Published on: 20 February 2019
Last Updated on: 31 October 2024
Not many people are aware of testosterone therapy and this story is about how Testosterone therapy can change your life and make you confident like never before.
The other day I was sitting with my friends and one of the friends told us about how he was undergoing testosterone therapy. It immediately intrigued all of us when he told us about how he is feeling the change in him with the therapy. I wanted to know more about it, so I googled it and figured out a few articles about it with some relevant information about testosterone therapy.
What are the Symptoms of Low Testosterone?
Until that day I was not aware of the fact what implications of low testosterone are. I was ignorant of signs of low testosterone. It can adversely affect the mind and reduce self-confidence or make someone depressed, or one might find it difficult to concentrate or have disturbed sleep. There might be a case of declining muscle and bone mass or an increase in body fat, fatigue. One might also face lower sex drive, difficulty in sustaining erections, and fewer spontaneous erections. All this affect our day to day life and our sexual relationship, and our performance at work.
How to get Testosterone Replacement Therapy?
As per a urologist, Dr. Michael O’Leary at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital “In most men the testosterone level is normal and one must not have the prescription without lab test on the basis of general fatigue and malaise.” Having hormonal supplements can trap you and vouch for it as once men began to take testosterone replacement because they tend to feel better and the body stops making testosterone. However, it can pose some risks.
What are the Side Effects of Testosterone Replacement Therapy?
The risks involved with testosterone therapy are relatively low. However, some men might face immediate side effects of testosterone supplements such as acne, swelling in the ankles, disturbed breathing while sleeping. Besides, some doctors also watch for the high blood cell counts that might trigger the risk of clotting. In addition to that, there can be a higher risk of developing heart attacks, strokes and it can be fatal due to cardiovascular diseases.
Review:
I figured out from my further readings that most doctors do not recommend testosterone therapy until and unless there are chances of not avoiding it. Men can maintain energy easily without vouching on dietary supplements or drugs by following a healthy lifestyle such as having fiber and protein in snacks, walk as much as they can, or pacing up yourselves.
One needs to be cautious and mindful before approaching testosterone therapy. One needs to have an accurate assessment. Be cautious of various side effects of gels, injections, and patches. Don’t feel shy or frustrated and try to diagnose your symptoms and be aware of them before having any testosterone therapy or supplements talk to your doctor openly and discuss your symptoms. A lab test is a must for measuring testosterone deficiency. One needs to follow up with the physician and must consult an endocrinologist.
I have come to the conclusion that one cannot go ahead with testosterone therapy until and unless one is not sure of the symptoms and lab test. Low deficiency of testosterone needs to have therapy but with caution and keeping in mind the various side effects and not expecting any miracle out of it.
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You're wrong if you believe being as slim as possible is the healthiest thing you can do. Such perceptions have led many anonymous online personas to share thinspo content promoting eating disorders like anorexia.
Over the past few years, this type of content got consumed by kids and teenagers, leading to a surge in cases of anorexia. This race to attain the ideal body type - which is slimmer than my bones - is unhealthy.
Learn more about this online phenomenon by reading this post till the end.
What Is Thinspo Meaning?
Anorexic "Thinspo" images and videos are a risky internet fad that supports anorexia. Such content encourages those with anorexia nervosa to maintain unhealthy routines or take on other destructive behaviors.
This material may exacerbate the symptoms of eating disorders and harm a person's mental health, particularly their feeling of self-worth.
What Are The Pro Ana And Pro Mia Websites?
Image Source: uab.cat
Anorexia and bulimia are accepted on websites that are pro-ana and pro-mia. Whether the attempts are overt or covert, their main objective is to unite and encourage like-minded individuals to validate their fights.
Regrettably, most participants depend on posting and accepting thinspo content to stay committed to their problems rather than promoting recovery services.
Although many website administrators and social media sites try to stop triggering remarks, sometimes their good intentions fall short. Unfortunately, all it takes to begin a new male thinspo craze is a new hashtag, website, or inspirational saying.
As an illustration, once Instagram forbade "thinspiration" content, people started doing it more. In other words, as moderation increases, people become more inventive with their wordplay.
Will Thinspo Content Be Harmful To You?
Image Source: s.abcnews.com
Not all material that fits the definition of "thinspo" is explicitly or even purposefully inciting self-destructive behaviors.
According to a 2019 report, some content producers who are battling eating disorders don't always bring up unhealthy eating habits or actively urge others to do so.
However, the nature of their work, in which people are battling eating disorders, may draw attention to their thin bodies. People at risk for developing anorexia nervosa may observe and want to distance themselves.
This raises the issue of whether people must thwart someone with an eating disorder from displaying one‘s body on the internet if that content may be thought to put other vulnerable people at risk.
This highlights the conversation regarding what ought to be completed about this kind of material and raises the issue of whether people should prevent them from encouraging others to live unhealthy lifestyles.
It's more evident that web admins should remove anything openly promoting self-destructive conduct, something many platforms purport to accomplish. Even still, there is frequent information that supports eating disorders on several well-known websites.
Before And After Thinspo Effects On Mental Health
Image Source: media.cnn.com
Thinspo diet plans can harm people's mental health, especially susceptible populations like young girls. Many children fall into this perilous rabbit hole, which may significantly change how they view their idealised body type.
Although this content doesn't often induce eating problems, research has shown that it may instead encourage them. It can also be more challenging for someone to recognize that they have a severe mental health issue, which might postpone receiving treatment.
Individuals who suffer from eating disorders frequently engage in websites where other individuals with eating disorders promote disordered behavior and normalize harmful habits, creating an "echo chamber" for themselves.
Also, those who struggle with eating disorders frequently adopt a competitive perspective, contrasting their bodies to those of others and striving to "outdo" them regarding calorie consumption and weight objectives.
How To Reduce Risks Of Thinspo Content And Anorexia?
Image Source: magnoliacreek.com
Being conscious of yourself is crucial while attempting to lower your risk of anorexia. Recognize when you start to feel nervous about eating or have negative thoughts about your physique.
Read only books on healthy eating supported by research, and pay attention to what medical professionals say is the ideal weight limit for a person with your body type. Speak with a mental health professional before you desire to adopt eating patterns different from what health professionals recommend or set weight goals below this range.
It has been seen that the body positively lowers a person's chance of eating disorders, including anorexia. Many people, particularly women, are exposed to unrealistic body images through media like social networks and movies, which can harm their sense of self.
Content that aims to dispel people's misconceptions about what a typical, healthy body looks like can lower a person's risk of developing an eating disorder.
It's essential to "tend one's own garden" in this digital world by watching the stuff you're consuming. The more diverse the algorithms used to select the information you receive will provide similar content, the more of a particular type of content a person will typically consume.
Therefore, it's best to be more conscious of what content you consume from the internet. Try your best to avoid content that makes you feel bad or simply not like it at all. In addition, distance yourself from content that requests you to harm yourself and do dangerous things.
How To Get Help If I Suffer From Anorexia?
Image Source: waldeneatingdisorders.com
The first important and most challenging step in the rehabilitation process is seeking treatment for anorexia. Recognizing your eating issue, be it anorexia or other disorders, is necessary before getting help from a mental health expert.
The intensity of your symptoms will typically determine where you should start looking for treatment. If you're uncertain, contact a helpline for eating disorder treatment or talk to your doctor about your alternatives.
Anorexia can be treated as a mental health issue, regardless of the approach used. Anorexics who get the right help and instruction can recover and lead fulfilling lives. The most important thing is to start the therapy process.
Final Verdict: Is Thinspo Healthy?
No, thinspo, or “thinspiration” is not healthy.
Such online content promotes the picture of the ideal body type being super slim. However, if you look closely, this “ideal body type” is a bit too slim in an unhealthy way. Yet today's "woke" teenagers are now becoming entangled in this quagmire and developing anorexia nervosa.
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People are working longer hours, have less time with family, and are constantly battling stressful situations. In addition, being constantly inundated with the news through social media can make anyone depressed.
There's not enough time for daily yoga and meditation. As a result, many of us are turning to antidepressants to get us through these stressful times.
But antidepressants come at a cost, and it's important to know all the facts. Some of these facts aren't common knowledge, and often your doctor won't even discuss them before prescribing antidepressants.
Here are 10 weird facts about antidepressants that will surprise you.
1. We Don't Know How Antidepressants Work:
Antidepressants have been around for a long time, and yet, we still don't know exactly how they work.
And since everybody's depression is different, we don't know how well they work for varying degrees of depression or if they sufficiently treat depression at al. In fact, we don't even know if they're safe for long-term use.
13% of Americans take antidepressants, some for other illnesses like anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Yet studies -- mostly paid for by pharmaceutical companies -- include only a few thousand people.
Many of us have been told that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, but we don't really know if that's true either. What most studies look at is our brain's level of serotonin. However, neither lowering nor increasing the level of serotonin in the brain reduces the symptoms of depression.
If low levels of serotonin were the cause of depression, then antidepressants wouldn't take several weeks to work. They would work immediately, or at least within a few days, once the levels of serotonin increase. But they don't.
Another interesting fact about antidepressants is that some don't even increase serotonin and still work as well as any other antidepressant.
2. All Antidepressants Are Equally Effective:
It's a known fact about antidepressants that pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money pushing one pill over another.
Doctors aren't pharmacists and tend to push whatever antidepressants they're most familiar with. At times, they're buddies with the pharmaceutical sales rep.
A fact about antidepressants is that there's no evidence that one antidepressant is more effective at treating depression than another.
What a person needs to weigh is the cost and side effects, which can vary greatly from one person to another. There are over 30 different kinds of antidepressants available.
They all work on different parts of the brain, inhibiting or increasing receptors of certain hormones. They have different side effects, and they all are equally effective. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't.
3. They Don't Work Immediately:
All antidepressants take several weeks before they're fully effective. It can take anywhere from two weeks to a month before you know if it's the right antidepressant for you.
One unfortunate fact about antidepressants is that many people have to cycle through several kinds of antidepressants, suffering from a variety of side effects before they find the right one.
That's a long time for trial and error.
And eventually, the effectiveness wears off over time. Many people build up a tolerance, and signs of depression return.
Then you need to try a different antidepressant, and the trial and error process begins again. This could make anyone depressed. Fortunately, there are other treatments like TMS which don't require you to take any medication at all.
4. Dosage Makes No Difference Either:
Many doctors start their patients off with a low dose and then gradually increase over time. There's no evidence that this is necessary or that higher dosages are more effective.
Since this is the case, you're better off taking a low dose and having less negative side effects. It's a myth that a person will get better quicker if they are on a higher dosage of an antidepressant.
5. Antidepressants Can Help Your Sex Life:
It is a pretty well-documented fact about antidepressants that one side effect is a lowered sex drive. That said, depression itself can lower your sex drive too.
Interestingly, this low-libido side effect can have its benefits by helping men with premature ejaculation. Antidepressants can delay ejaculation, and for men who suffer from premature ejaculation, the delay can be a big help.
One study found that men who took an SSRI a couple of hours before intercourse had longer ejaculation times compared to the placebo group.
6. Animals Get Depressed Too:
Americans spend an estimated $15 million a year on medication for their depressed cats and dogs.
Depression symptoms for animals aren't too different than those for people, so it's fairly easy to detect. However, it's difficult to treat animals with therapy. Instead, some veterinarians are treating pets with antidepressants.
Zoo animals are on antidepressants too. They are being used to treat everything from aggression to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
7. You'll Feel Worse at First:
Not only do antidepressants take a while to kick in, but your symptoms may be exacerbated.
It's not uncommon for you to feel more tired, less hungry, less ambitious, and sadder. Things will get better. It just takes a while.
In addition, the side effects don't help either. This is why doctors usually start a person off with a low dose, to reduce the intensity of side effects, before they find the right medication and dose.
8. Antidepressants Can Be Harmful:
Antidepressants come with a long list of side effects, many of which mirror the symptoms of depression, lethargy, insomnia, nausea, anger, violence, and even suicidal thoughts.
The side effects can sometimes be more debilitating than the illness it's treating. A person needs to seriously weigh the pros and cons.
Often a person can mistake a side effect of the medication as a symptom of depression. Since we don't know how the drugs work, it's hard to know.
Another fact about antidepressants is that once you start, it's not safe to quit cold turkey. A person should wean off of them slowly, and many aren't willing to do this. Quitting antidepressants quickly can be dangerous.
9. You Can Overdose on Antidepressants:
Too much of a good thing can be too much. As mentioned, more isn't always better, but often people have prescribed higher doses of antidepressants anyway.
You can overdose on antidepressants, and the symptoms of overdosing on them aren't always obvious. Zoloft overdose symptoms can include lethargy and nausea, which may be confused with ordinary side effects.
Other, less obvious overdose symptoms include high blood pressure or inflammation of the pancreas, which can be mistaken for a cold or flu.
However, if a person seems agitated, confused, or is vomiting, that's not normal. If someone taking antidepressants has these symptoms or becomes incoherent or unresponsive, call a doctor immediately
A Zoloft overdose also can lead to a life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome.
Serotonin syndrome can occur when dangerously high levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin build up in the brain.
10. Antidepressants Can Interact with Other Drugs:
It's very important to tell the doctor prescribing antidepressants if you're taking other drugs. It's also essential that you're honest about your use of recreational drugs and alcohol. All of these can have harmful interactions with antidepressants.
Don't ever share your medication with anyone, especially if you don't know what other medications they might be taking or if they are using recreational drugs. Interactions can be deadly.
Facts About Antidepressants Revealed
Now that you know more about antidepressants, you can make a well-informed decision about taking them.
Depression is debilitating, and some people battle with the disease their whole lives. For some, antidepressants are a last resort, and for others, they're hoping for a temporary solution that will give them an opportunity to have a better perspective.
No matter the reason, there is no shame in being depressed or needing treatment.
However, there are other methods of treating depression that can be used in conjunction with medication, such as therapy, exercise, diet, and natural remedies. Many of these have been proven to be equally effective.
For more great articles about staying healthy, visit our blog.
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Sleep deprivation has an important effect on your skin health, heart health, brain and blood pressure level. Without 8 hours of solid sleep, your body and mind won’t be fit at all. Additionally, lacking sleep is a great cause of skin problem. Have you ever noticed, your skin looks tired after a sleepless night? Not only tired skin, but you also get paler skin trend, dark circles & redder and puffier eyes too. That’s why proper sleep is too important to all of us. So, we all need to know the causes of sleep deprivation so that we can have good sleeping habits to prevent this problem.
Causes of Sleep Deprivation:
You may have sleep deprivation for various reasons. Some of the main reasons are given below-
Insomnia
Voluntary Behavior
Sleeping Habits
Sleeping Environment
Study or Work Commitments
Sleep Apnea
Psychiatric Issues
Stimulant Medications
Concurrent Medical Conditions
Neurotransmitter Imbalances
Anxiety
Short-Term Illness
Effects of Sleep Deprivation:
As we said before, sleep deprivation has many effects on skin problem. Let’s have a short look at what it does for your skin.
1. Acceleration of Skin Aging:
The main and most annoying thing is it accelerates the skin aging which makes you look aged. Poor sleeping slows down the cell repairing process and damaged cells can’t be repaired. As a result, you get an aged-looking skin.
2. Decreases Collagen Production:
The body system runs the collagen function in the body while sleeping. And the collagen keeps the skin health softer and younger-looking. If you have lack of sleeping, the function gets damage and your skin starts losing the softness and youth.
3. Impairs Skin Barrier Function:
Without enough sleep (at least 6-8 hours), the skin barrier system of the body gets hurt and the skin cells become weaker. As a result, the skin tone starts fading away. Sleep deprivation affects other natural body functions too.
4. Increases of Dark Circles & Puffy Eyes Appearance:
If you don’t have proper sleep at night, it seems to be an appearance of puffy eye spots and dark circle on the skin. So, to get rid of this, good sleep is the must.
Good Sleeping Habits:
So, you know the importance of proper sleep. You need to sleep well for your healthy skin. Are you ready?
Here, we have included some tips for good sleep. Hope, they will help you out. Let’s try…
1. Put Electronic Devices Away:
In this modern era, we all use smart-phone or tablet. But you know what, the blue ray of the electronic device screen prevents the release of “Melatonin” hormone. Melatonin tells your brain that it’s time to sleep. But if you use electronic devices for a long time before bedtime, you won’t get sleep easily. So, turn off the devices before a couple of hours before going to bed.
2. No More Alcohol:
If you take alcohol and have poor sleep, then we would like to recommend you to reduce alcohol intake. Alcohol decreases the Melatonin release you get sleep problem. So, if you want to take any liquid food to relax at night, we suggest you take a cup of chamomile tea instead.
3. Manage Your Stress:
Sleep goes out first when you are in a stressed mood. So, always try to control it. For better result, you may spend some time outdoors or meditate.
4. Exercise Regularly:
Regular exercise is a great way to keep the mind and body fresh. And with fresh body and mind, sleep problem won’t touch you at all. So, it’s a great idea to exercise regularly.
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