I had a concussion (quite severe) when I was a little kid and hospitalized. Haven’t done any TRT srtuff and my recent blood panels show lower end of range. However don’t know if this is genetic or related to that concussion.
Curious your views here coach. Lots of football/rugby players will get head injuries…is their hormonal profile shot from a few bashings of the noggin?
Also I wonder if aggresive lifting (heavy snatch grip hihpull for instance) causes a similar adverse impact on the brain. There;s lots of force being moved through the body…
In reference to the last part, I don’t think brain damage from concussions is anything like the stress you get from heavy (but safe) lifting, and I don’t think CT would have written like 30 programs with snatch grip high pulls if they crashed your testosterone.
Damage to the brain can absolutely cause damage to a person’s endocrine system, and a good percentage of TBIs do just that- but just because someone has gotten a head injury, doesn’t mean it will definitely damage someone’s hormones. Some football/rugby players will have low T as a result of head injuries, some won’t, just like your low T might or might not be from your concussion.
(I know you were asking CT, just throwing in my .02)
UPitt did a study of the East Coast SEAL teams several years ago, did hormonal testing on everyone they could get access to. End result - the vast majority (I want to say all, but don’t recall for sure) were low T and high cortisol (along with some other hormonal imbalances I don’t remember). The opinion was that it was a combination of the lifestyle (maintaining high level fitness, long days/nights with short sleep, etc) and the effects of various level TBIs from ‘normal’ training evolutions (grenades, rocket launchers, demolitions, etc).
Very interesting, especially the SEALs report and counterintuive, seeing how these guys we generally regard as “alpha” & apex testosterone. Turns out the chill, yoga practicing, acvocado eatin hipster has the highest testosterone haha