Life Extension doesn’t often put its outstanding supplements on sale, and I’ve never seen them this inexpensive, so pull out your wish list and order while the best antioxidants, essential fatty acids, phyto extracts and hormone balancing supplements are still available at these wonderfully low prices.

UPDATE: I just took advantage of this sale and ordered online at Life Extension a few minutes ago (2/28/13) and want to point out that the “Free Shipping” code must be inputted as in the Product Discount Code field (box), and it will thereby be reflected in the checkout basket like any other product.  The actual “Discount Code” shown below is not needed, as the discount prices are already reflected if you use this link.

LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION is one of my favorite health information and vitamin supplement sites.  As the name suggests, much of the material covered at LEF.org is about aging better.

Here’s what LEF’s Dr. Mike Smith says about the products and this Life Extension Overstock Sale:

[Discount Code: SKB301W   Free Shipping Code: LIVELONG1]

When I wrote “must-have” in this post’s title, I’m making a presumption that you’re interested in what vitamin supplementation might be able to do to help reduce the typical health issues associated with aging.

After about an hour on the site, you’ll realize that we don’t need to age so poorly! The prevalent aspects of aging — inflammation, arthritis, weight issues, cell oxidation, cardiovascular disease, and hormone unbalance, and more – can be ameliorated by various protocols, including supplementation.

Over the years, I have learned much from LEF.  The organization has helped influence my own quest to age better, and with that aim, I’ve become a big consumer of their information and products, from the male hormone blood panel (they have one for females too, both here) to one-of-a-kind formulated supplements.

So, it’s without hesitation that I encourage you to dive into LEF right now, because it’s now they are offering an unusually large discount on overstock supplements.

Lookie here for a very small sampling of what’s available… and then grab the Link your Discount Code and Free Shipping Code below…

Those were just a small taste of the discounted supplements available.

Go see the rest, for surely there’s something savory there for you.  Continue on to:

- Life Extension Overstock Sale Link for discounts up to 75%

- Use the Discount Code if required: SKB301W

- And don’t forget the Fee Shipping Code: LIVELONG1

Apparently, this sale will continue until April 8, 2013, but don’t dawdle as the supplies will get quickly sold out!

Yep.

P.S. The links above that take you to a product page are likely Affiliate Links, which means that should you buy something, I’ll get some dollars; however, know that this does not affect the price you pay.

Related posts:

1. Supplements and Food that Protect Against Radiation Poisoning
2. Dr Hyman: “Ten Simple Tips That Will Save Your Life”
3. Nine Immune Enhancing, Flu-Busting Supplements You Need Now!

I could have titled this post, “What’s The Age Limit to Male Fertility?” Because, generally speaking, as a man grows older, so does his sperm.  Like women, men have a “biological clock” too.  But there are things a man can do in the realms of nutrition, supplementation and sex that push the clock back.

WHILST YOU were dancing around the Interwebs late last week, you might have bumped into a story about the world’s oldest new papa, an Indian fella who recently fathered a baby boy at the crazy ripe age of 96.

In addition to all the other considerations one might have about fathering a child at 96, including the actual act of supine conjugation (and I take liberties here in imagining that any position other than horizontal might be too strenuous for the lad), one wonders how in the heck ole pops got the motation back in his sperm.

Yes, you astute readers may now be thinking that it’s “mutation” that should be most evident in this near-Centenarian’s sperm, not “motation”, but, alas, the wonders that yoga and diet can do.

Ramajit Raghav is the name of the father in question, and he claims that the reason he has produced a second child in his nineties (the other was at the age of 94) is due to:

-  A regular practice of yoga;

-  A diet rich in vegetables (he’s a strict vegetarian) and almonds; and

-  (he asserts as his wife grins) Sex three times per night.

(That’s not a typo.)

Science claims that women aren’t the only ones who have a fertility-based biological clock, for it’s now apparent that though sperm production continues until a man’s last breath, both volume and semen quality generally diminish with age.

A Yahoo news post cites a 2004 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology which found that, “among a sample of couples using in-vitro fertilization, every additional year of a man’s age corresponded to an 11-percent increase in the odds that a couple would not achieve a pregnancy”.

Further, like with older women, the chances of having a child with genetic abnormalities increase with older fathers.  As a man ages, random mutations in a man’s sperm accumulate; passing these onto a child increases his or her odds of having autism, schizophrenia and other unhappy outcomes.

So, given that ole Ramajit’s two boys seem to be hale, how did he overcome the odds?

Well, some recent research from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, agrees with Mr. Raghav assessment that his three behaviors cited above may have a lot to do with his mighty sperm. 

Apparently, diets high in vitamin C, antioxidants, vitamin E, zinc and folate (the latter four of which are found in almonds) can prevent DNA damage from accumulating in sperm.

Which brings us to his number 3 behavior: An Australian study presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam in 2009 found that daily ejaculation helped reduce DNA damage in sperm for the majority of men, though it increased DNA damage in some. (Source)

Obviously there’s no DNA damage happening in Ramajit’s mighty swimmers, despite how often they’re released!

Sperm and Diet

In addition to the antioxidants and other sperm-strengtheners cited above, sperm quality and quantity are also improved by consumption (by you, not the sperm – it just wants eggs) of a docosahexnoic acid, or DHA, a fatty acid found in fish. Turns out that DHA transforms dysfunctional round-headed sperm into strong swimmers with cone-shaped heads packed with egg-opening proteins.

That cone head opens an egg, wiggles in, and – eureka! – baby-making happens.

In addition to the DHA and various antioxidants, researchers say that men over 44 years of age with high vitamin-C diets had 20 percent less DNA damage to sperm than their peers who consumed the least amount of vitamin C.  As mentioned, antioxidants, vitamin E, zinc and folate had similar effects

Machismo ≠ Super Sperm

Yes, mister, you’re awesome, a manly man, but the bad news is that macho men may not have super-sperm.

Sure women tend to be attracted to men with deep, manly voices. But research published in Dec. 2012 in the journal PLos ONE finds that these macho guys have no better sperm quality than their high-pitched counterparts.

Strangely, but factually, sperm concentration in deeper-voiced men was lower than in men with higher voices.

Like a six-pack and square jaw, deep voices are linked with testosterone levels, which may be why that particular resonance may send shivers down a woman’s spine.  However, the world is a complicated place, and so is sperm: in this case, a high enough level of testosterone can actually impede sperm production.

Which brings me both to the conclusion of this post, and to an oft-mentioned bromide on this site – In all things, balance.

Yep.

P.S.  You fellas (and the women who love them) that are interested in increasing your testosterone levels (irrespective of sperm matters) can read about how to do it in these posts:

How I’m Boosting Testosterone and Blasting Fat

Fellas, How Sturdy Is Your Morning Wood

How to Measure And Boost Your Testosterone

Just Exactly How Fat Are You Anyway

How To Boost Your Human Growth Hormone In 20 Minutes

P.P.S.  Just noticed that I’ve got a lot of “boosting” going on it the above titles… gotta get more creative.

Related posts:

1. A New Birth Control Method for Brave Men

You can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s wrong. The right blood test is easy to do and can give you a bucket full of information about your health. Check out the infographic by WellnessFX, and get the dope on cholesterol, inflammation, thyroid function and vitamin d.

GIVEN MY interest in technology and health, I keep my eye on the boatload of health-based start-ups launching on the raging river that is health care.

One such company is WellnessFX, which touts:

“Our team is solving an extremely complex and interesting human health problem: how to enable everyday people to optimize their health through the power of information.”

The WellnessFX approach is blood analysis.  You give them some, they evaluate it and provide various metrics that assess your level of health.

As their infographic – “Your Health In One Drop” – says , 70% of the data needed for diagnosis and health management resides in your blood.

So lets grab and flesh out each of the different health metrics that WellnessFX measures.

We’ll take a look at:

-Cholesterol,

-Inflammation,

-Thyroid, and

-Vitamin D.

After we examine each of these metrics, I’ll get a bit into the blood tests.

Cholesterol

In our modern world, many of us are beset with high cholesterol.  Our doctors, beleaguered from the sisyphean task of trying to influence us to eat better, resort to giving us what we really want – the magic pill that will make it go away.

Statins!

But there’s a downside to statins, for they come with a long list of side effects, including:

Myalgias, arthritis/ arthralgias, diarrhea, headache, rashes, elevation of liver transaminases, elevation of creatine kinase a muscle enzyme, various gastrointestinal symptoms including flatulence, dyspepsia, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, and various infection symptoms.

After reading that list, if you need more motivation to move away from statins and toward a lifestyle shift, here are some more side effects that are life threatening:

Rhabdomyolysi,  Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, photosensitivity, vasculitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, angioedema, anaphylaxis.  (Source for statin side effects.)

I dig into some statin details in the post, Cholesterol Drug “Lipitor” Loses its Patent – A Good Deal for You?.

But that’s not all, another post, High Cholesterol? Do Something! offers a simple, could-be-effective supplement you could ask your doctor about, and 12 Myths About Cholesterol reviews some common beliefs about cholesterol that are wrong – that is until science reverses itself.

Even if you know your HDL and LDL numbers, and even if they’re normal, you may not be in a position to celebrate with a rib eye, for as the Infographic below says:

“50% of heart attack patients have normal HDL and LDL levels.”

Your triglyceride numbers and other cholesterol factors (“sub-particles”) could be sub-optimum, so if your diet or family history puts you at risk, it’s time to find out the particulars via the right blood test.  (See “Blood Testing” below.)

Inflammation

In recent years, science has revealed that inflammation may be a root cause of many degenerative diseases, as inflammation seems to set up the right environment for disease to prosper.

Time Magazine put this foursquare on its cover in 2004 and called it, “The Secret Killer”.

A good blood test will measure inflammation by the High Sensitivity C-reactive Protein marker.

One of the first places you notice inflammation is in your joints – they don’t bend properly and are sore.  I’ve written about this in a post called, Inflammation… the Band of Joints, and Soreness Ain’t Swell, which present some good resources to learn how to reduce inflammation and improve joint mobility.

Thyroid

One in ten Americans may have thyroid disease, as the infographic states, but as I write in American’s Have Too Little Iodine, Dr. Brownstein – a thyroid expert – says the story is more significant than that.

Dr. Brownstein has checked over 5,000 people in his practice, and 95% have been iodine deficient. He recommends 50 to 100 milligrams of iodine to pump up iodine levels, and then 6 to 50 milligrams on a sustained basis after initial doses.

An improper functioning thyroid can cause weight gain, impair the immune system and increase cholesterol.

For insights about the thyroid, watch Dr. Mark Sircus interview Dr. Brownstein here.

Vitamin D

I’ve written quite a bit about vitamin D for the simple reason that it is:

• Exceedingly important for health, and
• Deficient in many people.

Basically, there are five ways to get Vitamin D:

1. 15 Minutes of Sun 3 Times Per Week
   You can get 10-15 minutes of high-noon sun exposure in warmer climates a few times a week. In the South you can do this all year long; but in the North it will work only in the summer months. But this is unrealistic for those who already wear sunscreen all day, or have been warned to stay out of the sun by their doctors.
2. Fatty Fish and Cod Liver Oil
   If you are one of those people who have been warned to stay out of the sun, another good natural source of Vitamin D is fatty fish, like salmon and in cod liver oil.
3. Fortified Dairy Products
   You also can get Vitamin D in fortified dairy products; however, there are only 100 units of Vitamin D per cup, so children and most adults would need at least four cups of dairy products per day. (Do you really want to ingest that much diary? Go for #5)
4. Multivitamin Supplements
   Although it varies by brand and the amount taken, most multivitamins have a substantial amount of vitamin D.
5. Vitamin D Supplements
   A good target is to take 1000 to 2000 international units of Vitamin D supplements every day. D3 is considered more potent and longer lasting, but if unavailable, both D2 and D3 are acceptable.  All versions are cheap and side effects are very rare.

And there are at least 30 reasons to pay attention to the five ways cited above, which I describe, and Vitamin D expert Dr. Michael Holick delightfully demonstrates, in 30 Reasons To Take Vitamin D.

Blood Testing

Getting a blood test is easy and a relatively cheap way to learn a lot about your health.

As it pertains to the health metrics we’re here examining, you can either have WellnessFX manage the procedure, or do it via the Life Extension Foundation (“LEF”).

Which one you do depends on what you wish to measure, and how much moola you’re willing to spend.

WellnessFX’s test will give you results for each of the health metrics herein discussed; whereas, LEF provides a more comprehensive test for cholesterol, inflammation and Vitamin D — called the “VAP PLUS” – but it doesn’t measure thyroid function.  So, if thyroid function is an important test for you, either go with WellnessFX, or get the LEF Thyroid Antibody Panel Test.

Here are links and prices for the blood tests:

-WellnessFX   $199 (limited offer), regular $239   Link

-Life Extension VAP™ PLUS Blood Test  $330 (Member), $440 (Non-member)

-Life Extension Thyroid Antibody Panel Blood Test   $99 (Member), $132 (Non-member)

If you need a story to motivate you, read about the Male Comprehensive Hormone Panel Blood Test I had done in these two posts:

Odds Are, You Need To Measure and Boost Your Testosterone, and

How I’m Boosting Testosterone and Blasting Fat.

Yeah, that should do it.

Ciao for now.

Related posts:

1. A Woman’s Health Is In Her Own Hands
2. Bloody Tests For Your Health Score
3. 9 Ways to Fight Diabesity with The Blood Sugar Solution

Mister, if you’re over 30, your testosterone numbers are declining.  40+? There’s a reason you may be feeling older.  Here’s what to know and what to do to boost your testosterone.

A FEW of my male 40-plus aged friends and I regularly talk about how we hope to boost our testosterone numbers, which naturally decline as we get older.

Some other guys think it strange that we speak so freely about it, as if a man’s testosterone numbers should be kept as close a guarded secret as… well, you get the drift.

I figure that aging brings an assortment of challenges to one’s door, and you can either respond to the knocking and do something about this uninvited guest, or ignore it as it endeavors to burn your house down.

What the hell am I talking about!?

Well, there is that old saying that,

“Aging is not for sissies.”

Which means to me that aging presents an assortment of unsavory challenges, and either you can ignore and thus succumb to age-based limitations earlier then is necessary, or you can rise to the occasion and fight back.

Sissies don’t fight back.

My compadres and I do.  And the one big, age-old villain we fight is declining testosterone.

For men, testosterone and other related hormones begin to decline from age 30 onward at a rate of one to three percent annually.  This adds up!  By the age of 40, many men complain that they’re feeling “older”.

Aging is just one reason for this decline.  There are a host of other contributing and age-related factors, such as:

• Body fat (especially belly fat, and therefore increasing aromatase activity)
• Oxidative damage to tissues responsible for the production of testosterone
• Reduction in testicular testosterone synthesis
• Declining levels of precursor molecules, such as DHEA
• Nutritional status and liver function    (Source)

Should Men Care About Declining Testosterone?

The answer to that question depends on what you want out of life.  If you’re fine with gradually becoming more passive, physically inactive, sexually inactive, soft-bodied and thin boned… then, no, you don’t need to fuss about testosterone.

In his book, The Life Plan, Dr. Jeffry Life gets specific with some of the signs of low testosterone, where on page 271 he lists these:

Declining sexual and physical energy

Decline in the frequency of early morning erections

Decline in the number of spontaneous erections

Disturbed sleep

Emotional swings, irritability, anxiety, depression

Foggy thinking, memory lapses

Increased cardiovascular issues

Loss of strength

Poor skin tone and saggy, wrinkled skin

Reduced lean muscle, higher body fat

Weak bones, osteopenia, osteoporosis

This seems to be what some doctors assume their male patients are willing to accept from mid-life onward, because the conventional view is that since testosterone naturally declines as men age, why mess with it?

That conventional view presents a recommended range that is lower than ideal. 

Let’s use me as an example.

As I wrote in the post, Fellas, How Sturdy Is Your Morning Wood, I recently, and for the first time, had an extensive blood test panel done offered by the Life Extension Foundation (LEF), which is called the Male Comprehensive Hormone Panel.

The blood giving process is simple:

1. You go to a (hopefully) nearby blood test lab and have blood drawn.
2. The blood is shipped overnight to three labs, each performing a different test.
3. The resulting report is then sent to the LEF, which emails and/or mails the report to you.
4. You then can spend up to one-half hour reviewing the results with a LEF doctor on the phone who, invariably, will make some suggestions about what LEF supplements can help with whatever needs help.

(There is another method that tests for testosterone and other things via saliva, but I know little about this technique at the moment.  Mike Maher offers a test here, [No longer there]. And read Dr. John Lee’s article too.)

Many years of a nutritious diet, supplementation and exercise helped to get me the sterling blood test results I got for every measure (such as cholesterol, prostrate, blood health, etc.) except one.

Yes, my testosterone was low.

To look at me, this might illicit surprise, for I’m fairly muscular, fairly lean, have enough energy to do what I want to do, and (if the opportunity would ever present itself) am interested and able to frolic in the hay.

These could be attributes you possess as well.  And yet, like me, odds are if you’re a Baby Boomer, or close to this generation, you too are low in testosterone-based hormonal levels optimal for you.

It’s hard to definitively know if you are or are not low in testosterone without a test, although the aforementioned Dr. Life says morning erections are one indicator, as I wrote about here.

That said, it would be helpful to know what is the blue ribbon standard for a healthy, manly man’s testosterone range.  And that’s where the confusion starts.

Testosterone By The Numbers

So, I went to the lab, spilled my blood into several test tubes, and after about a week, the results were emailed to me.

I scanned three pages of results, checking how each obscure number related to the “Reference Interval” (the Lab Range), which indicates where my number stood in the acceptable range.

Several numbers leaped out in a favorable way because they were so good.  But not so for testosterone.

This is what my “testosterone blood panel” measured:

- Testosterone is the principal male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid hormone from the androgen group. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands.

Testosterone levels peak in a man at approximately the age of 30. By the age of 40, 5% of men are thought by conventional standards to have low testosterone, although specialists in this area assert that the number is very much higher. By the time a man is 70, his testosterone has declined by 40-50%.

- Free Testosterone is the form of testosterone that many specialists in the hormone world believe is the best way to test for testosterone activity because it is the active form of the hormone; it’s freely available in the blood, and thus able to actually “work” on your tissues.

- Pregnenolone is often referred to as the “mother” or “ultimate” hormone because it is like a hormonal building block, given that it’s used to make other hormones such as DHEA, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

- Dihydrotestosterone (DHEA) gets secreted by the adrenal glands, is then converted into DHEA-S (S for Sulfate), which then circulates through the body. DHEA is a precursor for many other hormones, including testosterone and estrogen, and like many hormones, it declines as you age, about 10% per decade from age 30 for both men and women.

- Estradiol is the predominant sex hormone present in females. It is also present in males, and, surprisingly, exists at a higher level because it is being constantly produced in men. In females it is only produced three out of 30 days of her cycle. Estradiol is produced in the gonads and by precursor hormones. Testosterone is converted by aromatization to estradiol, which, depending on the amount, can put men into androphase, the so-called male menopause.

These hormones are measured in:

“ng/dL” (nanograms per deciliter),
“pg/mL” (picogram per milliliter), and
“ug/mL” (microgram per milliliter).

So, that said, let’s take a look at the testosterone part of my blood panel.

In the table below, I present my test results, the range the lab suggests is appropriate for an adult male, and the more ideal range promoted by the Life Extension Foundation (“LEF”).

*No Lab Range listed.
**This range was not found on LEF’s site, but was cited by the LEF doctor who went over the blood test results with me.

Regarding the table above, note that:

- My Testosterone, Serum, Free Testosterone and DHEA numbers are within the Lab Range, albeit on the low side, but are well below the lowest number of the range recommended by LEF, which I think are more optimal.

- My Pregnenolone and Dihydrotestosterone numbers are below the range cited by either the Lab or LEF.

- My Estradiol number is near the mid-mark of the Lab range, but just under bottom of the LEF Range.  This appears to be quite good.

According to a study cited by LEF, men with serum estradiol levels between 21.80 and 30.11 pg/mL – the ideal range touted by LEF — had the fewest deaths. Those with estradiol levels of 37.40 pg/mL or above experienced death rates  133% above those in the ideal range, and the lowest estradiol group with estradiol levels under 12.90 pg/mL suffered a 317% increased death rate.

So, the conclusion here is that when it comes to Estradiol, a mid-range number is key.

How You Can Improve Your Testosterone Numbers

I’m a bit nervous here because at this point I may have convinced you how important it is to know your testosterone numbers, and, if low, do something about it, but I don’t have some natural, fool-proof, one-size-fits-all “do this” formula for you.

Yes, the standard way to boost testosterone is to go to a doctor who specializes in hormone balancing and choose one of four methods:

1. Transdermal gels, creams or patches, each containing a prescribed amount of testosterone;
2. Pellets that are surgically implanted into your skin whereby testosterone slowly leaks into your body as the pellets dissolve;
3. Human chorionic gonadotropin injections in the abdomen stimulate the testicles to create more testosterone, a method less effective for those 50+; and
4. Intramuscular injections done each week.

If your insurance does not pay for this, it may cost you about $200 per month.

Despite my desire to boost my own testosterone-based hormone numbers, I’m going to try to do it “naturally”.  Yes, it’s likely to be cheaper than being under a doctor’s care, but it will also be a slower and less proven path.  What can I say… I like to do it my way.

Here’s what I’ve done already to boost my testosterone:

- Have lost five of the 10 last pounds steadfastly clinging to my body.  Body fat messes with testosterone – less fat, more testosterone is generally true.

- Added High Intensity Interval Training (“HIIT”) to my workouts.  HIIT makes the body dramatically increase its production of Human Growth Hormone and testosterone, a subject I write about in the post, How To Boost Your Human Growth Hormone In 20 Minutes.

- Increased my consumption of protein.  Since I eat no red meat, and little of any other kind, this meant increasing protein powder consumption.  At most meals and snacks, I now use a combination of whey, rice, pea, hemp and various high protein sprouted grains that are pulverized into a powder.

- Began consuming the following testosterone-boosting supplements: DHEA, Tribulus Terrestris, Magnesium Oil, Stinging Nettles and Ginseng extracts.

Supplementing with DHEA was the only suggestion made by LEF’s physician who reviewed my blood work. Well, OK, he’s the doctor and so I am doing this, but carefully, because DHEA can augment estradiol as well as testosterone… I’m not ready for those man-boobs yet.

There is a long list of other possible, natural testosterone-boosting supplements that you can read about at PeakTestosterone.com.  Just search at that site to your heart’s content.

In subsequent posts, I’ll present the results of my testosterone-boosting endeavor, but this will take a few months… not only to give the workouts, diet and supplements a chance to work, but to take another test to see what the new numbers are.

Speaking of tests, man, without one, you’re running blind.  Yes, that morning erection – or lack thereof – may give you a clue, but it’s not exactly a science.  So, choose either a blood or saliva test and take it from there.

Conclusions

OK, let’s close out this meandering post.

By now you should have gleaned the following:

• The testosterone-based hormonal numbers cited as acceptable depend on your perspective – do you want to hang with the pack, or optimize?  There’s a marked difference between what some doctors deem acceptable and what might be optimal in order for you to richly experience life.

• Testosterone is affected by both behavior (diet, exercise, sleep, etc.) and aging.  You can improve your numbers either by either taking pharmaceutically derived testosterone, or doing it via natural supplementation and behavioral changes.

• You can’t determine the journey without first knowing from whence you start, so get a saliva or blood test and know your numbers.

Check out the list of resources below, ask questions, or submit comments in the Comments section below, and have a nice day.

Over and out.

Resources

Male Hormone Restoration

Female Hormone Restoration

DHEA Dosing and Safety Precautions

Important Tools for Disease Prevention

Testosterone is great but Dihydrotestosterone is the king of all male androgens!

PeakTestosterone.com

17 Rapid Fat Loss Tips

Six Best of 2010 — Food, Diet and Nutrition

Related posts:

1. Men’s Health Supplements for Prostate and Testosterone
2. How I’m Boosting Testosterone and Blasting Fat
3. Boost Your Human Growth Hormone in 20 Minutes!

This post is for men and the women who love them.  For men, living long and strong distills down to optimizing food, exercise and testosterone levels.  Regarding testosterone, “Fellas, how’s your morning wood?” Watch.

UPDATE 3/27/13: I came across the following video explanation about males’ “Morning Wood” and had to share it here.  It’s quite amusing and instructive, so go have a watch and then read about building testosterone naturally.

I’VE BEEN reading The Life Plan by Dr. Jeffry S. Life.  Though the name may be unfamiliar to you, odds are that you’ve seen his image, for it’s planted everywhere an ad can be placed.

This is him:

It only takes a moment to see what’s so remarkable, and to get a strong hint about why his image appears in so many places.

Yes, underneath that elderly face is a body of a much younger, muscular man.

Incongruous?

Certainly.

So, whatsup?

Baby Boomers simply don’t want to age the old fashion way.  Medical types like Dr. Life know this very well.  They know that we want a different reality from that of our parents.

And to shape that new reality, we’re going to need to adopt some decidedly different behaviors, protocols, supplements and hormone therapies than did our forefathers, who did none of these things.

To our discerning eyes and hopeful ears, Dr. Life’s image and message screams out:

“I’ll show you the way!”

Dr. Life’s “Life Plan”

I do not want to spare you from reading about how Dr. Life went from this “before” picture…

 … to the “after” picture first presented above, because if you have the desire to age better than normal, it would be worth your while to learn how such could be achieved.

(The Life Plan is a place to start, after reading this post, naturally.)

OK, I’ll briefly summarize “The Plan” and then segue into explaining the title of this post: Fellas, How Sturdy Is Your Morning Wood?

Food

The aim here is to make those food choices that will reduce fat, inflammation, glycation and excessive insulin production. Here’s what Dr. Life suggests:

1. Eat three main and two snack meals each day, wherein each meal contains the proper proportion of each macronutrient – protein (35%), fat (15%) and carbohydrates (50%) at the correct target total calories calculated to get you to the desired weight.

2. Choose healthy fats such as avocados, flax seeds, nuts, and omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids (usually liquid at room temperature and solid when cold, such as olive oil, avocado oil and peanut oil).

3. Choose low glycemic carbs, mainly non-grain foods such as vegetables. Fruit is OK in limited amounts due to the high sugar content.

4. Don’t skip meals.

5. Water: drink half your body weight in ounces daily, meaning if you weigh 200 lbs, you’d drink 100 ounces.

Exercise

The Life Plan advocates a combination of anaerobic (such as weight lifting and sprinting), aerobic (such as jogging) and stretching.  The science clearly shows that exercise not only improves the quality of your life, but its longevity as well.

[Check out How Exercise Slows The Aging Process and New Research: Muscles = Longevity.]

1. Flexibility, balance and core strength keeps you mobile, reduces injuries and improves sexual function.

2. Resistance training (weights, calisthenics, and others that are anaerobic) builds strong muscles and bones that help prevent osteoporosis, burns fat and maintains youthful functional strength.

3. Aerobic exercise helps reduce or eliminate heart disease, controls/prevents diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Hormones

This is the crux of The Plan, and all by itself it’s likely to produce noticeable results without much effort.

The reason is simple: most men over 40 years of age have less testosterone than is ideal, and so supplementing with it, or something that could promote its production, gets results pretty quickly.

The symptoms of inadequate testosterone are many – big belly, fatigue, listlessness, “man boobs”, declining sexual function and/or interest, and one pretty telling sign which gets to the title of this post… but not yet.

Two points Dr. Life makes:

1. Testosterone levels are tested via blood or saliva.  A doctor makes the determination whether your “number” is adequate for your age.  Unfortunately, many doctors, according to Dr. Life, underestimate the optimum testosterone number.

Treatment is typically with a bioidentical testosterone cream, although there are natural supplements available that might do the trick, such as DHEA. However, DHEA is not without controversy, as PeakTestosterone.com covers here.  Also, know that increasing protein levels can also boost testosterone.

If you think you might be low in testosterone, read about my plan for boosting my own here: Get Younger And Stronger — How To Measure And Boost Your Testosterone.

2. Kegels for men.  Although not a testosterone enhancer, Dr. Life advocates kegel exercises to help improve something that a man’s youthful testosterone levels once upon a time took care of – sexual gratification.  If you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, the result can be stronger and harder erections along with better ejaculatory control.

The technique is to identify the right muscle, which is the one that you contract when stopping urine flow.  Then throughout the day, squeeze it, hold, and release a bunch of times. You’ll be surprised about how quickly this muscle fatigues.

Morning Wood

Alas, it’s now time to explain why I titled this post Fellas, How Sturdy Is Your Morning Wood?

Given our propensity for rationalization, we can find excuses why this and that particular symptom of low testosterone does not apply to us.  But Dr. Life says there’s one pretty good indication that would be hard to miss or argue with:

Your hard-on.

Specifically, do you wake up in the morning with wood, that sublime euphemism for el erection?

From Dr. Life, The Life Plan, page 276:

“Those early morning erections have nothing to do with the bladder, but everything to do with testosterone levels.  With lowered testosterone, not only do early morning erections disappear, but so do erectile performance, libido, and sexual thoughts throughout the day.  Ninety-five percent of the men who come to see me in their 40s through their upper 70s do not have erections when they wake up in the morning.”

Do you?

Well, consider that question to be rhetorical; after all, I don’t want the Comments section below to become a confessional on this particular topic.

So, now you know one test for testosterone.  From here you can read the tons of information that PeakTestosterone.com has on the subject, buy Dr. Life’s book, or just be OK with the status quo.

My Confession

For the first time, I recently had a male hormone blood panel done.  Despite all the exercise and righteous eating I do, my testosterone number came up short of ideal.

It was 463 438 (whoops).

Yes, it’s within the range for a man of my advanced years (born 1956), but come on… am I not the guy who is aiming to circumvent the common ills of aging, such as getting old?

I want that number to be between 800 and 1,000.  Dr. Life aims his patients for 800 to 1,100.

At this point I will not use pharmaceutical derived (or any other) testosterone.  Instead, I have begun and will add to a regimen of various supplements, the research about which suggests they could be useful in naturally boosting testosterone.

(A girl friend could help.)

Once I get a handle on what I’m doing – and some results – I’ll post about it for your edification and enduring entertainment.

Stay tuned to this station.

(UPDATE: Here’s the latest entry about my testosterone boosting journey.)

Yep.

Follow @joegarma

P.S. Hey, if you’ve discovered something that boosts testosterone, tell us about it in the Comments section below!

Everyone’s sparing over whether coffee is good or bad.  Even the research is contradictory.  Here I present two learned views, and sprinkle on my own 2 cents. Make sure you read the UPDATE at the bottom.

MY FANTASY is to solve this coffee debate by providing overwhelming evidence to support either that it’s good for you or bad for you.

Certainly, smart and informed people take opposite views on the topic.

(About coffee they act like economists: “You can line up all the economists in the world and never reach a conclusion!”)

Sometimes coffee analysts even contradict themselves.  Seemingly.  Because, you see, the coffee-thing is a nuanced topic.  Whether coffee’s good or bad for you depends on an assortment of things that all have to do about you.  Mostly.

Let’s start out with a few purported reasons why coffee is good and then a few reasons it’s not.

Coffee Is Good For You Because:

1. It may reduce your risk of dying
2. It just might reduce incidences of colon cancer
3. It may be reduce the risk of diabetes

Coffee Is Bad For You Because:

1. It increases stress
2. It reduces the cells’ capacity to respond to blood sugar
3. Unfiltered coffee leaks the most diterpenes into your body

As I’ll reproduce in a moment, the people who proffered the three “Coffee’s Good” and ‘Coffee’s Bad” items above each have several more declarations to buttress their respective points of view.

And, as mentioned, one of them also counters his own position given specific nuances associated with you – meaning, whoever’s doing the coffee drinking.

First up – because I side with his bias – is Dr. Mark Hyman of the The Blood Sugar Solution and other many good things.  The three “Bad Coffee” declarations are his.

Like me, he’s been smitten by a good cup of joe; in his case, Coffea Arabica, of which he imbibed mercilessly during his Emergency Room years.

He eventually had a conversion:

“As I began to tune into my body and provide it with what it really wanted – fresh, whole, real, unprocessed foods, sleep, relaxation, and the time to enjoy the life I had created for myself and my family – I was able to break up with coffee and make up with my health.” (Source)

In part, that conversion occurred as Dr. Hyman began to read contradictory studies about the health impacts of coffee.

Some showed that coffee drinking could help avoid diabetes, but the nuance was that this was largely for populations studied that had healthy blood sugar levels and insulin capacities to begin with.

Dr. Hyman’s #3 item above (“Coffee Bad”) underscores how squirrely this subject is.  Turns out, those diterpenes (from which steroids are derived) ain’t all bad, as they are known to be antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory.

Nonetheless, the good doctor figures the bad outweighs the good.

Dr. Hyman’s 10 Reasons Coffee Is Not Good For You:

1. The caffeine in coffee increases catecholamines, your stress hormones.  The stress response elicits cortisol and increases insulin.  Insulin increases inflammation and this makes you feel lousy.

2. Habituation to caffeine decreases insulin sensitivity, making it difficult for your cells to respond appropriately to blood sugar.  High blood sugar levels lead to arterial deterioration and increased risk of mortality related to cardiovascular disease.

3. Unfiltered coffee has the highest amount of beneficial antioxidants yet also leaks the most diterpenes into your system.  These diterpenes have been linked to higher levels of triglycerides, LDL and VLDL levels.

4. The helpful chlorogenic acids which may delay glucose absorption in the intestine have also been shown to increase homocysteine levels- an indicator for increased risk of cardiovascular disease which tends to be elevated in diabesity.

5. The acidity of coffee is associated with digestive discomfort, indigestion, heart burn, GERD and dysbiosis (imbalances in your gut flora).

6. Addiction is often an issue with coffee drinkers and makes it really difficult to rely on the body’s natural source of energy.  Ask any coffee drinker about how it feels to withdraw from coffee, and you will mistake their story for that of a drug addict’s…

7. Associative addictions trend with coffee – who doesn’t immediately think of warm, frothy sweet cream and sugar when they picture coffee?  Surely the business of coffee has inspired a culture addicted to the sugary, fatty tastes of what has become more of a meal than a drink! That morning latte is the epitome of food lacking nutrition density yet packing energy!

8. 5-HIA, an organic acid and component of the neurotransmitter serotonin ( the happy chemical) seen in the urine tends to be elevated in coffee drinkers which means they may be at risk for lower levels of serotonin synthesis in the brain.  Serotonin is necessary for normal sleep, bowel function, mood, and energy levels.  It is a vicious cycle as caffeine can disrupt sleep and promote anxiety and depression. We all know someone who tends to be tired, wired and over caffeinated!

9. Elevated urinary excretion of important minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium have been noted in coffee drinkers. An imbalance in your electrolyte status can lead to serious systemic complications.

10. Constituents in coffee can interfere with normal drug metabolism and detoxification in the liver making it difficult to regulate the normal detoxification process in the liver.  Another issue to be aware of with coffee intake is how certain medications such as levothyroxine (thyroid) as well as tricyclic antidepressants are poorly absorbed, making symptoms curiously worse for patients.

Now, if this is convincing, stop here and go straightway to Dr. Hyman’s post, Ten Reasons to Quit Your Coffee! and read there his 13 tips on how to avoid withdrawal symptoms.

For those of you who continue to “Hear No Evil, See No Evil and Speak No Evil” because of the horrible notion of quitting the morning (and afternoon and evening) celebration of java, read on…

[Yes, Petra, I’m thinking of you.  : - )]

Because there’s hope, and it comes from my new Twitter friend @PeakT, creator of PeakTestosterone.com (which every guy over 30 and the women who love them should visit).

@PeakT is Lee Myer and Lee Myer wrestles over the coffee good/bad debate.  The three items above in “Coffee Good” is his.

In his post, Ten (Really Good) Reasons to Drink Coffee, (actually, there are really 11, all with footnoted research studies), which I shall here reproduce, Lee dives in the deep end.

Lee Myer’s 11 Good Reasons To Drink Coffee:

1.   Mortality.  Coffee is one of those rare factors that can actually reduce your risk of dying.  The reason:  it is close to neutral or maybe slightly positive with regards to cancers deaths but significantly reduces cardiovascular death rates.  For example, a 2008 study followed over a 100,000 men and women for 18 years and found a clear dose dependent decrease in all cause (overall) and cardiovascular mortality. [1] Remember:  dose dependence is the gold standard of such studies and adds more weight to the evidence, because it meant that the more coffee that was consumed the less the risk of dying.  Previous studies had found the same thing by the way.  NOTE: Decaf coffee showed the same results but to a lesser degree. [1]

2.  Cancer Reduction.  The mortality studies mentioned above do not show significant overall cancer reduction among coffee drinkers.  However, coffee does appear to decrease the risk of certain specific types of cancer, including cancer of the colon, kidney and non-melanoma skin. [2]  Still other studies have shown that coffee offers signficant protection against prostate cancer, especially the most agressive kind. [3] And, interestingly enough, the same benefits were found for decaffeinated coffee, indicating the results came from coffee’s phytochemicals and not the caffeine itself.

3.  Diabetes.  Another mystery of coffee consumption is the fact that it seems to, in the short term, negatively affect glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity yet very significantly reduces the risk of diabetes according to multiple studies. In fact, those who drank seven or more cups per day had only one half the risk. [4]

4.  Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance.  Coffee, both through caffeine and some of its consituent ingredient, has been shown to help keep those pounds off. [5]

5.  Dementia and Alzheimer’s Reduction.  Several studies have shown that coffee reduces the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s, unlike tea. [6]  3-5 cups/day confers optimal protection according to one study.  In fairness, one study did not find such a reduction. [7]  However, the reason is likely the dose as yet another study found that too much coffee resulted in a loss in cognitive gains. [8]  Again, right around 3 cups appears to be the sweet spot.

6.  Alertness and Mental Performance.  It’s no secret that coffee boosts your mental sharpness, endurance and acuity.  The studies show alertness and mental performance are enhanced with coffee consumption. [9]  It may not turn you into Einstein, but it can give you a decided edge.  One study found a dose dependent response where the more coffee that was consumed, the better the cognitive performance. [10]  NOTE: Decaf coffee did not have nearly the same benefit.

7.  Exercise and Athletic Performance.  Coffee boosts lipolysis, the ability of your body to burn fats and rates of nerve impulse transmission. [11]  This means greater endurance and, therefore, performance in most exercise and athletic conditions. One study of middle distance runners showed that it improved overall race time, final stretch run speed and VO2. [12] What else is there, eh? By the way, coffee does this without exclusively relying on caffeine’s epeniphrine-boosting properties.  For example, one study showed that coffee actually dampened the effects of epinephrine. [13]

8.  Reduced Blood Pressure.  This one has researchers scratching their collective heads.  Some initial studies showed that coffee increased blood pressure and thus the risk of hypertension.  However, follow-up work showed clearly that heavy, “chronic” coffee drinkers actually had lower blood pressure. [14] The threshhold is about 5 cups/day and has the strongest correlation in males.

9.  Parkinson’s Disease.  A 2002 meta-analysis shows “strong epidemiological evidence that smokers and coffee drinkers have a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease”.  [15] (This is just about the only disease where smoking is protective.)  The reduction in risk for 3 cups/day is in the range of 25-30%.  A previous study from a few years prior had arrived at the same conclusion. [16]

10.  No Floride.  This is just an apologetic argument to use with your tea-drinking friends.  Green tea is similar to coffee in the sense that it is a caffeinated beverage that strongly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, some cancers and all cause mortality.  However, green tea has a big disadvantage:  an abundance of flouride.  Flouride can be hard on the brain and your precious neurons.  Black tea has a lot of flouride and green tea double that.

11.  Prostate Cancer.  One recent study found that heavy coffee drinkers, decaf or regular, had a 20% reduction in all kinds of prostate cancer and a 60% reduction in the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. [17]

(Go to here to read more and check out the research noted in the brackets [ ].)

Sounds pretty good, huh? Aren’t you glad you don’t have to contemplate fighting those caffeine addiction headaches anymore?

Well, before you jump up and high five everyone at Starbucks, go to Mr. Myer’s post and note his bold “CAUTION”.

Because despite these 11 “go for it”, coffee-is-good items, @PeakT knows there’s a downside.  It’s all there on the Interwebs.  He calls it: The Potential Dangers of Coffee and Caffeine.

And this returns us to a comment I made at the outset of this post:

“Whether coffee’s good or bad for you depends on an assortment of things that all have to do about you.”

You need to know your body and its propensities, such as:

-Does too much caffeine give you the jitters, or interrupt your sleep?

-Do you have high blood pressure?

-Do you feel more stressful after drinking coffee?

-Do you have an electrolyte imbalance?

In effect, you need to re-read Dr. Hyman’s list (above).

And while you’re at it, go read how Lee Myers answers a question from one of his forum subscribers who is confused about the pros and cons of java swilling.  It gets back to the nuances.  Read his answer here.

My Bottom Line On Coffee

Mine might not be yours, but my bottom line about coffee is that for most of us, less is more.  For some of us, any is too much.  And then for the very few, pour it on, my blood type is C-positive. (“C” for “caffeine”.)

It’s your responsibility to discover in which camp you light your morning fire.

You love the taste, the buzz, and the morning ceremony?!  OK, have one cup.  Then turn to green tea for the rest of the day. (And there is that stuff called “water”.)

[Read my Nine Reasons to Drink Green Tea (and limit coffee).]

Yep.

UPDATE: Brian St. Pierre in his post on PrecisionNutrition.com may have found the most important factor to determine whether coffee is good or bad for YOU. He writes:

“One reason that evidence on the health effects of coffee is so mixed is that people clear caffeine at different rates. Caffeine is broken down and cleared by the liver, and our genetic makeup shapes how quickly and effectively we can do this.

“On one hand, “slow” metabolizers of caffeine don’t process caffeine effectively. These are people who are adversely affected by caffeine, get the jitters, and are wired for up to nine hours after consumption.

“Others just get a boost in energy and alertness for a couple of hours; they are considered “fast” metabolizers of caffeine.”

Brian knows his stuff, and he backs it up with research.  Read more of what he has to say here.

Over and out.

Related posts:

1. What You Need To Know About Coffee, Saturated Fat and Red Meat
2. Nine Reasons to Drink Green Tea (and limit coffee)
3. Cholesterol Drug “Lipitor” Loses its Patent – A Good Deal for You?

Gotta get lean and muscular for that prize acting role?  Need to lose fat fast? Ditch the aerobics and pick up the dumbbells and go, go, go with metabolic circuits.

Late Welsh actor, Andy Whitfield in his role as Spartacus

OK, BEFORE you runners and bicyclists run/ride all over me with evidence about how all those aerobic miles makes you lean, pumps up your metabolism and gives you great cardiovascular health to boot, let me explain.

What I’m up to here is not to disparage the value of aerobic exercise.  I believe in its value.  I just think that science has it right when it proclaims that the most efficient and effective way to get rid of body fat is to perform weight circuit training.

Adam Campbell in a Men’s Health article entitled Lift to Lose underscores this point in a compelling way.

He follows the money.

On which type of exercise would the moneymen place their bets if the goal were fast, assured fat loss?

In effect, this is done every time a soft-bodied actor is slated to play the role of some lean muscular bruiser.  The actors are not told to train for a marathon.  They train with weight circuits.  Metabolic circuits.

It takes a whole lot of money to make a TV series or movie.  When the part requires buffness, and buffness must be quickly built and maintained, there’s a tried-and-true technique.

Mr. Campbell cites the example of the late Welsh actor, Andy Whitfield, who played the lead in the Starz television drama, Spartacus: Blood and Sand.  Whitfield’s costume was a revealing toga and his character was a badass.  He had to look the part.  He had to be lean and muscular.

And he had to build and maintain that body under a severe time constraint, because he was on the set for 12 hours a day.

So, what does Andy Whitfield do?  He paid attention to exercise experts like Jeff Volek, Ph.D.

Dr. Volek studies this sorta thing.  He does not dispute that aerobic exercise burns calories and will result in fat/weight loss.  What he does dispute is the contention, though time-honored, that aerobic exercise the superior way to lose fat.  And he has good reasons for his point of view.

Being the able scientist, he tested it.

What Dr. Volek did was to put overweight people on a reduced-calorie diet and divided them into three groups:

1. One group didn’t exercise,
2. Another performed aerobic exercise three days a week, and
3. The third did both aerobic exercise and weight training three days a week.

The results of the study were that each group lost about 21 pounds of weight over 12 weeks, but with one very important difference…

*The weight lifters shed five more pounds of fat than those who didn’t pump iron. The weight they lost was almost pure fat, while the other two groups shed 15 pounds of lard, but also gave up 5-plus pounds of muscle.*

Do the math.

From a fat-loss perspective – not a total weight perspective – the weight lifters lost almost 40 percent more fat, because all of their weight loss was fat and none was muscle.

This result is not “out of the blue”.  It gets replicated study after study.

Research on low-calorie, no muscle building dieters shows that, on average, 75 percent of their weight loss is from fat and 25 percent of it is muscle.

That muscle is hard earned and is worth keeping around as you try to lose some fat.  In fact, muscle is a key contributor to maintaining (or increasing) you metabolism, which, of course, helps burn calories.

Muscle also is what picks you up off the floor, climbs the stairs, attracts a mate (maybe), or climbs a rope (if only).

You do not want to toss muscle out with your fat. (Definitely!)

Can You Run 1.3 Miles in 8 Minutes?

As testing techniques improve, new things are discovered.

That Men’s Health article I cited above presents the findings of an advanced method exercise physiologist Dr. Christopher Scott began using to estimate energy expenditure during exercise.

Dr. Scott’s found that weight training burns 71 percent more calories than originally thought.

One eight-minute weight lifting circuit of eight exercises can use 159 to 231 calories — the same as running at a 6-minute-mile pace for the same duration.

I don’t know about you, but in eight minutes, I can do an eight-exercise weight lifting circuit… I cannot, however, run 1.3 miles.

Results From The Real-World

Let’s get out of the lab and peek into your world, the real world.

Rachel Cosgrove and her husband, Alwyn, own a health club, Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California.  Over the years, the Cosgroves have risen to the top of the fitness industry due to their clients’ successes.

Men’s Health quotes Mrs. Cosgrove:

“Starting out, we knew that weight training was necessary to avoid muscle loss, and that it appears to boost your metabolism for hours after you work out.  We also knew that according to studies, higher-intensity exercises such as interval training and weight training resulted in greater fat loss than lower-intensity exercise did.

“As time went by, we began to drop aerobic exercise from our fat-loss programs altogether. And guess what? Our clients achieved even faster results.

“Our average client has to be in and out of the gym in 45 to 60 minutes and has only 2 to 4 days a week to exercise. We design workouts to optimize that time.”

At this point, you should not be surprised that the Cosgroves rely on “metabolic circuits.”

Metabolic Circuits, The Holy Grail of Fat Lose

Metabolic circuits are fast-paced weight-training routines in which you alternate between upper and lower-body exercises.

The central idea is to maximize the amount of time you can sustain the maximum effort.

Yes, you can go all out in a 30-second sprint, but for how long could this be sustained?  The rest periods between sets would, by necessity, get longer and longer and your body would become completely fatigued too soon to maximize the fat lose benefit.

[Check out the 20-minute Bust Your Butt, HGH-producing workout in my post, How to Boost Your Human Growth Hormone in 20 Minutes!]

With metabolic circuits, you’re emphasizing different large muscles in each compound (non-isolating) exercise, and thereby can maintain a high-intensity effort for a much longer duration, with minimal rest.

The result cannot be better summarized than does Mr. Campbell, the Men’s Health author, who states:

“… the muscle-saving, calorie-burning benefits of intense resistance training and sprints, combined with the nonstop movement of long, steady-state aerobic exercise. It could be the greatest fat-loss workout known to man.”

And, I imagine, given his enviable results, Mr. Whitfield, the Spartacus actor, couldn’t have agreed more.

Related posts:

1. How To Measure Your Basil Metabolic Rate and Why It’s Important That You Do
2. Get Lean And Strong With Dr. Hyman’s Metabolic Boosters
3. Five Diet and Exercise Myths that Need to Die

I JUST heard that this HBO documentary is airing tonight on… well… HBO, so this post is a bit late to gin up a tsunami of interest, at least from this tiny corner of the cyberworld.

The good news it that it’s a two four-part (whoops) series that will probably air again and/or be accessible online.

The HBO documentary, “The Weight of the Nation” is a clarion call for changing our eating habits and the government’s food and farm policies and subsidies.

Without some quick and dramatic changes, we will all soon have a problem, not just the 2/3rds of us that are overweight or obese, as well as 1/3 of children.

There’s the health problems for those overweight, and financial and social problems for everyone.

Here’s the web site: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films

Here are some soundbites from the trailer:

“1/3 of the people in this nation are obese, and 2/3rds are overweight”

“Obesity is the biggest threat to the welfare of this country.”

“This is probably first generation that will have a lower life expectancy than their parents’”

“It’s about the health and wealth of the U.S. as a nation.”

“All of us have to be part of the solution.”

“We will all pay a serious price.”

Yes, it might be an unsavory topic, one better left in the closet from the manufactured food industries point of view. And, the closet is where it’s been for nigh twenty years. Things need to change. The first step is to understand why “the weight of the nation is crushing America”.

Tune in, find out.

Yep.

Related posts:

1. Sunday Summary: Weight Loss Truths, Weight Loss Steps and A Guide to Healthy Shopping
2. Some Help for Weight Management
3. Drink Your Way to Health and Weight Loss

I WRITE about this reluctantly.

Penis Size Matters More to Men than Women

It’s Tuesday morning, the time each week when I chain myself to the desk and pray to the muse that I can write something of interest both to me and the readers of this blog.

If a topic hasn’t already been itching me, I scan articles I’ve bookmarked for the purpose of commenting, expanding or simply inspiring me to write on the subject.

I also will look at my blog stats and see which article topics are being read the most.

Sometimes, I peer out the window and scan Richardson Bay for a mermaid muse.

Some time ago, I had a laugh when I read about a South Korean study that showed that the relative size of a man’s index and ring fingers indicate penis size.

“I’ve got to write about this… it will go viral!” I said to myself.

So I wrote Drats! It’s No Longer a Secret — Penis Size Is Determined by Finger Length. The post did not go viral, but it’s among the top 10 read here on this humble site.

Given the prominence of the subject among my readers, when I bumped into a Time Healthland article by Meredith Melnick called Add Inches!! (No, Really, Men Can Make It Longer), I thought, “I gotta put my spin on this!”

With all that as an explanation for this most importantly trite subject, let’s get to the chase:

Fellas, the gals care a heck of a lot less about your junk than you do!

Now, to you puerile hecklers, let me say that this definitive factoid does not come from my own experiential research trove of three data points, but from those Kinsey Institute sex researcher types.

Armed with clipboards and penis tissue expansion implements resembling Middle Age spine stretching, pain inflicting torture devices, among others, these able scientists romp through the countryside, surveying woman and testing the permanent expansion capabilities of said penises. (Temporary blood flow augmentation will not suffice.)

Here, in two bullet points, their findings:

• Although only 55% of men are satisfied with their third leg, 85% of women are, the best indication yet that they really should rule the world.

(We men still need to adjust their appetite for girth, as they still kinda like that, at least relative to length.)

• Among all the touted miracle grow wand enhancing devices and potions, Tristan and Iseult had it right – only the pull-it-apart-stretch-traction devices worked, averaging an increase of wonderwang size between 0.7 and 0.9 inches while flaccid, and 0.67 inches when at full mast.

(Best done when unemployed, unless you’re willing to take said devices to work cause it requires hours of stretching each day.)

Now, before I continue, a word to those who have contemplated the uncontemplatable – letting a scalpel carve your manhood into some Mt. Rushmore edifice…

Don’t!

The surgical treatments, the researchers found, were dangerous and had “unacceptably high rate of complications.”  Yeah, and unless self-adornment is only for the mirror’s sake, for whom would you be slicing and dicing for anyway?

Remember that first bullet point above.

What About Erectile Dysfunction, You Breathlessly Ask?

Before I conclude this memorable post that surely you’ll want to share with all your buds on Facebook, let me report what these able medical people discovered about what works for erectile dysfunction.

They found that the use of Peno-scrotal Rings, which fit around the scrotum and base of the penis, helped beef up size and maintain erection.  That said, the sample size was the mind numbing number of 2, which makes the results rather completely inconclusive.

Turning next to the honed art of Penis Pumping, the data suggested that a six-month regimen of daily penis pumping — using a pump to create a vacuum inside a cylinder to stretch the penis — was both painful and ineffective.

In Conclusion

Fellas, your takeaway from this post is that your edifice for procreation is sufficiently appreciated by women that you should relax about its power to awe, and redirect such energies to developing a six-pack, cause there’s some pretty strong evidence that supports the contention that strong abs are preferred by most women over the Michelin Man.

And about that I do speak from my own trove.

Yep.

P.S.  You can read the article from which these stats were unceremoniously extracted here, and which were partly based upon a review of studies conducted by the British Association of Urological Surgeons.

P.P.S.  If you wish for me to stop blogging about such small and trivial matters, let me know in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. Drats! It’s No Longer a Secret — Penis Size Is Determined by Finger Length
2. What’s The Only Definition Of Success That Matters?

Ladies and Gents… have you been seeking a male contraceptive method?  One that’s simple, safe, relatively cheap and lasts a really long time?  Well, if the gentleman is really brave, you need to learn about why the best birth control in the world may be for men.

Click to enlarge and read the description of how this male birth control method works.

But I’m going to write about it anyway.

A friend of the female persuasion sent me an article about a new simple procedure that renders a man’s sperm infertile for a very, very long time.

“Blog about that!”, she declared.

“Off topic”, I said.

“You don’t even know what your topic is on your blog”, she countered.

Then a mutual friend of ours, again, of the fairer sex was recruited to twist my arm.

Then another.

“Why is birth control for men so important to all of you”, I whined.

As in a chorus, they sang in various ways the same song that distills down to:

“Because it’s about time that you guys carried the burden of birth control!”

And so with that as an explanation, let me get into the meat of this male birth control matter.

For Brave Men Only (and the women beside them)

Jon Clinkenbeard, author of The Best Birth Control In The World Is For Men, began his article thus:

“If I were going to describe the perfect contraceptive, it would go something like this: no babies, no latex, no daily pill to remember, no hormones to interfere with mood or sex drive, no negative health effects whatsoever, and 100 percent effectiveness. The funny thing is, something like that currently exists.”

And indeed it does, but I’m not letting any needle puncture my testes.

Yes, this “perfect contraceptive” for men is some gluey mixture that’s injected into their scrotum and, in effect, tears apart the sperm by something called the “polyelectrolytic effect.”

The result is that a man can experience the usual delights of ejaculation (sperm does exit), but it carries nothing in it that will impregnate his partner.

Apparently, this procedure is relatively cheap and simple to administer to those remarkably brave men who are willing to proffer their junk to a sharp needle.

And, by the way, it lasts 10 years.

The procedure, called RISUG in India (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance), takes about 15 minutes with a doctor clutching a syringe, is effective after about three days, and lasts for 10 or more years.

Did I mention the “10 years” part?

If during that time period, you get the notion that maybe you’d like to procreate, a trip back to the doctor’s office for another injection that will flush out the gel will get you back to your dangerous self.

Want more information?  Then read Mr. Clinkenbeard’s article.

Rather Make Babies?

For those of who not looking to stop procreation… indeed for those with a baby in the oven, planning for one, or already had one, you’ll not want to miss these amazing photos of a baby from conception to birth.  (Actually, these pics are for everyone ready to be amazed by nature.)

Related posts:

1. From Conception to Birth — Watch and Be Amazed!
2. Do Macho Men Have Stronger Sperm?
3. Mind Over Food — 7 Steps for Food Control