Hey everyone, Dylan Giamelli here today with an extremely exciting announcement. I am now on the Menecht app as an expert. That is Patrick Bet David's app so you can hire me today. You can ask me questions about hormones, peptides, neuroscience, cardiology, cellular health, finances, faith, religion, whatever it may be. I am there. You can book me for your podcast and you can also apply to be on mine. But go over, download the Menecht app, find at Dylan Giamelli. I will answer either by audio, by text. You can get video responses. You can even book a phone call with me. I'm extremely excited to be available to work with all of you and I thank you all for your support. So check me out on Menecht today. Today's episode is sponsored by the Apollo Neuro. The Apollo Neuro is the leading doctor recommended wearable technology. 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So today is just me and I have a really, really exciting topic for you that is a passion of mine that is going to dispel some myths and provide some insight for everybody that's kind of been misled or had a lot of bad information given to them on the topic. But you know, I want to start off with this. I've had a lot of people requesting me to do some more of these topics where I just kind of get into things alone and you know, I am so blessed to be able to talk to so many amazing guests that are willing to come on here and talk to me and share their insights. It's a real blessing to me to be able to learn and to meet and then to also provide it to all of you. But I also do love to teach and while I do go on many other podcasts, oftentimes it kind of gets into my backstory and I don't get to just do a singular lesson. So I'm going to continue to try to do these at least once a week for everybody. You know, the show is growing so rapidly that I'm really trying to put out much more content. So I'm trying to do at least three episodes a week, but who knows, maybe we'll get to four and maybe even more depending on how much you love or get sick of me. But I will just base that on you, the audience who I'm here for. That's why I'm here. It's not for me. It's for all of you. So you know, today I want to talk about testosterone replacement therapy. And I want to talk about many of the misconceptions, the actual facts about it, what you need to know about it. But I really want to dispel some of the myths about it. And I also want to talk about when you actually need it and when you don't. So the first things first, you know, testosterone replacement therapy for me is very, very important. It's very necessary, but it's also one of the most polarizing treatments out there. And it's also one of the most misunderstood. So many people think they need TRT. We're just going to stick to TRT. I'm not going to say the whole thing out every one. But I can't tell you the amount of people from their 20s on that come to me that think they need TRT. And this is for women too. Women also have several instances where they could definitely benefit from testosterone. So I'm going to cover both. But obviously, for most, it's going to be more men that are wanting it and realizing they need it. Let me just start off with this. Unless you have a severe hypogonadal condition, meaning that there's something wrong with you where you're just not producing enough testosterone. And this could be for multitudes of reasons. A lot of it is for steroid users. They're going to eventually put themselves on it. But I'm just talking for general everyday people. So many people out there will go, well, I just need TRT and I'm just going to do this for a little while. And I'm just, it's just going to, it's going to make me so big. I'm going to be Mr. Olympia. I'm going to be much more muscular and bigger and stronger. So let's knock all of the the myths out of the way first and the facts that are just not factual that are thrown out there by so many people. One, this is a life altering decision. If you put yourself on TRT, understand this, the longer that you're on it, the far, far greater the likelihood is you're going to need it forever. Your body forgets how to produce testosterone on its own once you start filling it full of exogenous testosterone. So when you start pumping yourself full of testosterone over and over and over, you get super physiological levels of test. Your body then says, okay, we don't need to produce this anymore. And it completely shuts down. So that's where the term suppression or shutdown comes from. And so once you get to that point, and then let's say six months in, you decide to just stop while your body stopped producing it. Sometimes it will relearn itself how to produce it. And that's where things like clomid and Novodex and clomaphen HCG people will use those to jumpstart their natural testosterone production. But that doesn't always work, especially as we've gotten older. And it still doesn't even work if you're younger. Some people are more blessed will bounce back. Some people will kind of get a little bit of bounce back, but still have struggling levels. And some people will just never get it back. Then you start getting deeper into it. Let's say you get a year into it, etc. It just gets more and more difficult. The chances of recovering natural production are less and less and less. And the older you are, they certainly drop drastically in terms of your ability to even have a chance of that occurring. So that's problem number one. Problem number two is people that are wanting to do it way too young. When you start doing this to yourself using any sort of steroid way too young, and I have talked about this at Nausium for so many years on what exactly that is doing to you. But when you use steroids or testosterone too young, you are setting yourself up for extreme failure and low quality of life. So the problems with people that have not yet really attained full physio sexual development is that anabolic compounds are acting on locations within your CNS, which is your central nervous system that are still under development. Many receptors that are activated by testosterone are still performing developmental functions. And what's happening is you're stimulating them before they even have the chance to fully create a working framework of hormonal balance that would sustain you for the rest of your adult life. You're shutting down growth plates and you're causing yourself a slew of future problems in a much lower quality of life. Then that's really for steroid users that are in their 20s and then forcing themselves on TRT. When you're on TRT and a lot of young guys especially, they don't think about this. And I get it, I've been there. But you are really, really, really lowering your chance of having kids. It's not impossible. I put people on protocols that are even on TRT that have been able to still procreate and it only takes one. It makes it a lot more difficult and you think in your head, oh, I never want to have kids. I get that a lot. You know what happens? You meet the woman that changes your life, you fall in love and then you have to explain to her why you're not fertile and why you are struggling to have kids. And that's not to say that the women that loves you and you're supposed to be together will be okay with that. But some of them, that's what a lot of people want or children. And you will probably have that when you fall in love with somebody that you want to have children. I really, I don't regret certain things because things happen the way they are and I have wonderful step kids. But my wife, I used steroids and I had used drugs and had eating disorders and I had no ability to have kids. Now we are okay because, like I said, we have great wonderful step kids. I have my cat is like my daughter, but and I probably would have never been the kind of parent that my dad was and I didn't want to do that because my dad was so amazing and the way that I travel and the way I work, you know, things work out the way they're supposed to work out. God's plan works itself out. But my point is, is that may not have been your plan and you need to think about those things. Fertility is a big one and a lot of younger guys, especially they will end up having hormonal issues as they get older, loss of libido, a lot of breaking out because of the hormonal changes, especially when you're too young. You know, and you have to remember too, you're injecting yourself for life. It gets old. It gets very, very old. I, you know, I get really sick of it and it's my own doing. I got on it without the need for it. I used steroids and even at that point, I was told, oh, it's the greatest thing ever, just stay on it. You knew you're going to feel great. You're going to be amazing. But there are things that, you know, as safe as it's been found to be if it's used properly, they're still, you know, I'm a big believer in it, but there's still a lot of studies that are skewed one way or another where you're on the fence where there are people that have had heart trouble with it, prostate problems, a lot of people that have family history of prostate where taking exogenous testosterone doesn't agree. There's blood pressure problems that could come up, estrogen problems. You know, the more overweight you are and you start using testosterone, the higher probability of higher rates of estrogen conversion and more side effects. And you're just backing yourself into a corner when you're doing this unnecessarily. Now, what are some true signs and symptoms of low testosterone levels? Well, there's quite a few. Lack of energy, lack of focus, loss of libido, inability to lose weight, properly inability to gain muscle, these are all factors of what can occur with low testosterone. So then that begs the point. People that say, oh, they're on testosterone. So that's where they're so big or that's where they look good in their 60s. No, that's because they're taking testosterone and they actually have the levels they're supposed to have as a functioning man in their 50s and 60s. And that's why they have the ability to look better. Look, I will never, ever be in the camp of oh, we're aging. So this just comes with aging and it's just inevitable. There are certain aspects of life that are inevitable. Okay, but accepting the fact that you have to look less than ideal or inferior to what you believe you could or should. If you're functioning properly with everything hormonally being lined up, you can look tremendous. And it's not just on the physical cognitive functioning as well, which I do a lot of discussion and talks about this will all align and all add up. But you have to understand something. You have to be hormonally balanced. And if you're using and abusing testosterone, you'll never be hormonally balanced. You're always going to be off because you're going to throw all your other values off. You know, people come to me and they'll say, Dylan, I'm tired. I have no energy. I need testosterone. I need this. I need that. You need to go in and have a full blood panel analyzed. See, I'm a guy, I find the problems. I try to find your problem before putting you on testosterone. So here's one small example. When you get blood panels, then you want to look at free testosterone, not just total testosterone, because the free is going to tell you a lot. If your free number is bad, well, then we've got to go look at alternatives. Like if your SHBG, your sex hormone binding globulin is high, well, that means that it's bounding up some of your free testosterone. So if we lower that number, guess what? Then testosterone is let to be free and it goes out into your body and you've got a higher number and it's circulating and you didn't need testosterone replacement therapy. Sometimes, you know, we can try different types of testosterone, boosters, herbs, change diet, change, you know, things that you're doing in your life. You can lower testosterone levels by having a really bad lifestyle, by drinking, by using drugs, by having high stress levels. There are so many contributing factors for low testosterone levels. So you've got to be super, super careful before just jumping on. And another thing, a lot of these clinics now, they're putting people on testosterone that do not need it. These clinics, if you go in and you tell them, oh, I want to get on it, they're just going to put you on it. And that's a big, big problem. And you have to be very careful by going to these places. And it's hard to navigate through. You need to find either a super highly credible clinic or you don't want to just go to general practitioners and general doctors, you need high level endocrinologists that are willing to listen and that take the time to talk with you and take a better look and deeper look into you. You have to have the right person taking care of you. Don't just try to do this yourself. Don't try to do it on your own. Always have the right care and the right knowledge base and understanding of it. Is testosterone replacement therapy going to get you jacked? No, it is not. Could it certainly give you the ability to start gaining back the lean muscle that you're supposed to have? Absolutely. Could it help you to start lose weight like you're supposed to be? Yes, because if you have low testosterone, you're going to have the inability to lose weight properly and gain lean muscle. So all it's doing is giving you the ability back that you're lacking and have lost. Now, if you start blasting high levels of testosterone, sure, it could, it could have an initial benefit in that regard and make you a heck of a lot stronger and bigger, but it's going to reverse and come back down on you later on. And if you, if you have too high a levels for too long, you're certainly going to then negate the effect and have an alternate effect because more is not always better. And that's what everybody just doesn't comprehend a lot. This is a marathon. It's not a sprint. More is not always better. In fact, more can oftentimes cause negligible or negative effects. You have to be very, very careful. Now, women can have low testosterone levels, just like men need estrogen balance with testosterone. Women also need testosterone with their estrogen levels. And a lot of women, what I find is once they're getting into the pre menopause, during menopause post, that's when they start to have these problems. And that's when it starts to correlate into other aspects of what people will call, you know, PMS or menopause issues, what do people say to, they're having midlife crisis and things like that. Most of that is just hormonal. And it can easily be fixed if it's just looked upon. I have encountered a lot of women who are scared to talk about it or scared that testosterone is going to cause them to be men, have male characteristics. And that's, it's only things of worry if you're abusing it or misusing it or doing it when you're not supposed to. But if it's needed, I'm telling you, I have seen so many women have life changing effects by just getting on TRT because they needed it. Now, women need way, way, way, way less than men, just like men need way less estrogen than women. But there has to be a balance and it's completely necessary. Progesterone is another issue that I, you know, talked to women about that needs addressed. And there's also a balance between progesterone and testosterone for women. But, you know, for women, ovarian dysfunction can cause low testosterone levels, obesity, stress, these can cause problems for them. Adrenal insufficiencies, pituitary gland problems, hormonal contraceptives, birth control pills, estrogen therapy, these can lower testosterone levels for women. Poor diet is definitely one. But you can actually over exercise for both men and women and drain or at least lower testosterone levels. And, you know, then there's always the idiopathic things for men and women where we just don't know the cause. Normally, we can find causes and you got to look deep. You got to look into deep panels. I mean, even exposure to toxins and heavy metals, seed oils, glyphosates, things like this can speed up the process of lowering testosterone levels too. There's a lot of factors here. But when you have poor lifestyle and poor diet, you can pretty much, it's a certainty that your testosterone levels amongst everything else are going to be effective and high levels of stress and lack of sleep will absolutely start to lower those levels far too early. The important thing here is understanding that there is a place for TRT and there's a need for it. But there's also a lot of misuse, a lot of misunderstanding with what goes along with it. And until we put that all together, it can be just as big of a problem as a big of a help. And that's what I, it really bothers me so much and why I want to do things like this, that people have these utter misconceptions. TRT is not this big performance enhancing cheat. When people say they're cheating because someone's on TRT, it's only a cheat if they're using it in a manner of which it's, they don't need it. If you have low testosterone levels, you're at a disadvantage and you're actually causing a lot of harm. I mean, this is very severe, but extreme low testosterone could eventually kill you. It can. So taking it is not cheating. It's only cheating if you're using way too much to like enhance your performance levels to levels that you couldn't normally be at. That's what I would look at it as cheating. So when you're taking, you know, these huge amounts of tests and really trying to drastically improve performance levels, strength, all of that, if you're taking a normal standard dose and your body needs it in no way, shape, or form is that cheating. That's like any other disease or problem you have and then taking medication for it. Is that cheating so that you're healthier, so that you're in the state you're supposed to be in? Is that cheating? Is it cheating if you're on a statin? Which I, that's, what a, what a thing to say, Dylan, when you know you're not pro statin. But I guess the point is a lot of people are because they need it to lower their cholesterol. Is it cheating if you have a debilitating disease and you're taking medication for it? Is it cheating if you've got a cold and you're taking a moxicillin? So is it cheating if you have low testosterone and you're taking testosterone? No, no, and no. It's the manner in which you do it. And I just want to make sure that I convey these misconceptions and overcome all of these sometimes ridiculous things that are said about TRT. It has a place, it has a huge amount of benefit, it improves quality of life and so many people that need it. But like so many other things, you could abuse anything and have a problem with it. Don't abuse it, understand what it does, have the right, the right understanding, don't have the misconceptions, don't fall into what sometimes media or the masses will tell you about something. It's, it's, it's troubling to me and comical all at the same time of what people will do and say when they just don't know or understand and just repeat something they've heard without any actual basis. You know, I certainly never want to come across as this no at all because I, I defer to so many people that I respect. I'm an expert because of the people I, I hang around with and that I talk to. But I have 15 to 20 years of experience specifically with hormones and in this field and I have been around everything. I have seen the good, the bad, the ugly, everything I've been with professional bodybuilders, people that really abuse this. I've spoken at Mr. Olympia several years and I do this quite often in travel and people really like to hear what I have to say. And you know, I'm, I will never tell you what you want to hear, I'll only tell you what you need to hear guy. And I feel like that's the only way to really help people if you actually truly care. And I do care about every one of you that you get the right info, the right guidance. You got the right person encouraging you and telling you and I will only try to encourage all of you in every way that I can. Just understand this. There's a real specific need for a lot of different things out there. A lot of people struggle in all different aspects of health, but you can take control of this without medications if you try to, to do things right for yourself too. I'm here to help and support you in any way I can to answer questions to guide you, to lead you, to do God's work and God's will. And I will continue to do that each and every day for all of you. If you've got any requests on topics you want to talk to me about, email me, dylanjamelli at gmail.com. Try to shoot me a message on Instagram. Give me your thoughts, your feedback, leave me reviews, comments, whatever. I love, well, of course I love positive feedback, but I like constructive criticism too because it's the only way that I'm going to get better. So, you know, tell me, give it to me all. I don't get hurt feelings at all, trust me. So, follow along, stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Jamelli signing off.
