Low Testosterone Levels
Hi. This is Dr. Emily Parke with your next functional health minute. Today I’d like to take a couple minutes to talk about men’s testosterone levels and the most common reasons why I see them low. So the most common reason I see men’s testosterone levels low or less than optimal is actually related to sleep and specifically sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. In my practice, if there’s a male anywhere between ages 20 and really all the way up and they have low testosterone levels without a really good cause, then I’m going to send them for a sleep study to get evaluated. Because that is one of the top reasons why I see a lower testosterone level than there should be in men.
Related to that, why would that happen? Well, when you don’t get enough good quality sleep, it’s a huge stress on the body and in the case of sleep apnea if you think about it, the brain and the whole body really isn’t getting oxygen or the amount of oxygen that it normally would be getting. So it is a giant stress on the body and so that is something to consider.
Reasons for Low Testosterone Levels
Other reasons why are still related to stress. So any major stress in the body, and that can be mental-emotional stress, that can be physical stress as in maybe even over exercising. It can be stress from toxins, chronic infections, and then of course one of the other top reasons I see is related to nutrient deficiencies, and there are two top nutrients that play a big role in testosterone and that is Vitamin D and zinc. There are lots of other nutrients that play big roles but those are the major ones.
So if you are a male and you have low testosterone or lower than optimal testosterone levels, the take-home message would be to talk to your primary care doctor or your functional medicine provider if you have one, make sure that you’re getting all the nutrients that are required to have a healthy testosterone level, and then I would also make sure that there are no excess stresses going on, specifically and most importantly make sure that you’re getting enough good quality sleep and there’s not hidden sleep apnea going on. This is Dr. Emily Parke with your functional health minute.