Consult a Physician
If your testosterone levels refuse to improve despite your best efforts, you’d do well to get in touch with a physician. If waning testosterone is actually a symptom of a larger issue, your doctor should be able to provide you with a clearer picture of the situation. Alternatively, if there’s nothing more serious at play, a physician can provide you with tremendous peace of mind. Should your doctor discover that your testosterone issue is the result of a disability, looking into disability insurance options may prove worth your while.
After thoroughly assessing the situation, your doctor will be able to work with you on hammering out a treatment plan that’s perfectly suited to someone of your age and lifestyle. Furthermore, should your testosterone issues stem from andropause – i.e., male menopause – regular consultations with your physician may be necessary to stay on top of the problem.
Your physician may also recommend that you start taking vitamin D. In addition to its immunity-boosting properties, vitamin D has been found to increase testosterone levels. Of course, determining the ideal dosage should be left up to your doctor.
Embrace Good Sleep Habits
Lack of proper sleep is associated with a host of both physical and mental health issues, with low testosterone being chief among them. So, if you’ve developed a habit of going to bed at inconsistent times and regularly getting fewer than eight hours of sleep, there’s a good chance that your testosterone levels are suffering as a result. In the interest of improving your testosterone levels – and staving off the various other health issues that stem from poor sleep quality – it’s imperative that you embrace healthier sleep habits. This entails giving yourself a bedtime that allows for at least seven to eight hours of slumber and sticking to it – even on weekends and during extended periods of downtime.
If your brain has trouble settling down at the end of the day, you may benefit from a relaxation-inducing pre-bedtime routine. So, 30 minutes to one hour before hitting the hay, shut off your various screens and engage in activities that will relax your mind and get you primed for sleep. Meditation, reading, journaling and deep-breathing exercises are just a handful of the activities that can help facilitate peaceful slumber.
Keep Stress to a Minimum
As is the case with improper sleep habits, out-of-control stress levels can result in lowered testosterone levels – in addition to a plethora of other undesirable consequences. Although all of us feel stressed at certain times, allowing stress to take control of your life is liable to have an adverse impact on your testosterone.
Fortunately, you can nip this in the bud by taking active measures to minimize stress. Among other steps, this means setting clear boundaries at work, becoming comfortable with saying no and not feeling guilty about devoting time to self-care. Furthermore, people who are overstressed – and most people in general, for that matter – can benefit from seeking professional mental health assistance. A good therapist, for example, can be a boon to your mental health in both the short and long term.
Keeping stress manageable and limiting cortisol levels often requires one to minimize repeated stressful situations. For example, many people regard their jobs as a major source of stress, and if you count yourself among them, there are several key steps you can take to reduce work-related annoyances. If you lack a consistent work schedule and regularly find yourself devoting your personal time to office matters, it’s important that you remedy this. Leaving the office at night shouldn’t simply represent a continuation of the workday, and in order to keep job stress in check, you’ll need to provide yourself with set work hours. Outside of extreme emergencies (for which you’re paid generous overtime), each workday should begin and end at a set time.
Additionally, if any of your personal relationships contribute to mounting stress levels, make a point of identifying why these specific relationships are causing you so much dismay. Depending on what you find, it may ultimately be in your best interest to limit your interactions with certain individuals or end certain relationships altogether.
Get Regular Exercise
Regular exercise can do wonders for your testosterone levels. Additionally, keep in mind that exercise needn’t necessarily entail pushing yourself to the point of complete exhaustion. For many people, just 30 minutes of moderate physical activity per day is enough to build stamina and maintain a healthy weight.
Still, if your testosterone issue is serious enough, you may benefit from weight lifting and other types of resistance training. In addition to helping you build muscle mass, resistance training has been shown to effectively increase testosterone levels. Of course, if you have little to no experience with this type of workout, you’d do well to take things slow and ease yourself in. Taking things too quickly is liable to result in personal injury and potentially sour you on resistance training. Working with a strength trainer at your local gym or an acquaintance who’s done their fair share of resistance training can prove tremendously helpful in this endeavor.
Comments
comments