Doctor shares the most troubling trend in mens health and why biohacking is to blame
Doctor’s orders: When it comes to longevity, DIY is a don’t.Peptides, GLP-1s and hormones have all become buzzy topics in the health and wellness world, with fans raving about personal transformations and biohacking wins.But just because you can buy something easily online doesn’t mean you should.In fact, doctors find the do-it-yourself mentality particularly worrisome.
“The most troubling trend is men trying to do longevity medicine without a physician,” Dr.David Shusterman told The Post.“They are ordering testosterone, peptides, erectile dysfunction medications, and GLP-1 weight-loss drugs online without a complete evaluation,” said Shusterman, a board-certified urologist and founder of UroLongevity and Modern Urologist.Living well for longer is a booming movement, with some estimates putting the market at $33 trillion.
While concierge medicine services offer high tech, physician-led health monitoring and optimizing, some people looking to get in on it cheaply and easily often take a DIY approach.Shusterman said men are accessing all sorts of medications for things like sexual health and muscle building without a doctor’s oversight.In the gray market, the medications may be of dubious purity, and clients are deciding on dosing themselves.
That can be unhelpful at best — and downright dangerous at worst.“I am very supportive of modern longevity medicine, but it has to be data-driven and medically supervised,” he said.Shusterman’s approach is “not random biohacking.It is advanced diagnostics, hormone optimization when appropriate, metabolic and weight medicine, cardiovascular risk detection, sexual wellness, prostate and bladder health — and longitudinal follow-up.”Here’s what people are getting into and why the DIY approach is more trouble than it’s worth.Peptides are building blocks of proteins that act as a kind of “key” to turn on biological processes like repairing damage and reducing inflammation.
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