5 Surprising Facts About Testosterone

5 Surprising Facts About Testosterone
----(was referenced from the Internet) 

Testosterone can shrink your belly

Men who have testosterone levels below the norm may be able to lose their excess belly flab if they are treated with testosterone. “Most of the studies show a reduction of abdominal obesity in men who are given testosterone,” says Dr Adrian Dobs, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. However, the long-term effects of testosterone therapy have not been extensively studied, so this is generally only recommended in men who have below-normal testosterone levels and dehabilitating symptoms that include fatigue, sexual dysfunction or the loss of bone or muscle mass.

Too much testosterone can shrivel your testicles

As suprisies go, this is about the nastiest one you could get. Men who consume steroid hormones such as testosterone as a form of performance booster can experience ball shrinkage and breast growth. Yes, breasts. It can also cause aggression, mood swings and acne. As long as you’re guided by a doctor when treating low testosterone levels, you’re unlikely to reach dangerous doses.

Fat tends to lower testosterone

Clinically obese men tend to have far lower testosterone than slimmer guys. “It’s not known exactly why, although one possible reason is that obesity promotes a state of widespread inflammation in the body,” says Dobs. “Fat cells promote inflamation and it’s these inflammatory factors that are associated with suppression of testosterone synthesis.”

It’s hard to measure testosterone levels accurately

A lot of men find they are diagnosed with low testosterone levels after just one single test. This is a big problem, says Dr Neil Goodman, an endocrinologist at the University of Miami. “If I take blood from a guy and I send it to three labs, I'm going to get three different levels,” says Goodman. “Efforts are under way to standardise blood tests. In the meantime, testosterone should be checked more than once and done in the morning when testosterone is highest.”

Low levels of testosterone are linked to sleep apnea 

Men who suffer from sleep apnoea – a condition that narrows the airways and disrupts normal breathing during sleep – are far more likely to have lower levels of testosterone, and treating it  helps levels return to normal. Watch out, though, because taking the hormone as a supplement can actually worsen sleep apnoea. That’s why, according to Goodman, it’s crucial for men with low testosterone to get checked out by an endocrinologist so any underlying conditions that can cause low testosterone, such as pituitary-gland tumours, don’t go undiagnosed.