Watch now (16 mins) | Understanding Men is a series of articles and videos that progressively explain the many natural factors that help us see men in a realistic light. Today's world is filled with negative spin on men and masculinity and this has done great harm to men and boys. That harm is amplified by the media and the educational systems ignoring an abundance of research knowledge that reveals what is driving healthy masculinity and healthy manhood. This series digs into that research and clinical observations and offers it for your consideration.
Something I was surprised to learn during the pandemic is that testosterone doesn't just change your brain to accept more risk; it changes your immune system's risk tolerance too. I was surprised to discover this via links to research in some comment section when it wasn't part of the mainstream news discussion I had seen about why men were dying more. But it was a bit mystifying at first: why would testosterone make your immune system suck? Until I came across the other side of this: long COVID: https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/13/why-are-women-more-prone-to-long-covid
If your immune system faces a trade-off between risk of death and risk of chronic illness, then it starts to make sense that men's and women's immune systems are tuned to make that trade-off differently, and it's not too surprising that testosterone is complicated as some sort of general signal to your body and brain on how much risk to take. Turns out "Seems like only women get long COVID, probably because it's all in their head" and "men are dying more because they just don't take care of themselves" are two sides of the same coin, both rooted in ignorance of how our bodies work differently. Might this also play a role in why women live longer than married men, who line longer than single men?
Thanks for this comment. Fascinating. I had not heard of this before. I know from research that lower testosterone increases men's life expectancy and some think even general health. But your comment goes a step farther. Appreciate this.
Here the links to the previous posts on the Understanding Men Series
Understanding Men #1 - The Testosterone Flood - It Starts Early
https://menaregood.substack.com/p/understanding-men-1
Understanding Men #2 - Testosterone: What does it do?
https://menaregood.substack.com/p/understanding-men-2-testosterone
Understanding Men #3 - Testosterone: What it does psychologically?
Something I was surprised to learn during the pandemic is that testosterone doesn't just change your brain to accept more risk; it changes your immune system's risk tolerance too. I was surprised to discover this via links to research in some comment section when it wasn't part of the mainstream news discussion I had seen about why men were dying more. But it was a bit mystifying at first: why would testosterone make your immune system suck? Until I came across the other side of this: long COVID: https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/13/why-are-women-more-prone-to-long-covid
If your immune system faces a trade-off between risk of death and risk of chronic illness, then it starts to make sense that men's and women's immune systems are tuned to make that trade-off differently, and it's not too surprising that testosterone is complicated as some sort of general signal to your body and brain on how much risk to take. Turns out "Seems like only women get long COVID, probably because it's all in their head" and "men are dying more because they just don't take care of themselves" are two sides of the same coin, both rooted in ignorance of how our bodies work differently. Might this also play a role in why women live longer than married men, who line longer than single men?
Thanks for this comment. Fascinating. I had not heard of this before. I know from research that lower testosterone increases men's life expectancy and some think even general health. But your comment goes a step farther. Appreciate this.