testosterone

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Thought that this was an interesting report from Life Extension

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Low testosterone levels in older men increase the risk of death during

4 year average follow-up

A report published in the August 14/28, 2006 issue of American Medical

Association journal Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed a

correlation between reduced levels of the male hormone testosterone

and an increased risk of mortality during up to 8 years of follow-up.

Testosterone levels in men decrease by approximately 1.5 percent per

year after age 30, which can eventually result in muscle mass and bone

density reduction, diminished energy and libido, and depression and

irritability.

Molly M. Shores, MD, and colleagues at the Veterans Administration

Puget Sound Health Care System and University of Washington, Seattle,

analyzed the association between testosterone levels and death in 858

male veterans over the age of 40. The participants' testosterone

levels were measured at least twice between 1994 and 1999. Subjects

were followed through 2002, and any deaths among the group were noted.

Nineteen percent of the participants were found to have a low total

testosterone level of less than 250 nanograms per deciliter, or a free

testosterone level of less than 0.75 nanograms per deciliter.

Fifty-three percent had normal testosterone levels and 28 percent had

tests that measured an equal number of low and normal levels. While

only 20 percent of the men with normal testosterone died during

follow-up, deaths occurred among 24.6 of those with equivocal levels

and 35 percent of those with low levels. After adjustment for age,

illness and other factors, men whose testosterone levels were

classified as low experienced an 88 percent adjusted increased risk of

dying over the course of the follow-up compared to those with normal

levels. To reduce the effect of acute illness on the finding, the

researchers reanalyzed the data excluding men who died within the

first year of follow-up, yet they still found an increase of 68

percent in the risk of dying among men with low testosterone.

" The persistence of elevated mortality risk after excluding early

deaths suggests that the association between low testosterone and

mortality is not simply due to acute illness, " the authors conclude.

" Large prospective studies are needed to clarify the association

between low testosterone levels and mortality. "