The benefits of testosterone

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Interesting:

So he went to Cenegenics, a medical start-up that trains physicians to run their own “age management” practices. They updated his diet, put him on a new workout regimen, and started giving him testosterone. Within six months, his body fat was down to nine percent. “That’s pretty hard to maintain—I’m closer to 12 percent now,” he humblebrags. After his personal success, Cenegenics asked if he’d like to take their training course, so he did, and quickly, he found himself switching specialties and business models. He became a testosterone doctor.

Clinics like his don’t work like most doctors’ offices do, where they are limited by what insurance companies will pay for. This is an all-cash business. The initial session costs $5,000, and the monthly charges are over $1,000. Clients get their blood work done every three months, so that Campion can keep tabs on how their “hormonal balancing” is going. Most patients lock into a permanent testosterone regimen, as Campion has. “I will take testosterone for the rest of my life,” he says.

Three and a half years after completing the training, Campion works in downtown San Francisco, across the street from the TransAmerica Pyramid, which is home to several investment banking firms and other companies with the words “partners,” “group,” or “capital” in their names. It’s a fascinating corner of the city, occupied by bankers in the Pyramid, the late Mayor Alioto’s family law offices across Washington, the Scientologists in the triangle at the foot of Columbus, and then this big office building, 655 Montgomery, filled with lawyers and fund managers and, on the 14th floor, the very discreet clinic.

It’s so quiet inside 655 Montgomery that I can barely hear my footfalls on the plush carpet as I approach Cenegenics’ office. There are no windows out onto the hallway. The office is designed for maximum privacy. Patients are generally seen one at a time, or kept in separate rooms throughout their seven-hour initial physical. Down the hallway, there’s a fancy machine for measuring body fat and a workout room, where a physiologist tests clients’ bodily functions—like the VO2 max test beloved by cyclists. Then Campion takes over and determines if the regimen should include testosterone and/or other muscle-boosting substances like DHEA (which Campion also takes himself).

Testosterone is not just any drug. It’s not nitrous oxide out of a balloon at a Phish show or a little weed in a brownie. “T,” (as it is known) is, by most accounts, as close to a direct anti-aging medication as science has yet produced. It can be manufactured cheaply in large quantities, and the risks seem manageable for most people. Users report increased energy, more muscle mass, decreased body fat, greater sex drive, and a general sense of well-being. In short, it’s one of the most transformative substances a human can take.

“Testosterone is ridiculously powerful,” Campion says. “I can tell you from experience, the feeling of well-being, of focus, and of masculine energy are massively increased. It’s like you’re back to being 35.”

Post external references

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    http://fusion.net/story/42619/why-testosterone-is-the-drug-of-the-future/
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