by Matt Weik
Joe Rogan is a man who needs no introduction. In fact, he’s a household name across this country. People listen to his daily podcast, watch him during UFC events, and people all-around seem to respect the man for voicing his opinion on various topics. Well, in December 2020, Joe had comedian Tony Hinchcliffe on his podcast as a guest, and the subject of testosterone came up. If you want to go back and check it out, it’s episode #1586, and the topic starts around the 34-minute mark.
To be totally honest, I don’t listen to the Joe Rogan Experience. I simply don’t have hours on end to listen to a podcast, as I’m sure many of you can relate. However, the fact that Joe Rogan spoke about testosterone and testosterone replacement therapy, in my opinion, is incredibly important. Why? Because it raises awareness to those outside of our world, who do not fully understand and grasp just how important testosterone is for men.
Why Is Testosterone Important and Why Should It Be Managed?
Guys, I don’t think I need to play your middle school health teacher and explain how and where testosterone is produced. If you’re still confused, reach down and grab your nuts. Here ends that part of the lesson. Now, one piece that not everyone fully understands is that at the age of around 30, men will start to notice their natural testosterone levels start to decline. No, it doesn’t mean you’re sick or have some weird disease, it’s simply a natural aging process that takes place. What you do about those levels is up to you.
As testosterone levels decrease, men may notice some very common symptoms such as:
- Low sex drive
- Erectile dysfunction
- Decrease in sperm count
- Loss of lean muscle mass
- Poor recovery following workouts
- Increase in body fat
- Decrease in energy
- Loss of bone mass
- Trouble sleeping
If the symptoms above don’t sound like something fun that you want to add to your list of must-haves, it’s time to start taking action, so you can take the adverse effects mentioned above and flip them upside down.
Even more worrisome is the fact that low testosterone can increase your risk of congestive heart failure (CHF), type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, coronary artery disease, and can dramatically increase the risk of having a heart attack.
To start the process of figuring out where your testosterone levels are, you will need to get a blood test to have your testosterone levels checked. Your doctor can prescribe this. It’s not something you can do or check on your own, and you can’t simply look in the mirror and self-diagnose yourself.
Should the blood test results come back out of the normal range, you and your doctor will need to look at what options you have, such as testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), and at what doses. Your doctor may prescribe topical testosterone creams, patches, oral testosterone drugs, or even testosterone injections.
What’s the Big Deal with Joe Rogan Bringing Up TRT?
Millions of people listen to Joe Rogan. He has the #1 podcast out there because he’s real and entertaining. He is a no-nonsense, no fluff, no bullshit kind of personality. He’s not going to promote something he doesn’t believe in, he’s not going to try something that doesn’t have some science behind it, and testosterone replacement therapy is no different.
He said something incredibly powerful and important that I want to share. He mentioned, “As you get older, your body is going to produce less hormones. You can either accept that, which many people do, you can be embarrassed about wanting to replenish your hormones, as many people are. People are embarrassed about admitting it, they’re embarrassed about discussing it, they want to dismiss the idea they would ever do it. It’s really simple – I want my body to work better, I want it to perform better.”
The key thing there is where he explains you may be embarrassed about it. Listen, I’m a dude, and there are things I simply don’t want to accept. Guys can get embarrassed about hair loss, their hair turning gray, loss of libido, increase in body fat, the inability to stay hard – the list goes on and on. But the reality is that unless we do something to manage our testosterone levels, they will continue to decline, and the side effects will become more and more apparent.
Joe Rogan is opening up the world to discuss what’s going on. Women have menopause to look forward to as they age, and guys have low testosterone. That’s just how it is. You can either suffer from it, or you can take action and manage it.
I feel that with Joe Rogan speaking openly about testosterone replacement therapy, it will get on guys’ radar and will become something they talk to their doctor about. Your doctor isn’t going to flat out tell you that you need TRT without you bringing up the subject (it’s just not going to happen unless he or she is in our world and think like us). I’ve spoken to several men over the years who showed extreme signs of low testosterone and mentioned TRT to them. The most interesting thing was that they had never even heard of such a thing. “What’s TRT?” they would ask me.
Love him or hate him, I salute Joe Rogan for bringing up testosterone and TRT on his podcast. I only hope that more men look into getting tested to see where their levels are and act to better manage their levels.