My friend is wasting away before my eyes. I've known him just over 3 years and I can see a marked difference in his body mass... he is aware of it too.
He asked me what he can do to gain again and I just don't have much experience in this area.
He is highly active on his farm. He eats well and hearty and generally good foods but in my estimation he does eat too much sugar. They rarely eat processed food. They do eat lots of rabbit, goat, and goats milk products, fresh garden foods in seson, homemade breads, but lots of desserts with sugar. Very few processed foods.
He has a history of chronic Lyme disease that appears to be cured. Recently they found candida in his blood and he is under treatment for that but he seems to have no overt symptoms of it. He had been on a statin drug for cholesterol for 230, and that drug did make him feel quite ill over the last two months he took it. But since stopping he feels well.
I advised him to add Jarrow whey to his diet to get his protien really up, hoping that this would help maintain muscle mass, which has been going down over the last 3 years. But he already eats a lot... so what to do?
I have also advised him to get his testosterone levels checked, thinking that if levels are going down that could contribute to loss of muscle mass.
He hasn't done that yet. He's 63. and I also think that a statin drug could have messed with his hormones...
any ideas?
Since he's had issues with illnesses which cause low energy levels & a farm to run, I'm guessing he could have been or is stressed out.
Stress makes it very difficult for lean guys to maintain muscle mass since cortisol breaks muscle tissue down.
Any possibility of having a check done on his cortisol levels?
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PS: Contrary to what the others say, I reckon he is getting more than enough calories from his diet as it is. Throwing more fat into the mix is only liable to make matters worse not better.
If there is no physical affliction, have you tried him on digestive enzymes? Bromelain or something like that.
I keep telling him less bad carbs, less sugar and more veggies and potatos and brown rice, quinona, etc, He needs the carbs to do the work he does... but he is kind of a sugar addict but he eats what his wife makes so Im trying to show her options..
If he doesnt have digestive issues that he feels I don't think he would be willing to take a pill for it... thats just his nature.
I just dont know about stress. Its a pretty laid back lifestyle here. He's quite religious and he has a lot of fun with his church,, its called "the Cowboy Church" and its extremely informal and he plays music there, he and his wife. They laugh a lot. ... and no digestive issues, no agricultural chemicals around. The biggest stress he has is his medical issues.. last year back surgery for disc issues, previous to that lyme and now his knees are bugging him and maybe needs a knee replacement. Its affecting his walking. So lots of stress from that I guess. He has a life long history of stress issues to his knees alone.
I just keep going back in my mind to testosterone. At what point do guys start to loose muscle mass from decreasing levels? At 63 Im guessing he's about there.
Why would a guy not want to supplement with testosterone to bring declining levels up to more normal?
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Well, an active lifestyle, so he is clearly absorbing his carbs. But the loss of muscle mass, though doing hard work and consuming a high protein diet (red meat, goats milk and presumably eggs) suggests he is not absorbing his protein.
Disc and knee trouble?
It crosses my mind that it could be a deficiency in the production of hydrochloric acid. Required for both protein and calcium to be absorbed.
I had it many years ago.
Check his teeth. a lot of people don't know this, but calcium is vital for heart function. When there is insufficient calcium, or available calcium in the diet, the body will strip down calcium from the bones, hence what we call in England, lace curtain teeth.
That would tie in with both his problems, muscle mass loss and disc/knee trouble.
Pure ocean kelp (powdered) did it for me. I believe it was the natural chlorine
that corrected the problem. I was alright after that.
Well, someone under enormous stress could still keep it to themself, especially a man. Stress can do a number on muscle, that's for sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arrowwind09
I just keep going back in my mind to testosterone. At what point do guys start to loose muscle mass from decreasing levels? At 63 Im guessing he's about there.
Why would a guy not want to supplement with testosterone to bring declining levels up to more normal?
Between 30 - 40 testosterone levels begin declining so yah, he's about there. Some guys are embarrassed to speak to their doctors about it & other men just aren't educated in that area.
Well, someone under enormous stress could still keep it to themself, especially a man. Stress can do a number on muscle, that's for sure.
Between 30 - 40 testosterone levels begin declining so yah, he's about there. Some guys are embarrassed to speak to their doctors about it & other men just aren't educated in that area.
Remember it's not just Testosterone that starts to decline significantly in your mid-30's that's also when Vitamin d3 and melatonin production also decline so the ability to deal with the extra inflammation cortisol creates is lower(they are both antiinflammatory) and vitamin d level is also related to testosterone level, (higher vitamin d higher testosterone)
Remember fat is required for the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Low fat diets adversely affect the brains ability to function and regulate metabolism. 6 Risks of Eating a Low-Fat Diet
How Low Can You Go? The Big Fat Truth about Low-Fat Diets
He does have a history of mid winter depression and he use to use lights, well still does, but he says that taking vitiamin D3 is what helps the most. I am going to suggest melatonin to him. I think I may have some that he can use.
We had them over for dinner the other night and I pumped all the fat into him that I could but we haven't gotten around to much of a discussion since talking to you guys.
It's not an easy topic to approach since low testosterone is connected to his manhood..
Just throwing this out there.. perhaps he has talked to his doctor about testosterone, but because of his cholesterol problem they decided against it. Cholesterol is the precursor to the carbon rings in testosterone and testosterone causes changes in lipid metabolism.
Being 61, his prostate could be starting to act up or already enlarging so they may have decided that supplementing with testosterone might not be a good idea as androgens make the prostate very sensitive.
There's another hormone that is connected to body mass - human growth hormone. It's gotten a bad rap because of being misused but as we know hormones are powerful and when balanced are wonderful.
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