Re: Bio available T and free T

[Guest guest]

I just replyed to this read it.

Co-Moderator

Phil

> From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@...>

> Subject: Bio available T and free T

>

> Date: Friday, January 28, 2011, 7:07 AM

> Hi guys

> I keep seeing references to bio available Testosterone.

> Could somebody explain what that is by comparison to free T

> and why it is prefered.

> I checked with my lab here in Australia and they don't

> offer the bio available T test.

> Kind regards

> Wayne 

>

>

>

> ------------------------------------

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks Phil for the information that explains it to me.

Don't know if this helps or not but I post a link to a converter that I just

found.

http://www.issam.ch/freetesto.htm

might like to try it and see if it supports his actual measurement

results and let us know.

Others may also wish to try and advise if it is accurate for them.

I have high above range SHBG below range free T and mid range Total T.

My calculated reading came out at Bio T 6.18 nmol/L and Free T 0.0252 nmol/L or

(25.2 pmol/L) from

Albumin 4.5g/dl and SHBG 79 nmol/L and Total T 22 nmol/L

My actual measured free T from the blood test shows 18 pmol/L so it has

calculated higher by about 40% so don't know which is more correct.

The other unknown is the expected optimal range for the calculated Bio T.

Hopefully my maths and units are all correct.

Kind regards

Wayne

>

> > From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@...>

> > Subject: Bio available T and free T

> >

> > Date: Friday, January 28, 2011, 7:07 AM

> > Hi guys

> > I keep seeing references to bio available Testosterone.

> > Could somebody explain what that is by comparison to free T

> > and why it is prefered.

> > I checked with my lab here in Australia and they don't

> > offer the bio available T test.

> > Kind regards

> > Wayne 

> >

> >

> >

> > ------------------------------------

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

I just posted this link this morning in a reply.

Co-Moderator

Phil

> From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@...>

> Subject: Re: Bio available T and free T

>

> Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011, 8:20 AM

> Thanks Phil for the information that

> explains it to me.

> Don't know if this helps or not but I post a link to a

> converter that I just found.

> http://www.issam.ch/freetesto.htm

>   might like to try it and see if it supports

> his actual measurement results and let us know.

> Others may also wish to try and advise if it is accurate

> for them.

> I have high above range SHBG below range free T and mid

> range Total T.

> My calculated reading came out at Bio T 6.18 nmol/L and

> Free T 0.0252 nmol/L or (25.2 pmol/L)  from

> Albumin 4.5g/dl and SHBG 79 nmol/L and Total T 22 nmol/L

> My actual measured free T from the blood test shows 18

> pmol/L so it has calculated higher by about 40% so don't

> know which is more correct.

> The other unknown is the expected optimal range for the

> calculated Bio T.

> Hopefully my maths and units are all correct.

>

> Kind regards

> Wayne

>

>

> >

> > > From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@...>

> > > Subject: Bio available T and free

> T

> > >

> > > Date: Friday, January 28, 2011, 7:07 AM

> > > Hi guys

> > > I keep seeing references to bio available

> Testosterone.

> > > Could somebody explain what that is by comparison

> to free T

> > > and why it is prefered.

> > > I checked with my lab here in Australia and they

> don't

> > > offer the bio available T test.

> > > Kind regards

> > > Wayne 

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > > ------------------------------------

> > >

> > >

[Guest guest]

Oh Phil you are so fast, it is hard to be in front of you I am learning.I

obviously missed that post I will try and find it.

Phil do you have any commnets on my calculated numbers etc as posted below?

kind regards

Wayne

> > >

> > > > From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@>

> > > > Subject: Bio available T and free

> > T

> > > >

> > > > Date: Friday, January 28, 2011, 7:07 AM

> > > > Hi guys

> > > > I keep seeing references to bio available

> > Testosterone.

> > > > Could somebody explain what that is by comparison

> > to free T

> > > > and why it is prefered.

> > > > I checked with my lab here in Australia and they

> > don't

> > > > offer the bio available T test.

> > > > Kind regards

> > > > Wayne 

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > ------------------------------------

> > > >

> > > >

[Guest guest]

I just posted this so in case you miss it here it is.

=========================================

The Big T

How your lifestyle influences

your Testosterone levels — Part 1

by M. Berardi

Like it or not (and I'm sure T-mag readers really like it), Testosterone is the

hormone of the decade. The granddaddy of the male hormones has gotten more media

attention over the last few years than any other hormone around. Heck, I even

heard a rumor that some crazy bodybuilding media guys were thinking of naming a

magazine after it. Can you imagine that?

While Testosterone (the hormone, of course) has been the target of much bad

press, I think that if you asked this big dog of hormones what he thought of all

of this, he would bark out something to the effect of " What of it? I must be

doing something right if they keep talking about me! Now can't you see I'm

trying to work this shaved little poodle over here? "

Although the popular media has made Testosterone out to be a destructive bad

guy, researchers have been slowly but surely embracing its use. Clinical trials

have been conducted in diverse groups of individuals from HIV wasting patients

and burn victims to people with compromised immunity, along with older men whose

" Testosterone " hasn't been up in years. There have even been a number of recent

trials investigating the use of Testosterone in healthy weight trained men. So

where do I sign up?

The results of these investigations have shown that Testosterone is not the

demon the medical community once thought it to be and that it actually can be of

great benefit to certain individuals and, in certain patients, possesses very

few risks.

I'm pretty positive though, that the use of Testosterone will never be condoned

for use in healthy weight trained males. To this end, us law abiding citizens

have to do the best we can with what we've got to work with. So let's talk about

how our own body provides us with the big T and what we can do, both naturally

and with dietary supplements, to maximize our T levels.

When most people think of steroids, they tend only to think of Testosterone.

This, my friends, is yet another fact which tends to make me believe that T is

the hormone of the decade. Testosterone, however, is only one member of the

steroid family. Some of the other steroids in this family include cholesterol,

progesterone, the estrogens, cortisol, and aldosterone.

Although these molecules are part of the same family and have strikingly similar

structures, their functions differ like night and day. This is important to

recognize because although the steroids tend to act very differently, they are

subject to similar rules with respect to biochemistry and metabolism.

For a simplified view of steroid metabolism in the body, you can assume that all

steroid hormones begin with cholesterol. From cholesterol, steroid metabolites

are formed in various tissues of the body. For example, enzymes in the adrenal

glands are responsible for converting cholesterol into cortisol, while enzymes

in the gonads are responsible for converting cholesterol to Testosterone.

With this simplified view, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking that by

simply providing the body with more cholesterol (make that two large fries,

please), we can make more Testosterone. This is a mistake because the body has

regulatory mechanisms that control hormone production. These regulatory

mechanisms, not your bedtime prayers to the iron gods, are what determine which

steroid metabolites will ultimately be formed.

So the next important questions are, what magic does it take to make

Testosterone out of cholesterol (now don't get too excited, you can't do this in

your bath tub), what regulates this conversion, and ultimately, what regulates

Testosterone production? In order to get the gonads to produce T, the body has a

chain of command that must be dealt with just like any smooth running business.

In business, the action plan comes down from the CEO to upper management, the

plan is solidified and delegated to the production team, and the production team

gets the job done. Well, in the body, a portion of the brain called the

hypothalamus is the CEO, the pituitary gland is the upper management, and the

testes are the production team members.

As in business, the buck stops with the CEO/hypothalamus, which is known as a

" pulse generator, " because during the day it sends out pulses of hormones that

are designed to stimulate other organs. With respect to T, the hypothalamus

sends out numerous daily pulses of GNRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone) through

the blood stream. These pulses are designed to stimulate the pituitary gland to

get to work.

The pituitary gland then senses the pulses of GNRH and sends out a work order of

its own, consisting of LH (leutinizing hormone) pulses. The LH message travels

down to the leydig cells of the testis to stimulate the enzymatic conversion of

cholesterol to Testosterone.

Cholesterol conversion to T is no easy process and I'm not going to go into all

of the details (partly because no one really knows them all). One fact that you

should understand, though, is that there's a high level of complexity to this

pathway and that there are many enzymes and intermediates that cholesterol has

to encounter before forming T.

Some of these intermediates include pregnenolone, DHEA, androstenedione, and

other well-known androgens. So, although the hypothalamus might be functioning

well, the pituitary might be doing the right thing, and the testis are getting

the " ball " in motion, ultimately the enzymes in the leydig cells determine

whether you're pumping out loads of muscle building T or simply forming other

intermediates at the expense of the top dog.

As a result of the process I mentioned above, T levels fluctuate wildly. If you

were to measure your Testosterone levels throughout the day, you'd likely be

amazed. One minute you have the hormonal profile of a hyper-muscular bull ready

to " fertilize " an entire herd of cattle? and the next minute your blood profile

is that of a fully menstruating Martha intent on color coordinating your

powder room.

These odd fluctuations occur as a result of the pulsatile nature of hormone

secretion. Again, this begins with the hypothalamic pulse generator's release of

GNRH. Incidentally, researchers now believe that it is this physiologic

pulsatility of Testosterone that makes it anabolic. So if you can mimic this

pattern of hormone release, you can stimulate muscle growth.

With this hormonal cascade in mind, it's important to realize that each step in

the pathway has a regulation point designed to either stimulate or inhibit pulse

release. In this respect, the body is a bit of a control freak as it tends to

like many control points rather than just one.

In this particular case there are three main control points; the hypothalamus,

the pituitary, and the testis. With this type of control, the body can maintain

the Testosterone homeostasis (a sort of hormonal status quo) and prevent us from

any abnormal changes in muscle development and strength. For example, if our

Testosterone levels go way up, the body senses this and the hypothalamus and the

pituitary produce less GNRH and LH in order to slow down T production. This, of

course, is the famous negative feedback. Damn that homeostasis!

Now that I'm certain you're all experts in Testosterone production (and there

will be a test at the end — I'm serious!), I'd like to address one more

important issue that will come up later in the article with regard to

Testosterone in the body. When Testosterone is converted from cholesterol in the

leydig cells of the testis, it's released into the blood stream where it embarks

on an anabolic adventure.

However, when in the blood, 60% of the big T released from the boys down below

is bound up by a protein known as SHBG, or sex-hormone binding globulin. SHBG is

produced and released by the liver. The important point is that the Testosterone

bound to SHBG is biologically inactive and this is why there's an important

distinction between total T and bioavailable T.

Total T represents all the Testosterone in the blood, while bioavailable T

represents the non SHBG bound Testosterone. There are other proteins in the

blood that bind Testosterone, too, but their binding is rather weak, so this T

is bioavailable and these proteins can still enter the cells to produce and

effect all the things we're interested in.

As I said, bioavailable T represents the Testosterone that is not SHBG bound,

while free T represents the Testosterone that's not bound to any blood proteins

at all. It's tricky, I know, but I hope that it's now evident that although only

about 2% of the T in blood is technically considered free T, there is a larger

percentage of T (about 40% or so) that is bioavailable because it's only weakly

bound to non SHBG blood proteins.

I'm taking you through this complex path for good reason. When trying to

increase T levels in the body, one must attempt to not only increase total T.

More importantly, one must attempt to increase bioavailable T. If you increase

total T, but you increase SHBG to a larger extent, they you will actually have

less bioavailable T for muscle building purposes!

A great example of this is the use of both thyroid drugs and tamoxifen

(nolvadex). Both may increase total T levels in the body, but both also increase

SHBG to a large extent. Although you may get a bit of a T surge with each

(hurray!), the increase in SHBG may bind up any extra, and actually decrease

your bioavailable T (boo!).

Well, now that the class is up to speed with our physiology and endocrinology

(will someone please wake up Mr. Luoma! — he's always falling asleep during my

physiology lectures), we can dive, full force, into how lifestyle factors

including things like diet, training, recreational drugs, over the counter

medications, altitude, and how psychological mood states influence T levels.

There's an abundance of Testosterone literature out there and some of it is

applicable for us while some is not, but to a science geek like me who both

likes facts and likes being big and lean, it's all interesting nevertheless.

Oh wait, I almost forgot! Before we go on, I promised a test didn't I? Settle

down! Although there are no actual grades on this test, I hope that you take

away a few fundamental things from this article. If you can answer these

questions, you're ready to take on next week's article in which I'll review a

number of environmental and lifestyle factors that can influence your levels of

free T, total T, and bioavailable T.

Rest easy, next week's article ties in all that you learned this week and makes

some recommendations about how to up the T levels. And next week there won't be

a test!

Co-Moderator

Phil

> From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@...>

> Subject: Re: Bio available T and free T

>

> Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011, 7:19 PM

> Oh Phil you are so fast, it is hard

> to be in front of you I am learning.I obviously missed that

> post I will try and find it.

> Phil do you have any commnets on my calculated numbers etc

> as posted below?

> kind regards

> Wayne

>

>

> > > >

> > > > > From: gcaussieman <gcaussieman@>

> > > > > Subject: Bio available T

> and free

> > > T

> > > > >

> > > > > Date: Friday, January 28, 2011, 7:07

> AM

> > > > > Hi guys

> > > > > I keep seeing references to bio

> available

> > > Testosterone.

> > > > > Could somebody explain what that is by

> comparison

> > > to free T

> > > > > and why it is prefered.

> > > > > I checked with my lab here in Australia

> and they

> > > don't

> > > > > offer the bio available T test.

> > > > > Kind regards

> > > > > Wayne 

> > > > >

> > > > >

> > > > >

> > > > > ------------------------------------

> > > > >

> > > > >