SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Image 1: Luckily "gyno", or in this case lipomastia, does not always look that bad. Oftentimes it is more subtle, yet still annoying a psychological burden for men suffering from it. This pictures alone should be reason enough to give all the 45+ contributing mentioned in this article a wide, wide berth (image from  cosmeticsurgerybangalore.com) If you type "gynecomastia" into your favorite search engine, your chances to find one of the major fitness and bodybuilding forums among your first hits are about 99%. This indicates that gynecomastia, lipomastia, "bitch tits", "fat tits" and whatever else many people use to measure by the same yardstick is much more prevalent than you would think if you conducted a survey on the street. The reasons for that are manifold. Men, who frequent those bulletin boards are oftentimes more conscious about their looks than Mr. Average, they are also more prone to be exposed to exogenous hormonal agents that can...

Figure 1: Molecular structure of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) (from Wikipedia) I assume jogging is not what crosses your mind, when somebody is talking about "manly" exercises!? DHT, the acronym for dihydrotestosterone , on the other hand, is what experts like Dr John Crisler (from allthingsmale.com) hold responsible for all things male. So, if, as a recent study ( Aizawa. 2011 ) published in the Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine reports, running on a treadmill for 30 minutes, 5 times a week increased dihydrotestosterone levels in skeletal muscle of male rats, it is pretty likely that moderate jogging can trigger similar hormonal changes in men and thus render them "more manly". What Aizawa et al. found was that an increase in "mRNA expressions of 3[beta]-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD), aromatase cytochrome P450 (P450arom) and 5[alpha]-reductase in the skeletal muscle of trained rats" if compared to sedentary controls. These c...