Can you naturally increase your average testosterone level by doing this?

Deleted User wrote: »

Higher testosterone doesn't equate with aging better. If anything, men with lower levels of testosterone live longer, and have less health problems. Testosterone bears other benefits, but aging isn't one of them.

That's completely contrary to years of research. Lower levels of testosterone in men bring a host of physical and mental problems including more signs of ageing and shorter life expectancies. Optimal healthy levels of test throughout life strongly influence health and longevity.

One area where higher testosterone was implicated was in prostate health, particularly prostate cancer. However more recent studies have found flaws in the link and as usual it's more complex than that. Yes testosterone seriously revs up existing cancerous tissue, but men who had optimum levels throughout life had a lower risk of developing it in the first place. Men who had more regular sex and more orgasms throughout their lives also had noticeably lower risks. So remember lads shagging and **** saves lives. Would stop short of using it as a chat up line mind you...

Another area where it might impact longevity is testosterone can drive more aggressive risk taking tendencies, so high test guys are more likely to do things that could injure or kill them.

As for raising lowering it via fiddling with yourself? Life is too short. Though this seems to yet another imported US nonsense, the whole "No Fap" thing among certain men's interwebs groups. Pure Bro Science(tm) and should be regarded as such IMHO.

You want to optimise testosterone levels? Eat healthily(try to avoid pseudo oestrogens). Avoid too much alcohol, apparently beer being the worst for it(the hops content IIRC). Get regular exercise, particularly lifting heavy things. Compound weightlifting that hits your largest muscle groups(also promotes human growth hormone). Keep body fat as low as is comfortable, but not too low. Get regular quality sleep. Lower your stress levels. Shag as much as you can. Job done.

Testosterone is an amazing hormone and one that has so many effects in the body and the effects can vary depending on the individual(inc. women who have some of their own, though too much can come from conditions like PCOS and cause serious issues). Some men are more sensitive to it and the similar hormone dihydrotestosterone(DHT), which can have even more effects. DHT being the one that causes male pattern baldness and pimples in susceptible men.

On the visible ageing front - and this is just me shooting the breeze here - I would be more in the camp that optimum levels of test would lead to reduced signs of ageing. EG Testosterone builds lean tissue and burns fat, so "middle age spread" would be less likely. It influences insulin resistance in a positive way. Low test men are more susceptible to type 2 diabetes and diabetes ages you from the inside out. It also increases bone density(with a bit of to and fro with oestrogens). It is more collagen friendly and thickens the skin. The irony being that women are more judged for wrinkles than men, but men are less likely to get them at a younger age(sun exposure notwithstanding, which is a bigger factor, though a majority of damage is done before 20 apparently).

I'm the other side of the coin to you Klaz, having been diagnosed in my late twenties with elevated levels of testosterone. I can't remember the measurement criteria but I do remember the numbers involved. My doc told me 500- 600 whatevers per whatever was considered "normal" and I was chucking out figures well over a 1000(still was at 37 when I was last tested). And this is a perfect example of how individuals differ. The same doc when reading my results got a fit of the giggles. He apologised for being unprofessional, but my reply was "Look Jim(not his real name) when your doctor starts laughing while reading out your test results this is a very bloody good thing" The reason for his laughter was, well... me. I'm thin(not scrawny, but not built), my facial hair grows at a snails pace, not bald and hardly a "He man", but with test levels that would raise questions even on the Tour De France.

Hormonal stuff is very complex, with all sorts of interactions in the dance of those hormones, people differ and one size doesn't fit all. The problem can be when BroScience™ kicks in, as it often does on this subject(the "Paleo diet" another example). The more is better thing kicks in. Especially with something like testosterone that is so linked to "maleness". It seems to make sense that more equals more maleness.

Resverathrole wrote: »

Did you think that black would have higher T because they appear to age slower?

Almost nothing to do with it R. It's nearly all down to having built in sun protection. Other than the wear and tear of ageing itself and bad lifestyle choices the main factor for skin ageing is sun exposure. This widely seen image from a few years back of a truck driver in the US, where the left side of his face being on the window side(Left hand drive) showed the difference that that UV exposure makes.



Composite images of the less exposed side versus the more exposed side illustrates it.



Another example.



Now that was extra UV exposure on top of their background levels. And through a window and glass filters a bit of the UV.

African and Asian folks are more protected than those of European ancestry, so their skin ages more slowly. Even very pale Asians have a different set of genes to Europeans that give rise to lighter skin, but still have more built in resistance, so again they tend to show slower skin ageing(and less skin cancer. About the same risk as Africans). By comparison Europeans got the crappy gene mutations.

Other factors such as diet have an influence. EG those who eat more tomatoes (and ingest more lycopene) and those who eat more foods containing beta carotene gives more UV protection. Now where testosterone is an advantage is in the thicker skin, with less subcutaneous fat and more collagen that's in men compared to women. Men also tend to have more human growth hormone. Women's skin being thinner and with their more variable hormonal levels, levels which taper off much earlier than men's tend to age in the skin more quickly all things being equal. On the other hand women tend to live longer and more healthily than men, so there's that.

Pug160 wrote:

It's possible to look older than your age even if you have no wrinkles, though that may be a strange concept for some people. Not mutually exclusive comes to mind.

+1. I have no wrinkles at 50, no crows feet, furrowed brow, or any of that and the old back of the hand test for skin elasticity is closer to a 30 year old than a 50 year old, but I still look my age. I might look OK for my age and less fecked than others, but I'm not gonna be mistaken for a 30 year old. No matter how wrinkly he is. Though I would say my greying hair doesn't help there. If I hit the old grecian 2000 or whatever I reckon I could probably knock five odd years off my perceived age, maybe ten, if someone was at a distance. And myopic.

I have noticed how people physically move can be ageing. Take breaking into a run. If you can't that's ageing anyway. If you can, how someone runs can be indicative. Young fit men when they break into a run lean into it, their head and upper body and arms are to the fore. Middle aged and older men tend to run in far more upright a manner, and more cautiously. Their upper body doesn't lead. They look stiff and afraid of falling over themselves. This goes double if they're carrying any extra belly.

Leo Fatkar wrote: »

Do you disagree with this research?

The "research" is dubious. I'd prefer to see actual peer reviewed results involving the test levels of a larger cohort of men over time. Secondly there's a bit of a difference between pulling the skeleton outa yourself "two to three times a day" and a few times a week. The former would suggest a mental/physical issue and test levels should be the least concern.