Anti-Aging Tips For Men

 

anti aging tips for menClose-up shot of a handsome young man with towel in his neck admiring looking at his face in the bathroom mirror.

Traditional doctors approach aging as something that is imminent, unavoidable, and uncontrollable. Their goal is to merely treat your age-related symptoms as they pop up, like a medical version of whack-a-mole. 

But I view aging VERY differently. 

Science has shown us that there’s a lot we can do to slow, and actually reverse, the course of your aging process. That’s because healthy aging is NOT about hitting the genetic jackpot. Instead, it’s about adopting preventative strategies that slow the cellular processes associated with aging, improve your immune system, prevent disease, and ultimately boost your sense of youth and vitality.

How Inflammation Impacts Aging

There’s one factor that dramatically speeds up the process of aging – inflammation. In fact, chronic inflammation underlies nearly every disease associated with aging, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, dementia, arthritis, cancer and diabetes, just to name a few.[1]

Chronic inflammation may not directly cause aging per se. Rather, it acts like gasoline, turning the normally smoldering embers of cellular degeneration into a raging fire that causes destruction throughout the body and brain. Inflammation wreaks havoc on your immune system, your gut health, your brain health and your mental wellbeing.

Unfortunately, our modern routines are riddled with factors that increase inflammation—from highly processed diets to a sedentary lifestyle to environmental toxins. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With a few tweaks to your daily regimen, you can smother the flames of inflammation and be on your way to living a long, energetic, disease-free life.

How to Reduce Inflammation and Promote Healthy Aging

1. Eat for Life

If you are like most people, your major source of inflammation comes served on your dinner plate. Eating a typical American diet high in omega-6 poly-unsaturated fats (think canola oil, safflower oil, etc.) , highly-processed oils (think ‘partially hydrogenated’ anything), and refined sugars all directly promote inflammation and increases your risk of disease. Conversely, eating a healthy diet reduces inflammation, boosts your immune system, and protects you against both infectious and chronic diseases.

Let’s break down the three key pillars that form the basis of a healthy, anti-aging diet.

The first pillar involves choosing complex carbohydrates over simple ones.

Simple carbs are found in anything made with sugar, but they are also found in things we don’t consider sweet, like white bread, potatoes, pasta, white rice, pizza dough and pasta.

What makes simple (or refined) carbohydrates unique is that they’ve been stripped of all their fiber, bran, and nutrients. As a result, your body is able to quickly break them down into sugars, which sounds like a good thing but it isn’t. Eating simple carbs floods your system with sugar, resulting in body-wide inflammation

This sugar spike also triggers your pancreas to create a surge in insulin in order to clear the sugar from your bloodstream. But all that insulin makes you feel hungry again, which is why we tend to crave simple carbs rather than vegetables. 

Over time, this dramatic rise and fall in blood sugar causes you to overeat, gain weight (especially dangerous belly fat), and develop insulin resistance (i.e., type-2 diabetes). It also causes unhealthy fluctuations in your mood and energy levels. And if that isn’t bad enough, a diet high in simple carbs puts you at greater risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, depression and bipolar disorder.[2, 3]

Simple carbs are also dangerous because they produce a particularly nasty substance called Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). AGEs are toxic molecules that form when protein or fat combines with the sugar in our bloodstream.[4] 

When AGEs accumulate, they form a sticky, inflexible substance that clogs our blood vessels and coats our major organs, sometimes resulting in organ failure. AGEs promote oxidative stress, which is a fancy way of saying they make our cells old before their time. Scientists are just starting to discover the ways in which AGEs drive age-related illnesses, but what is clear is that consuming a healthy diet is the main way to keep these toxic molecule levels low.[5]

Now trying to quit anything cold turkey is hard, so instead of just cutting out sugars and simple carbs, think about replacing them with complex carbs. 

  • Swap out sugary desserts with fresh fruit like strawberries or apples. 
  • Switch white bread with wheat or even better, a lettuce leaf. 
  • Opt for brown rice, lentils, or an ancient grain like amaranth or quinoa versus white rice.
  • Switch from regular pizza dough to a cauliflower crust. With a few creative tweaks to your diet, you are less likely to feel deprived and more likely to stick with your new eating habits.

The second pillar in an anti-aging diet is eliminating bad fats and incorporating good fats. In the 1980s, fat got a bad rap. Doctors argued that eating a diet high in fat skyrocketed cholesterol and caused heart disease. 

But experts now recognize this assumption was wrong. In truth, there are good fats and bad fats and a key to anti-aging is knowing the difference.

Generally, fats fall into these broad categories:

  • Trans fats: Trans fats are the worst kind of fats because they raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides and lower your HDL (good cholesterol). For this reason, the FDA started banning trans fats in 2018, but they can still be found in some food sources, including vegetable shortening, fried fast foods, and some brands of microwave popcorn.
  • Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats: These are the fats found in oils such as safflower oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, and most other oils that are used for cooking. Unfortunately, when you eat out at a restaurant, almost ALL of the foods are cooked using these oils. These fats stimulate your fat cells to produce cytokines, which are proteins that cause low-level, chronic inflammation. They have been linked to a number of age-related, inflammatory-based illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.
  • Omega-3 polyunsaturated fats: These are considered to be “heart-healthy” fats because they raise your HDL and lower your LDL, thereby protecting you against vascular diseases. These fats are found in fish, vegetables such as avocados, and healthy nuts.
  • Monounsaturated fats: These are also considered to be the most “heart-healthy” fats. They reduce inflammation, promote cellular efficiency, and protect you from vascular disease. These fats are found mostly in olive oil, and healthy nuts such as almonds and macadamia nuts.
  • Saturated fats: A diet high in saturated fats can increase your risk for developing heart disease and vascular disease, which is why most nutritionists recommend limiting saturated fats to no more than 10% of your daily fat intake.[6] Saturated fats are found in animal-based foods such as red meat, cheese, and dairy, as well as plant-based oils like coconut and palm oil. These oils are also commonly used in commercially produced baked goods like boxed cookies and crackers.

Both are types of the polyunsaturated fats (omega-3 and omega-6) are considered “essential fats” which means the body requires them for normal functioning. Our body doesn’t naturally produce these fats, which means the only way to get them is through our diet. But an important distinction is that omega-6s are pro-inflammatory and omega-3s are anti-inflammatory.

Omega-6 fats, like soybean oil, are far cheaper which means they are more likely to appear in processed foods. And since processed foods make up a significant proportion of the American diet, we as a nation are consuming too many omega-6s and not enough omega-3s. 

The recommended ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in 4:1, but the Western diet ratio is more like 10:1 or even 50:1![8] This imbalance increases body-wide inflammation and negatively alters cell-membrane health.

To correct this imbalance, try to reduce the amount of omega-6s in your diet and boost the omega-3s. An excellent way to do this is to follow the World Health Organization’s recommendation to consume two servings of oily fish per week. 

In fact, research shows people who eat seafood 1-4 times per week are less likely to die of heart disease or strokes.[9] You can also stock up on flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, avocados, and grass-fed beef, which are all high in omega-3s.

Excessive saturated fats also promote inflammation, weight gain, and ultimately aging. Depending on your genetics (remember how important ‘epigenetics’ is?), some people can tolerate more saturated fats than others. But for some, consuming more than 10% of your fat intake as saturated fat can dramatically increase your risk for early ALzheimer’s Disease and cardiovascular disease.

But here is the good news—the negative impact of these fats can easily and quickly be reversed. One study found that after just two weeks of swapping out saturated fats with monounsaturated fats, cytokines were reduced and as a result, brain functioning was significantly improved.[7] So by making just a few simple swaps to your diet, you can quickly reduce inflammation, prevent disease, and enable your body and brain to age healthier.

The third pillar of an anti-aging diet is to “eat the rainbow,” which means eating a wide range of vegetables and fruits to ensure a wide range of vitamins and minerals.

Focus on incorporating dark greens (broccoli, watercress, kale) and brightly colored vegetables and fruits (red bell peppers, carrots, blueberries).

Supplements can also help you incorporate important nutrients into your diet. Research supports the use of several anti-aging supplements, including CoQ10 and Vitamin C (to learn more, check out my article on the 7 supplements every man should be taking).

2.Keep Moving

What you put into your body is only half of the anti-aging equation; just as important is what you do with your body. Exercise isn’t just a solution for weight loss. It actually equips your body with the tools it needs to successfully navigate the aging process.

With the rise of wearable tech, there has been an emphasis on counting the number of daily steps to improve health, but there is no scientific evidence to support the well-known “10,000 steps a day” rule. Instead, what you should be focusing on are the minutes you spend each day in your target heart rate. 

Heart Rate Matters

Your target heart rate varies depending on your age. First, you need to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR), which is 220 minus your age. So a 40-year old man would have a MHR of 180.

The key to heart-benefiting exercise is to work out at the proper intensity and duration. In terms of intensity, you want to exercise hard enough to raise your heart rate, but not so much that it reaches all the way up to your MHR. 

Moderate aerobic activity is generally defined as 50-70 percent of your MHR. So in the case of our 40-year old man, that would be a heart rate range of 90-126. 

Vigorous aerobic activity is defined as 70-85 percent of your MHR, which for a 40-year old man would be 126-153. Either way, you should always avoid going over the 85 percent upper limit since it offers no health benefits and can actually strain your heart.

In terms of duration, the Mayo clinic recommends you strive for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity—brisk walking, swimming, yard work and household chores—per week, but you could go all the way up to 300 minutes for maximum benefit.[10] If instead you prefer vigorous aerobic activity—running, aerobic dancing—strive for at least 75 minutes per week.

Keep in mind that exercise doesn’t just keep your heart young, it keeps your brain young too. Once study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that a lack of exercise in older adults raised their risk of developing dementia to a level that was equivalent to people who were genetically predisposed to the disease.[11]  

Studies like this prove that despite what your genes say, you have a great amount of control over your aging process. This is just one reason why I’m so passionate about epigenetics—the idea that your external environment affects the way our genes behave. And to clarify, your environment is not just chemicals or toxins in your environment, but also what you eat, how you move, how you breathe, how you sleep, etc.. 

In addition to aerobic exercise, the other essential component to an anti-aging workout is strength training. As we age, muscles lose their flexibility and shrink. 

In fact, after the age of 30, you lose 3-5 percent of your muscle mass every decade, and men on average lose 30 percent of their muscle mass over their lifetime.[12] On top of that, ligaments, tendons and connective tissues dehydrate and degrade as we age, further reducing our mobility and increasing risk of injury. 

But as exercise physiologist Dr. Thomas Storer makes clear, “Older men can indeed increase muscle mass lost as a consequence of aging. It takes work, dedication, and a plan, but it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it.”[12]

To kick start muscle gain, focus on high rep workouts rather than heavy weights. A typical program might include 8-10 different exercises that target all major muscle groups, with 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps, performed 2-3 times per week. Once this program is established, you can increase the weights, drop the number of reps down to 10, then eventually work your way up to 15 and repeat the process. 

And don’t forget that muscle building requires protein. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, men engaging in strength training should consume 0.5-0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight.[13] That means a 165-pound man generally needs around 80-135 grams per day, although remember that your genetics direct specifically how much protein your body needs (epigenetics!!).

Lastly, consider supplementing with things known to prevent muscle loss, including fish oil, vitamin D, and hormone replacement therapy. And don’t forget to fortify your bones too, with calcium and vitamin D (take these together for maximum absorption), as well as vitamin C, B12, and magnesium.[14]

3. Build a Better Brain

Our body isn’t the only thing that degrades as we age. The older we get, the longer our brains have been exposed to inflammatory triggers like toxins, chronic stress, and unhealthy foods. Only now are scientists discovering that conditions we assumed were inevitable as we age, like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, are actually caused by brain-wide inflammation.[15]

The good news is that most of the things we’ve discussed that prevent the body from age-based decline benefit the brain as well. Exercising, avoiding sugar, keeping your cholesterol in check and maintaining a healthy diet are all excellent ways to protect your brain against aging. Additional strategies include getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night, limiting alcohol, quitting smoking, and reducing stress.

Certain supplements have also been shown to preserve cognitive functioning and prevent neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkison’s disease.[16] For example, vitamin D and B12 play vital roles in memory formation and cognitive functioning, which is why a deficiency in these vitamin has been linked to cognitive impairments, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease in older adults.

Fat is another important factor when it comes to brain health. Omega-3s account for 40 percent of the fatty acids found in our brains cells and they are especially concentrated at the synaptic connections where all communication between brains cells occurs.[17] Research shows higher intake of omega-3s is associated with larger brain volume and a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, so consider adding a fish oil supplement to your daily routine.

Putting it All Together

Aging isn’t something you have to take lying down. With just a few tweaks to your routine and the addition of a few foods and supplements, you can actively slow down or even reverse the effects of aging. 

To see the power of lifestyle changes in action, look no further than a study published in The Lancet Oncology.[18] In this study, researchers had a group of men start a plant-focused diet, exercise for 30 minutes six days a week, and practice yoga or meditation for three months. After the three months, the researchers examined the men’s telomeres. 

Telomeres are a lot like those plastic endcaps on shoelaces that stop the laces from fraying and falling apart. In each of our cells, we have telomeres that cap off the ends of our chromosomes and keep the DNA strands intact. 

Cells replenish by copying themselves and each time they do, these telomeres get shorter and shorter. Eventually, they become too short to do their job, the DNA becomes damaged and the cell stops working. 

For this reason, the length of our telomeres is considered an indicator of our biological (rather than chronically) age. The shorter our telomeres, the “older” our cells are and the more likely we are to succumb to age-related illnesses.

So what did the study find? After just twelve weeks of adopting these simple lifestyle changes, the men’s telomeres grew by a whopping 10 percent. As lead researcher Dr. Dean Ornish stated, “This study is the first of its kind that scientifically proves you can reverse aging at a cellular level through lifestyle changes.”[19] 

With some adjustments in your lifestyle, you can turn the clock back on your cells too. If you want to take control of the aging process and feel better, schedule a consultation.  You’ll learn how a personalized health strategy can let you live your life to the fullest.

Men, What is stress doing to your Testosterone?

stress and our testostereone man at desk

Stress is ubiquitous—it affects all of us in one way or another.

Low level stress that you can easily overcome is usually not bad for you. In fact, it can even be good for you. Stress can motivate you, improve your athletic performance, and help you adapt to your environment. 

But long-term or excessive stress can have a profoundly negative effect on your health and even reduce your lifespan. Research shows that stress reduces testosterone levels, which may be one reason why stress is strongly linked with weight gain, poor sleep, and erectile dysfunction (ED). 

Getting your stress under control is one of the most important ways to achieve a healthy, satisfying life. In this article, I’ll dive into exactly what stress is and what it is doing to your health, testosterone, and sex life. Then I’ll explain exactly how to beat it. 

What is Stress

We throw the term around all the time, but what exactly is stress?

Stress is a feeling of psychological strain or pressure. It occurs from our own perception of an event or stressor as threatening or challenging to us.

To be clear, stress is not the actual events or stressors in your life.  Your response to those stressors is what triggers your feeling of stress.

Psychologists sometimes classify stressors into four types (1):

  1. Ambient stressors, like noise in a cafe or traffic
  2. Hassles or micro stressors, like not being able to find your keys
  3. Major life events, like getting fired, getting married, or having a child
  4. Crises or catastrophes, like a natural disaster

These have different effects on your overall well-being, but even hassles or micro stressors, when they are constant, can create levels of stress that ultimately affect our health. 

traffic jam - angry stressed businessman driving car

How Stress Affects Health

Stress has a massive physiological effect on our bodies. When we feel stress, our brain sends out a signal to our body and activates a “fight or flight” response. Our pupils dilate, our heart rate increases, and our body releases a number of hormones and chemicals to get us ready to react, such as adrenaline, endorphins, and cortisol.

This response is useful if we’re encountering a situation where we really do need to fight or get away. Athletes, soldiers in combat, or even firefighters benefit from this reaction to stressful situations.

But for most of us, this bodily response is unnecessary. And, when stress is chronic, occurring over a long period of time, these effects can be toxic and dangerous to our health. The amount of stress that you have, and your stress resiliency, can even predict how long you will live.

Risk of disease

One of the most worrying effects of stress on our health is its relationship to disease; research shows that chronic, severe stress vastly increases a person’s risk for several chronic health conditions. 

For example, there’s significant evidence that stress increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, and hypertension as well as diabetes and certain types of cancer (2, 3, 4). 

Stress is also clearly associated with mental illness, including depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety (5, 6).

Immune Function

Stress has been found to reduce immune function (7). Research has demonstrated that stress can cause a person to be more susceptible to illnesses like colds (8). Scientists have suggested that stress can affect immune system function at the cellular level, changing the body’s chemical immune response. They’ve found that individuals that report more stress tend to have lower immunity and increased inflammation (7).

Poor lifestyle habits

The way that we cope with stress may also have an impact on our health. When individuals cope with stress by consuming excessive alcohol, smoking, or binge-eating, the result is poorer health. Stress can cause some people to engage in unhealthy habits as a way to cope with the psychological discomfort (9). 

Stress can affect your genes

Epigenetics refers to a process whereby gene expression, or activity, is altered by the environment although the actual genetic sequence is not changed. 

Researchers have found that stress can cause epigenetic changes resulting in negative health outcomes. 

What does all this mean? It means that stress may be able to actually change how your genes are expressed such that you are predisposed to have worse health outcomes. 

How Stress Affects Testosterone and Erectile Dysfunction

Stress has such a powerful effect on us in part because it’s psychological. It affects the hormonal balance in our body, but it also affects our mental health. Both of these things can impact sexual function and performance.

One of the ways that stress impacts sexual function is through testosterone.

What is testosterone?

Testosterone is often called the “male sex hormone”. It plays an important role in several bodily functions for men, including the initial development of the testes and prostate. In adults, testosterone has many surprising effects including being critical to the production of sperm and semen, healthy libido, and even muscular development.

Many men suffer from “low T”. What is low T? It’s a condition where a man’s body does not produce sufficient testosterone for optimal function.

Low testosterone can be caused by various lifestyle factors, including diet, exercise, and poor sleep. Age alone may also be a factor since the production of testosterone tends to decrease with age. Men over the age of 50 tend to experience a 1% decline in testosterone levels every year.

Some of the symptoms of low testosterone include: 

  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Low fertility
  • Loss of muscle mass
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Weight gain
  • Low libido and sex drive
  • Weaker bones
  • Reduced energy
  • Less body hair
  • Foggy brain

Stress has been shown to directly affect testosterone levels. When you’re stressed, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol. And high cortisol levels crush your testosterone. Research has found a clear association between high cortisol levels and low levels of testosterone (13). 

The lower testosterone levels caused by stress, in turn leads to low energy, weight gain, loss of mental focus, and loss of sexual function.

Stress Causes Erectile Dysfunction

Stress is one of the most common causes of ED (14).

Sexual function depends on the complex interaction between physiological and psychological factors. Stress affects both. It causes your body to produce less testosterone, which contributes to difficulty getting an erection. It can also affect the psychological processes associated with sexual arousal. 

Finding ways to effectively cope with stress is an essential part of creating a healthy lifestyle, achieving optimal testosterone levels, and supporting a fulfilling sex life. 

Reduce Stress to Improve your Health, Testosterone, and Sex Life

Great, we need to address stress for better health, more testosterone, and great sex. 

But how?

Develop stress resiliency

This is one of the most important things that you can do to reduce stress: develop ways to cope effectively with stress and create stress resiliency. 

Stress resiliency refers to your ability to respond to and cope with the stressors that you face in everyday life. Creating resilience to stress can help you experience it less often, for less time, and thus reduce the negative health effects.

To develop stress resiliency, try the following.

  1. Start to think of stress as an opportunity for growth. Ask yourself: What is the stressor? Why am I stressed about it? Where can I feel the stress in my body? What can I do right now to cope and calm myself down? What can I learn to grow from it?
  2. Develop healthy coping habits. These include exercise, meditation, breathing techniques, hobbies you enjoy, and even sex.
  3. Sleep! Sleep is critical for optimal health, but especially when it comes to stress resilience. Good quality sleep allows your body to heal and recover. And good quality sleep lowers cortisol.
  4. Get social support. Engaging with the important people in your life is one of the most effective ways to cope with stress. Even giving social support can improve your stress. 
  5. Focus on eating good quality food. The foods you eat can directly promote or reduce inflammation in your body, and thus affect cortisol production. 

Exercise

Exercise is one of the most effective ways to beat back stressors (15). Research shows that people who exercise consistently  are better able to develop stress resilience and reduce the health consequence of stress (16). 

man exercising for stress and testosterone levels

Meditation

Research is increasingly finding the benefits of meditation on everything from cognitive health to physical energy levels. Meditation also turns out to be an effective way to cope with life stressors, even if you do it for just five to ten minutes a day. 

The benefits of meditation include:

  • Stress reduction
  • Better sleep
  • Feeling relaxed
  • Better focus and attention
  • More positive mood
  • Reductions in depression and anxiety. 

Solutions for Erectile Dysfunction and Low T

Do you think your stress is lowering your testosterone? Here are a few ways that you can increase your testosterone naturally. 

Lose weight

Body fat and testosterone are connected. When guys have higher body fat levels, their bodies create and release less testosterone. And low testosterone causes your body to store more energy as fat. It’s a vicious cycle.

However, you can reverse it and turn it into a positive cycle. When you start to lose weight, you’ll find that your testosterone levels naturally increase. And, as the testosterone in your body increases, you’ll find it easier and easier to lose more weight (17). Losing weight will also help you to stop ED in its tracks. 

If you are overweight, make this a priority: lose weight to naturally boost your testosterone. improve sexual function, and improve stress. 

Exercise

It’s not only effective for coping with stress, but also for increasing testosterone. Numerous studies have found that guys that exercise more tend to have more testosterone. 

The best exercise to boost testosterone is strength training and lifting weights. Studies have found that guys of all ages get a boost of T from weight training (18). Moderate cardio exercise is also great. 

And for another added benefit, exercise is an effective way to prevent and help treat ED.

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)

Testosterone hormone therapy can be an effective treatment for some guys that suffer from low T. Testosterone therapy can be given topically, by subcutaneous or intramuscular injection, pellets, or more recently oral medication.  Some of the benefits of TRT include (19):

  • Improved energy
  • Better sexual function and sex drive
  • Increased endurance
  • Enhanced ability to gain lean muscle mass
  • Increased mood and energy
  • Improved cognitive function

There can be risks of testosterone replacement therapy, so make sure you consult with a doctor specialized in men’s health and hormone therapy before deciding whether it could be right for you.

Precision Medicine

These recommendations will help the majority of men reduce stress and improve their health. 

But everyone is different. Every man obviously has unique genetics, and thus responds to his environment differently. This is epigenetics.

Why should you care? There may be things that you should be doing to reduce stress and get healthy that wouldn’t work for other men. Whether it be

Precision medicine is a way to get a health plan tailored to your individual genetic makeup. If you’re suffering from stress, low T, or ED, look for solutions designed specifically for you and your genes. 

Optimize your Health with Dr Tracy Gapin. The body is a complex system.

Conclusion: Don’t Let Stress Get You Down

Everyone experiences stress. If stress becomes chronic, and you lose your ability to cope with it, stress can crush your health, leading to weight gain, low testosterone levels, poor energy, and increased risk of erectile dysfunction.

But when you have effective coping mechanisms and view stress as helpful not harmful, you can overcome it and rise to the occasion. Learning to beat stress will help you boost your immune system, lose weight, feel healthier, and enjoy the benefits of higher testosterone.

If you’re concerned about what stress may be doing to your health and testosterone levels, schedule a consultation to learn how to personalized health advice so you can live your life to the fullest. 

In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death.  Unfortunately, a man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either.  And a man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0!

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist,  world renowned Men’s Health & Performance Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. www.GapinInstitute.com

Want more tips to optimize your health?  Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE

References

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  16. Hsu, Y. C., Tsai, S. F., Yu, L., Chuang, J. I., Wu, F. S., Jen, C. J., & Kuo, Y. M. (2016). Long-term moderate exercise accelerates the recovery of stress-evoked cardiovascular responses. Stress, 19(1), 125-132.
  17. Yassin, A. A., & Doros, G. (2013). Testosterone therapy in hypogonadal men results in sustained and clinically meaningful weight loss. Clinical Obesity, 3(3-4), 73-83.
  18. Craig, B. W., Brown, R., & Everhart, J. (1989). Effects of progressive resistance training on growth hormone and testosterone levels in young and elderly subjects. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 49(2), 159-169.
  19. Osterberg, E. C., Bernie, A. M., & Ramasamy, R. (2014). Risks of testosterone replacement therapy in men. Indian journal of urology: IJU: journal of the Urological Society of India, 30(1), 2.

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What to Ask Your Doctor Before Starting Testosterone

Man working on laptop at determining questions to ask his doctor about testosterone

Men everywhere are suffering with plummeting testosterone levels. A recent study showed that testosterone levels have declined over 30% in the last 30 years.[1] It has become such a problem that research now indicates that 1 in 4 men over the age of 30 has low levels of testosterone.[2] 

And declining testosterone levels are associated with significant health issues. Here are just a few symptoms men experience with low testosterone:

  • Low sex drive
  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Weight gain, especially around the midsection
  • Loss of muscle mass 
  • Fatigue and irritability
  • Loss of mental focus
  • Hair loss
  • Loss of bone density
  • Anxiety and depression

Does any of this sound familiar? 

Man with low energy and low testosteronehttps://drtracygapin.com/blueprint

When my patients complain that they don’t quite feel like themselves, I find they often have low testosterone. One reason men fail to recognize the issue is because the symptoms of low testosterone will often develop slowly over time.  

Men will often come to see their doctor when they struggle with erectile dysfunction, but low testosterone goes far beyond the bedroom. Having a good level of testosterone is vital for all aspects of a man’s health and well-being. 

If you suffer from any of the aforementioned symptoms, it’s time to get your testosterone levels checked by a doctor. In preparation for this visit, here are some key questions you should consider.

How Do I Know if I’m Low in Testosterone?

Testosterone is a hormone produced primarily in the testes for men (and at lower levels, in the ovaries for women), but small amounts are also produced by the adrenal glands. Testosterone is part of the endocrine system and its release and regulation is controlled by the brain’s pituitary gland and hypothalamus.

To test your testosterone levels, your doctor will run some blood work, usually in the morning since that is when your hormone levels are at their highest. “Low testosterone”, or hypogonadism, occurs when a man’s level falls below optimal levels. 

This brings up a critical question: “What is optimal?!”

Most labs define the lower limit of “normal” testosterone levels to be anywhere from 250 to 350 ng/dL, depending on the lab. The problem with this is there is a massive difference between what is considered clinically “normal” and what is optimal – i.e. what men need to actually experience the benefits of healthy testosterone levels. We’ll cover this huge topic in another blog post, but suffice it to say that men typically need much higher serum testosterone levels than what the clinically “normal” range suggests.

Go Beyond Testosterone with Tracy Gapin, MD Free eBook

What Causes Low Testosterone?

A man’s testosterone peaks in early adulthood and naturally reduces as he ages. Once he enters his 30s, his levels begin to decline about 1 to 2 percent each year. Some men don’t start noticing the effects of this decrease until they hit the age of 50, but there are others who start to show symptoms even a decade or two earlier. 

In addition to age, there are a number of potential causes for low testosterone. Injury or infection to the testes and malfunction of the pituitary gland can cause low testosterone, and diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are all strongly linked to testosterone deficiency. Endocrine disruptors – chemicals and toxicants in our environment – are clearly a major culprit as well. 

Low levels of vital nutrients like zinc or Vitamin D have also been found to correlate with low testosterone. Certain medications can lower testosterone, including asthma inhalers, antidepressants, and antihistamines, as well as chemotherapy.[3] And a number of lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drug abuse, poor sleep, poor diet, and obesity, can lead to low hormone levels.

How is Low Testosterone Treated?

There are a few important concepts to understand before diving into treatment options for men with testosterone deficiency. First it’s key to recognize that treatment requires a comprehensive approach. It’s never as simple as just getting testosterone therapy. It’s critical to be aware that there’s no magical one-size-fits-all solution that works for every man. Treatment varies depending on each man’s underlying health issues, genetics, symptoms, and goals. 

A key aspect of addressing low testosterone is to address underlying health issues and develop healthy lifestyle habits. Losing weight has been shown to directly improve testosterone levels. Research shows that exercise, especially weight training or high-interval training, naturally boosts testosterone.[4] Proper nutrition and sleep are critical aspects of a comprehensive approach to overcoming low testosterone and its associated symptoms. Check out the MALE 2.0 Blueprint to learn how to start incorporating healthy habits into your daily life.

Another common approach is hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Hormone replacement therapy involves artificially raising your testosterone levels via a gel, skin patch, injection or hormone pellet implants.

What Are the Benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy?

A number of studies back up the claim that testosterone replacement therapy can provide men with real benefits. Here are just a few examples, according to a recent academic review:[5]

  • Muscle gain and improved strength: Several studies found testosterone replacement therapy improves men’s body composition, decreases fat, and increases lean body mass and muscle strength.
  • Increased bone density: Testosterone therapy has been shown to increase bone density, especially among elderly men, which puts them at a reduced risk of injury. 
  • Improved sex drive: Testosterone replacement therapy increases men’s self-reported libido, as well as the frequency of sexual acts. 
  • Improved cognitive functioning: One study found older men’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease decreased by 26% for each 10-unit increase in free testosterone. Additional studies found testosterone improves men’s spatial, mathematical, and verbal reasoning, as well as their memory. 
  • Improved mood and quality of life: Men who receive testosterone therapy report an increase in mood and well-being and a decrease in fatigue and irritability. 

What Are the Risks of Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Clearly testosterone replacement therapy has its benefits, but it is important to realize it is not a panacea. Such therapy is considered most beneficial when used short-term to help your body get back on track or to treat an underlying issue like hypogonadism. But know that like all treatments, this hormone therapy comes with a number of risks and side effects that must be considered. 

Some side effects may include:

  • Acne and oily skin
  • Breast enlargement or tenderness (rare if treated properly)
  • Shrinkage of the testicles
  • Hair loss (rare)

Questions to ask about testosterone and HRT hormone replacement therapy

Additional Questions To Ask Your Doctor Before Starting HRT

 So you’ve decided to proceed with testosterone therapy. First, be aware that you should never attempt testosterone therapy alone –  it should always be done under a doctor’s supervision. But before you start, here are some key questions you should ask your doctor before embarking on a testosterone treatment plan:

  1. What Are Your Doctor’s Qualifications?
  • What expertise and experience does the doctor have in treating men’s health issues generally, and testosterone replacement therapy more specifically? 
  • How long have they been practicing this approach? 
  • Given that the science of HRT (hormone replacement therapy) is consistently evolving, how does the doctor stay up-to-date on the topic?
  • Do they attend conferences, read scientific journal articles, take training courses?
  1. Am I a Good Candidate for HRT?
  • What evidence is there that I need testosterone replacement therapy? 
  • If there is evidence, what potential causes does your doctor suspect?
  • Do I have certain medical conditions (like sleep apnea or an enlarged prostate) that make me a bad candidate for HRT?
  1. Can I Boost My Testosterone Naturally?
  • Are there things in my medical history or lifestyle that could be changed to improve my testosterone naturally?
  • Are there certain foods the doctor recommends to boost testosterone?
  • Are there certain supplements the doctor recommends?
  • How does sleep quality affect testosterone?
  • How does alcohol affect testosterone?
  • What changes in my exercise routine can I make to boost my testosterone?
  1. What Type of Treatment Does the Doctor Prefer?
  • What type of HRT does the doctor prefer (e.g., gel, injection, implant) and why?
  • How will the doctor determine which hormone dose is right for me?
  • How do they track results?
  1. What is the Expected Cost of HRT?
  • Does insurance typically cover the cost of the treatment?
  • What will my out of pocket expenses be? 
  • How long will treatment take?
  1. What Side Effects Are Expected?
  • Will there be pain or inflammation at the injection or implant site?
  • What adverse reactions should I look out for?
  1. What Improvements Can I Expect to See?
  • What symptoms should I expect to see improvements on after starting treatment?
  • How long will it take before I see results?
  • How often will I follow up with my doctor?
  • Will the doctor monitor my progress through routine blood tests or other means?

CONCLUSION

If you’re struggling with weight gain, low energy, fatigue, diminished sex-drive, or performance issues in the bedroom, know that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can overcome these issues and become unstoppable TODAY!

It’s time to get empowered to take control of your health. Unlock the code to peak performance with the Male Method™ to regain your energy, focus and confidence to feel like a man again. 

We take a whole-body, epigenetic approach to health, focusing on all inputs and how they affect the human system. With the Male 2.0 Method, we utilize science-based precision medicine, personalizing your health based on your unique genetic blueprint. No more guessing!

We utilize cutting-edge age management protocols to reverse the aging process and expand longevity. And we track and leverage your biometric data using state-of-the-art wearable technology to truly optimize your health.

Ready to take the next steps?

Download the Blueprint

Schedule a Call

**************************

**************************

In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death.  Unfortunately, a man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either.  And a man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0!

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist,  world renowned Men’s Health & Performance Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. www.GapinInstitute.com

Want more tips to optimize your health?  Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE

Everything You Need to Know About Viagra and Cialis

Are you struggling with performance issues in the sack? 

If so, you are not alone. Erectile dysfunction (ED) refers to the inability to get or maintain an erection and unfortunately, this issue is on the rise (no pun intended). In 1995, 152 million men worldwide experienced ED, and that number is expected to swell to 322 million by the year 2025.[1]

As shocking as these statistics are, here’s another one: 75 percent of men diagnosed with ED do not seek out treatment.[2] 

Why is this the case? One reason is that men underestimate the prevalence of ED and fear the stigma associated with it. Another is that most assume only older men suffer from ED—that’s just not true. Yes, ED is more common among older men (with 50 percent of men aged 40-70 experiencing ED), but research shows the prevalence of ED in young men might be as high as 30 percent.[3]

The good news is you don’t have to suffer in silence. There are many viable treatments out there to help you “rise to the occasion.” These include ultrasound therapy, priapus p-shots, testosterone replacement hormone therapy, and exercises designed specifically to help erectile dysfunction. Another excellent option is oral medications, like Viagra and Cialis. Because these medications have been around for a long time, a great deal is known regarding their effectiveness and side effects. 

How Do Erectile Dysfunction Medications Work?

To understand how ED drugs work, you first need to know why ED happens in the first place. Although ED has several causes, the most common is vascular dysfunction. 

Whenever you start to feel hot and heavy, your brain releases certain hormones into your bloodstream. These chemical messengers tell your penis its show time and help it to develop an erection. One of these released chemicals—nitric oxide—is a vasodilator, which is just a fancy way of saying it relaxes your blood vessels and allows them to widen, thereby increasing blood flow. The greater the blood flow, the stronger the erection.

But what happens if your blood vessels don’t fully relax or they are narrow due to plaque buildup? In those cases, you may need a drug to help your vessels relax—essentially a chill pill for your penis. That is where Viagra and Cialis come in.

Both of these medications belong to a class of drugs called PDE5 inhibitors. PDE5 inhibitors work their magic by relaxing tight blood vessels and allowing more blood to flow to certain parts of the body, including the penis. And they have another benefit too. According to Dr. Harry Fisch, urology professor and author of Size Matters, these drugs also reduce the recovery time it takes to achieve a second erection, which is helpful for the 40 percent of men who suffer from premature ejaculation.[4] Lastly, these drugs have a psychological benefit because they help men suffering with performance anxiety gain their confidence back. 

Contrary to popular belief, ED drugs do not enhance the male libido and they rarely result in erections in the absence of sexual stimulation. “The biggest misconception is that these drugs are an on/off switch for erections,” says Dr. Louis Liou, chief urologist at Cambridge Health Alliance in Boston.[5] “You need to be with your partner and have foreplay. Don’t take it, do the taxes or the dishes, and then meet at the bedroom thinking you’ll be ready to go. It’s not like that.” 

ED medications only work in conjunction with sexual stimulation. That’s because they rely on nitric oxide, and as you learned earlier, nitric oxide only gets released during sexual arousal. ED drugs essentially provide a super boost for your naturally occurring nitric oxide, which in turn leads to greater blood vessel relaxation and blood flow. Without sexual stimulation, there is no nitric oxide and ED medications have nothing to work with. So the pump has to be primed, but once it is, ED medications will boost your flow.

How Do Viagra and Cialis Differ?

Although Viagra and Cialis both increase blood flow to the penis, there are important distinctions. 

Viagra, the brand name for sildenafil, was the first oral pill to receive FDA approval for treating ED in 1998. Because it has been on the market the longest, it is often doctors’ first drug of choice when treating patients with ED. The typical dosage recommended is 50mg, although it can be reduced to 25mg or increased to 100mg, if needed. 

Viagra has an effectiveness rate that ranges from 77 percent (50 mg) to 84 percent (100 mg).[6] It requires 30 to 60 minutes to begin working and the effect can linger up to 24-36 hours. Viagra is taken on an as needed basis, which means its use requires a bit of planning. If you want complete spontaneity, this may not be the drug for you.

In 2003, Cialis, the brand name for tadalafil, was also approved by the FDA to treat ED. Cialis can be used like Viagra as needed at a higher dose (typically 20 mg), or can be taken daily at a lower dose (typically 5 mg). When taken daily, Cialis offers more opportunities for spontaneous sexual encounters.

Cialis has an effectiveness rate that is very similar to Viagra, ranging from 71 percent (10 mg) to 84 percent (20 mg).[7] It requires 30-60 minutes to begin working and the effects can last up to 36-48 hours. To be clear, this doesn’t mean you will have an erection for all of that time; remember sexual stimulation is always needed in conjunction with ED drugs. Cialis’ longer duration and allowance for more spontaneity likely explains why men prefer it over other ED drugs.[8]

What Are the Risk Factors? 

The hard truth is that all medications have side effects, and ED drugs are no different.

First, let’s get the scariest side effect out of the way. If you’ve seen a TV commercial for Viagra or Cialis, you’ve likely heard the warning of a prolonged erection. Although it is incredibly rare, some men taking ED drugs do experience erections lasting 4 hours or more. This is not normal, and if it happens to you, consider it a medical emergency. This condition, known as priapism, can cause permanent damage to your penis’ tissue, so you should seek medical attention right away if it occurs. Luckily, priapism is a rare occurrence, but it does have a tendency to occur more frequently in men with sickle cell anemia, leukemia, and some penile deformities.

Now for the more common side effects. These include, in order from most common to least common: headaches, flushing, upset stomach, nasal congestion, vision problems, diarrhea, dizziness, and rash.[9] Cialis can also cause back pains and muscle aches. In most cases, men taking ED medications either don’t experience significant side effects. As Dr. Fisch succinctly put it, “If you have real erectile dysfunction, you’ll put up with nasal congestion.”[10] But here is a piece of useful advice: if you do experience side effects when taking Cialis, consider switching to Viagra since it stays in your system for a shorter duration. 

Beyond side effects, there is also the issue of drug interactions. You can’t take any of the ED medications if you are currently taking nitrate medications (like nitroglycerin) for heart issues. Doing so can cause a sudden and dangerous drop in blood pressure. ED medications can also interact with drugs that lower blood pressure, like alpha blockers or antifungal medications. If you are on such medications, your doctor may recommend you start with a lower dose ED drug, that you use Viagra instead of Cialis since Viagra leaves your system quicker, and that you space your other medications and your ED medication four hours apart. 

Finally, it is worth mentioning that ED can be a sign of a larger health issue. Because ED is often caused by vascular issues, it may be an early detector of cardiovascular disease that should not be dismissed. Yet another reason why any man suffering from ED should seek out the expertise of a doctor.

Do These Drugs Interact with Food or Alcohol?

Let’s face it, no one has sex in a vacuum. We often use food and alcohol as foreplay to relax and get ourselves (and our partner) in the mood. But things get tricky when you are taking ED drugs.

When it comes to food, it depends on the particular drug. Viagra should not be taken with food—doing so slows down the medication’s absorption and reduces its effectiveness. This is not the case with Cialis, which can be taken on a full stomach. However, with both drugs you should avoid consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice, since this can cause a dangerous drug interaction.

When it comes to alcohol, a glass of wine or a bottle of beer won’t hurt you. But drinking excessively (more than two servings of alcohol a day) while taking ED drugs can put you at risk. Both Viagra and Cialis relax your blood vessels, which in turn lowers blood pressure. The problem is that alcohol does the same thing. That means that if you drink too much while taking ED drugs, your blood pressure could drop to dangerously low levels. You may get light-headed, faint, or even experience heart palpitations. Both ED drugs interact with alcohol in this way, but it’s more likely to occur for men taking Cialis since the drug stays in your system for a much longer duration. 

Plus, here’s something else to keep in mind. Heavy drinking is one of the main causes of erectile dysfunction, especially in younger men. So if you are suffering from ED, you already shouldn’t be drinking more than two servings of alcohol a day. 

Do I Need a Prescription?

In the United States, both Viagra and Cialis (as well as their generic counterparts) require a prescription from a doctor. Interestingly, in 2018 it became legal in the UK to buy Viagra over-the-counter, so in the future this may be an option, but for now, you need a prescription.

Some men try to skip this step and buy ED drugs online. That’s a really bad idea since most versions sold online are not only illegal, they are highly dangerous. In fact, Viagra is one of the most counterfeited drugs on the market and an estimated 80 percent of online sites that claim to sell Viagra are actually selling a counterfeit version.[11] These knock offs have been found to contain chemicals you definitely don’t want to put in your body, like road paint, floor wax, printer ink, amphetamines, and rat poison!

So do yourself a favor. Go to the doctor, get a prescription, and only buy the real deal.


How Much Do These Drugs Cost?

The cost of brand-name Viagra is quite pricey, as high as $77 per 50mg pill. However, in 2017 two companies started producing a generic version of Viagra, which costs around $30 for a 50mg pill. That’s a big improvement, but it’s still a hefty price tag. 

An even cheaper option is to get a prescription for sildenafil citrate which is used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, dropping the price down under $5 for a 100mg pill. Using this drug in an “off label” way to treat erectile dysfunction is a fairly common approach. 

Cialis is not much cheaper than Viagra. A brand-name Cialis pill will cost you as much as $72 for the typical 20mg dose, or $13 for the typical daily dose (5mg). The generic tadalafil can cut the cost down to around $5 for the as needed dose or $3 for the daily dose.

At this point, you may be wondering if Viagra and Cialis (as well as their generic counterparts) are covered by your health insurance. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t clear-cut. Insurance coverage for ED drugs is hit or miss—some cover it, others don’t. You will need to call your specific health insurance company to find out. 

One thing to keep in mind is that insurance companies are often more likely to cover the generic versions of these medications since they cost half the price. Another is that when an insurance company does cover the drug, it is often for a limited supply (for example, four pills per month). Anything above this amount will likely be out-of-pocket. Lastly, know that Cialis is not only used to treat ED, it also treats prostate enlargement. When it’s prescribed for this reason, it usually is covered by health insurance. 

Beyond insurance, there are a number of other strategies you can use to cut down on costs. First, always shop around because prices may vary across pharmacies. Using a price comparison tool like GoodRX is a great option in this regard. Second, ask your doctor about pill splitting, which means getting the prescription at a higher dose and cutting the pill in half. Using this approach is a bit tedious but it will save you a few bucks. Third, explore the drug manufacturer’s websites because they often offer discount programs for new users. Fourth, you can use coupons and discount promotions like those offered at www.goodrx.com or www.drug.com to shave off a little from the final price.

The main point to remember is that having ED doesn’t mean the E-N-D of your sex life. There are lots of options out there, so talk to your doctor and get the treatment you need. And if you are looking for the best natural remedies for erectile dysfunction, check out my article regarding ED lifestyle changes, or my other article regarding vasodilator supplements.

CONCLUSION

It’s time to get empowered to take control of your health. Unlock the code to peak performance with the Male Method™ to regain your energy, focus and confidence to feel like a man again. 

We take a whole-body, epigenetic approach to health, focusing on all inputs and how they affect the human system. With the Male 2.0 Method, we utilize science-based precision medicine, personalizing your health based on your unique genetic blueprint. No more guessing!

We utilize cutting-edge age management protocols to reverse the aging process and expand longevity. And we track and leverage your biometric data using state-of-the-art wearable technology to truly optimize your health.

Ready to take the next steps? 

Download the Blueprint

Schedule a Call

 

**************************

In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death.  Unfortunately, a man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either.  And a man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0! 

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist,  world renowned Men’s Health & Performance Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. www.GapinInstitute.com

Want more tips to optimize your health?  Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE

Ready to take the next steps!?

Download the Blueprint

Schedule a Call

**************************

Stop ED in its Tracks

Man on couch disappointed Stop Erectile dysfunction in its tracks

Erectile dysfunction, or ED, occurs when a man has difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection for sexual intercourse. It can be awkward and cause feelings of inadequacy. While ED can be a very distressing health issue, it can also be embarrassing to discuss with your health provider or physician. 

ED is very common, with some research estimating that it affects about one in two American men over 40. (1) It’s up there with hair loss, weight gain, and low testosterone for the most popular men’s health concerns.

The good news is that there are several safe and effective ways to increase male libido and improve symptoms of ED. In this article, I’ll review some of the research on ED and provide some effective options for guys to improve their sexual performance and stop ED in its tracks.

What Causes Erectile Dysfunction?

To begin with, let’s take a bit of a look at what causes ED. 

Erections occur when sexual stimulation causes the body to send out neurochemicals that relax muscles and increase blood flow to the penis. This causes the penis to enlarge and harden. 

Because this process involves a complex combination of psychological input and biological mechanisms, there are a number of ways it can go wrong. Both psychological and physical factors, as well as lifestyle factors, can cause or contribute to ED. (1, 2, 3) Here are some of the most common causes of ED:

Psychological factors:

  • Stress
  • Anxiety
  • Depression

Physical factors:

  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Nerve damage
  • Neurological disorders
  • Stroke
  • Blood clots
  • Atherosclerosis
  • Spinal disease

Lifestyle factors:

  • Smoking
  • Alcohol
  • Drug abuse
  • Inactivity
  • Other medications like antidepressants

Each of these may be enough to cause symptoms of ED on their own, but they can also occur together. So what can a guy do to prevent or treat ED?

Diet and Erectile Dysfunction

Several studies have shown that good nutrition can actually help prevent ED. If you put garbage into your body, you’re not going to get your best out of it. You want to make sure you’re fueling yourself with high-quality, nutritious foods so you can maximize your performance in all respects, including in the bedroom.

Healthy breakfast in a bowl fresh fruit and nuts prevent ED

Foods to choose

In general, aim for non-processed, fresh foods and a diet rich in vegetables, healthy fats, and fish (6). The Mediterranean diet seems to be particularly effective for preventing ED. (4) 

Some particular foods may be especially useful for protecting against ED. These include:

  • Pistachios (5)
  • Watermelon
  • Leafy greens
  • Beets
  • Dark chocolate
  • Oysters
  • Shellfish
  • Tomatoes
  • Pink Grapefruit
  • Onions and garlic
  • Cranberries
  • Tea
  • Peanuts

Foods to avoid

Some foods are known to contribute to ED symptoms, so try to avoid them. Common ones include (6):

  • Excessive Alcohol 
  • Red meat
  • Full fat dairy
  • Sugary foods and drinks (7)
  • Foods that are high in saturated and trans fats
  • White bread and processed foods (8)

Supplements

Can supplements help ED? It appears that some can be effective erectile dysfunction remedies. Here are some of the better-known supplements that can help improve ED:

  • Panax ginseng (9)
  • Rhodiola Rosea (10)
  • Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (11)
  • L-arginine (12)

Exercises to Help Erectile Dysfunction

Exercise is probably the best natural remedy for erectile dysfunction. Improving cardiovascular fitness together with maintaining a healthy weight have both been shown to be especially effective at helping men achieve satisfying erections.

Cardiovascular fitness

One of the causes of ED is inadequate or impeded blood flow to the penis. Studies have shown that people with ED typically have lower heart-rate variability (HRV), which suggests reduced vascular efficiency and poor overall health. (13) And research has found that moderate and high physical activity are associated with a lower risk of developing ED (6). 

When a guy exercises, and especially when he challenges his cardiovascular system, he is training his body to pump his blood more efficiently. Cardiovascular exercise can also reduce hypertension and prevent cardiovascular disease, both of which are associated with ED. 

More than that, exercise also has beneficial effects on a person’s self-esteem and mental health, each of which can positively impact the psychological factors associated with sexual dysfunction. (6)

Try to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise a week. (14) Common aerobic exercises are:

  • Running
  • Cycling
  • Swimming
  • Playing tennis

Man running cardio helps to fight Erectile dysfunction

Strength training

Strength training exercises can also help address ED. Strength training and muscle building can build self-esteem and confidence in bed. And, as a nice side-effect, a firmer physique may be more attractive to your partner. 

Try to do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. (14) You can get this by working out at the gym, or you can try a body-weight training exercise program. 

Weight loss

Being overweight is actually one of the biggest causes of ED (6). Excess fat seems to change body chemistry and lower testosterone which lowers men’s libido. Several studies have found that when overweight guys experience healthy weight loss, their erectile function improves. (15) 

Combining a healthy diet and regular exercise is a good start for guys with a bit extra belly fat to lose some weight. 

Additional lifestyle changes 

Besides exercising and eating well, there are a number of lifestyle changes that can help you improve your health and sexual performance. 

Reduce stress

Stress is known to reduce libido and is an erection killer. It also contributes to other poor health habits like excessive drinking and smoking. If you find ways to cope with your stress, you’ll remove one possible cause of ED.

There are lots of things you can do to combat stress. Consider strategies like starting a meditation routine, connecting regularly with friends, or even seeing a therapist.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important factors in health, especially as we age. Research shows that individuals who do not get adequate sleep—around 7 to 8 hours a night—are more likely to suffer from ED. Sleep apnea, a condition that keeps people from getting enough air as they sleep, which in turn causes them to continually wake up throughout the night, is an especially potent cause of ED. (16)

The solution? Get enough sleep. 

The best way to get enough sleep is to create habits and routines that contribute to sleep hygiene. That includes going to bed at the same time every night, making your sleep environment comfortable, and removing distractions. If you suffer from sleep apnea, discuss treatment options with your doctor.

Communicate with your partner

Open, honest communication with your partner can help build a stronger relationship and enhance emotional closeness. And emotional closeness can lead to better sex. By expressing yourself, and especially expressing your sexual desires, you can increase sexual intimacy and improve your sexual experiences.  

Couple talking and communicating

Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction

Sometimes even with the best care of your body, erectile dysfunction can occur. Luckily, there are lots of erectile dysfunction remedies. 

Pills

You’re probably already familiar with sildenafil, or its trade name “Viagra”. Tadalafil, more commonly known as Cialis, is another oral treatment for ED. Both work by helping the blood vessels in the penis relax, allowing them to let more blood in. Both require sexual stimulation to work, and erections go away after sex. They are often effective treatments, but they may not work for everyone.

Medication injections

Medicated injections into the penis immediately before intercourse is an effective ED treatment. (17) There are several possible injections, including papaverine, phentolamine, prostaglandin E1 (PGE1), or alprostadil (Caverject, Edex, MUSE). Each of these work by causing smooth muscle in the penis to relax and blood to enter.   

The Priapus P shot

The priapus p shot, also known simply as p-shots or the “P-shot”, is a different kind of injection. This form of therapy essentially involves taking plasma from a person’s own blood that is rich in platelets. That plasma is then injected into the penis. So rather than medicine, this injection uses material from a person’s own body.

Vacuum therapy

With vacuum therapy, a suction device is placed around the penis. It creates a difference in air pressure that draws blood into the penis. A ring placed at the base of the penis keeps the blood in and helps maintain the erection. The device can create an effective erection for about 30 minutes, after which the ring must be removed. 

Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy, also known as hormone replacement therapy or HRT, is another potential way to beat ED. Testosterone plays a role in normal libido as well as in the erectile process. Men who have lower than normal testosterone may benefit from testosterone replacement therapy. This is especially the case for hypogonadal men with an ED diagnosis. (19) 

Ultrasound therapy

It’s also possible to get ultrasound therapy for erectile dysfunction. This therapy involves sending low-intensity shockwaves, which causes microtraumas. The body then repairs the tissue and generates new blood vessels as it does so. Several studies have found that ultrasound therapy can result in improved blood flow for men with ED. (20)

Penile implant surgery

For stubborn cases of ED that fail other more conservative measures, guys can get a  surgically-implanted penile prosthesis. This can either be semi-rigid or inflatable, and provide an ‘immediate’ erection when desired. 

Using Precision Medicine

In addition to the general advice that’s good for everyone, there may be some specific ways that an individual can address their ED and increase libido.

Precision medicine is effective because it takes into account a person’s own specific genetic make-up. They complete a DNA test, which gives them insight into how their particular body chemistry works. This allows their doctor to tailor a health program directly to how their body is set up. Some providers, myself included, offer VIP lifestyle coaching that can be an effective way to address erectile dysfunction. 

Conclusion: Don’t Let ED Get You Down

Sexual health isn’t just a nice to have—it’s incredibly important to our overall health. Sex can help us stay physically active, lower blood pressure, improve closeness with our partners, and even boost our immune systems. A healthy sex life is essential for our psychological well-being, too. 

Man and woman smiling and jumping on mountain sexual health
ED can be a major impediment to a man’s sexual health, but it doesn’t have to be. Guys can make changes to their lifestyle to help prevent ED, and there are a number of effective medical options to treat it. 

It’s time to get empowered to take control of your health. Unlock the code to peak performance with the Male MethodTM to regain your energy, focus and confidence and feel like a man again. 

We take a whole-body, epigenetic approach to health, focusing on all inputs and how they affect the human system. With the Male 2.0 Method, we utilize science-based precision medicine, personalizing your health based on your unique genetic blueprint. No more guessing!

We utilize cutting-edge age management protocols to reverse the aging process and expand longevity. And we track and leverage your biometric data using state-of-the-art wearable technology to truly optimize your health.

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In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death.  Unfortunately, a man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either.  And a man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0! Available on Amazon.

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist,  world renowned Men’s Health & Performance Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. www.DrTracyGapin.com

Want more tips to optimize your health?  

Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE 

References

  1. Feldman, H. A., Goldstein, I., Hatzichristou, D. G., Krane, R. J., & McKinlay, J. B. (1994). Impotence and its medical and psychosocial correlates: Results of the Massachusetts Male Aging Study. The Journal of Urology, 151(1), 54-61.
  2. Çayan, S., Kendirci, M., Yaman, Ö., Aşçı, R., Orhan, İ., Usta, M. F., … & Kadıoğlu, A. (2017). Prevalence of erectile dysfunction in men over 40 years of age in Turkey: Results from the Turkish Society of Andrology Male Sexual Health Study Group. Turkish Journal of Urology, 43(2), 122.
  3. Quilter, M., Hodges, L., von Hurst, P., Borman, B., & Coad, J. (2017). Male sexual function in New Zealand: a population-based cross-sectional survey of the prevalence of erectile dysfunction in men aged 40–70 years. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 14(7), 928-936.
  4. Giugliano, F., Maiorino, M. I., Bellastella, G., Autorino, R., De Sio, M., Giugliano, D., & Esposito, K. (2010). Erectile dysfunction: adherence to Mediterranean diet and erectile dysfunction in men with type 2 diabetes. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7(5), 1911-1917.
  5. Aldemir, M., Okulu, E., Neşelioğlu, S., Erel, O., & Kayıgil, Ö. (2011). Pistachio diet improves erectile function parameters and serum lipid profiles in patients with erectile dysfunction. International Journal of Impotence Research, 23(1), 32-38.
  6. Maiorino, M. I., Bellastella, G., & Esposito, K. (2015). Lifestyle modifications and erectile dysfunction: what can be expected?. Asian Journal of Andrology, 17(1), 5.
  7. Adamowicz, J., & Drewa, T. (2011). Is there a link between soft drinks and erectile dysfunction?. Central European Journal of Urology, 64(3), 140.
  8. Dhindsa, S., Miller, M. G., McWhirter, C. L., Mager, D. E., Ghanim, H., Chaudhuri, A., & Dandona, P. (2010). Testosterone concentrations in diabetic and nondiabetic obese men. Diabetes Care, 33(6), 1186-1192.
  9. Jang, D. J., Lee, M. S., Shin, B. C., Lee, Y. C., & Ernst, E. (2008). Red ginseng for treating erectile dysfunction: A systematic review. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 66(4), 444-450.
  10. Brown, R. P., Gerbarg, P. L., & Ramazanov, Z. (2002). Rhodiola rosea: A phytomedicinal overview. HerbalGram, 56, 40-52.
  11. Reiter, W. J., Pycha, A., Schatzl, G., Pokorny, A., Gruber, D. M., Huber, J. C., & Marberger, M. (1999). Dehydroepiandrosterone in the treatment of erectile dysfunction: a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Urology, 53(3), 590-594.
  12. Chen, J., Wollman, Y., Chernichovsky, T., Iaina, A., Sofer, M., & Matzkin, H. (1999). Effect of oral administration of high-dose nitric oxide donor L-arginine in men with organic erectile dysfunction: results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. BJU International, 83(3), 269-273.
  13. Harte, C. B. (2013). The relationship between resting heart rate variability and erectile tumescence among men with normal erectile function. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 10(8), 1961-1968.
  14. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). How much physical activity do adults need? https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
  15. Dallal, R. M., Chernoff, A., O’Leary, M. P., Smith, J. A., Braverman, J. D., & Quebbemann, B. B. (2008). Sexual dysfunction is common in the morbidly obese male and improves after gastric bypass surgery. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 207(6), 859-864.
  16. Zias, N., Bezwada, V., Gilman, S., & Chroneou, A. (2009). Obstructive sleep apnea and erectile dysfunction: still a neglected risk factor?. Sleep and Breathing, 13(1), 3-10.
  17. Duncan, C., Omran, G. J., Teh, J., Davis, N. F., Bolton, D. M., & Lawrentschuk, N. (2019). Erectile dysfunction: A global review of intracavernosal injectables. World Journal of Urology, 37(6), 1007-1014.
  18. Scott, S., Roberts, M., & Chung, E. (2019). Platelet-rich plasma and treatment of erectile dysfunction: Critical review of literature and global trends in platelet-rich plasma clinics. Sexual Medicine Reviews, 7(2), 306-312.
  19. Jacob, B. C. (2011). Testosterone replacement therapy in males with erectile dysfunction. Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 24(3), 298-306.
  20. Gruenwald, I., Appel, B., Kitrey, N. D., & Vardi, Y. (2013). Shockwave treatment of erectile dysfunction. Therapeutic Advances in Urology, 5(2), 95-99.

What Your Wearable Tech And Biometric Data Are Telling You About Your Health

Wearable tech devices have been around for a few years now, and with each update, they get more advanced. These these cutting-edge tools are incredibly useful whether you’re a trained athlete, a workout enthusiast, or simply want to increase your awareness around your overall physical activity. 

Now we can use the data from these devices to track our stress levels for optimizing our immune system.  We can do this by removing triggers that can have a negative effect on our body’s natural ability to fend off disease. 

Wearable devices have certainly evolved from their humbler beginnings as basic step counters, heart rate/activity trackers or reminder systems.  Now they offer an immense amount of specific biometric data that can be actively interpreted for optimum performance. 

This means you’ll have access to a slew of detailed metrics.  These metrics can be analyzed in order to bring some precision into your decisions about your body’s function during both exercise, rest periods, and sleep. You can actually optimize your health in a much more precise way. 

In fact, you can track and manage another key aspect of health: your stress level. Stress and immunity are intertwined. Using the information provided by wearable tech devices through direct awareness of your body’s function means that can offer real-time cues into stress triggers.  And as we all know these stress triggers have a huge impact on your immune system, positive and negative. The more you know about how your body is performing, the sooner you can pivot away from the stress negatives that can have a serious impact on your immune system.

Track Your Physiological Data On A Wearable Tech Device

You no longer have to guess what’s happening inside your body or how to improve your performance. Tracking your physiological data on a wearable tech device, and use it as a tool for specific modifications to your behaviors, diet, or environmental factors, 

Biomarkers – such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), blood volume pulse, blood and muscle oxygenation, are accessible through wearable tech devices.  These biomarkers add a whole new dimension to your awareness (and adjustment) of your body’s performance. 

The coolest part? Many devices are also hard at work while you sleep, busily detecting important metrics. These devices give you fascinating and useful details about sleep quality and patterns. Both sleep quality and patterns have an incredible impact on your body’s overall performance day or night. What’s more, this information speaks volumes about your overall stress level. All the while, your immune system could be really struggling as a result. 

Let’s take a closer look at biomarkers and the way we can learn extensive detail through current wearable tech devices. 

Learn Your Levels: Establish Your Biometrics Baseline 

The more you know about your body’s performance during activity, rest, and sleep, the more you’ll be able to exert control over improvements that will get you closer to your peak performance.  You can be leverage data that points to excessive stress levels or stress-relieving activities or routines that will strengthen your immune system, too. 

The actionable insights that come from the data on your wearable tech device put the power in your hands. 

Biomarkers related to heart activity, in particular, are some of the most essential data collected from a wearable tech device. This can effectively allow you to see what’s happening within your cardiovascular system. 

You can then monitor new activity to compare values when this baseline activity has been established. Plus, you can locate points of stress that can be reduced thanks to this monitoring process. 

Wearable tech devices that measure your body temperature (even while you sleep, such as the Oura Ring) deliver data related to your sleep performance. By comparing that value to values from earlier nights, it indicates your body temperature baseline and any variations from it. That means that you can use that data to make precise adjustments as needed.

Simply put: remove a lot of guesswork by learning your levels and establishing a baseline. Now you can paint a far more complete picture of your body’s performance. Using this data, then, provides actionable insight to make strategic adjustments in your behaviors, diet, or environment. All of that can improve your physiological performance. 

Wearable Tech Results: What We Can Learn From Heart Rate Variability Data

A person with a healthy heart – and without a pacemaker – has variability in their heart rate, both in the pace of beats and in the interval between the beats. For example, if your resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute, your heart isn’t beating every second on the second. The interval varies just slightly between each beat. 

If you’ve ever seen an electrocardiogram (ECG) reading, you’ve noticed subtle differences in the distance between the beat measurements. This indicates that both branches of the autonomic nervous system are working well in a healthy heart. 

A well-functioning parasympathetic nervous system assists the heart to slow down during rest. If the heart rate and HRV are still elevated while at rest, this may be an indicator that the autonomic nervous system is not functioning properly, creating more stress on your system. Locating and modifying these points of stress is a great way to use the data gleaned from your wearable tech.  It puts a bit more control into your hands. As a result, you can make real-time changes that will impact you right away. 

I’ll give you a great example of how this data can be used. I wear a tech device to regularly track my biomarkers, and I saw a change in my HRV and stress levels that made me look twice. My wife and I like to enjoy date nights twice a week, and I noticed that the next day, my HRV and stress levels were way up.  It took me a minute, but I realized that it was the glass of red wine that I was having with dinner that was causing this effect. So now I opt out of the glass of wine and removed that negative effect.  

Can your Garmin Smart Watch detect coronavirus?

Garmin and scientists from top universities and institutes around the world are actively researching whether wearable devices can help identify early indications of coronavirus.

“The premise is actually quite simple. (1) An elevated heart rate is an early sign of a common cold, the flu or coronavirus. (2) Garmin smartwatches have built-in heart rate monitoring at the wrist. Put the two together and society could have an extremely helpful tool for early indications of the virus on a mass scale.” REF

We are just at the forefront of what we can do with wearable tech and all of the data provided to us.

Wearable Tech Results: What Sleep Data Can Tell You About Your Body 


In the dark ages (or probably even a lot more recently) we used to head to bed and hope for the best, shooting for about eight hours if we were lucky. Perhaps we knew we weren’t sleeping well because we felt like total garbage the next day.  And we had a hard time concentrating on pretty much anything. Or maybe we slept great one night, and not-so-great for the next two nights, and had no idea why. 

It was a pretty good mix of guessing, making assumptions, and blindly trying different things to figure it out. I’ve even heard of some people just kind of resigning themselves to the idea that well, they’re just “not a very good sleeper.” So untrue! 

With wearable tech devices hard at work even while we sleep, sensors that track body temperature, heart rate, blood and muscle oxygenation (among other things) deliver a lot of valuable information. This incredible information can uncover clues for helpful insight that you can then use to troubleshoot. 

The Oura Ring and Garmin Watches are high-performing devices that collect biometric data about your body’s sleep performance.  This is hugely valuable.  You can uncover otherwise hidden patterns that have a serious impact on your waking hours and overall health. 

SLEEP STAGE TRACKING (REM, DEEP, LIGHT)

Tracking your nightly sleep cycle delivers huge insight as your brain makes its way through the three individual stages of sleep. Interruptions within these cycles, plus the actual timing of deep, REM, light sleep, and possible awake time during the night can point to areas that can be corrected. 

Here are a few other key ways that the wearable tech can deliver important data about you. 

  • RECOVERY OPTIMIZATION
  • RESTING HEART RATE
  • HEART RATE VARIABILITY (HRV)
  • STRESS LEVELS
  • CALORIES
  • BODY TEMPERATURE TRENDS
  • RESPIRATORY RATE
  • DAILY ACTIVITY GOAL
  • ALWAYS ON – DAYTIME ACTIVITY TRACKING
  • STEPS AND CALORIES
  • INACTIVITY ALERTS
  • ACTIVITY BALANCE

SLEEP RESULTS:  WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

When it comes to sleep data, any patterns that demonstrate a problem can be used to troubleshoot your way towards a better night’s sleep.  You can make precise adjustments to behaviors, diet, and environmental factors. 

For example, if your device reports a rise body temperature around 2 am for about two hours, this might point to some easy-fix issues in the room. Try wearing lighter clothes to bed but adding an extra blanket, which is easily removable without much effort. Or, add a fan to the equation. Track your new results for the next few days. 

The point is this: listen to what your body is telling you with the help of data collected while you’re asleep. It’s a key step to making the kinds of adjustments that will improve both the quality and the duration of your sleep. 

The human immune system is remarkably flexible and resilient – but as we age, as with everything else, our bodies’ ability to cope with stressors can lead to changes in immune response. That means that what worked for us in our 20’s and 30’s might require additional adjustments. Quite frankly, no matter what the age, sleep is incredibly important for total body health.

Sleep data provides us with real-time information to alert and inform us of both the cause and the effect of sleep issues and the cascading effects on health. It’s in the sleep data these wearable tech devices really shine.

You can read more about using wearable tech devices to improve your sleep quality and quantity here. 

Wearable Tech Results:

How To Use Your Muscle Ox % (or SmOx%) Data

If you work out a lot and you’re using a wearable tech device, take a look at versions that measure another important biomarker: Muscle Ox %. 

Muscle Oxygenation Percentage is essentially the balance between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption within the muscle tissue. To simplify, oxygen delivery is the amount of oxygen available for use within the system. It’s the oxygen you’re taking in while you work out. Oxygen consumption describes the efficiency of the muscle as it uses that available oxygen. Muscle Ox % varies, but most people will exhibit levels between 50% to 70% when at rest.

Moxy Monitor 

The Moxy Monitor was designed for anyone who wants to maximize their exercise performance. This smart device measures the Muscle Ox % while muscles are under exercise or athletic stress. 

The Moxy Sensor (within the Moxy Monitor System) utilizes light-emitting diodes and photodetectors, creating a spectrometer that measures muscle oxygen. It’s totally portable, water-resistant, and weighs less than a sports watch. The internal data recording allows Moxy to be used even where radio transmission of data is difficult (like underwater). It’s designed to measure muscle tissue through up to 12mm of fat layer thickness.  

So how do you use this information? Glad you asked.  As you’re working out, the Muscle Ox % being monitored is guiding your training process by knowing exactly how your muscles are handling the workout. If the Muscle Ox % is balanced, you’re training at a level that’s steady and sustainable. 

Rising Muscle Ox % levels  mean that your muscles are consuming more oxygen than what’s being delivered by your blood flow, and that means that you’re reaching capacity on muscle activity. 

Avoid Injury Risks With Precision Data

You won’t need to guess if you’re in the danger zone with your workout. Your wearable tech device sends you data that indicates that your muscles are consuming a lot more oxygen than what’s being delivered. This means that you’re training at a pace that’s not sustainable – you’re burning out and risking injury.

You can avoid that by paying close attention to the recovery phase. 

You entered the recovery phase once your tracker reflected lowering levels. Your device is tracking data that points to less oxygen use by the muscles and more available oxygen within the blood flow. This is the safe zone after a training period. 

Tracking this Muscle Ox % data in real-time makes it possible to adjust your athletic training by operating from a place of knowledge rather than a feeling. It means that you can now build peak performance with precision thanks to biomarkers. You can also lower the risk of painful or damaging muscle fatigue that could take you out for a few days (or worse). 

WHAT TO DO WITH THE MOXY MONITOR DATA

You can make precise changes, thanks to the wide range of real-time data about your muscle performance. For example, some athletes discovered that they were lacking in the warmup process, which actually decreased their performance and increases the chance for injury. The physiological data was visible, trackable, and actionable. 

Having your hands on this level of specific biometric detail provides insights on the overall intensity and fatigue level during any workout. Here’s a visual summary of this information.

If you want to learn your levels and establish a baseline for your typical Muscle Ox % during workouts, get started with a basic workout. Choose one that you’re already really accustomed to doing from start to finish, including recovery time. Maybe it’s one of your easier sessions that you can then use as a performance guide to measuring your general muscle and blood flow biomarkers. Pay attention to your sleep factors, Heart Rate Variability and heart rate patterns across the next few days to see how and when your workout routine shows its effects in those areas.

If there’s a data spike that is leading to a negative (such as disrupted sleep, increased HRV the following day, and so forth), adjust the time of day for your workout if that’s an option for you and note the effects of that change. 

Wearable Tech is Just A Start

Wearable tech devices deliver fascinating physiological data, and it can be eye-opening.

What to do if you uncover concerning patterns from your wearable tech device? Consult with your physician – no two bodies are the same. Don’t delay bringing this data to the doctor’s office if you see something that may point to a larger issue. A specific factor could be present, which requires medical attention. 

Today’s technology provides fantastic actionable insights a day-to-day level. 

Hopefully you’re feeling good about your wearable tech device and enjoying the hands-on approach to biomarker data.  However, it may feel like the data is kind of daunting to interpret. I’m happy to work with you in tandem with your new technology. 

Now more than ever, we are looking for ways to improve our health and our immunity, which means that wearable tech devices fit right into this discussion. This physiological data gives us clear insight into what our bodies are doing even during sleep. You might be surprised to find a few unknown spikes or triggers that, once removed, will result in a more optimized immune system.  Which of course means an overall greater sense of well-being.

THE POWER OF WEARABLE TECH, PRECISION PERFORMANCE DATA INTERPRETATION, AND APPLICATION WITH AN EXPERT

Put the power in your hands with wearable tech devices and Precision Performance Data Interpretation and Application with me.  Get started here. 

Together, we can develop your action plan based on the information that your tech device is giving you, and we can get you to peak performance for optimized health.  

Upgrade to Male™ 2.0 – Schedule a Consult!

You’ll get access to a genetic-based report and analysis, along with a private consultation.  This private consultation will put you on track to your ultimate health.

With the Male 2.0 Method, I test your DNA, interpret the results, and create a customized strategy just for you. This plan is specific to YOUR individual genes and lifestyle.  It will improve every area of your life, from your health and professional productivity to your overall longevity and total wellbeing. Male 2.0 gives you the actionable tools you need right now.  It reveals what you need to customize and design your future limitless self.

Click here to learn more about the lifelong benefits of a personalized genetics consultation and epigenetic coaching program.

Want more tips to optimize your health?  Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE 

I look forward to working with you to take your health goals to the next level.

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COMING SOON TO AMAZON

In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death.  Unfortunately, a man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either.  And a man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0!

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist, Men’s Health Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. 

Peptide Series: What are the Best Peptides for Weight Loss and Fat Loss? 

There’s a whole new way to add the icing on the cake when it comes to maximizing your fitness and nutrition, and it’s pretty exciting. What are we talking about? Peptides.  You might have even heard some buzz around Peptides for Weight loss.

If you’re looking to lose weight, burn fat, or upgrade your health to the next level, you’re probably starting to hear some discussion surrounding peptides, so let’s dive right in. 

We’re now developing a whole new understanding of exactly what peptides can do and how they can be used for strength, longevity and whole list of other benefits. In fact, it’s so recent that we are still on the frontier – and it’s worth learning even more. 

 Let’s take a look at what all the hype is about.

What are peptides?

Peptides are naturally occurring biological molecules, found in all living organisms. They play an essential role in all types of biological activity. Simply put, they’re a smaller version of protein. Peptides have different jobs within the cellular tissue, therefore we are able to pinpoint targeted uses for each type of peptide. 

There are 20 naturally-occurring amino acids which we can combine into an immense variety of different molecules – a lot like alphabet letters that then combine into various words. How many of these molecules create a particular chain determine whether it’s a peptide, a polypeptide, or a protein; all of which have their identifying properties. 

Peptides are molecules composed of 2-50 amino acids. Polypeptides are made of 50-100 amino acids and proteins are made of more than 100 amino acids. Peptides are signaling agents or hormones, and have very precise, specific functions. 

The way we apply those functions to supplement or amplify the body’s internal processes is what makes peptide therapy such an exciting new development throughout the course of optimizing health. 

Of the 7000 naturally occurring peptides, over 500 of them have therapeutic benefit. Scientist are identifying and developing more every month. Peptides have a wide range of functions, including:

  • Weight loss
  • Muscle building
  • Immune function
  • Wound healing
  • Cognitive function and memory
  • Gut health
  • Sexual performance and libido
  • Skin rejuvenation
  • Hair growth
  • Bone and joint health
  • Cancer
  • Longevity

Today we’ll focus on peptides that have the greatest effect on weight loss.

Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormones

Here is a bit more needed information about Growth Hormone (GH). The pituitary gland secretes GH. The hypothalamus makes GH Releasing Hormone (GHRH) that controls release. 

GH has a profound effect on fat breakdown, muscle building, blood sugar regulation, sleep, and immune function. It works directly, but also works through stimulating production of IGF-1. 

What makes it even more complicated is that GHRH has an effect on weight loss directly as well. It works peripherally just like GH to improve lipolysis (fat breakdown) and muscle development.

People previously took GH itself to achieve these benefits, but this actually suppresses GHRH release, thereby reducing its effect. So the new generation of peptides overcome that to have a much better effect.

As we age, the hypothalamus produces a hormone called somatostatin, which blocks the pituitary from releasing GH. As somatostatin levels rise, GH levels decrease. Anything we can do to reduce somatostatin levels will help GH levels.

GH-releasing peptides (GHRPs for short); also called ghrelin mimetics, which stimulate weight loss by directly improving your body’s process for breaking down fat (lipolysis). They also increase GH release which helps build muscle and burn fat through 2 mechanisms – direct stimulation of GH release as well as inhibition of somatostatin, which again blocks GH release.   

Are peptides similar to steroids?

Peptides have become the frontier of biohacking, with peptide supplements offered via injection, sprays, creams, and pills by medical professionals.  Although 100% legal, authorities have banned the use of peptides in competitive athletic sports due to the possibility of unfair advantage.  

To be clear, peptides are not steroids or testosterone.  

If you are interested in the relationship between testosterone and weight, read my article “How To Lose Weight For Healthy T Levels”.

Compared to steroids and testosterone, touted for their fast benefits (and potential side effects), peptides won’t turn you into the Hulk overnight. Peptides are more of a “slow burn” supplement to enhance your existing healthy lifestyle but not meant to replace time at the gym.  While peptides can help you burn fat while you eat, socialize and even sleep, you must combine them with other lifestyle factors over several months to see the best results. In other words, you still have to eat right and get proper exercise! 

Which Peptides for Weight Loss are the Best?

In the world of health and fitness, peptides have become a popular supplement for burning fat, building muscle, increasing energy and improving athletic ability.  The National Institute of Health is even recognizing peptides as a possible supplement therapy for obesity. 

Some peptide supplements (the ones considered performance-enhancing drugs, for example) are often more experimental than others.  Here are a few different peptide hormones that help with weight loss and enhance your performance. I’ve arranged them from most-studied to more experimental. 

CJC-1295

CJC 1295 is a synthetic GHRH chain constructed with 30 amino acids. Through increased protein synthesis, science has shown this peptide chain to have benefits including increased fat loss, increased cellular repair, cellular regeneration, and increased muscle growth. Interestingly, researchers have also shown it to promote the type of deep, slow-wave sleep that facilitates muscle growth and memory retention.  

As with any GHRH-based peptide, careful calculation of dosage and timing cycles – along with cycle breaks – stave off the body’s natural tendency to adapt or “get used to” the therapy, thus reducing its overall effect. One dose of CJC-1295 raises GH levels for 6 days, but in a nice pulsatile fashion, which is what you want. 

Tesamorelin (GHRH peptide)

Tesamorelin is another GHRH (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone) peptide, that stimulates the pituitary gland to increase growth hormone secretion.  Tesamorelin is much more potent than CJC-1295 and can raise IGF-1 levels by as much as 150 points. 

This peptide is FDA-approved for lipodystrophy (when the body is unable to produce and maintain healthy fat tissue) and for men who have HIV who get lipodystrophy from some of the medicines that they take and that increases their abdominal fat.  Tesamorelin is the most highly researched peptide for fat loss, however it is not normally prescribed as a weight loss medication.

Ipamorelin  

Ipamorelin is a growth hormone releasing peptide (GHRP) that works a little bit differently than the GHRH peptides.  Ipamorelin works by inhibiting somatostatin, thus taking the ‘breaks’ off GH production. Unlike other GHRPs, Ipamorelin will not increase your sense of hunger. Peptides such as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6 do increase hunger, so they need to be administered at night right before bed otherwise you’d be raiding the fridge and have the opposite effect if you’re trying to lose weight!  

A lot of people have moved to Ipamorelin because it increases fat metabolism with less side effects and because it can be combined with other peptides as well.  Also known for its anti-aging properties and improvements in energy, this can be used long term, up to a year. In the past, many peptides required in-office or self-administered injections.  You can now take Ipamorelin as a sublingual tablet taken under the tongue, before bed to coincide with your body’s natural growth hormone spike. 

The combination of CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin (“CJC/IPA”) delivers a more powerful response than either one alone because Ipamorelin is blocking somatostatin.

The key is nighttime dosing to boost overnight GH release, and avoid carbs or fat intake within 2 hours of dosing to ensure max effect.

Amlexanox/TTA

Amlexanox is an anti-inflammatory compound that has the benefit of appetite suppression. Combined with Tetradecylthioacetic Acid (a fatty acid, TTA for short) can help regulate how much fat the body stores by influencing the genes that control metabolism. TTA can help people feel full more quickly while the fatty acid decreases overall hunger and burns fat. In addition to regulating fat metabolism, this fatty acid has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunity-enhancing properties. 

BPC-157  

First, a warning.  If you’re a competitive athlete, this compound is likely classed as a performance-enhancing drug, and you could get disqualified if you take it.

BPC stands for Body Protecting Compound, and it lives up to its name. 

It’s a newer peptide with less human research, but the studies using this on rats are pretty amazing.  Dubbed a ‘healing peptide’, the research has shown this peptide can heal Achilles tendons, torn knee ligaments and even repair leaky gut in our furry friends.  There were no discernible side effects in any of these studies, and anecdotal reports suggest that BPC-157 could help you heal like a Marvel mutant.  

Although its benefits are more focused on healing, when it comes to the life of an athlete, fast healing from injuries means shorter recovery times and less time for the weight to creep back on!

How Fast Can I See Results from Peptides?

 

Your results are dependent on many factors.  First, you truly only want to take peptides under the supervision of a medical practitioner as a part of a larger weight management plan. The number one thing to do is to really manage your diet and cook your own food so you can control what you’re eating. It’s been said that great abs are made in the kitchen, and the same is true of our overall health: it all starts with what’s on your fork. As exciting and effective as peptide therapy can be, it’s no magic wand.  

Balancing your other hormone levels is important, too.   When you optimize your testosterone and thyroid levels, you will experience a lot of synergistic effects. If you have all that dialed in, you’re eating well and you’re sleeping eight hours per night, you could see results within a few weeks, especially with Tesamorelin. Ipamorelin is a more gentle peptide that may take 3-6 months to begin to show its effect. 

Speak to your doctor about specific dosing and the right peptide for your goals.

We’ve discussed some of the benefits of peptides and some of them seem miraculous.  Outside of weight loss and muscle gain, studies show faster healing, more energy, improved sleep and even increased libido.  The growth hormone levels we produce decreases as we age (30% by age 50, and 50% by age 70), so peptides may even help with neurological function, possibly preventing Alzheimers.  

Used incorrectly though, peptides have the potential to cause side effects of varying degrees. 

Side Effects of Peptides

For healthy individuals, peptide supplements are unlikely to cause serious side effects because they are similar to the peptides present in everyday foods. That said, as with any treatment it’s always wise to exercise caution in tandem with your doctor. 

No studies have shown peptides to have any carcinogenic effects, however if you have any pre-existing medical conditions you could be at risk of adverse effects or interactions with other medications. 

How to Purchase Peptides

You may be wondering if you can just purchase peptides from a store or the internet.  

You can, but it’s really important to remember that there can be some questionable manufacturers that make it tough to sort out which are good and which are not. 

The purity of products is a critical aspect to peptide therapy – and that means that without knowing for sure, you could run the risk of sub-par or ineffective compounds. 

Quality control can be an issue for the every day buyer, therefore you could potentially purchase contaminated or dangerous compounds manufacturers have created without regulation.   

In the United States, only a few compound pharmacies actually create these peptide supplements due to state restrictions.  The FDA does not currently regulate supplements in the same way as with traditional medications, so it’s important that you apply awareness to that and exercise caution by running it past your doctor in advance. 

At the Gapin Institute we  prescribe peptide therapy and can create a well-balanced treatment plan for you. Remember, peptides are not a fix-all. They don’t replace good nutrition, sleep, stress management, fitness, etc.. In a sense, peptides are the icing on the cake.

Want the Ultimate Peptide Guide? Click HERE.

Conclusion

Peptides and peptide therapy are cutting-edge tools. You can use them to optimize your health, slow the aging process, and reduce inflammation. Learning new ways to target and use peptides, polypeptides and proteins helps you move away from disease and towards better health. 

If you’re interested in radically upgrading your health, you’ll want to keep a close eye on the power of peptides and consider adding these therapies to your regimen. After all, when it comes to living a better life for a longer span of time, we’re looking at brand new ways to do just that – and the sky’s the limit. 

The best place to start if you want a hormonal optimization or peptide program is by seeing a physician first.  

Gapin Institute is currently accepting new clients. If you are tired of being tired… or you have tried everything to lose that unwanted weight but nothing seems to be working, our Peptide therapy might be the piece to the puzzle that you are missing. Call us today to schedule your consultation. (941) 263-0212.

Upgrade to Male 2.0™– Schedule a Consult! 

You’ll get access to a genetic-based report and analysis, along with a private consultation that will put you on track to your ultimate health. 

With the Male 2.0 Method, I test your DNA, interpret the results, and create a customized strategy just for you. This plan is specific to YOUR individual genes and lifestyle.  It will improve every area of your life, from your health and professional productivity to your overall longevity and total wellbeing. 

Ready to take the next steps? 

Download the Blueprint

Schedule a Call

**************************

In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death. A man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either. A man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0!

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist, Men’s Health Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance.

Men’s Health: Reverse Aging with NAD+

Aging is inevitable – but there’s a whole new frontier for optimizing our health through the latest genetic science and biohacking that can help you to slow down the aging process and maybe even reverse aging with NAD+.  NAD (short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and also known as NAD+) has recently been getting a lot of attention as a cutting-edge tool to promote longevity.  

We’re taking it all the way down the cellular level here.

Properly functioning cellular metabolism is essential to health. The sum of every chemical reaction that happens inside the body, along with its molecular interactions, keeps the body in a state of balance. This is all made possible by coenzymes (“helper molecules”) and specific proteins acting as metabolic sensors that respond to conditions in the cells and body. NAD is a tiny coenzyme that plays an important role in this delicate dance. As you age, NAD+ decreases and with it goes cellular function that prevents disease and maintains vitality.

What is NAD+ and why is it important?

NAD+ is vital to cellular metabolism because it turns nutrients into cellular energy. It also activates a set of proteins called sirtuins that regulate cellular health. NAD+ creates the cellular energy that helps us to retain our youthful function, muscle strength, and physical stamina. When sirtuins were discovered they were quickly nicknamed “the longevity genes.” 

A fascinating aspect of NAD+ is its dual role in protecting against the factors that age us. This includes inflammation, DNA damage, and failing mitochondria (cell respiration). NAD+ promotes longevity by facilitating DNA repair and protecting mitochondria from early death. As a result, NAD lowers the risks for age-related brain diseases like Alzheimers or Parkinson’s and cardiovascular diseases (a leading cause of death for men). 

NAD is the building block for ALL of our systems such as the lymphatic, cardiovascular and nervous systems. It is responsible for our immune function, insulin regulation, and fatty acid oxidation. Without it, we would literally die!

Improving Health Through NAD+ Boosting Photo Credit: The Sinclair Lab

NAD+ and Aging

A NAD+ molecule isn’t consumed alone to create energy like fuel in a car. Instead, it works with proteins to carry out essential biological processes like cellular energy creation and maintaining healthy DNA. Sirtuins are some of the proteins that play a key role in these processes. They only function in the presence of NAD+ and this means that the body needs to constantly synthesize it to maintain cellular function. However, NAD levels markedly decline with age, creating an energy deficit that decreases the body’s ability to retain optimal health.

Sirtuins and NAD+ work together to help promote overall health.

For example, at age 50 a typical person may have only half the NAD+ they did in their younger years but by age 80, NAD+ levels drop to only 1-10 percent of the levels measured in youth. But recent studies have now shown that increasing NAD+ in the body can restore the body’s cellular function as though turning back time – actually slowing down the aging process. Essentially, men can reverse aging by restoring healthy levels of NAD+.

One study done on mice, showed an average 5 percent increase in their lifespan —even though supplementation did not begin until the mice were nearing the end of their natural lifespan of 24 months. That would be the equivalent of gaining nearly an additional four years of life to today’s average human expectancy of 79 years!

Another side effect of decreased NAD+ is that muscles begin to shrivel and grow weaker due to vascular aging (thinning and aging of blood vessels, reducing cellular health). Vascular aging is responsible for many disorders for men.  These may include cardiac and neurologic conditions, muscle loss, and impaired wound healing. The process can be slowed down with regular exercise, but gradually even exercise becomes less effective at holding off this weakening.  In further research findings, mice with NAD+ supplementation showed between 56 and 80 percent greater exercise capacity. This points to a reversal in vascular aging and an ability to maintain a youthful physical stamina. 

Furthermore, in two different animal models of neurodegenerative disease, increasing cellular NAD+ reduced the severity of the disorder, normalized neuromuscular function, and delayed memory loss.  Most studies started on mice, but more recently clinical studies have shown positive effects on humans. You can begin to see how crucial NAD+ is to a vital life – and how its depletion can rob you of this vitality as you age.

Reversing Aging with NAD+ Precursors

Most of the ways of increasing NAD+ do not include supplementing with NAD+ itself, but rather precursors to NAD+. There are 5 precursors to NAD+:

  • tryptophan
  • nicotinic acid (pyridine-3-carboxylic acid)
  • nicotinamide (nicotinic acid amide)
  • nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)
  • and nicotinamide riboside (NR).

We can get NAD+ in our bodies through diet.  This is done by consuming foods with NAD+ precursors in them – like fish, crimini mushrooms, and raw green vegetables. However, you can’t really eat enough of anything to significantly boost NAD+ levels. Taking a NAD+ precursor supplement can help mitigate the decline, improve cellular health, and even mitigate loss of telomeres.

NMN and NR are the most popular precursors found in the latest anti-aging supplements. However, NR (a unique member of the vitamin B3 family) has been found to be the most efficient. If you’re a wine fan, you may be familiar with another famous anti-aging compound: resveratrol. NR is 4x more bioavailable than resveratrol, quickly kicking the red-wine derivative to the curb.

It has a positive impact on Metabolism

NR doesn’t just have anti-aging effects, it has a positive impact on metabolism. Mice on high-fat diets with NR supplementation gained 60 percent less weight than they did on the same diet without NR. In addition, none of the mice on NR showed signs of diabetes. Instead, their energy levels improved. 

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is an important target to extend lifespan and health span.

NAD+ Supplements

Renowned Harvard University geneticist David Sinclair is the pioneer in the supplementation business of NAD+ with Elysium Health. Although his anti-aging claims were first met with controversy because most studies had been done on mice (https://khn.org/news/a-fountain-of-youth-pill-sure-if-youre-a-mouse/), the study arena has since been expanded to human trials done at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Washington.  Gaining support of researchers at the top of their field, these human studies point to the same benefits found in our small furry friends.

Dr. Sinclair has conducted a study to show the effectiveness of his supported supplement, Basis.  Previous studies had shown an increase in NAD+ over a 24 hour period. His study sought to determine whether cellular NAD+ levels could be sustained over the entire study period of eight weeks, and it did.

In a placebo-controlled trial of 120 healthy adults between the ages of 60-80, participants taking the recommended dose of Basis saw cellular NAD+ levels increase by an average of 40 percent over baseline after 30 days, sustained at this number to 60 days. Participants taking twice the recommended dose saw those levels increase by 90 percent after 30 days and 55 percent at 60 days. 

ChromaDex, another leading anti-aging company has taken the running lead in scientific support for their supplement TruNiagen. With over 100 preclinical trials, 5 published studies and 3 FDA safety reviews, the evidence surrounding NAD+ supplementation is overwhelming.

It was previously thought that NAD+ could not be given in oral form and only intravenously due to poor bioavailability and low intestinal absorption.  Newer research shows that oral forms of NAD+ supplementation do have positive effects.  NADOVIM is one of the first and earliest supplements on the market to contain actual NAD+ instead of NAD+ precursors in its formulation. https://nadovim.com/top-5-reasons-to-take-nadovim-a-doctors-perspective/

Researchers are still willing to explore the value of IV infusions of NAD+. This is a new area for further, detailed study and could potentially be an effective delivery method in some ways. Preliminary animal study evidence suggests that intravenously administered NAD+ may hold some interesting promise. Currently, there are no pre-clinical or clinical human studies, but this is a fast-moving advancement in what we are learning about the way NAD+ and NAD+ precursors are processed in tissues and across the blood-brain barrier. Stay tuned.

How to Increase NAD+ Levels Naturally

Before you go out and buy a Vitamin B3 or NR supplement, remember that reversing aging requires a systems-based, holistic approach. There is no such thing as a magic anti-aging pill. NAD+ treatment in addition to other lifestyle changes and structures is what ultimately adds more years to your life. It is important to take a high quality NAD+ supplement.  Also, here are additional recommendations to ensure you increase NAD+ and its anti-aging effects.

Fasting

Fasting, or reducing your calorie intake for extended periods, is an excellent method for indirectly boosting the body’s NAD+ levels. It has been shown that, fasting is effective in increasing NAD+ levels.  However, a drastic reduction in calorie intake or fasting long term can have a counterproductive effect. Consider intermittent fasting or adopting a low carb-ketogenic diet to provide similar positive results.

Exercise

Exercise is one of the easiest and most cost-effective methods for boosting NAD+ levels. In a nutshell, exercise forces our body muscles to produce more mitochondria. The increased production of mitochondria results in a natural boost in NAD+ levels in the body.

Sunscreen

Research has shown that too much direct sunlight exposure can deplete the body of NAD+ because our body uses NAD+ to repair sun damaged cells from over exposure to UV rays. Reduce exposure to strong sunlight and wear sunscreen.

Healthy Diet

Eating a well balanced whole foods diet full of NAD+ precursor rich foods is a one-way ticket to reversing aging. Be sure to add more of the following into your diet: 

  • Fish – Varieties of fish like tuna, salmon and sardines are rich sources of NAD+ for the body. Be sure to source your fish from sustainable, wild-caught sources.
  • Green Vegetables – green vegetables contain all sorts of nutrients in them which are beneficial in a variety of ways including NAD+ precursors. Of these vegetables peas and asparagus have the highest amount.
  • Whole Grains – high in Vitamin B3 which also contains RN. Remember that vegetables and grains that are cooked or processed lose their nutrition as well as the vitamin source. Therefore, it is recommended that you should also eat raw vegetables and choose whole grains (rice, quinoa, etc) over processed foods such as chips and cereals.
Reduce Alcohol Intake

Alcohol interferes with healthy cellular processes and reduces the efficacy of NAD+. In fact, alcohol consumption has been shown to directly reduce levels of NAD+ (and testosterone) in the body. 

NAD+ precursors, exercise and caloric restriction can increase NAD+ levels.
NAD+ helps you get energy out of the food you eat, it protects cells from stress, it maintains healthy sleep cycles and it helps your cells repair damaged DNA.

Conclusion 

If you are looking for supplements that reverse aging, the NAD+ research is very promising.  It should be considered as a part of a holistic health plan for every aging male.  Without exercise and a whole foods diet, NAD+ supplementation will have minimal effects. For men who are looking to take their performance and health to the next level, NAD+ can give you that extra edge.

Upgrade to Male™ 2.0 – Schedule a Consult! 

You’ll get access to a genetic-based report and analysis, along with a private consultation that will put you on track to your ultimate health. 

With the Male 2.0 Method, I test your DNA, interpret the results, and create a customized strategy just for you. This plan is specific to YOUR individual genes and lifestyle.  It will improve every area of your life, from your health and professional productivity to your overall longevity and total wellbeing. Male 2.0 gives you the actionable tools you need right now.  It reveals what you need to customize and design your future limitless self.

Click here to learn more about the lifelong benefits of a personalized genetics consultation and epigenetic coaching program. 

Want more tips to optimize your health?  Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE 

I look forward to working with you to take your health goals to the next level. 

Ready to take the steps to the next level?

Download the Blueprint

Schedule a Call

**************************

COMING SOON TO AMAZON

In Male 2.0™, Dr. Tracy Gapin has turned everything we once thought we knew about men’s health and performance upside down. The old model of how to be “a man” is broken. A man who works himself to death. A man who tries to NOT get sick but isn’t really healthy either. A man who takes a pill for every ill but is never really cured. That was Male 1.0. Now, imagine being THE MAN ─ owning your performance in the bedroom, the weight room, and the boardroom. Living a fully optimized life. Becoming limitless. This is Male 2.0!

Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist, Men’s Health Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. www.SmartMensHealth.com 

Fad Diets: Why They May (Not) Be Working For You

It’s pretty likely that words like Keto, Paleo, Whole30, and juice cleanses are a part of your consciousness at this point – and you may even have tried a few (or more) of these diet trends to varying degrees of success. 

To say they’re a fad is not an understatement. Although diet and nutrition trends have come and gone since what seems like the beginning of time, some of them become so trendy that the buzz alone makes them a fad. 

The Atkins Diet of the 90’s morphed into the Paleo diet of the 2000’s, and now it’s all about Keto. What’s next? Who knows. The point is that at any given time, diet fads are part of the landscape. 

They’re popular, they’re current, and they’re everywhere. There’s an endless supply of relevant apps for your phone to learn, track, or otherwise engage with the fad. Meal kits and various accessories or equipment round it out with a whole set of gadgets that help you feel like you’ve really taken ownership of the new regimen. 

If you want to lose weight, build muscle, get better sleep, or increase endurance and performance, there’s little doubt that you’ve taken a look at how you can do that through diet. Managing larger issues like chronic inflammation, stress, and mental health might also have you reaching for diet tips to implement. After all, what goes into your body can really make or break you. 

The real question: Just because it’s popular, does that mean it’s for you?  

Diets – Especially of the Fad Variety – Are Not One-Size-Fits-All.  

“Why am I not losing weight?” 

“What is disrupting my sleep?” 

“I am now eating a lot of meat and fats – is this going to hurt me in the long run?” 

“How do I diet properly?”

These are all valid questions. 

What works for your co-worker, your brother or your neighbor may not necessarily work for you, and vice-versa. He might have turned out lean and defined, while you ended up with a new level of fatigue and restlessness. Or you might’ve gotten great results, but he developed increased blood pressure rates and dizziness. 

But why? 

The efficacy of any nutritional regimen is entirely dependent on your own unique genetic composition and lifestyle. The answer lies in your own unique DNA. In short, we have to look at it through the lens of Epigenetics to know whether or not the latest diet fad is actually going to help YOUR body. 

Let’s take a closer look at diet fads and why they may (or may not) be working for you. 

Three Current Fad Diets 

  • The Ketogenic Diet:  High-fat, low-carb keto diet has brought on some dramatic weight loss in some people. The basis for ‘Keto’ is a substantial cut in your carb intake, which forces your body into a state of ketosis so that it burns fat (rather than carbohydrates) for energy. With the keto diet, about 80% of your daily caloric intake comes from fat, like nuts, oil, avocado and 10% of your calories will come from carbs. This means that bread, pasta, fruits, oats, and starchy vegetables are off-limits. 
  • The Paleo Diet: Similar to Keto, the “caveman diet” does have some key differences. Paleo fans extol the virtues of eliminating gluten to reduce the inflammation that has been linked to such diseases as cancer, diabetes, arthritis and more. Processed foods (like refined carbs and soda) have been linked to damaging inflammation too, so those are also out. 
  • Whole30: This particular diet was developed as an elimination technique in order to discover which foods cause you problems. For 30 days, eat nothing but fruits, vegetables, nuts and meat. After those 30 days, you’re supposed to notice a major difference. Re-introducing foods one at a time to uncover what works and what doesn’t is a gamble, but it does bring a lot of direct awareness to the impact of what goes into the body. 

Why Fad Diets are so Tempting 

Taking interest in a diet fad is, in and of itself, not an entirely bad thing. 

It shows that you’re ready to own your health, and a willingness to be in the driver’s seat to make true change. If you’ve managed to adhere to a new regimen – like keto – you’ve had to make deliberate choices that eliminate favorites from your meals (bye bye, pasta!) that require clear discipline. 

Those are good qualities. 

Assuming control of your health through nutrition is a very tangible way to feel like you’re doing something constructive to bring about change. These adjustments indicate that you’re willing and able to apply an idea and bring it into your daily life. 

Science, nutrition, and exercise are constantly evolving as technology improves and we have new ways to visualize or study the body and brain. On the surface, the fact that a diet fad might be on the tip of everyone’s tongue does not immediately mean that it’s bad. 

But is it right for YOU? 

Whether the latest diet craze works for you has less to do with what’s popular and everything to do with your own unique genetic blueprint. 

How Your DNA Impacts the Way Diets Work (Or Not) 

Would you get on a boat and simply sail east, with no map, no account for the weather, and a random assortment of equipment that may or may not be what you need? Probably not! 

Setting yourself up for success means having a map, and interpreting the map to actively navigate to your destination. Otherwise, you’re just sailing into the dark and hoping for the best. Maybe you make it, maybe you don’t. Sound smart? Not really. 

The map is found in the specific information found in your DNA. 

Every part of your genetic function is embedded in the genetic codes contained in DNA strands. 

Epigenetics is the science of how DNA interacts with our lifestyle – how we eat, breathe, move, even how we think. It involves changing the expression of the code, through chemical modifications as a result of lifestyle. Because lifestyle alterations like diet, exercise, sleep, and mindset are controllable, we actually have the power to turn genes on and off to influence health, vitality and longevity. 

In turn, the genetic codes contained in DNA can also indicate markers for potential illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease and multiple forms of cancer. And, one gene does not equal one outcome.

Nutrition can have a Tremendous Influence on the Expression of these Genetic Codes.

A Ketogenic diet – high in fats, low in carbs – can pose an increased risk of disease for people who carry a certain mix of genetic code. Increased saturated fat intake can be very problematic, and the state of ketosis can be unnecessarily taxing on the internal organs in some individuals. 

In addition, the Ketogenic diet is both high in saturated animal fats and low in protective antioxidants from plant sources.  These antioxidants protect organs such as the heart, further increasing an individual’s risk of developing this disease.

But that’s just one small example – any restrictive diet needs to be analyzed with respect to your own DNA coding in order to evaluate its benefits and risks. Any time a particular food group is either added or removed, it creates a situation where nutrients are being depleted, some of which are going to have a prominent effect on your entire system. 

You can’t just guess and hope it’s going to be good, because it could have negative effects. 

Genetics play a huge role in determining your individual response to fats in your diet. For example, your APOA5 gene indicates how well your body responds to polyunsaturated fats. And knowing your APOE4 gene is critical to understand your risk of vascular disease and Alzheimers Disease with intake of saturated fats. And, these are just a few gene examples.

Bottom Line 

If you want to achieve your diet goals without inadvertently increasing your risk for disease, gastrointestinal discomfort, weight gain – or other issues – you need to take the guesswork out of the equation.

If you want to hit your target when adopting a new diet, it’s time to get it right from the start by looking at the very building blocks that make you who you are in the first place. 

Don’t wait to make your efforts count. Find out how to leverage your genetic blueprint for total optimization of your human potential today.

Upgrade to Male 2.0. 

MALE 2.0 is for any man who is tired of settling for subpar energy and performance…who is ready to optimize his brain function, maximize energy, increase vitality, and tap into limitless, ageless health!

MALE 2.0 gives you the actionable tools you need right now and reveals what you need to customize and design your future limitless self.

Tracy Gapin, MD is a board-certified Urologist, Men’s Health Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance.

Click here to learn more about the lifelong benefits of a personalized genetics consultation and epigenetic coaching program. 

Want more tips to optimize your health? 

Listen to the latest podcasts. Click HERE 

I look forward to hearing from you.  I would enjoy working together with you to take your diet goals to the next level so that you can get it right from the start. 

www.SmartMensHealth.com 

Ready to take the next step?

Download the Blueprint

Schedule a Call

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How to Prevent Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer prevention - Dr Tracy Gapin

Did you know that September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month? Organizations such as the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) promote awareness and testing during the month of September, encouraging preventive testing and raising funds toward developing new treatments. (https://www.pcf.org/blue/) However, prostate health education is an important topic for men year round.

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer diagnosed in men. The PCF estimates that 1 in 9 men in the United States will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. It’s important to undergo routine screening and do everything you can to avoid prostate cancer. 

Routine screening consists of an annual PSA blood test and prostate exam. Screening should begin at the age of 50, unless you are African American or have a first degree relative with prostate cancer.  In these previously mentioned cases, testing should start at the age of 40.

Today we’re going to talk about some steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing prostate cancer. Remember that small decisions you make every day can go a long way!  

Prostate Cancer Awareness Month Topics:

Sex is Fun!

A study by the National Institutes of Health in 2004 initially suggested that frequent sexual activity might reduce the incidence of prostate cancer.

The Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which followed 32,000 men for 18 years, also supports this. Men with frequent sexual activity showed a 20% lower risk of prostate cancer. Jennifer Rider, the study’s lead author, suggests, “Safe sexual activity could be good for prostate health.” Studies also show that regular sexual activity reduces stress and improves mood.

Sex and prostate cancer prevention - Dr Tracy Gapin and Smart Men's Health Blog
 

How can exercise prevent prostate cancer?

Evidence is mounting that inflammation and oxidation both play key roles in the development of prostate cancers and other conditions. Fortunately, research from the prevention side suggests that regular exercise may be one of the best natural antioxidants.

A study published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology specifically evaluated the effects of exercise in prostate cancer patients. They studied men who exercised vigorously for at least 3 hours per week. 49% showed reduced overall mortality, and 61% reduced prostate cancer mortality, compared to men having less than 1 hour per week of vigorous activity.

Other studies show that exercise is effective at reducing risks of prostate cancer development, possibly decreasing prostate cancer development, and diminishing the side effects that may be caused by treatment medications. A recent Swedish study supported these findings, concluding that both resistance training and aerobic exercise clearly improve prostate cancer-specific and overall survival.

And, don’t forget that intense exercise can actually alter your DNA. A period of intense exercise can positively change your gene regulation.

Medications – Proscar and Avodart

Proscar and Avodart are prescriptions that men use to “shrink” the prostate by lowering the number of male sex hormones. The drugs block an enzyme that converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a much more potent hormone.

The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) studied whether finasteride (Proscar) reduced the incidence of prostate cancer. The trial found that men who had taken finasteride developed fewer prostate cancers than in men who had not. However, the men who had taken finasteride and developed prostate cancer had more aggressive tumors. The number of deaths from prostate cancer was the same in both groups.

The Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events Study (REDUCE) studied whether the drug dutasteride (Avodart) reduced the risk of prostate cancer. This study also showed that there were fewer prostate cancer diagnoses in men who took dutasteride compared with the men who did not. Overall, Avodart did not significantly reduce the number of aggressive cancers though.

What about testosterone replacement therapy?

The news media has fueled concerns that there may be an adverse connection between testosterone replacement therapy and increased prostate cancer risk, but studies have not borne this out.

A recent study looked at over 1,000 men who were receiving testosterone therapy. Over the 5 years the researchers conducted the study, only eleven (or 1%) of the men’s doctors diagnosed them with prostate cancer. This is well below the historically-expected 7% incidence. These men did not appear to experience any increased prostate cancer risk with their testosterone replacement.

Another study assessed almost 150,000 men who had previously undergone treatment for prostate cancer and were currently receiving testosterone replacement therapy. Researchers found no increase in prostate cancer mortality or overall mortality in the men receiving testosterone.

A recent study actively monitored men with low grade prostate cancer. These men’s doctors were also treating them with testosterone therapy. The study concluded there was no significant progression of disease in these men either.

In fact, a recent report suggests that testosterone therapy may actually be therapeutic in men with hormone-refractory advanced prostate cancer.

Studies show that low testosterone levels correlate with an increased risk of prostate cancer. This finding is somewhat counter-intuitive given the scientific community’s longstanding notion that hormone therapy “pours gas on the fire” of prostate cancer. But the literature clearly shows that testosterone therapy does NOT increase your risk of prostate cancer.

Will statins help or hinder?

 Researchers have been interested in the possible connection of cholesterol-reducing medications and prostate cancer. Several of the 18 trials researchers conducted, revealed a reduced risk of cancer recurrence after both surgery and radiation therapy. These trials suggest that statins may reduce the progression of prostate cancer.

Ongoing research continues to look into this possibility, as well as to determine whether statins may also reduce the incidence of prostate cancer.

Metformin and Men's Health - Dr Tracy Gapin

How about Metformin?

Metformin is a prescription medication used primarily to manage diabetes. Studies suggest Metformin may have a protective effect on the progression of prostate cancer. A study of nearly 4,000 diabetic men found those men taking Metformin, when diagnosed with prostate cancer, were less likely to die from cancer or other causes than men taking other diabetes drugs.

Prior research looking at whether metformin might reduce the risk of prostate cancer development did not show a benefit. More studies are currently underway to look at both prevention and management.

What about taking aspirin?

The jury is still out on how or whether aspirin might help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. After extensive studies on aspirin’s effects, researchers found many of the studies demonstrated it had a protective effect and others did not.

If your doctor has you on an aspirin regimen after a heart attack or stroke, follow their current recommendations.

Are there other things I can do?

Absolutely! There are many lifestyle choices that will not only help you prevent prostate cancer, but also boost overall health and well-being, reduce stress, and improve fitness. Many of the dietary recommendations experts have already proven as successful for weight loss, will also reduce your risk of developing prostate cancer.
 

Your Diet Matters!

Start by adopting a diet lower in saturated fats and higher in plant-based fats. Your body and brain need fat to thrive, but studies have shown that a diet high in animal fats was more likely to be associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer.

A number of studies have shown that men who ate the most dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt on a daily basis had a higher risk of prostate cancer. Studies are conflicting, but the mechanism could be because of the presence of saturated fat, insulin-like growth factor (IGF), or elevated hormone levels.

Some fats are superstars, however. Studies have linked the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish such as salmon, tuna, and herring to reduced prostate cancer risk. If fish isn’t your favorite, try a good quality fish oil supplement. Avoid trans-fatty acids, though, as numerous studies proved they promote cancer. The most common foods containing trans-fatty acids are butter and processed or fried foods.

BBQ’s are fun – but charred meat, not so much

Overcooking or charring meat creates carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines. Animal studies have shown that these can cause prostate cancer. In addition, charbroiling red meat or chicken with skin produces another set of carcinogens called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). 

Research shows that intake of PAHs triggers mutations in prostate cell DNA, leading to a chronic inflammatory response in the prostate. We’ve already discussed that inflammation leads to an increased risk of development of prostate cancer. It appears that the combination of mutation and inflammation appear to be a key in this development. 

Steaming or baking meats, thereby avoiding overcooking meats, can significantly reduce the amount of carcinogens present.

The bitter truth about sugar

Cutting the amount of simple sugars and carbohydrates you intake may slow prostate cancer growth. Studies have linked excess sugar intake to prostate cancer growth through increased insulin levels. 

Compounding the problem, insulin resistance has been shown to reduce levels of proteins that are important for stimulating prostate cancer cell death. Numerous studies have shown that sugar “feeds” cancer cells. 

ANOTHER reason not to eat gluten

Doctors typically recommended adopting a gluten-free diet to aid patients with celiac disease, an inflammatory bowel condition. By reducing inflammation, a gluten-free diet may have a role in cancer prevention as well. Foods with no gluten include all fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and eggs.

Many believe the vitamins and minerals present in fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Although, studies have yet to prove any specific nutrient guarantees to reduce your risk. Cruciferous vegetables have unique antioxidant properties that seem to enable them to counteract some of the damage caused by carcinogens. A well-rounded selection of fruits and vegetables introduces necessary enzymes and tends to make you feel fuller, so you have less room for other high-fat, high-calorie foods.

A tomato a day keeps cancer away? Well, it’s a pretty good start! Kudos for Prostate Cancer Awareness!

Several animal studies have suggested that lycopenes, present mostly in tomatoes, may reduce prostate tumor growth. Some human studies have shown that a diet high in lycopene may be linked to a decreased risk of prostate cancer.  Other studies are inconclusive.

Note that these studies utilize the whole, fresh tomato, not the sugar-laden spaghetti sauce. There is no data showing a benefit to taking lycopene supplements in lieu of the real food.

To reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer, men should reach for foods rich in antioxidants and nutrients and low in pro-inflammatory and carcinogenic substances.  Colorful fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs, leafy and pungent greens, seeds, nuts, and berries all contain powerful anti-cancer nutrients. 

The Mediterranean isn’t just a great place to vacation

Consider adopting the Mediterranean diet, loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables, tomatoes, garlic, fish, red wine, and olive oil. This heart-healthy diet may be very beneficial for prostate cancer prevention, and will keep the whole family fit and well!

30-Day Health Challenge for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Whether it’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Month or any time during the year, check out the 30-Day Health Challenge for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. It was developed specifically to increase your knowledge around reducing your risk for prostate cancer, yet it is an excellent all-around way to rethink your lifestyle.

I designed the challenges to help you look at your current situation and consider areas of change and improvement. Many of the daily challenges will benefit women as well, especially Day 24, Day 28, and all of the other non-prostate-specific days!  

Regardless of your diet or lifestyle, knowledge is one of the biggest and best ways to reduce prostate cancer risk. By staying informed on the latest research and developments regarding prostate cancer research, men can make small changes that can lead to big improvements.

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Tracy Gapin, MD, FACS  is a board-certified Urologist,  world renowned Men’s Health & Performance Expert, Author, and Professional Speaker. Using state-of-the-art biometric monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Dr. Gapin coaches Fortune 500 executives and evolutionary leaders of business, sports medicine, and high performance. He specializes in cutting-edge precision medicine with an emphasis on epigenetics, providing men with a personalized path to optimizing health & performance. www.GapinInstitute.com

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