More T, Less E
Your body has an enzyme that turns testosterone into estrogen to keep things balanced. But sometimes, this enzyme gets crazy. Here's how and what to do about it.
Imagine your body is a factory, full of coverall-clad workers doing their jobs. One guy's name is Percy. His job is to help keep your hormone levels balanced.
Percy does this by taking testosterone and converting it into estrogen. It's an important job because men and women need estrogen balance. If a male shut off his estrogen production, he'd have brittle bones, painful joints, heart disease, and a dysfunctional brain.
The problem? Sometimes Percy gets overzealous: he does his job too well and converts too much testosterone into estrogen, creating an imbalance. This leads to low T, possible gyno (man boobs), mood issues (irritability), belly fat accumulation, and low energy. It's not totally Percy's fault. Usually, something else is going wrong in the factory.
Luckily, you can provide your body with a supervisor to keep Percy under control. Let's call him Jack. Jack makes sure Percy converts just enough testosterone to estrogen to create a healthy balance.
In this analogy, Percy is the enzyme aromatase. Aromatase activity is where aromatase converts testosterone into estrogen, balancing hormone levels. Supervisor Jack is either a drug like anastrozole (a pharmaceutical aromatase inhibitor) or a supplement like Longjack (Buy at Amazon) (a natural aromatase inhibitor).
What's Wrong with Percy?
So, what causes Percy/aromatase to get overzealous? Lots of things, like...
- Aging: As men age, their aromatase activity can naturally increase.
- Excess Body Fat: Fat tissue is like a cozy home for aromatase – it lives there and gets busier the more fat you have. People with higher body fat (especially around the belly) see more aromatase activity because adipose tissue pumps out the enzyme, converting more testosterone to estrogen.
- Alcohol: Excess booze revs up aromatase.
- Certain Drugs or Chemicals: Anabolic steroids can get converted to estrogen by aromatase. Pesticides, plastics, and other endocrine disruptors also mimic estrogen or nudge aromatase to work harder, like giving Percy a caffeine boost.
- Inflammation or Stress: Chronic inflammation or high stress indirectly juices up aromatase.
How To Keep Percy Under Control
First, control as much of that stuff listed above as possible: stay lean and avoid that second or sixth drink. However, it's hard to avoid endocrine disruptors, stress, and aging.
Steroid users often use anastrozole to reduce side effects like gyno and water retention, but they're pushing their hormone levels far beyond natural limits. Most men don't require a drug, plus the drug itself is risky. (See the side effects of too little estrogen above.)
Supplementally, Longjack works as a controlled aromatase inhibitor or regulator. Studies show that Longjack boosts testosterone levels partly by inhibiting aromatase activity. Although its T-boosting benefits are primarily caused by its ability to free testosterone bound to SHBG, stimulate the HPG axis and FSH production, and encourage testosterone production in Leydig cells, the aromatization-blocking benefits are important too.
Longjack does this via competitive inhibition, reducing aromatase's ability to catalyze the conversion of androgens to estrogens. It also downregulates aromatase expression by reducing the production of aromatase in adipose tissue (fat). The herb's antioxidant properties also protect testosterone from oxidative stress and degradation.
However, only one form of Longjack consistently has these positive effects. It's called LJ100, and it was developed and patented by the Government of Malaysia and MIT. Omega-Man High Absorption Longjack (Buy at Amazon) contains 300mg of LJ100 per softgel/dose, 50% more than standard clinical dosing.
Omega-Man is also formulated in a self-emulsifying delivery matrix designed to get all active fractions into the body. Take one softgel per day.
