The Drugs Don't Work

I wasn't intending to write a blog today, but a sudden heavy cold has postponed the start of the working week, and while my Lemsip keeps me in a clear but dull state of mind, I thought I'd talk about drugs.

Before you get concerned about a Just Say No diatribe, or, even worse, an I Love Weed rant I am talking about the sorts of pills and tablets a Menopausal Man might consider. Like Viagra. Or Testosterone. Or Lemsip Flu Plus Max (no namby-pamby ordinary strength cold remedies for a man who is suffering – It's a well known fact that men's colds are always far worse than women's...).

Given that the male menopause is not fully accepted by the medical world (and I know it is technically called Andropause – but Andropausal Man just doesn't slip off the tongue), are there any real medical, rather that psychosomatic, issues that need to be addressed by drugs? The fact is, as I understand it, that testosterone levels reduce as you get older (unless you are Bill Clinton) and this directly affects your libido, weight gain, stamina, etc. Given that all these essential male traits significantly affect your self-esteem, it is difficult for most men (me included) to go from Alpha male to Beta male without a severe loss of self-respect or even identity.

Now, given I was never much of an Alpha male to begin with (I had the physique of a beanpole and more interest in books than girls), why do I still feel a lesser man (no smutty innuendos, please) as my body gradually declines? I think that at the core of this is the realisation that mortality is a fact, not just a word. It can be scary to think, as I occasionally do, that I am nearer the end than the beginning. For men who think this way, there is a strong attraction to 'Wonder' drugs that promise to restore the feelings of youth, be it for increased libido or higher energy levels. So it is no surprise that many resort to the 'Vitamin V' and synthetic testosterone pills to re-capture their youth.

However, I find this a sad indictment of the pressures that can drive a man to given that for all but a few medical situations, the outcome is purely for vanity not health. So, you will probably surmise from this that I haven't gone down this route to pill paradise. Don't get me wrong, I would really like to be as fit and energetic as my 25 year old self. But my desire to regain fitness and energy is tempered by a need to achieve this is a more natural and holistic fashion. I believe this to be possible, and I have started down the path to improve my health and well-being.
So now my confession – as a paid up member of Andropausals Anonymous (hah! I found a use for this A word), I have to admit to a weakness for another drug in pill form. Slow release Vitamin C. There, I have said it, and I feel better for doing so. I also feel a lot better for actually taking the things and I am not ashamed to admit it.

For those not in the know, slow release Vitamin C pills provide a steady release of the vitamin over about 12 hours rather than the 1-2 hours from a standard tablet. Now Vitamin C deficiency has been linked to several symptoms, but larger doses are said to help reduce the chances and severity of colds, although the scientific evidence for this is mixed. Even if this does reduce colds, what does this have to do with regaining my youth? Well, the answer lies in how I am trying to improve my health. No magic here – I am currently training three times a week for 40 minutes, mainly running. In between, I am stretching and doing light weights. Still, why the emphasis on the pills?

This story goes back about 10 years, during which time I have been trying to stave off advancing age by exercising regularly. Unfortunately, with an erratic job, I never had a set routine to exercise, and tended to train for a couple of weeks, do nothing for a few weeks, then try to pick the training up again at the same level as I had left it. One of the unforgiving traits of the aging body is its growing reluctance to recover quickly and maintain fitness over time. Consequently, I ended up invariably going down with an injury or, more likely, a cold when I re-started training. This hopeless cycle went on for years as I became increasingly more frustrated and despairing of my failing body. Earlier this year, an acquaintance through work told me about their similar training nightmare, and then how they had improved things by taking the slow release Vit C tablets. His view (and he is a salesman not a doctor) was that the Vit C had prevented him from catching colds (and therefore allowed him to train more and get fitter) by mopping up the free radicals caused by stressing the body so that you well less susceptible to catching whatever bug was going around. This certainly rang a bell for me, and although I gave him slightly less credence than our GP, I thought I would give it a go.

Nine months later, popping a 500mg slow release Vitamin C tab once a day I have been cold free while training regularly. Until today. Which, as I said at the beginning of this blog, is why I am writing this now. So, has my wonder pill turned out to be snake oil? I don't think so because over the last week I have forgotten to take the tablet regularly as, and you'll laugh at this, we re-organised our kitchen last week and I ended up putting the Vit C packet out of sight – in fact behind the cereal boxes in the cupboard. Now we are creatures of habit and, as the more mature of you will know, if it ain't in front of us we will forget it. So my pill-taking has been all over the place this week. Then a triple (quadruple?) whammy – Indian takeaway and a bottle of wine Friday night after a long stressful day in London, followed by a restless night, caused by the food and wine, and then I forced myself to do my normal run early (6am!) Saturday morning. My body was (rightly) unimpressed with the instructions coming from the barely conscious mind and did its best to stop or slow the run. However, hubris (another Menopausal Man symptom) forced me to continue beyond my body's capabilities. So here I am, just about to have another Flu Plus Max, feeling sorry for myself, but still believing in the power of Vit C. It may not be a double blind, random assignment research experiment, but at least the placebo effect is working for me!

Essential reading for Menopausal Men: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.

Menopausal Man