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TESTOSTERONE TRUTH: 99% DON'T KNOW THIS ENERGY SECRET | DR GORDAN

with Dr Gordan

46:35·20 November 2023

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DR GORDAN

Dr Mark Gordon breaks down the hormone and energy systems most of us completely overlook—and how optimizing them can transform not just how long you live, but how well you actually feel. From understanding testosterone and cortisol to the surprising power of supplements like DHEA and CoQ10, this conversation reveals why hormone balance is the real secret to sustained vitality and athletic performance.

Key Takeaways

Free testosterone (not total) is what matters—aim for the 50th to 75th percentile of your lab's reference range, not just being 'within normal limits'
Cumulative micro-traumas from cycling crashes and minor accidents trigger brain inflammation that suppresses hormone production; these add up over time
DHEA at 25-50mg daily for men (blood-test dependent) boosts immune function, mood, and growth hormone production without the system shutdown that comes from injectable testosterone
Vitamin D, zinc, CoQ10, and pregnenolone work synergistically to protect the brain, stabilize inflammation, and maintain mitochondrial energy—they're non-negotiable for cyclists
High baseline cortisol isn't the problem; the inability to switch it on and off is—meditation (15 mins, 3x weekly) can cut cortisol by 50%
Healthcare providers are reactive, not proactive—you must do your own research and get baseline hormone testing in your 30s to prevent decline later

Expert Quotes

"Only 2% of total testosterone is functional free testosterone so you need to only be speaking about free testosterone and you need to be in the 50th to 75th percentile of the lab."

"Nothing is free—you can't do something and not expect some negative outcome. But what we've learned is that you can protect the individual by adding DHEA and pregnenolone."

"Health care providers are reactive, they're not proactive. So it means that we have to go and do our own research."

KEY QUOTES

“free testosterone is the key not total they mostly do total testosterone which is worthless it's a bunch of junk only 2% of total testosterone is functional free testosterone so you need to only be speaking about free testosterone and you need to be in the 50th to 75th percentile of the lab”
Dr Gordan — Neuroendocrinologist

“in a study done on 40 to 70 year old males and females who were taking 50 milligrams of DHEA a night in three months they had improvement in their cognitive ability and their physical functioning they were out dancing when before they were limited”
Dr Gordan — Neuroendocrinologist

“15 minutes three times a week of meditation can lower cortisol level in half”
Dr Gordan — Neuroendocrinologist

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT8 SECTIONS

Chasing vitality, not just longevity

Help me paint the broader picture as to how hormone levels change in men as we age okay well here's the benefits of testosterone sense of well-being assertiveness memory recall the ability to learn new things competitiveness sleeping well good sex no depression these are all the benefits of it Dr Mark Gordon welcome to the roban podcast thank you very much all the way from sunny California don't depress me I feel like I start every podcast where someone's just gloating about the weather where they are and I'm stuck looking out the window at the rain it's too hot it's too hot but I just came back from Thailand where it was even hotter I was watching the new uh the new Harrison Forge movie the the newer version of Temple of Doom Indiana Jones and it got me thinking we're we're all on this search for this magic Elixir for everlasting life they call it the Holy Grail but that's what I'm hoping to pull from you today the answers to how we con this cocktail for everlasting life and vitality I think that's a humble enough request I think it's um what as you said all of us are looking for how can we extend not only the time that we're here but the quality of time that we're here without suffering the psychological iCal and cognitive impairment that comes with age and also with things like riding bicycles or being in motor vehical crashes or the military that I take care of yeah it's fascinating because for a long time you heard people saying I just want to live longer but when you unpack that you actually don't want to just live longer who wants to have like that last decade of their life that marginal decade where they're in firm or theyve low standard of living I had a prominent cycling coach maybe the greatest ever cycling coach coach on the podcast a few weeks ago and he shared with me a story of his friend who was 92 years old he rode his bike that morning ran that evening and then dropped dead and he's like well that's what I want for my life he lived basically the same as he did in his 20s all the way up till his mid 90s and dropped dead with like minutes of bad Health not Decades of bad Health right that's the way to do it here in the United States you know the majority of hospitalization happens in our later uh years uh when everybody gets sick and that's because we don't spend the first half of our life making sure that the second half of our life is high quality so you know you run up to 50 and then you start having all the medical problems because you haven't taken into consideration you know the quality of the body or how to improve the body we're in quite a stress induced type world at the moment it's does it cost a live in crisis as well on this side of the pond that people are feeling the pinch and it got me wondering how does stress affect our immune system great question um the stress raises a chemical hormone called cortisol that we all know as the stress hormone well in my area of neuroendocrinology which deals with the brain and the hormones in the brain the chemistry and the immune system cortisol will cause a chemical to be lost in the brain called fraulin and fraulin regulates the inflammation in the brain so when you have high stress emotional stress physical stress nutritional stress this chemical this chemokine drops and inflammation ensues and it's this inflammation like a fire that's set in the brain that slowly Burns circuitry in the brain so what happens is you lose regulatory control of breathing you lose regulatory control control of regular uh heart rate and uh perspiration and temperature of the body and they call it POT Syndrome uh postos static syndrome and the uh inflammation uh will destroy chemistry so that the chemicals like serotonin that helps you to not be depressed is lost or the hormone called melatonin that helps you to sleep is lost so you end up with depression and insomnia and fatigue and then this is uh what leads to that downward spiral in our quality of Health from stress prolonged stress and right now as you said the world is filled with stress so things like meditation relaxation and meditation can help to reduce cortisol Deepak choer said uh had a wonderful lecture where I've known him since 1999 when we first met he talked about a study that they did where 15 minutes three times a week of meditation can lower cortisol level in half can we measure cortisol levels oh yeah in the United States we can I don't know about uh elsewhere but we can measure it and you can either measure it salivary so you do throughout the day you do maybe three or four tests of salivary cortisol and you see if you follow the normal pattern through the day morning and evening have two different levels and um you can see how uh relaxation can alter it or when you're under stress it should be high yeah but uh either salivary cortisol

Cortisol as an adaptogen

Or serum from the blood and is there a positive application of cortisol in the body or is it always negative so we're trying to minimize cortisol cortisol is called an adaptogen what an adaptogen does it allows you when you get on your bike to develop that power that ability to sustain your activities cortisol to a level has a beneficial effect adapt it allows your body to adapt when I'm laying down in bed during the night my cortisol level is low when the minute I get up pops up why it's allowing me to adapt from a sedentary activity to an active activity and we monitor you know I used to take care of NFL and well my daughter does now my daughter Allison and um they have higher cortisol levels because they're always active active and when we have them come in within about 24 hours of their intense training you'll see a spike in their cortisol level and when they come in in uh um period of vacation their levels are lower so when we talk about someone being stressed are we talking about they have a high Baseline of cortisol and they can't modulate it they can't turn it on and off like say a professional athletes can um professional athletes have been able to uh their body has adapted okay so prolonged activities you can adapt to cortisol won't Spike as much so it's more of a um a level we'll say a level More Level more a normal physiological level but in new people you know when you're exposed to a new threat like someone who uh get scared during Halloween or something like that uh their cortisol level will Spike but someone who is used to being scared all the time yeah they just blow it off and it's also an issue of um testosterone's effect in the area the brain called the uh lyic system which is the emotional Center and on the sides of it it's called The amygdalas which if you're low in testosterone you have a greater startle response and when you get a startle resp response your cortisol levels Spike so hormones regulate that just to throw in the benefits of testosteron DHT so we're not really looking to blunt our cortisol response completely no we're looking to have that ability to switch it off and then switch it on correct it's an important regulatory hormone in our body it also under stress will alter how sugar is used by muscle so you want to have um you know in in times of need like running or bicycling you don't want to stop sugar from getting into your muscles to form glycogen to fuel the muscles you want to accentuate that you want to get it into the muscles improve so where's the so where's the threshold where cortisone starts to negatively affect our immune system um under chronic stress the level will go up and create that inflammation that I was talking about in the the brain and over consistent persistent persistent levels of elevated cortisol that's what leads to irritability uh body fat composition uh loss of weight uh it's something called cushion oid you can lose weight and also have a buffalo hump quoid type of symptoms you can have fatigue too because you start burning out the system you know there's a window of opportunity or window of optimal function but once you go above it or below it that's when you start having detrimental effects so it's all about trying to maintain it in the middle and you know how to do that you know certain foods can cause it to go up uh exercises will cause it to go up but will help you to um modulate uh the level over time as you just said you will adapt so if we're continuing to pull at that tread of immunity if cortisol is something that's negatively affecting it what are the strateg iies Foods or systems we can do to optimize that immune system to make it more robust um if you want to improve the immune system uh we know that testosterone increases cells of the innate immunity CD4 and cd8 we know that testosterone drops the inflammation in the brain we know that estradi protects the brain from inflammation associated with a multitude of things but one specifically is Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease disease is a neuroinflammatory process multiple sclerosis nutrition very important for that there are supplements that we use in our practice things like DHEA dehydroepiandosterone which actually has articles protecting your lungs from covid cyto kind dumping I haven't heard about this supp talk to me about this for a second DHEA is um dihydro anderon sulfate is the activated form DHEA is uh if you follow cholesterol becomes prenolone which is called the mother of all hormones prenolone then becomes DHE one pathway and then down to prone progesterone and cortisol and the DHEA um is important for stimulation of the immune system below the neck stimulation of immune system wound healing drop DRS inflammation a specific marker called il6 Incan 6 is an inflammatory cyto kind it drops that uh above the neck it stimulates growth hormone production that's why taking DHEA at bed time or after dinner after dinner is best uh

DHEA dosing and benefits

Will help to increase in males growth horm production by 10% females 15 to 20% so aside from things like high impact aerobics you can Spike your growth hormone and testosterone and then by taking DHEA you can increase your growth hormone production in the brain it has anti- depression effect a major article in 1993 by Dr Morales uh dropped depression 30% it helps stimulate the coating of nerves called myelin so people with multiple sclerosis high doses of DHEA will turn on the cells that they call oligo dendrites to increase milein production um you get a cold you feel smarter or less smart most people say less smart and that's you get uh Incan six in the brain and DHEA will help to drop it so DHE is very important and then dhaa becomes testosterone so DHEA something you would take daily uh yes we take it daily because it boosts the immune system drops inflammation and in a study done on on 40 to 70 year old males and females who were taking 50 milligrams of DHE a night in three months they had Improvement in their cognitive ability and their physical functioning they were out dancing when before they were limited so it's a it's a very uh important um it's a hormone it's not a prehormone though it does become testosterone in it of itself it's beneficial and is that uh do that you recommended 50 milligrams is that a standard dose that you would recommend to patients or is it like weight dependent uh it's not weight dependent it's reaction and absorption dependent in women we start out 15 milligrams 15 to 30 minutes after a meal and nighttime meal is the best because you get the added benefit of increase in growth hormone for males we start between 25 milligrams or 50 and that's based on blood test everything I do is predicated by the results of labs I love that I'm always so dubious when someone says like you know take 10 units of this because it's like my absorption has to be totally different from the next person's absorption based on my lifestyle my you know genetics a million different variables absolutely help or hinder that absorption absolutely that's brilliant because that is the mistake that a lot of people do they randomly choose a level a dose and this is what I battle with here in the United States with people being put on to injectable testosterone many of them don't even need it they need to have their system turned on and that's why I don't really use a lot of injectable testosterone I use a product like Clomid or e-id to stimulate your own system to produce its own testosterone because the minute you start injecting your system shuts down and over a prolong period of time which might be a year two years three years it kills your system so you can't make your own testosterone I'm got to put a pin in testosterone and come back to it because it's something I I definitely want to delve into but just sticking on the supplements around immunity as well so we have the DHEA would you recommend vitamin D zinc any others you're taking regularly beautiful vitamin D is incredible if you go to Google Scholar I don't know if you know of Google Scholar I know well too many errors spent there good go put in vitamin D and Immunity and you'll see 113,000 articles put in vitamin D and cancer prevention you'll see 2.3 million articles and you put vitamin D and heart disease you'll see 2.2 million I just got finished doing this for one of my consults I had and incredible Vitamin D it helps the immune system and stabilizes inflammation and uh vitamin D stimulates the immune system so vitamin D is a primary we use about 125 micrograms or 250 micrograms that converts to 5,000 international units to 10,000 international units and I don't know if you saw on one of the Joe Rogan I think it was 15 1589 1589 where he asked me how much vitamin D was taking I take 50,000 in one my natural reaction will be to say that's a lot but again harp and back to I don't know what your absorption levels are like maybe it's I'm assuming it's the optimal amount right you have to take vitamin D after food to optimize absorption because it's a fat soluble vitamin and you're absolutely right everybody's guts absorption is different now we use this as a marker if they don't absorb well to consider there's a problem with the gut absorption yes has a genetic part uh component to it but the majority of it is what we call disbiosis you might heard it's a it's a very common thing we talk about disbiosis and um leaky gut and so forth and my daughter disbiosis is Sor sorry to C across you just clarify for myself on the audience disbiosis is the the inability to pull nutrients from fers is that correct yeah and the reason for it is the balance of the bacteria in the gut is off biosis is the biome that deals with the um commens slate and the bacteria that help us to absorb food so when you take an

Zinc, vitamin D and gut absorption

Antibiotic it kills it so you can have after antibiotic you have a problem with absorption also under stress it changes the way that the system absorbs so cortisol is not our friend the Vagas nerve in our gut is not our friend um and it can alter and lead to malabsorption so you're eating all the time and you're always feeling hungry it could be because your guts not absorbing and that could be because of high acid certain medication you're on alcohol consumption except for Irish beer and um get you Guinness Guinness my wife drinks tons of Guinness because it has all the great vitamins in it and that was told to her by our cardiologist if you're going to drink beer drink Guinness okay I think probably sponsored by diio they put that little ball inside the cans you know but anyway um vitamin D is very important another one which people don't really talk about is called seven keto DHEA seven keto DHEA will not only boost the immune system it'll increase uh the utilization of fats in the liver called thermogenic so it can help with uh use of body fat 7 Keto DHEA immune stimulating and thermogenics uh the other uh product that you stated was H zinc cortisen yeah zinc is um involved in 300 processes in the body it's anti-ars 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 n it's anti-influenza a andb it's anti-cancer it's anti-alzheimer's Disease by mechanisms that zinc Works in and in the world about a billion people or they said one-third the population of the world are deficient in zinc and zinc in the cell blocks covid it blocks influenza it blocks uh one of the gut bugs uh and Rhino virus and the sinus virus it blocks it uh zinc's important in an anti-inflammatory system in the brain uh which is called the sod sod for super oxide Des mutase zinc's very important in it zinc's a an important mineral that we uh don't take enough of along with things like copper chromium and magnesium magnesium for muscle relaxation for sleep for helping with asthma and this has all been documented with the uh what is it the department of alternative and complimentary medicine here in the United States today's episode is brought to you by Better Health as we pedal closer to the end of another year I can't help but reflect on the highs and lows that come along with it whether it's the excitement of the holiday season or navigating the occasional winter Blues it can be a bit of a roller coaster I've been thinking about how this time of year can be a little bit overwhelming dealing with the stress and changes that accompany it all whether you've ever dipped your toes in the therapy or not let's chat about the bigger picture benefits and a language we can all relate to think of it as a toolkit for Life a bit of space where you can learn the ropes of positive POS of coping skills some time for self-reflection and even somewhere where you can learn how to set those critical boundaries in your life if you're contemplating the therapy Journey why not give better help a spin this is therapy that's entirely online crafted for ultimate convenience flexibility and tailor to your schedule just a quick questionnaire to match you with a licensed therapist and the freedom to switch things up at no extra cost anytime it's therapy on your terms and I've got to say the convenience is a total game Cher so find your bright spot this season with better help visit betterhelp.com roadman today to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp hp.com Roan the details are in the description below if somebody's looking to set up this sort of supplement routine for themselves like you've talked about DHEA seven keto DHEA right H then we have vitamin D zinc like when they're going into their their doctor and looking for blood tests I think generally when we go into the doctor they just sort of say to us yeah everything's fine or it's difficult to pull this out like so I suppose my question is what are the markers or tests that we should be asking for to know if we need to take these supplements uh I'd have to send it to you on a paper we have a 28 point U biomarker pen which has been the core of helping us diagnose uh both civilians and our military with trauma related hormonal deficiencies now we've assumed assumed that the reason why we lose our hormones is because of through aging but that loss can be accelerated by traumas stress high stress uh slip and fall motorcycle accident car accid accident um an assault uh being exposed to blast waves IEDs repetitive gunfire and so forth can change the brain's ability to make uh these hormones so you need to look at things like growth hormone in igf-1 DHEA I look at dheas because I work strictly in the brain and uh testosterone free testosterone is the key not total they mostly do total testosterone which is worthless it's a bunch of junk only 2% of total testosterone is functional free testosterone so you need to only be speaking about free testosterone

Why 'normal' testosterone isn't enough

And you need to be in the 50th to 75th percentile of the lab so if the range for a hypothetical testosterone is between 10 and 90 and you come in at 11 the doctor's going to say you're normal because you're within that parameter but you're going to say to the doc I just don't feel well and hear what they tell the person or the patient the client oh you're just depressed no they're not depressed the level of testosterone just being within the envelope is not sufficient you need to be up towards the 50th to 75th percentile the analogy that I use is okay you've got a 100 uh pounds in your pocket and the guy sitting next to you has a million pounds in your in their pocket I can honestly say you both have money the question is which one would you rather be okay I'll take the mail I'll take the mail that everybody would take the better and when you when you um have a higher level it's therapeutic and not just have it you know it's like that's the difference do you just have it or do you have a a th physiological but therapeutic level we never go outside the limits so I said I put a pen in the testosterone so I want to take that pen out now but help me paint the broader picture as to how hormone levels change in men as we age great well as we age men specifically playing rugby playing soccer football Cricket whatever the game is or running or boxing or MMA or what have you the activity actually leads to inflammation in the brain that shuts down an area of the brain called the hypothalamus which regulates the pituitary gland the master gland of the brain and what happens with a hypothalamus a specific hormone signal called gonadotropic releasing hormone goes to the pituitary and turns on luteinizing hormone LH which tells the gonads our gonads to make testosterone you lose that inflammation lose that in the 2013 beautiful article showing the entire mechanism that they fed out we were able to uh Define and so trauma of any kind and a lot of people have difficulty with trauma you know they get knocked down they stand up they brush themselves off and they get back in the game but you just had a trauma and it's called a microt trauma and this is what's been missed this is one of my battles in the with the military's definition of what constitutes a mild traumatic brain injury you have to have knockdown and confusion and Amnesia and possibly loss of consciousness no you don't the analogy I use is you can either have 10 10 pences or one pound they both equal a pound excuse the short Interruption but I wanted to find a way to bring our little Community together to problem solve to share training advice and to support each other and what can sometimes be a lonely road as we all Chase health happiness and Longevity through cycling to facilitate this I've set up a Discord Channel I'm going to leave a link in the description down below it doesn't cost anything to join it's totally free plus I'm also picking out random winners for spot prizes inside the Discord Channel if you'd like to join it click on the link down below yeah we're seeing that over here where we have a big culture of boxing and for a long time it was taught that the concussions were just the full Kos but now there's a lot of research into those subconcussive impact and the cumulative effect of those absolutely I'm working with an organization called ring of brotherhoods a charitable organization that looks after the um boxers after they've left the ring for life and some major players in there and they all develop either punch drunk or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's these are all inflammatory processes and we've been able to reverse the Parkinson's uh I just did a podcast where discussed this in detail and it's all the fact that this inflammation generates a hormone or chemical uh reactive oxygen species an inflammatory chemical called Nitric uh peroxy nitrite and the proxy nitrate kills the area of the brain that stops Parkinson's so it Fosters you developing it so we treat that and that's how we've been able to reverse it they're all neuroinflammatory disease es so I know we got off on testosterone go back so yeah like what are the key science that somebody should be looking out for that they have a hormone imbalance okay well here's the benefits of testosterone sense of well-being a plum assertiveness uh memory recall the ability to learn new things competitiveness sleeping well good sex no depression your visual creativity your written creativity your auditory creativity is all enhanced and you don't have startle response these are all the benefits of it so if you start developing issues with your libido and it's not drug or alcohol related because alcohol is horrible also if you don't sleep you lose 40% of your libido okay that's crazy stress from stress so if you don't sleep it influences your libido and sex drive okay okay so when you say don't sleep how how bad of sleep are

Pregnenolone and deep sleep

We talking about uh tell me what yours is like I'm perfect I'm using whoop at a moment so my girlfriend's taking a piss out of me I've hit like two weeks of 100% sleep scar so I'm I'm boxed off on sleep okay fine so it's all independent I sleep five hours a night and that's because I go into such deep sleep and that's one of the benefits of pregnenolone progesterone and alop pregnanolone I take pregnenolone which is called the the mother of all hormones and what it does is it increases a hormone in our brain called Gaba and Gaba is the natural volume of the brain so I go into deep sleep rapidly and I've got a device that measures my uh brain waves the Alpha Delta uh brain waves and I thought it was taking me like an hour to fall asleep I fall asleep within three minutes and it's this subconscious it's this subconscious sleep where you have dilation of time and what really is a minute perceived when you're in the subconscious as being lot longer and I dive deep into REM sleep into deep sleep then come up and then go down hey each sleep cycle is about 90 minutes so I've tested myself and I see why because I was concerned I was only sleeping five hours and wake up feeling phenomenal now I'll be 71 years of age in January 20th and most my 40 years year old colleagues you know don't believe that I stand on stage for eight hours straight lecturing on the stuff that I do and they're having difficult time with one or two hours of lecturing you know so this is I've been on treatment for 30 years so who do you think is who do you think is a good candidate for are we calling a hormone replacement therapy or is are we looking at the natur is there a different phrase for it um what I would do is so Wellness assessment okay you can call it anti-aging age man management hormone assessment whatever but it's Wellness because what keeps us well is having good levels of hormones homeostatic great levels of hormones throughout the system so if you're 30 years of age and you have had a history of playing sports you should get a baseline done and then based on that Baseline you not the doctor you get a copy of the lab results and you do the math and what's the math on the side it says reference range and the reference range might be between one and nine you take the one add it to nine that gives you 10 divid it by two and that gives you a five so if your level is one and the median the midpoint is five you're low normal you're in the first quartile okay quartiles every range you can break into four segments the first 25% the second 25 the 3D 25 and the fourth 25 so 0 to 25 25 to 50 50 to 75 75 to 100 we optimize between 50 and 75 this is in for us our therapeutic range or Target uh not everybody needs it we've had people who were 42 and doing great but they started off at 20 okay so you can on every one of those results you can do your own math and see whether or not you're below the 50th per or at or higher than the 50th percent okay and if if somebody's in a nonoptimum Range would you always default to external testosterone or would you first explore natural ways to boost it if the relationship between testosterone and the hor stimulating hormone for testosterone lutenizing hormone you look at those two if lutenizing hormone is high and testosterone is low it means that the stimulating effect of the lutenizing hormone on the testes is not working and that could be due to damage to the testicles and damage could be physical damage it could be thermal damage it could be from abuse of testosterone in the past and now from a 2018 article from Denmark it shows that Ibuprofen will will shut down the testicles so they don't respond to lutenizing hormone that's one the other is if luteinizing hormone is low your testosterone's going to be low now the question is why in a 20y old is luteinizing hormone low the most common reason is because of trauma and if you go into their history you you say tell me all the minor accidents you have because if you say tell me all the major traumas you've had they'll say none because they perceive that the trauma is a car accident loss of consciousness you've got to go and make it real simple to answer any kind of you know minor accidents you have because they add up they're a cumulative well talk to me about that CU how does that affect it because I don't imagine there's one bike rider listening to this or watching this that hasn't had multiple crashes I know over the course of my cycling career of eight nine broken bones some of them you tagged them as verticom is Trivial but there's no trivial broken bone like breaking a collar bone is traumatic no matter what way you package this

Head trauma and hormone loss

Up correct um that's very good point uh there was a study done where they looked at women who had a fracture of a bone no head trauma no history of head trauma but they fractured a bone what they found were personality changes because the inflammatory chemistry from the fracture site went directly into the brain and created the infl infation that led to the loss of hormones so how did they know they lost hormones their menstrual cycle went off so minor you can have disb why is disbiosis so important to us here in the United States we have something called gut brain syndrome so you can have inflammation disbiosis malabsorption allergies certain meds drugs alcohol that create an inflammatory condition Meo in the gut and those inflammatory chemicals called cyto kindes Cy t o k i n s these are the immune systems inflammatory Messengers to try and deal with areas of damage infection what have you okay so bones can do that minor micr traumas that's what all your guys have had and when they fall off a bike it ain't a microt trauma it is a trauma yeah 100% it's an acceleration de acceleration injury it's like you being in a car and you have to stop short what happens is your brain continues to move forward and hits the front of the skull inside damages the frontal portion when they've done studies the frontal lobe is the most common one to be traumatized and in Alzheimer's disease the frontal lobe Dementia or Alzheimer's usually starts in the frontal d that's the area of the greatest amount of trauma and then the other is the backside so why do we start losing our vision maybe it's the head booing you know you know going to a Metallica concert you know having the head bopping or whatever I don't know who currently is uh is uh you know in the metal World okay so you know what I'm talking about going to what is it Marsh pits and everything jumping off the stage and not being caught testosterone's often in the spot like but are there other key hormones that we should be mindful of yes um whenever you use testosterone you have to use DHEA and pregnanolone and the reason is testosterone when you inject it shuts off lutenizing hormone lutenizing hormone is the key for turning on the production of hormones in the brain so when you use testosterone you shut off lutenizing hormone which shuts down 35 Plus plus hormones in the brain and the literature shows in four to 6 months of starting testosterone only you'll develop agitation irritability insomnia personality change it's because testosterone by itself is D dangerous and I basically say that there's nothing for free you can't do something and not expect some negative outcome but what we've learned is that you can protect the individual by adding DHE and prolon so those are two Cardinal the other ones vitamin D is a hormone it's not a vitamin it's a hormone very important vitamin D um let's see prelone DHEA that is um the core along with zinc zinc has some benefits it blocks estradiol and I I've I've heard you in previous podcasts mention in that cortisen oh cortin with a q h cortin phenomenal cortin um I started using quatin when I used to take care of the NFL between 95 and 2007 quatin functions to increase mitochondria in a week it can double the amount of mitochondria the importance of mitochondria they're the energy power plants for our cell so if you can increase energy production you can increase your endurance your recovery so cortin has that benefit cortin is also what they call an inor inor carries Metals into the cell what's the important metal is zinc so one of our treatments if you go to my website uh article I wrote in 20 May of 2020 um chistin helps to bring zinc into the cell and zinc blocks covid replication it downregulates the replicase which is the genetic code for making more virus also quatin uh increases something called igf binding protein 3 insulin like growth factor binding protein 3 which is anti-cancer and then the cortin also lowers something called NF Capa B NF Capa B is a trigger to go into our nucleus and turn on up to 400 genomes the majority of them being inflammatory so the benefit of cortin is on four levels is beneficial to the system across the board so I take about 500 milligrams twice a day is my Baseline when you're considering viral exposure I go to a th000 twice a day with 30 milligrams of zinc okay but if you take high doses of zinc you need to make sure sure that you're taking a good source of natural iron vegetables and you have a good level of copper because the zinc when it gets too high will take out zinc uh take out copper and iron so copper is part of the energy production system and the immune system I mean it's so convoluted that's why I love this area it's not just the straightforward pathway yeah no it's definitely not it seems to be changing all the time and I think that's why viewers do have difficulty with figuring this out

Why this isn't mainstream medicine

Because they don't have time to constantly unpack it so it is brilliant I will Point listeners and viewers to your website I'll add it in the show notes because it's res there yeah a lot of Education they're under the science uh TBI helped now uh SC this science another one that I'd love to pick your brain on that's getting a lot of populous attention at the moment largely because uh Dr Peter aa's book uh which is a great read as well is rapo M have you played around with that or do you have thoughts on it no I've heard of it but I really haven't gotten a lot of tangential since my core area in um neuro immunoendocrinology is taking up a lot of uh time in defining that for me so my educational parameters have expanded as you just said it's been you know education information is expanding so I've seen it and uh the ways that's supposed to help on inflammation yeah it's a fascinating story even how they discovered it which he tells brilliantly in his book I won't rehash it now but it's there for anyone to check it out supp like I'd love to know because this has been a fascinating conversation that's open my eyes and I'm going to pick your brain forward off air about how I can optimize my own uh supplement routine but why do you think this isn't more mainstream available information why are people struggling to get this information the main reason is because you don't get the support from the health care providers because Health Care Providers are reactive they're not proactive so reactive you come in with a problem they treat that problem but they're not going to give you the proactive how to avoid the problem in the future so it means that we have to go and do our own research and that's what got me started back in you know 1997 by reading it and my story is I had six head traumas and developed Depression was put on anti-depressants and my um Escape is reading so in the course of my reading I came across this relationship between hormones and mood and I went and got my hormones checked and I was deficient in growth hormon testosterone and thyroid and within 90 days of getting replenished on that I started feeling phenomenally well you've got to go and do your own reading or rely on uh sources you know our website has a lot of educational material if you just read the abstract and in the introduction it'll give you uh great information I've just published five new papers on the website in our new series um which will help to give education in a soft Manner and then give you how to deal with the problems or deal with the issues uh there's a paper which is called um Phase 2 protocol which is uh available to the UK um which is our treatment protocol for things like traumatic brain injury I've got 36 um people in the UK who are presently on that uh protocol um you know what started me in the UK I don't know if you know the story is in 20 20 2020 I was sent a email request by the ministry of Defense from the UK they invited me to Imperial College to go and give an explanation to to the military Surgeon General of why their top SAS people were coming into Los Angeles to get uh assessed and treated and my simple answer over the email was maybe they want to get better so I went there yeah simple right practical approach so I went there and uh gave a presentation and uh for four hours they attacked me uh Imperial College doctors there attacked me um but they came did not refute the science that I brought of 489 cases and the science behind it I brought a booklet that I put together of research studies not by me by the world and handed it to the U Surgeon General and um the end result was we were granted uh funding for a project in univ the Queens Hospital in Birmingham and uh unfortunately what happened next was Co so we were there January and March it was Co so it wiped that out but I we have military in uh the UK that are on protocol and doing phenomenally well it's been a fascinating and eye open and discussion in so many ways uh Dr Mark I thank you for taking the time to chat with me today and I'm gonna add in link to your website which I thoroughly recommend everyone checking out into Today's Show notes thank you for time if you enjoyed this chat you're going to absolutely love the conversation I had with intermittent fasting expert see turo her advice specifically around breakfast changed how I eat forever you can click it just here

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What causes low testosterone in men naturally?+

Chronic stress is one of the primary drivers of low testosterone in men. Dr Mark Gordon explains that sustained stress suppresses a brain chemokine called fractalkine, which triggers neuroinflammation that disrupts the circuitry governing mood, sleep, and hormonal regulation. Addressing cortisol load through lifestyle changes is therefore a necessary first step before considering hormone optimisation.

Does meditation increase testosterone levels?+

Meditation reduces cortisol, which in turn creates a more favourable hormonal environment for testosterone production. Dr Mark Gordon cites a specific finding that 15 minutes of meditation three times per week can halve cortisol levels, measurable through salivary or serum testing taken at multiple points across the day. Lowering cortisol removes one of the key suppressors of male hormonal health.

What does testosterone do for the brain and memory?+

Testosterone supports memory consolidation, assertiveness, and a reduced startle response, according to Dr Mark Gordon, who specialises in neuroendocrinology and brain hormone function. It is not purely a physical or sexual hormone; it plays a direct role in neurological stability and cognitive performance. Men with suboptimal testosterone often report difficulties with focus, mood regulation, and stress resilience before they notice physical symptoms.

Is cortisol bad for testosterone and should you lower it completely?+

Cortisol is not inherently harmful and should not be eliminated. Dr Mark Gordon describes it as a necessary adaptogen that the body requires to respond to stress and maintain function. The problem arises when cortisol remains chronically elevated, as this suppresses the hormonal and neurological systems that govern testosterone production and overall vitality. The goal is regulation, not removal.

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Key Takeaways

Free testosterone (not total) is what matters—aim for the 50th to 75th percentile of your lab's reference range, not just being 'within normal limits'

Cumulative micro-traumas from cycling crashes and minor accidents trigger brain inflammation that suppresses hormone production; these add up over time

DHEA at 25-50mg daily for men (blood-test dependent) boosts immune function, mood, and growth hormone production without the system shutdown that comes from injectable testosterone

Vitamin D, zinc, CoQ10, and pregnenolone work synergistically to protect the brain, stabilize inflammation, and maintain mitochondrial energy—they're non-negotiable for cyclists

High baseline cortisol isn't the problem; the inability to switch it on and off is—meditation (15 mins, 3x weekly) can cut cortisol by 50%

Healthcare providers are reactive, not proactive—you must do your own research and get baseline hormone testing in your 30s to prevent decline later

Expert Quotes

"Only 2% of total testosterone is functional free testosterone so you need to only be speaking about free testosterone and you need to be in the 50th to 75th percentile of the lab."

"Nothing is free—you can't do something and not expect some negative outcome. But what we've learned is that you can protect the individual by adding DHEA and pregnenolone."

"Health care providers are reactive, they're not proactive. So it means that we have to go and do our own research."

KEY QUOTES

“free testosterone is the key not total they mostly do total testosterone which is worthless it's a bunch of junk only 2% of total testosterone is functional free testosterone so you need to only be speaking about free testosterone and you need to be in the 50th to 75th percentile of the lab”
Dr Gordan — Neuroendocrinologist

“in a study done on 40 to 70 year old males and females who were taking 50 milligrams of DHEA a night in three months they had improvement in their cognitive ability and their physical functioning they were out dancing when before they were limited”
Dr Gordan — Neuroendocrinologist

“15 minutes three times a week of meditation can lower cortisol level in half”
Dr Gordan — Neuroendocrinologist

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What causes low testosterone in men naturally?+

Does meditation increase testosterone levels?+

What does testosterone do for the brain and memory?+

Is cortisol bad for testosterone and should you lower it completely?+

TESTOSTERONE TRUTH: 99% DON'T KNOW THIS ENERGY SECRET | DR GORDAN

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