Take control of your health

Millions of men suffer from the symptoms of low T:

• Low energy & fatigue

• Reduced libido & ED

• Poor sleep & exercise recovery

• Depression, anxiety, & irritability

• Brain fog & difficulty concentrating

• Loss of muscle mass & bad workouts

• Depressed immune system (allergies & frequent colds)

There are lots of things you can do about declining vitality, starting with the obvious: Get a full medical evaluation from a doctor (ideally one who practices functional or longevity medicine), drop excess weight, get serious about diet, and exercise vigorously and regularly.

These are things everybody should do regardless of their health status, but if your T levels are low then lifestyle changes usually aren’t enough.

Many men have their T levels tested and are told by their doctor that they're “normal” when their numbers are on the lower end of the lab range (Total T below ~500). Remember, the lab range is based on statistical averages for men of all ages and all states of health and the "normal" lab ranges have also trended down over time. For example, LabCorp changed its reference interval from 348-1197 ng/dL to 264-916 ng/dL. As a general rule, to feel and perform your best you want a T level similar to that of a healthy (not average) 30 year old—typically 800 to 1000.

There are many supplements and prescription medications that stimulate your body’s natural production of T. One example that has become popular lately is Enclomiphene. Meds like Enclomiphene can improve your lab numbers but many men don’t see lasting improvement in their symptoms and often experience annoying side effects like nausea, bloating, headaches, blurry vision, and a bad temper. Furthermore, it’s unclear how safe these medications are over the long term.

If your T levels are suboptimal, the most studied, proven, and reliable option is Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT), which restores healthy physiological levels via exogenous (not made by the body) testosterone.

It’s important to point out that TRT is NOT the same as “taking steroids” like bodybuilders, who take massive doses of T to achieve supraphysiological levels (total T of 2000 or even much higher) and also “stack” T with other hormones. The goal of TRT is to restore a healthy physiological level and relieve symptoms so you can feel and perform your best into your 60’s and beyond.

To be clear TRT isn’t a panacea but for men with low T levels and symptoms it’s perhaps the best bang for the buck for overall health and longevity.

For many men with low T, TRT is like a rising tide that floats all boats—they:

• Feel and look better (skin looks younger and feels more elastic)

• Are more confident and optimistic (depression and anxiety often disappear)

• Think faster and more clearly ("It's like my brain's clock speed doubled")

• Lose weight while building lean muscle mass

• Get sick less often

• Perform better athletically, cognitively, and sexually

• Have a higher overall quality of life

Equally importantly, there's a growing body of evidence that TRT is beneficial for heart health and longevity. In studies, TRT—when properly administered—is associated with reduced all-cause mortality in men with low testosterone. Normalizing T levels can lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and death.

At Camp 4 Health, we believe that TRT will become a first line anti-aging and health optimization therapy for men over 40 in the next 10 years. But here's the problem with TRT:

It’s a (literal) pain to administer. Currently there are 3 primary ways to deliver T:

1. Injections: This is the most popular method. The standard protocol is 1-2 self-administered shots per week, injected intramuscularly (into muscles in the butt or legs). Injections are the most effective delivery method but come with the obvious hassle of needles.

2. Pellets: Small tablets resembling grains of rice are inserted below the skin (typically in the upper hip) via a minor surgical procedure every 3-6 months. Pellets work for some people but it can be difficult to control the dose and the surgical procedure is expensive and invasive.

3. Cream: T in lotion form is rubbed on the skin (typically inner thigh or testicles) each morning. Some men like this method and it has the big advantage of mimicking the body’s natural daily production of T (more on that later) but it can be messy and difficult to reach clinically effective levels because the absorption rate is poor.

Most men choose T injections. However the current standard protocol for T injections—which has been around for decades—has some disadvantages:

1. Most T medication is based in a seed oil—usually cottonseed oil. Seed oils are highly inflammatory and in this case you're injecting the oil directly into your body.

2. Intramuscular injections with large needles, which are invasive and uncomfortable.

3. Weekly or biweekly injections, which doesn’t mimic the body’s natural production of T and can cause swings in levels (and side effects).

Camp 4 Health offers a different protocol that we call Testosterone Microdosing. There are several advantages to this protocol:

1. T medication in a medical grade MCT oil carrier, which is non-inflammatory and may actually provide its own health benefits.

2. Uses tiny 30-gauge, 5/16" long insulin syringes that you can barely feel.

3. Inject subcutaneously (just below the skin) which is faster, more comfortable, and less invasive/risky.

4. MOST IMPORTANTLY, inject a tiny “microdose” daily in the morning to mimic the body’s natural production of testosterone. A typical dose is just a few drops of medication.

In combination, these 4 improvements can be a game-changer. Men who are on TRT who switch to the T Microdosing Protocol often report an immediate improvement in how they feel and some men report that they can achieve healthy T levels with a lower dose of medication.

Most importantly, the microdosing protocol closely mimics the body's natural cycle of testosterone production. In a healthy male, testosterone levels peak in the early morning and decline throughout the day.