The Testosterone Myth Men Have Been Lied To About

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:00)
We've been told for decades that giving men testosterone drives prostate cancer, and that blocking it is perfectly safe for the rest of the body. Most of the mainstream advice is completely, yes, completely backwards. We have 30-year-old men walking into clinics, losing their drive, losing their muscle mass, and being told by their doctors that because their labs are in normal range, everything is fine.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals, also known as EDCs, can directly contribute to low testosterone. These environmental toxins interfere with the body's natural hormone systems by mimicking, blocking, or altering hormonal signals. Even if you are eating right and training hard, your environment could be sabotaging your hormone production. When men experience severe erectile dysfunction or cognitive decline, the medical establishment almost never looks at the one-organ system that may play a major role in fixing it. And you guessed it, it's skeletal muscle. Let's dive into the physiology and the latest research.
Hey guys, welcome back to the show. And today, we are tackling something I get asked constantly about in my clinic, and you guessed it. It's the hormone that is simultaneously the most demonized and the most misunderstood in modern medicine, and that, friends, is testosterone. There is so much dogma and misinformation out there regarding this hormone, especially the outdated fears surrounding testosterone treatment and prostate cancer. Most of the mainstream advice is completely, yes, completely backwards. And for women, testosterone is often entirely ignored, may be used off-label for hypoactive sexual desire disorder or perimenopausal symptoms or brushed off just as the normal part of aging. Major guidelines don't provide any formal parameters for women, and for men, we're still relying on old, outdated, population-based reference ranges. We have 30-year-old men walking into clinics, feeling like garbage, losing their drive, losing their muscle mass, thinking that the dad bod is in and being told by their doctors that because their labs are in quote normal range, everything is fine. Worse, our environment is actively waging a chemical war on our endocrine systems. We're going to be hearing more about this. And when things go wrong, when men experience severe erectile dysfunction or cognitive decline, the medical establishment almost never looks at the one-organ system that may play a major role in fixing it. And you guessed it, it's skeletal muscle. By the end of this episode, you are going to understand exactly what the latest science says about testosterone. We're going to dismantle the 80-year-old myth about prostate cancer.
We are going to talk about the invisible chemicals in your home that are unfortunately chemically castrating you. And I'm going to give you the exact clinical protocols and the what medical guidelines say so you can walk into your doctor's office armed with the facts. If you are new here, I'm Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, and I want to shift the paradigm of medicine to muscle-centric medicine. Skeletal muscle is not just about looking good, it's your metabolic sink, your body's armor, and the organ of longevity. And robust optimized hormone levels, specifically testosterone, are non-negotiable for maintaining that skeletal muscle as we age. If you find value in today's solo cast, please hit subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs to hear it. Let's address the elephant in the room. We've been told for decades that giving men testosterone drives prostate cancer, and that blocking it is perfectly safe for the rest of the body.
We've also been told that a single static reference range is acceptable for diagnosing testosterone deficiency.
Here's the reality. When we look at the literature, the exact opposite is true. We base our foundational knowledge strictly on the medical guidelines, which can be quite variable depending on the medical society, from urology to endocrine or others. The American urological guidelines define a normal testosterone range of 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter. But treating everyone with a single broad stroke misses the nuance of biological aging and metabolic health. And where are we getting these reference ranges from? And who is the ideal patient we are basing it off of? Is it a 50-year-old male with multiple comorbidities, like hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, et cetera? Or a 20-year-old athlete or an average 45-year-old who doesn't work out and is at home eating TV dinners every single night? A plethora of processed foods or endocrine disruptors? Does anyone know? The science, the clinical evidence, let's dive into the physiology and the latest research. First, does one size fit all?
A new massive systematic review and pooled analysis from Baylor College of Medicine and Shane et al.
Looking at over 200,000 men showed that serum testosterone progressively declines across adulthood at a rate of approximately 3.5 nanograms per deciliter per year. The estimated median concentration decreased from 560 nanograms per deciliter at age 20 down to 425 nanograms per deciliter at age 75 The authors concluded that these declines support the concept of age-specific reference intervals. But some top experts in the field, like Dr. Moha Kara, have challenged this dogma, stating that healthy individuals at all ages can and have been shown to have healthy testosterone levels and it's not aging itself. It is the acquisition of comorbidities, like diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis. In addition, I believe it's important to acknowledge environmental exposures like endocrine disruptors, chemical exposures, i.e. burn pits, and occupational exposures like traumatic brain injuries, concussions, blast exposures, military exposures. The list goes on. I think we could probably do a whole episode on just the environmental exposures. But we should dive deeper into these endocrine disruptors, which have gotten a lot of attention lately. Endocrine disrupting chemicals, also known as EDCs, can directly contribute to low testosterone. These environmental toxins interfere with the body's natural hormone systems by mimicking, blocking, or altering hormonal signals. Guys, this is major, the environmental attack and endocrine disruptors.