There needs to be a forum on heath issues as well as discussion on conventional medical treatments and alternative health care.
I just looked for a place here to post a part of something I have on a blog, called "The Politically Incorrect Gender Crossover Effect For Men Over 80, 85 or 90."
The politically incorrect gender crossover refers to a minority of men who live to be 80, 85, 90 or older and are not cognitively or physically disabled in some way.
http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/aging.html#sex
"In nearly every culture on earth women outlive men � significantly so in the oldest years. But the men who do survive to become elderly are hardier than the women. A US National Institute of Aging study showed that 44% of men over age 80 are "robust and independent" compared with only 28% of women."
See: Perls, Thomas (2004). The oldest old, in: Scientific American, The science of staying young,Vol. 14, No. 3, 2004, p. 6
"Early signs of the gender crossover can be seen in studies of 80-year-olds " Men who survive to this age without
major health problems often continue to
live without needing special care. Richard M. Suzman and his colleagues at the National Institute on Aging found that
men older than 80 years in one such
study were more independent than were
similarly aged women. Their report indicated that 44 percent of the men in that age group were robust and independent compared with only 28 percent
of women. Additionally, Kenneth G.
Manton and Eric Stallard of Duke University estimated the active life expectancy, that is, the years of independent life left for members of the U.S. senior population. Their findings showed
that after age 85, men could expect to
live a healthy and active life longer than
women could."
The question then is why is it that are some males in our society who live beyond 80 or 85 or 90 are less likely to have physical or mental disabilities than women who also live beyond those ages?
The better mental and physical state of men over 80 might be due in part to social class. Several years ago I talked on the phone with a woman who lives in an upper middle class area of Baltimore. She said that there were many people, especially men, living in that upper middle class area who were physically and mentally active in their eighties.
It might be due to hormone differences between men and women. All men who have higher than average testosterone levels do may not live longer on the average than those who average or low levels. But it may be that among the men who do, or some reasons, live to be 80, 85 or 90 and have no serious physical or mental disabilities are, in part, healthier because of that higher testosterone level.
" the testosterone levels decline gradually with aging, mainly due to the attrition of Leydig cells and hypothalamic GnRH pulse generation slow down. Rapid drop can be observed in the 6th decade of life in males.(Basaria, 2013 ). A higher incidence of mood disorders that occurs with aging is then related to decreased testosterone and/or other androgens. However, not all studies agree with this simple explanation. Sartorius et al. showed, that there was no decline in testosterone levels in males who self-reported to be in very good health. Indeed, a subgroup of patients who were smoking and/or obese was associated with age related decline in serum androgens (Sartorius et al., 2012 ). Similarly, Camacho et al. reported that lifestyle factors and body weight were more important in maintaining the plasma testosterone levels than aging itself (Camacho et al., 2013 )."
"Numerous clinical studies in postmenopausal women and men in the andropause showed improvements of learning and memory after testosterone supplementation. Even a short 6-week testosterone treatment resulted in improved spatial and verbal memory of older men (Cherrier et al., 2001 ). Testosterone has even showed a positive effect on spatial and verbal memory in Alzheimer disease patients (Cherrier et al., 2005 ). In young women, a single dose of testosterone improved spatial memory (Postma et al., 2000 )."
The authors of this study admit that "Testosterone in the experiments is sometimes used as butyrate, decanoate, undecanoate etc. These pharmacological forms have, however, variable kinetics and might therefore have also variable effects, especially in the brain."
Here is an area - supplementation by pharmaceutical testosterone versus use of natural means of simulating the body itself to produce more testosterone - where the alternative health care system and the conventional medical system may yield different results.
Some foods, supplements and herbs are believed in the alternatived healthcare system to stimulate the body's production of testoserone, and that this testosterone is superior in effects to pharmaceutical testosterone. Regular exercise is also thought to increase the body's production of testosterone. So is stress reduction. It is known that the stress hormone cortisol reduces testosterone levels.
"Human research has shown the administration of cortisol into the circulation at rest will result in reduced blood testosterone levels."
"Previous results demonstrate pharmacological levels of cortisol have a highly significant negative effect on circulating testosterone concentrations (Bambino and Hsueh, 1981)"
Reduction of stress and therefore reduction of cortisol should enable to body to produce more testosterone.
If you're overweight, shedding the excess pounds may increase your testosterone levels, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society's 2012 meeting. Overweight men are more likely to have low testosterone levels to begin with, so this is an important trick to increase your body's testosterone production when you need it most.
Consume Plenty of Zinc
The mineral zinc is important for testosterone production, and supplementing your diet for as little as six weeks has been shown to cause a marked improvement in testosterone among men with low levels.1 Likewise, research has shown that restricting dietary sources of zinc leads to a significant decrease in testosterone, while zinc supplementation increases it2 -- and even protects men from exercised-induced reductions in testosterone levels.3
It's estimated that up to 45 percent of adults over the age of 60 may have lower than recommended zinc intakes; even when dietary supplements were added in, an estimated 20-25 percent of older adults still had inadequate zinc intakes, according to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Some may believe that testosterone only effects sexual functioning in males. But it has effects on mental and physical abilities, the heart and in other ways. And women secrete it from their ovaries and adrenal cortex, though usually in smaller amounts than males do.
If higher testosterone levels are involved in the gender crossover effect, it might be expected that the males who make it beyond 80, 85 or 90 and are not seriously impaired physically or mentally, a number of them would still be able to engage in sex with their wives. http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/09/healthy.sex/index.html
"Among 75- to 85-year-old men, four out of 10 were still having sex, compared with two out of 10 women that age. Women whose partners were still alive, however, were having just as much sex as men, said Lindau."
There are some very recent movements in empirical science that are relevant to the Politically Incorrect Gender Crossover. One of these recent discoveries is about Chromosome Telomere Length as being determined by Amount of Stress, Certain Nutrients,and Exercise. Chromosome Telemere Length theoretically determines lifespan and overall health.
The second recent scientific work relevant to the Gender Crossover is the focus upon nutrients which determine health at the cell level, and Pyrroloquinoline Quinone or PQQ, and NAD + Cell Regenerator and similar nutrients.
The higher testosterone level among men over 85 or over 90 who remain physically and mentally active is an hypothesis, and subject to research, which probably will show a more complex relationship in these men between testosterone levels and their remaining physically and mentally active. There are a number of other biochemicals, hormones and brain transmitters which can have an effect upon mental and physical capabilities.
