Is all testosterone created equal?
No.
And if you have low levels of one type, it can mean a huge increase in risk for fast-growing prostate cancer.
The first thing you need to know is there are two types of testosterone — free and bound.
Most of the testosterone in the body is tied up by either albumin or a molecule called serum hormone binding globulin (SHBG). Only a small percentage of your testosterone is actually free to roam around the body doing its work of protecting your heart, growing muscles, and keeping your prostate healthy, just to name a few.
Too much SHBG lowers the amount of free testosterone you have.
And low free testosterone can turn your prostate from one that is being watched for cancer into one that has fast-growing prostate cancer. Researchers discovered this recently while looking at total testosterone and free testosterone levels, and who gets the deadliest type of prostate cancer.
Results show that men with free testosterone levels of less than 0.45 ng/dL had a higher rate of getting fast-growing prostate cancer than patients with free testosterone levels of more than 0.45.
In fact, if you have low free testosterone you have a 430 percent greater risk for the deadlier kind of cancer.
“(Our) results suggest low levels of testosterone are associated with more aggressive prostate cancer. This contradicts long-held beliefs that high testosterone is risky for prostate cancer, and low testosterone is protective,” says researcher Ignacio San Francisco, M.D. “In borderline cases, the presence of low values of free testosterone may help determine whether it is more prudent to initiate treatment rather than continue observation.”
One way to avoid ever having low free testosterone is to eat red meat. It has saturated fat, which correlates with higher testosterone in men, and it has zinc, which helps you produce free testosterone.
But make sure you eat grass-fed meat, which has more b-vitamins. Not only do they help in the process of synthesizing testosterone, but b-vitamins help you absorb zinc … which helps you make more testosterone.
What happens when you don’t eat meat? A study of vegans versus omnivores measured each group’s testosterone and SHBG. The vegans had 23% higher SHBG and 3% lower free testosterone.
