In 1943, the average testosterone in men was 1400. By 2013 it was averaging 400. In the article Dr. Martin flagged, researchers are calling this 1000 point drop a “pandemic.”
Dr. Martin agrees with that statement as he witnessed the drop in his own clinic. In addition, the trend has been that men now have more estrogen than their wives at the age of 50. This is not a good thing!
Join Dr. Martin as he unpacks the low testosterone pandemic in today’s episode!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Well, good afternoon, everyone. Hope you're having a great day. Nice to be back with you after a few holidays. Okay, some of these are articles, some of them are studies. I found them interesting. I flagged them. I'm going to start with this. This was an article that mentioned in 1943, and the article said, "This is a pandemic." Okay. Like, "Okay, let's talk about it." It caught my attention when they said another pandemic, but here's the article. "In 1943, the average testosterone in men was 1400. By 2013 it was averaging 400." Down a thousand points in testosterone. That's not a good thing, okay. Now they didn't go into any detail at all in this article with what are the reasons for low testosterone. But I'd like to give you a couple, because in the clinic we used to measure testosterone and I would agree with this statement about testosterone, that it is sinking like the Titanic.
I've mentioned this a lot of times, but I just say this just as a by-the-way. By the way, men have more womanly hormone than their wives at the age of 50. Their wives' estrogen is going down and men's estrogen is going up. Now, let me just make a couple of blanket statements. One, ladies, your estrogen is always in proportion to your progesterone. So it's very important to understand. Because you get in your mind, "I'm menopausal." Somebody asked me that question last week, "I'm menopausal, therefore my estrogen is going down. Therefore, I wonder if I should be taking estrogen either in a bioidentical or in a med." And my answer to that is in my opinion, never. I never, never liked estrogen, even in a bioidentical. The bioidentical is a natural hormone replacement therapy. I never liked estrogen in women ever.
I like progesterone, but not estrogen. As a matter of fact, when you have trouble with hormones, ladies, generally, you have too much estrogen compared to your progesterone, even in menopause. Now let's get back to myth, since we're talking about testosterone. A man's testosterone is going to be proportional to the amount of estrogen in a man. If you want to sink testosterone... Which is, by the way, you hear about Low-T and people have this idea, it's all about sex. I said, get your mind out of the gutter. Because testosterone has a lot more to do with just your sexual drive, men. Testosterone is good for everything in a man, including his bones, his brain, his heart. You need testosterone. Ladies, you don't. You need a little bit. Ladies need balance and men need high testosterone to keep that estrogen down. Now, let's talk a little bit about why are we, by the year 2013, now that's already eight years ago. Nine years ago. Here we are in 2013. That's the latest. Well, at least there may be even more recent research.
I'm reading an article. This is an article, not so much a study. But I want to talk to you about why. Why'd that happen? Why would that happen in men today compared to in 1943, testosterone was at 1,400? Right where I like it. I used to tell men like, "If your testosterone's under a thousand, it's not baseball. You can't settle for 300 batting average." In testosterone, you want to have a very, very high testosterone levels. The higher the better for you. Like I said, your bones, your brain, your heart needs testosterone. Men are very low in T. Why? Several things I wrote down 10. No, seriously. The article didn't mention it. But I think it's important that we ask the question why? Why are men so low in testosterone today? Well, one of them is because obviously their estrogen is through the roof. How do men get high estrogen? Remember, what is estrogen? Estrogen makes a woman a woman, and a man a woman too. Ladies, just a fact, you are going to have a higher fat percentage than a male. Or at least you should.
You got breast tissue, you got hips. It's normal. Estrogen. The more fat on the body, the higher the estrogen goes. And for men, that will sink the testosterone levels. It's the number one reason. And of course, two more are ways when it comes to estrogen. One, every chemical in the universe, your body thinks, "Hey, that looks like estrogen to me." That's for men and women. "Oh, look at that. It looks like estrogen." It's cleaners, air fresheners, chemicals that are in your home. Plastics. Fertilizers. They all look like estrogen so the body sucks that up big time. Men end with, okay. The other one is what we call phytoestrogens. One of the problems in our food supply is, you know what, the food companies, they love soy. They love soy. And soy is one of the highest phytoestrogen. Now I read the other day, I saw a list of flaxseeds being a phytoestrogen. Yes and no.
Yes and no. Yes, it's a phytoestrogen. There's a lot of estrogen in the flaxseeds. But, and you guys know the answer to this. But flaxseeds have lignans, and lignans lower estrogen. And flaxseeds have a hundred times more lignans than any other seed or plant or whatever. So that is why even on the recent, I allow you, if you're making a Doctor Martin's perfect smoothie to put flaxseeds. Put a tablespoon of flaxseed, men. You want to increase your testosterone? Then take flaxseed. Take flaxseed. It will lower your estrogen and thus will elevate your testosterone. Here's another one. All your hormones, ladies and gentlemen, this is for you both. All your hormone need cholesterol. So what do you do? Well, don't lower your cholesterol. Don't listen to the gurus. Don't listen to dieticians. Don't listen to your doctor. You know, I hate to say that, but don't. If they start talking cholesterol and, "We want to get it lower." Because you want to know why men have such low levels of testosterone, because, because they don't have enough cholesterol. Now, remember it's not cholesterol that gives you heart disease.
It's triglycerides. And the higher your HDL is, the better it is. They are the FedEx trucks, the Amazon trucks, the Canada Post trucks, whatever trucks that are on the highways of your blood vessels carrying your hormones. Guys, you can't even make hormones without cholesterol. That's why God don't trust you. God doesn't trust you. He has to make 85% of your cholesterol, because he doesn't trust you to eat it. Because people think, "Ah gee, look at that bacon, at that cholesterol. Butter, cholesterol. Eggs, cholesterol." I had a former patient tell me the other day, "Oh, doc, I only ate two eggs a week." I said, "Why?" I said, "Do you like them?" He said, "I love them. But my doctor..." I said, "Can I have an appointment? Can I go to the next appointment with your doctor when you go? So I can have a chat with them." Why are you limiting to two? No wonder men have low testosterone. "Oh, yeah but I got low cholesterol." You want to die young? You want to die young? Then have low cholesterol.
Oh, oh. Here's another one. Absolutely essential for testosterone, men. Another reason that we have such low testosterone, we don't get viderma. You need viderma. You need vitamin D. Vitamin D is a precursor to your hormones. Vitamin D. And we don't get it. Extremely low in vitamin D levels. Most people are extremely low in it. And guess what? You're not going to make enough testosterone. Here's another vitamin that you need for testosterone. You probably didn't know this, but you're going to learn it right now. You need vitamin A for testosterone. Ladies, ladies, you eat vitamin A, and you get vitamin A when you eat vitamin S. Steak. I can't emphasize it enough. I got an email this afternoon and I understand it so I never take those questions lightly. But someone said to me today, "You already have cancer, so therefore you don't want too much red meat, eggs or whatever."
No, guys. Cancer hates steak. Hates it. Hates vitamin D, hates vitamin A. Cancer hates that stuff. But if you have low levels of vitamin A. How do you get vitamin A? Eggs, meat and cheese. If you have low levels of vitamin A, men, you need vitamin A for testosterone. You do. And sorry, you don't get vitamin A from carrots. You don't. That's better keratin. I'm not saying it's bad, but you're not making testosterone from better keratin. You need vitamin A. Here's a big problem with men and low levels of testosterone. Here's another big, huge problem-o. You know what it is? Fatty liver. Fatty liver. Because the vast majority of your testosterone, the ones that are going to carry it are going to be made in the liver. You get fatty liver, you're going to have trouble hitting your goals for testosterone.
Fatty liver. You got to empty that liver out. It's one of the reasons that we talk about the reset so much. Vitamin A, we talked about zinc. Again and other reason. You know what? And again, I'm coming back to that question on cancer. Look, I get it. I'm so patient, because I want you to win. But you see, vitamin A fights cancer. Vitamin D fights cancer. Zinc fights cancer. I don't even want you to take them as supplements. Now, vitamin D you're not going to be in the sun. But I want you to eat vitamin S so that you get vitamin A and you get your zinc. Eggs, meat and cheese give you zinc. Zinc. It's not in the plant kingdom. I'm sorry. I wish it was so I could tell you... But it's not. It's not. Now, fatty liver, be very careful. It'll sink your testosterone. Here's one depression, depression. Now what comes first? The chicken or the egg? Does the depression come first or does the low-T come first? You see, men, I told you, you need testosterone. Your brain needs it.
You need it for a good mood. The higher your testosterone... And another reason too, by the way. Depression, we talked about that. I talk about leaky gut, the malabsorption syndrome. You don't have enough good microbiome. Again, this is so important for absorption of your nutrients that help cofactors, that help to make your testosterone. Really, really, really important. Now let me say another thing. Why is it so prevalent today? Men over the age of 50, their testosterone is so stinking low, it's craziness. Here's another one, medications. Medications. I'm telling you, when it comes to statin drugs, obviously. Statin, drugs work. They will lower your cholesterol. Now why on God's earth would you want to do that? That's another question. But they do work. You will lower your cholesterol with statin drugs. The problem is you're going to lower your testosterone too. And what is it now? 40 something percent of men over the age of 50 years old are on a statin drug. A statin drug. You know, it bothers me that we can't talk nutrition.
Every medical school should be taking a thousand hours of nutrition. But it's sent to the wayside. Medications like high blood pressure pills, which again, what is it? 30, 40% of the population of men are on high blood pressure medication. Antidepressants sink your testosterone, acid reflux medication. And I'm not telling you to even get off the meds. I'm not going to do that because you're not my patient. But I'm telling you've got to look at all that stuff. Is there anything you can do to wean yourself off of some medication? One of the big problems too, like chemotherapy and it makes sense, right? Just destroys your testosterone. Now here's another reason I believe men are very low in testosterone. So I think I'm up to 11. They don't exercise enough. You see vitamin E, exercise, especially weight lifting, resistant exercise. Men, can I plead with you to get strong?
Tony Junior wrote an email the other day and he talked about muscle mass being a vital sign. You know what? I agree with him a million percent, that they should actually make muscle mass a vital sign. And the problem is that the vast majority of men, and ladies, you need to have muscle too. You don't want to get osteoporosis. You need muscle. Strong muscle equals strong bones. It's just the fact. It's not calcium you need for your bones. You need muscle for bone. Stronger, your muscle, the stronger your bones are. But men are not strong like they used to be. Of course, we live as a sedentary lifestyle, comparatively to the 1940s. Of course. You got to make up for that in the gym or your home gym. It takes discipline. But I used to be able to get men to elevate their testosterone.
If they would listen to me and start working up. And again, the best is resistant exercises. It doesn't take long. It's not, "I got to spend an hour of my time a day doing it." No, you don't. 15 to 20 minutes, three to four times a week. That is the best recipe for success when it comes exercise. It's the best. And resistant exercises are the best, and they will elevate your testosterone. And for ladies, of course, you want to strengthen your muscles. I thought I was going to get to some more articles today. But that one really hit me. Man, oh man. Average of 400 now. Or at least in 2013. Compared to 1943, where the average testosterone number was 1400. Unbelievable. It is so dramatic. But you are rarely going to hear it. It's not cancer. It's not whatever, but it's important for men.
You need that for your quality of life. Really important to elevate testosterone. Okay, I enjoyed that. That was fun. Okay, guys. Look, tomorrow I'm off. So I'll post it. I'm off tomorrow. I got a couple of appointments and I can't work my schedule out. So tomorrow I'm off. Wednesday morning we'll be back in the saddle, doing the Doctor Is In podcast and live. So Wednesday morning, 8:30 back in the saddle. So tomorrow tell everybody and we'll post it. I think Brandi's on holidays this week. Who gets holidays? I wonder if she's going to hear that? I'll get it. Okay, guys. We love you and we'll talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!