It’s Father’s Day this week, and you might be surprised that I want to talk to you about estrogen because when you hear the word estrogen you probably think all things female, but excess estrogen can have a huge impact on men’s health. 

Testosterone naturally begins to drop as men age but it can also be impacted by lifestyle, diet, stress, lack of sleep, over-exercising or not getting enough exercise, even environmental exposures can reduce the amount of testosterone you produce and your estrogen levels can climb at the same time.

Here are some signs you may have a hormone imbalance and low testosterone:

• If you’re looking down to see your shoes and all you can see is your belly, this is a sign that there is a change in your hormones.
• Feeling like you’ve lost strength and resilience
• You’ve put weight on around the waist or even your breast tissue
• Your sex drive goes down.
• You start to feel more emotional
• Your mood goes flat you can even get that “whatever” syndrome.

But before you jump on getting testosterone therapy, I want to warn you that you also need to address your lifestyle choices. It can really help you to maximize your results and minimize the risks associated with hormone replacement therapy. 

So here are some key lifestyle changes you can start making today:

• First, start to exercise. Even if it’s walking 30 to 45 minutes a day, it can help hormone performance.
• Manage your stress, because it has a huge impact on sex hormones. If you’re overcommitted, feeling frustrated, snapping at coworkers and friends, and your cortisol the stress hormone is probably surging and that can clearly block the production of testosterone. I see this happen all the time in men.
• A lack of sleep will lower your available sex hormones and the goal should be to really try and get 7 to 9:00 hours of sleep a night. One of the most important things you can do is change your diet.
• You need to kick the sugar habit and get at least 30 to 50 grams of fiber in a day because fiber helps your body process estrogen.
• You can also look at some botanical solutions to help you. Taking Diindolylmethane, an extract from broccoli and kudzu root actually helps the body to process estrogen. You can also start taking a botanical supplement like Eurycoma Longifolia, known as longjack, or even Testofen which is also a fenugreek extract. There’s been studies that have shown that these actually improve testosterone levels and in my practice, I’ve seen testosterone levels go up 100 to 200 points in men who are using these types of natural agents. 

Without making any lifestyle adjustments, testosterone therapy is a mixed bag of success and as I said, they can carry some increased risks. 

Jump start your transformation with our approved lifestyle programs and reach out to your Metabolic Code practitioner today to get your Metabolic Code assessment and report done. Through a detailed lifestyle questionnaire and labs you will know exactly where you stand today, and where you’re headed in the years to come. Don’t have a practitioner, contact us and we will get you in touch with someone right away.