Testosterone and Vitamin D

As men age they go through the male equivalent of menopause, called andropause, the prime symptom being a decline in testosterone levels. We all know testosterone is required for sex drive and sexual function, but it is also necessary for maintaining muscle mass, bone health, and a positive mood. As well, low levels of testosterone are a risk factor for cancer, heart disease and “all-cause mortality.”

One helpful approach to this condition is to keep the adrenal glands healthy, since when they are operating well they produce the “mother” hormone DHEA, which in turn creates testosterone.  Our AdrenalStart product, for which we have had a lot of positive feedback, works well to help the adrenal glands stay healthy, and to produce DHEA. And new research indicates that another helpful supplement is vitamin D.

A recent study done on Korean men (Asian Journal of Andrology) found vitamin D deficiency to be correlated with testosterone deficiency. In this Asian study researchers analyzed the vitamin D and testosterone levels of 650 Korean men over the age of 40.

Those who were found to be vitamin D deficient (defined as less than 20ng/ml) were almost 3 times more likely to also be deficient in testosterone than those considered to have adequate stores of vitamin D. The researchers concluded that “The higher level of vitamin D was associated with higher total testosterone and free testosterone levels in Korean men.”

Death By Medicine

Published in 1979, “Confessions of a Medical Heretic” by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn was prescient to say the least. His warnings about our unthinking acceptance of medical advice, prescriptions and procedures, has been proven true by the study called “Death By Medicine” (more about that in this older blog of mine: Link. This study added up deaths caused by adverse drug reactions, medical error, unnecessary procedures, hospital induced infections and other related factors, and concluded that the most dangerous thing you can do is put yourself into the hands of the modern medical profession.

Dr. Mendelsohn firmly believed that most drugs are dangerous and unnecessary, as are most operations, and even just being in the hospital, with its germs, poor diet, emotional stresses, and isolation of the patient from family and friends, was also not conducive to healing.

As a “heretic”, one who opposes established doctrines, Dr. Mendelsohn’s criticisms of the “Church of Modern Medicine” included these three principles:

• “Every drug stresses and hurts your body in some way.”
• “A healthy society is characterized by strong, positive family relationships and subsequent minimal need of doctors.”
• “Doctors are not trained to attack the core of any problem, merely to suppress symptoms.”

Mendelsohn’s great observation however, was to point out that Modern Medicine was the new religion, and those who thought they were too rational for religious beliefs were still in fact deferring to the same unquestioning principles that religion asked of us.

As well, his analogies of how the religious components related to modern medicine are quite astute. For example: physicians = priests; research = prayer; medical jargon = sacred language; patient and family histories = confessions; drugs = communion wafers; hospitals = temples; operating rooms = tabernacles; non-drug healers = infidels; death = the god. Thus the doctor/priest is the intermediate step between us and death/god.

He also points out that “Modern Medicine is an idolatrous religion, for what it holds sacred are not living things but mechanical processes.” You have no further to look for evidence of this, than the bedside manner of the average doctor. Whatever compassion and human touch that is to be found in the hospital usually comes from the nuns, I mean nurses.

Now, nowhere is that unquestioning belief in the religion of Modern Medicine more obvious than when we look at vaccination. For those who belong to this church, questioning the validity of vaccination is akin to being a Christian and questioning the existence of Jesus. And, otherwise intelligent people are aghast when someone even questions the validity of vaccination; it’s like, well, heresy.  (Even Jon Stewart, of the Daily Show, someone I considered very open minded, falls into this camp.)

And the stranglehold that the pharmaceutical companies have on the media is clearly indicated when the subject of vaccination comes up. A recent issue of Maclean’s Magazine headlined the subject and, forgoing anything like journalistic objectivity, the article simple unquestioningly endorsed all vaccines, and labels those who question it as “anti-vaxxers”, and dismisses them as idiots.  Was a time when journalism at least tried to look like it was giving both sides of a story. It doesn’t take much research to find out that you can’t always trust the pharmaceutical companies. Here are two examples:

An antitrust class action against pharmaceutical giant Merck claimed that it had known for at least a decade that its mumps vaccine was “far less effective” than it told the FDA, that it falsified test results, and sold millions of doses of its mumps vaccine of “questionable efficacy,” at the same time monopolizing the market. Two ex-employees of Merck (virologists) claimed that they “witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine’s efficacy findings.”

In 2012 a review of the Varicella (chickenpox) vaccination program in the US came to the conclusion that the efficiency of that vaccine had declined well below 80 percent by of 2002 (journal Vaccine 12), if in fact it ever was as effective as the company originally claimed. Moreover, the Varicella vaccine has not proven to be cost-effective because it increased the incidence of shingles, shifting medical costs from one ailment to another. It also failed to provide long-term protection from chicken pox, and showed itself to be less effective than the natural immunity that existed in the general population, before the vaccine’s introduction.

I’m just scratching the surface here; for the real dirt, have a view of the documentary listed below. And, just for the record, I have three, healthy, adult offspring who were never vaccinated.