If you’ve ever toured a historic building, you might have noticed something strange:
All the door handles are really low, as if they were made for children.
What’s up with that, you might have wondered?
If you had a decent tour guide, he should have explained that people used to be smaller.
After that, you probably strutted through those little doorways like you owned the place. Who doesn’t like an educational experience that makes you feel like a giant?
In fact, people have gotten taller in the last 150 years–an average of four inches taller, to be exact.
But don’t go getting a big head. Modern living might provide superior nutrition and height. But our industrialized lives may also be decreasing your testosterone levels.
Believe it or not, a 65-year-old man in 2004 had about 17% less testosterone than a man of the same age in 1987. And sex therapists have reported treating young men for sexual problems that usually affect older men in recent years.
Scary, huh? Men’s testosterone seems to be decreasing, on average, by about 1% per year.
Before you freak out and sprint to your doctor’s front door on a Sunday morning, take a deep breath.
The first step to understanding why most men today have less testosterone–and what you can do about it–begins with knowing why low testosterone is so bad, and why this decrease is happening.
Obviously, your physical fitness can contribute to the liveliness of your love life. But testosterone levels also impact your overall health.
Studies show that men with low testosterone are more likely to be obese, have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other unpleasant conditions.
While we don’t know whether low testosterone actually causes these conditions, there is definitely a link, and that’s freaky–in a bad way.
The Bizarre Reason Why Men Today Have Less Testosterone Than Ever Before…
With all the advantages of our modern lives, how can it be that testosterone levels are decreasing?
We’ve gotten a lot healthier in a lot of ways.
For example, smoking is less popular than it used to be. And, believe it or not, that could have an impact on testosterone.
Yup, smoking actually increases testosterone. But doctors are very clear:
The risks of smoking are not worth it. Instead of picking up an unhealthy habit, what’s a guy to do?
First, you can maintain a healthy weight. Obesity rates are rising in the United States.
From 1999 to 2016, obesity increased by 10%. Yikes.
Obesity and testosterone are in a toxic relationship. Obese men are more likely to have low testosterone. Meanwhile, men with low testosterone are more likely to become obese.
Why?
Because fat cells turn testosterone into estrogen. As if fat cells didn’t cause enough problems already, those jerks.
It’s a vicious cycle. But getting medical attention for obesity and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can really help.
While fat cells are partly to blame, there’s an even bigger culprit.
No, it’s not the Joker. It’s not Bane, or Doctor Octopus.
It Doesn’t End There…
Did you guess it yet?
One of the biggest causes of low testosterone is plastic.
That’s right—the same boring old plastic that’s piling up in your recycling bin.
Plastic is made through a chemical process, after all. Some of the particles that make plastic have been shown to mess up the way the human body handles hormones.
Other chemicals are to blame, too, including some medications, and the antibacterial ingredient triclosan.
Triclosan is gradually being removed from most hand soaps. But once these chemicals get into our water and food supply, they are hard to get out.
We’re not the only creatures suffering from low testosterone, either. Chemicals and plastics in the oceans have been known to mess up fish reproduction.
And what’s bad for the fish is bad for the… fisherman.
In a nutshell, living a healthy life and encouraging lawmakers to keep a clean environment are great ways to keep your testosterone levels as healthy as possible.
If you feel you are suffering from low testosterone, rest assured it’s not your fault—unless you have single-handedly caused global pollution. In that case, you must be a comic book villain, and a doctor may not be able to help you.
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