's indigestion, maybe there's an infection in the, in the gums, in the tooth, in the sinuses, whatever the case may be, these infections will activate what we call a microglial response. That is actually the immune system of your brain. So if your microglial response goes up, then you are going to have inflammation in your brain, which is going to suppress your testosterone absorption. So it's very important to understand that there could easily be an infection that's hanging out in the background that we are completely unaware of that can be causing the testosterone to also be low.
**Unknown:** So one of the stories that I'm gonna tell you is, is very specific on that case. But before I do that, I wanna say one more thing about, uh, testosterone when it comes to toxicity, because toxicity is something that is also being overlooked. Have any of you ever been evaluated for toxicity by your general physician or your primary care doctor? I can guarantee the answer is no, and it's because that medicine doesn't even acknowledge that toxicity is a problem.
**Unknown:** But there are toxins that we are being exposed to left and right. We are exposed to toxins every time we use some type of hair gel, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, hair dye, whatever. Then on top of it, we also have toxicity that can come from dental work, uh, silver fillings in the teeth, implants, crowns, bridges, all of those different things. Then we also have mold exposure.
**Unknown:** So for those of you that are like, "Oh, I've never been exposed to mold. There's no way. I would've known." So first of all, chances are you wouldn't have known, um, because mold hides. It's in, it's in ventilation systems, it's behind drywall.
**Unknown:** Very rarely do we know if we're being exposed to mold. But another piece of that too is that there is a ton of mold in food. Some of the most, uh, common foods that are high in mold, peanut butter, wine, cheese, coffee, wheat. Wheat means bread, pasta, all of that good stuff.
**Unknown:** So we are eating foods consistently that are exposing us to molds. On top of that, we are using personal products on a daily basis that are also disrupting our hormones, and these are things that we're not being evaluated for. So you could easily have toxicity that is playing the biggest role in your testosterone decline. So the really interesting thing about this too is that, uh, one of my personal mentors, Dr.
**Unknown:** Klinghardt, one of the things that he said is that, um, "Have you ever seen a male who has gone on testosterone therapy that you found to either have really odd symptoms or, um, lose their memory or even kind of lose their common sense?" And it was almost a little comical when he was saying this, but when I started to pay more attention to it, um, 'cause some of my, my clients come to me, and they've already been on testosterone therapy, and I started to notice that he was really correct. And one of the reasons this happens is because of the massive role that testosterone plays in the brain, there are certain toxins that we get exposed to that are neurotoxic. So to keep it as simple as possible, one of those is mercury. So mercury, the way that we're exposed is through fish, tuna fish, swordfish, shark being the three top fish exposures, and then, uh, silver fillings in our teeth.So even if you've had your silver fillings removed, you could easily still have mercury that is in the body that was absorbed in the time period that you had the silver in your mouth.
**Unknown:** So with that being said, if you have mercury in your body, which is classified as neurotoxic, then you can go on a testosterone therapy. And what that testosterone therapy is it can potentiate the mercury, AKA, it can cause your brain to be more affected by the mercury. So you can find that a male that goes on testosterone therapy sometimes is having memory issues or having mood issues, or almost just like not making a lot of sense. Like just you're kind of like, "What, what's going on with you?
**Unknown:** Why-- you seem really, really off." So you have to be very, very careful because taking testosterone is not necessarily as benign as it's always being presented. Okay. So one of my, uh, my patients, he was a forty thir- forty-five-year-old guy. Um, he came in, he had prostatitis, very, very mild.
**Unknown:** Um, he had fatigue, and he had some swollen lymph nodes. These were things that came up as we were talking. Uh, he primarily was dealing with, like, joint pain, and he really wanted to, like, get back to feeling good because he wanted to continue with all his activities of daily living. Um, he was, like, really big into mountain biking and, and being really outdoorsy, so he really wanted to get back to those things.
**Unknown:** So as we were talking, you know, he's like, "Yeah, my memory is not as good as it used to be, but I'm getting old. Yeah, I'm achy, but I'm getting old. Yeah, I have mild headaches, but they're no big deal. They've been going on since I was a kid.
**Unknown:** My prostate, you know, is, uh, is a little inflamed. It doesn't really give me many problems. It just came up in my blood work. And then my swollen lymph nodes, they come and go, but usually it's just because I think I'm getting like a cold or a sore throat." So he primarily was told, again, with the pros- prostatitis that that was really not very symptomatic.
**Unknown:** It was elevated. Uh, he had an elevated PSA, which came back in one of his physicals that he did. His joint pain, he chalked up to just having a really active lifestyle and getting old. Um, headaches, again, happening since he was a teen, just, like, thought they were really benign.
**Unknown:** You know, I get them, but it's just me. That's me. Uh, and then he had-- he was diagnosed with a low testosterone, and he was recommended testosterone shots. So then as we really started to kind of piece the puzzle together here, uh, one of the big things was that he had a lot of silver fillings in his teeth.
**Unknown:** Most of them were replaced. So this is like a side note, is when my patient says to me, "Yeah, I had silver, but they were all replaced." And they always say it, like, really proud because, you know, they obviously did a good thing for themselves by getting all that, you know, toxic junk out of their teeth. My follow-up question is, "Who did it? Was it a traditional dentist, or was it what we call a biological dentist?" And they're like, "Well, I'm gonna assume traditional because I've never heard of a biological dentist." So the thing you have to understand is that when you remove these fillings out of your teeth, they are extremely, extremely toxic.
**Unknown:** So when you go to a biological dentist, they are thoroughly trained on how to take these out properly. And if you were to ever see a picture of the patient as well as the dentist doing a proper removal of mercury fillings, they are practically wearing a hazmat suit as well as the patient. So when you go in to your traditional dentist, and they're just popping those suckers out of your teeth and not protecting you or themselves, that mercury is being released as a vapor and going directly into your nerves and your soft tissue. So regardless if the fillings are out of your mouth, you still are going to have mercury in your lymphatic system and in your tissues because that's just the way that it works.
**Unknown:** So as we were talking, and he was talking a- about getting back to all of his favorite activities, we talked a lot about mountain biking, and he was a big, big mountain biker. So for those of you, you know, kind of wondering why this is even relevant is that mountain biking, woods, ticks. I started thinking, okay, is Lyme part of this puzzle because this patient is, you know, constantly outside. So here's the kicker.
**Unknown:** One of the things that one of my mentors said is that there is a deep correlation to having prostate canc- cancer and Lyme disease. And when he told me why, I was kind of like mouth dropped, like, no possible way. Like, that's crazy. So when I went back into clinical practice, and I knew this, I was like, "Holy crap, he's right." Okay.
**Unknown:** So Lyme bacteria, Lyme disease bacteria, is a bacteria that first of all, we all think is just specifically, uh, only comes from ticks, which is actually not true. So Lyme can come from ticks. It can come from mosquitoes. It can come from being passed down from mom.
**Unknown:** It can also be sexually transmitted. Yes, I know. That's scary. So how this all correlates to a prostate issue.
**Unknown:** So when you're dealing with Lyme bacteria, Lyme bacteria is a very evolved organism. It is a very smart organism, and it is always trying to get to its next life cycle. So what I mean by that is it's always trying to infect the next person. So when a male gets exposed to Lyme disease, very often the Lyme bacteria will hang out in the prostate.
**Unknown:** And the reason being is because when there is arousal for intercourse, the Lyme will move out of the prostate and start to move along the ejaculatory duct.And it starts to move along the ejaculatory duct so that it has the opportunity to then infect the next host, AKA the next female. So again, those of you listening are probably like, "Holy crap, that can't even be correct." It is because every male that I've worked with that has either come to me with some type of prostate issue or has come to me with a history of prostate cancer, I have always found them to be positive for Lyme. So this specific patient was dealing with Lyme disease that was playing a role in his prostate. It was also the culprit for why he was having so many swollen glands.
**Unknown:** So the crazy thing about this is that the Lyme was affecting him and stressing the neurological system because if you remember, when you have an infection, it amps up the immune system of the brain. So he had this overactivation of the immune system. Then on top of it, he had the mercury toxicity from all those fillings in the teeth that weren't removed safely. So from there, he started to go on the testosterone, and the testosterone was making him extremely fatigued.
**Unknown:** It was giving him headaches. It was also making his memory really bad. So when it comes to the bigger picture, I'm telling you this story because I want you to understand this is multifaceted. This was not just like, "Oh, testosterone was low." The end, there were so many pieces of the puzzle that were not being connected.
**Unknown:** And when we were able to work with him to help him get the stuff out of his body that shouldn't have been there, he was able to get his testosterone levels back up to normal. So we never actually addressed the testosterone. We just got the immune system to be more balanced because we eliminated the toxicity, and we also eliminated the immune system stress, and that was really what his body needed to bounce back. So if you haven't learned this so far, you don't know what you don't know.
**Unknown:** It is impossible for you to understand the big picture and to know the root of why your testosterone is low if you have not had the right testing. So when it comes to doing the right testing, it's really just a matter of, you know, uncovering what is the root cause so that you can deal with it, and dealing with it is not always this super elaborate, complex process. And I think that's been a really important thing to take away is those of you listening might be thinking like, "Oh, crap, that guy sounded really complex. Like he probably was under care for a year." He wasn't.
**Unknown:** He was under care for three months, and he got better, and he moved on with his life. So once you know the root and you understand how to work with it, it doesn't have to be an overly complex process. So I think the bigger picture here is we need to stop accepting these symptoms as being our normal, and we need to just stop adapting to this new normal of fatigue and brain fog and memory loss and poor sleep and gut issues. It's not normal.
**Unknown:** None of it's normal, and we've just learned to think that it is because that is what society tells us. So it's really just asking better questions and knowing that there is always gonna be a root cause. Like it's not just that guy that I just told you about. There's always, always, always a root cause.
**Unknown:** Always. And once you know the root, anything is possible from a healing perspective. And another thing too is that, you know, those of you that have been listening this whole time and, you know, you just hear that story that you potentially still have your mouth dropped about about this guy who had mercury and, and Lyme, and that was playing a role in his prostate and his testosterone levels, like that guy was not textbook. He was not a-- He didn't look like the textbook, and very rarely do any of my patients look like the textbook.
**Unknown:** That guy did not look like the textbook of Lyme disease. That guy didn't look like the textbook of low testosterone. So it's really, really significant that if you don't match the textbook, then your treatment should not match the textbook. And it should not just be, "Oh, well, you have this, so here's your medication," or, "You have this, and here's your surgery." Because there are so many other things to be considered, and if they are considered, you can actually work with the problem and resolve it and also work with all of the effects that the root is causing.
**Unknown:** And really at the end of the day, you know, like I said before, is whatever is going on with you, if it is a testosterone issue or if it's, you know, you can't be intimate with your wife anymore because you have erectile dysfunction, you know, this is being able to fix that, get clarity on it, and get your life back, get your intimacy back, like that's priceless in my opinion, at least. It's being able to really uncover what's going on and, and fix it. You know, I don't really know how we can even put a price on that. But, um, but again, overall, um, I really thank you guys for being here.
**Unknown:** But, you know, I hope you guys see the passion that we have for, for helping people and, and how excited we get about what we do is just so fun for me because I'm able to bring information to people that are looking for it. You know, there's so many people that are just so scared and tired, and they feel so powerless, and, and they don't know where to turn, and they don't know what to do. So please share this and, you know, if again, if you want this full recording 'cause you wanna share it with someone, um, through email, just shoot me a direct message through Instagram and send me your email, and I can definitely, uh, send this over to you so you can share it with other people. And, you know, lastly is this is all about education, empower you.
**Unknown:** But once you actually know what is going on with your body and you know how to heal and how to fix what you have going on, that's really when this becomes a breakthrough experience. So, you know, I really invite you to really take that first step and, and be able to get those answers that you've been looking for, um, because you don't know what you don't know. And I know for me, I, I, I resonate with that so much 'cause I had no idea, and I'm very, very grateful for doing the testing early on because, you know, something that I don't share a lot is that, um, I had a very specific cardiovascular condition that is actually genetic that came up. And when I did my testing, I was pretty much a ticking time bomb for, um, the aneurysm.
**Unknown:** And what's really crazy about that is, you know, you think of, um, an aneurysm, and you, you don't always think of aneurysm as cardiovascular because if I thought-- like I remember thinking about it and being like, "I don't really have cardiovascular stuff in my family." And my grandmother passed away from an aneurysm, a brain aneurysm, which you could almost classify as neurological, but really it was cardiovascular. So, you know, at the end of the day, again, there was no testing that any doctor was doing with me that gave me that information or gave me that insight or allowed me to be preventative. It was really when I did my own testing, and I, I took it a step further, and I leveraged these technologies that I was able to figure that out. So again, it's, uh, the information is, is just invaluable.
**Unknown:** And I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you share this with others. But thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.
**Unknown:** We really are in this to transform how healthcare is being done, and the more that you guys demand more out of your healthcare, the more that we, we move this forward, and we, we move forward. So again, thank you, guys. I appreciate you being with me, and I'll see you next month. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio.
**Unknown:** If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep 'cause I feel like I'm always dreaming.
**Unknown:** Wide awake, that's okay.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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