More Stress=Less Sex

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In the last column, I gave you several tips on how to help your body optimize your body’s natural production of testosterone and we will finish that discussion this week. However, as sometimes happens, I need to inform you of a product recall that effects many of you. The popular “cold-prevention” zinc supplement Zicam has been recalled. Zicam is zinc in a gel form which is applied to the inside of your nostril to boost immune support. While much research exists linking zinc to proper immune function, it appears that application in this way was actually causing people to lose COMPLETE sense of smell! No joke, over 130 reports of complete, seemingly permanent, loss of smell due using Zicam as little as one time.

So, assuming you stop using Zicam, you may actually still have the ability to literally “Stop and smell the roses”, which leads us into the second part of our testosterone discussion: the importance of limiting stress. At the mention of stress reduction, most people listen in a very particular way…they glaze over and mentally check out. So, let me interest you in the subject once more with this statement: “Your stress may be screwing up your sex life.” Ok, got your attention? Good.

I’m going to try to explain a lot of biochemistry in a short space without putting you into a coma so forgive the simplicity. I hope it helps you to understand this very important subject for yourself.

I consider a client’s natural sex drive to be the “canary in the coal mine.” Generally it is the FIRST thing to suffer if lifestyle is out of whack and stress is building. You have to understand that a functional hormonal system (endocrine system) produces whatever your body needs most in order to survive. In good times, your body is healthy, fed and stress-free and your body can focus on things like procreation…sex. This means you have plenty of “raw material” to produce your testosterone and you should be frisky and having a lot of fun with all this extra sex hormone. However, when life get complicated and you start continually producing stress hormones in response to what your body deems to be fight or flight scenarios (which may actually be as benign as money, job or relationship issues), your body doesn’t have the luxury of worrying about sex. In short, if your body thinks that you are constantly running from an imaginary tiger because you are stressed all the time, it doesn’t really care if you have what it takes have fun in the sack.

This trade-off comes from the way our bodies produce testosterone and the stress hormone cortisol. Your adrenal cortex and pituitary gland perform a complex series of conversions utilizing cholesterols to produce androgens and stress hormones. Long story short, you use some of the same building blocks to produce both hormones. If your body needs to choose between producing stress hormones and sex hormones, it will always produce the stress hormones deemed immediately necessary for survival.

The real problem is that this cycle builds so quickly. You may start off working a little too much which causes stress which makes you less open sexually to your partner which creates relationship stress which makes you a bit depressed and further suppresses your hormones ensuring even less sex, more stress and lower testosterone. Before you know it, you have a ton of stress, mild depression and not enough testosterone to maintain decent energy. So, you seek a therapist and hormone replacement.

While seeking the medical help you may need, start taking care of your stress. Take a vacation, set aside time for what is important in your life. People, friends, love, helping others. This is, in my opinion, where the juice in life lies. Find a way to have everything you want in life without sacrificing your health, libido and the people who matter to you. Really, how much fun is having everyTHING when you don’t have anyONE to share with? And how much money do you really need to make it OK that you have to pop a dozen different medications to hold your body together from the years of abuse you inflicted while accumulating your wealth? You can have it ALL; just don’t forget that your body and health IS part of having it all. And remember that lagging testosterone and libido will be one of the first warnings that you are starting to drop the ball.
to read the rest of my articles visit Keizer's Clinic Site at http://www.keizerclinic.com/Wire_Articles/Wire_Articles.html