A: Good for you for not buying into mainstream's quick-fix, big-bucks "solution" to depression. The side effects of antidepressants alone are enough to give someone a bad case of the blues. There are other ways to deal with the problem that don't involve exposing yourself to possible side effects like anxiety, weight gain, impotence, and loss of sex drive. One way is through testosterone. You've heard me talking about a healthy man's need to maintain adequate testosterone levels-especially as we creep ever upward in age. Not only does this "male hormone" (women need it too, though) keep us sexually vigorous and potent, it also helps to keep our bodies strong, straight, and energetic-and it even helps us to stay mentally sharp. But now there's evidence that testosterone also helps to keep us men from getting the blues, too. A two-year trial of more than 250 men showed a statistically significant correlation between testosterone levels and the incidence of clinically diagnosed depression in males over age 55. Published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the study found that men with testosterone deficiencies were nearly THREE TIMES AS LIKELY to be depressed as those with healthy testosterone levels. These findings point to the possibility of testosterone therapy as a possible treatment alternative to the mainstream's over-prescribed (and risky) antidepressant drugs. Whether or not the mainstream will embrace it is another story… But as far as I'm concerned, anything that keeps antidepressants out of people's medicine cabinets is viable indeed. | 
