Re: [BULK] Re: Fwd: [BULK] Mainstream Doctors’ Ineptitude Put on Display

[Guest guest]

I would suggest getting estradiol tested ot see if he needs it.

http://www.nthadrenalsweb.org/

http://www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalThyroidHormonesADRENALS/

http://www.faqhelp.webs.com/

http://www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/RT3_T3/

http://www.thyroid-rt3.com/

would you suggest an aromatase inhibitor since i am just

about to get my husband on some testosterone?

Subject: Fwd: [bULK] Mainstream Doctors’ Ineptitude Put on

Display

To: RT3_T3 , "NTHA-Chat"

<NTHA-Chat >

Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 6:45 AM

 

For all those guys (and women wiht guys) needing

Testosterone, this is an excellent article showing how twisted medical

studies have become. And why our OWN research is so very important.

http://www.nthadren alsweb.org/

http://www.health. groups.yahoo. com/group/ NaturalThyroidHo rmonesADRENALS/

http://www.faqhelp. webs.com/

http://www.health. groups.yahoo. com/group/ RT3_T3/

http://www.thyroid- rt3.com/

---

[bULK] Mainstream Doctors’ Ineptitude Put on Display

Date:

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:12:12 -0400

From:

Life Extension <lifeextension@

lefbc.com>

Reply-To:

customerservice@

lef.org

To:

artisticgroomer@ jfwebs.com

Mainstream Doctors’ Ineptitude Put on Display

in The New England Journal of Medicine

A study published in the June 30,

2010 edition of The New England Journal of

Medicine confirms how little conventional doctors know

about prescribing testosterone to aging men.

The Life Extension Foundation®

(and its medical advisors) long ago recognized that maturing men have a

propensity to convert (aromatize) testosterone into estrogen.

When you see an overweight man growing breasts, it is not directly

because he eats too much. This phenomenon is instead caused by the

testosterone he converts to breast-enlarging estrogen.

When men are prescribed testosterone gels or

creams, they sometimes have to take an aromatase-inhibitin g drug (like

Arimidex®) to prevent their estrogen (measured as estradiol in the

blood) from climbing to dangerous levels.

Optimal estradiol blood levels

in men are between 20-30 pg/mL. Elderly males can

have much higher estradiol levels that place them at

substantial risk for developing coronary atherosclerosis

and thrombotic stroke.

If elderly men are prescribed large

doses of topical testosterone gel or cream, their estradiol

blood levels have to be tested and properly controlled. Failure

to manage estradiol in men receiving high-dose testosterone gel or

cream can result in a catastrophic estrogen surge

that increases vascular disease risk and premature death.

Enormous tax dollars squandered on

flawed testosterone study

The Federal government provided a financial

grant to an armada of doctors to evaluate the effects of high-dose

testosterone on men that were so severely debilitated that they

struggled to climb more than 10 stairs or walk the equivalent of two

city blocks.

These men suffered numerous risk factors

such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and elevated blood lipids that

placed them at higher risk for cardiovascular events. Obese men tend to

produce loads of estrogen in their abdominal fat — and typically have

higher estradiol levels than thinner men.

The men with the worst vascular risk

factors (such as highest triglyceride levels) were placed on a dose of

topical testosterone that is TWICE the standard starting dose. These

debilitated men were given testosterone in a way that is more likely to

aromatize through the skin into estrogen.

Men with fewer vascular risk factors were

given a placebo gel.

It should be no surprise to learn that this

study was halted prematurely because the debilitated men given the

high-dose testosterone (with no aromatase inhibitor) suffered more

“atherosclerosis- related events†such as heart attack, stroke, and

sudden death.

The official title of this study is “Adverse

Events with Testosterone Administration.†A more accurate title may

have been: "Elevated Estrogen

Leads to Cardiovascular Events in Older Men."

Click here to read Life Extension®’s recent

review about the dangers of estrogen imbalance in aging men, click here

Life Extension writes a letter to

these doctors

The day this study was published, Life

Extension wrote the doctors who conducted the study

asking if there was any data regarding baseline and post-baseline blood

estradiol levels. We have waited

over four weeks, and the authors of The New England

Journal of Medicine study have not responded to

our repeated requests as to whether estradiol levels

were ever measured.

From what was written in the paper, it does not

appear that any attention was paid to the estrogen levels in these

debilitated men. The authors wrote in the discussion section of the

paper, “Testosterone and associated increases in estradiol

may promote inflammation, coagulation and platelet aggregation.â€

Yet these doctors don’t appear to have done anything to evaluate estradiol

levels in the unfortunate study subjects given double-dose

testosterone with no aromatase inhibitor to suppress

the expected estrogen surge.

This study had numerous other flaws

Leaving aside the failure to manage estradiol

levels in men given high-dose testosterone gel, there were numerous

design flaws that call into question any conclusion that can be drawn

from this study.

As mentioned earlier, the testosterone group

at baseline was at greater risk for cardiovascular events as manifested

by a greater proportion of men in the testosterone group with

dyslipidemia who were undergoing statin and antihypertensive drug

treatment.

In addition, triglyceride levels (higher)

and HDL levels (lower) were trending against the testosterone group.

Clearly, the baseline cardiovascular risk for the testosterone

group was higher than the placebo group. The authors claim that a

sensitivity analysis, as well as controlling for cardiovascular risk

factors, did not change the results, but the small sample size and

relatively short trial duration serve to magnify, not minimize,

differences due to chance.

The study was not designed to systematically

assess for cardiovascular events, and given the small sample size, lack

of consistent pattern of events, diversity of serious events, and small

number of serious adverse cardiac events (10 vs. 1) in the two

treatment groups before study stoppage in this short duration trial

strongly suggest that the results are due to chance. Another

explanation of course is that the adverse vascular events were caused

by the uncontrolled conversion of the topically-applied testosterone to

estradiol in men who were already likely to have dangerously high

estradiol blood levels to begin with.

Fodder for the media

The published scientific data documents low

testosterone as being an independent risk factor for heart attack and a

host of other age-related ailments.

The authors of this study acknowledge the

benefits the testosterone group obtained from the drug and openly

admitted the limitations of this study in providing guidance about the

effects of testosterone on different population groups.

The media, however, has a propensity to

publicize one negative study while ignoring hundreds of positive ones.

We will not be surprised to see this horrifically flawed study used for

decades to discredit the safety and efficacy of properly prescribed

testosterone cream and aromatase-inhibitio n therapy.

Importance of blood testing in men

supplementing with testosterone

In response to overwhelmingly favorable

studies, record numbers of aging men are rubbing testosterone creams or

gels on to their skin each day to restore this vital hormone to

youthful levels.

Within 45-60 days of initiating testosterone

replacement therapy, the following blood tests should be done to ensure

safety and efficacy:

PSA (prostate specific

antigen) – To rule out prostate cancer

Estradiol – To make sure

testosterone is not converting to estrogen

Free & Total Testosterone

– To make sure enough testosterone is being absorbed

CBC/Chemistry – To make

sure liver enzymes are normal and red blood production has not

increased too much

These tests can be done at your doctor’s

office, or you can order them all directly from Life Extension by

calling 1- (24 hours a day) and asking

for the Male Testosterone Panel (item LC100001). These

tests can retail for over $500.00 at commercial labs, but Life

Extension members pay only $125.00. Order your blood tests now!

To review Life Extension articles

describing benefits of testosterone replacement in aging men, click

here: Optimizing Testosterone Levels in Aging

Men, Vindication.

Summary of 5

recent peer-reviewed studies noting adverse cardiovascular effects

associated with elevated estrogen in aging men:

1) After adjustment for age, hypertension,

diabetes, adiposity, cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, and other

characteristics were made in a group of 2,197 men aged 71 to 93 years

of age, men with the highest blood levels of estradiol had a 2.2-fold

greater risk of stroke compared with those whose estradiol levels were

lower. {Reference: Abbott RD, Launer LJ, BL, et al.

Serum estradiol and risk of stroke in elderly men. Neurology.

2007 Feb 20;68(8):563- 8.}

2) In a study of 313 men whose average age

was 58, carotid artery intima-media thickness was measured at baseline

and then three years later. After adjusting for other confounding risk

factors, higher levels of estradiol were associated with thickening of

the carotid artery wall. Researchers concluded, “Circulating estradiol

is a predictor of progression of carotid artery intima-media thickness

in middle-aged men.†{Reference: Tivesten A, Hulthe J,

Wallenfeldt K, et al. Circulating estradiol is an independent predictor

of progression of carotid artery intima-media thickness in middle-aged

men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Nov;91(11):4433- 7.}

3) In an angiographic trial of coronary

atherosclerosis in a group of men with stable coronary artery disease,

significant positive correlations between estradiol levels and other

known atherosclerotic risk factors was observed. Researchers concluded,

"Our results indicate a possible role of estradiol in promoting the

development of atherogenic lipid milieu in men with coronary artery

disease.†{Reference: Wranicz JK, Cygankiewicz I, Rosiak M, et

al. The relationship between sex hormones and lipid profile in men with

coronary artery disease. Int J Cardiol. 2005 May

11;101(1):105- 10.}

4) In another angiographic trial of coronary

atherosclerosis in men aged 40-60 years, compared with healthy

age-matched controls, men with coronary atherosclerosis had higher

levels of estrone and a low level of testosterone in the presence of a

high level of estradiol. Researchers concluded, "Low levels of total

testosterone, testosterone/ estradiol ratio and free androgen index and

higher levels of estrone in men with coronary artery disease appear

together with many features of metabolic syndrome and may be involved

in the pathogenesis of coronary atherosclerosis.†{Reference:

Dunajska K, Milewicz A, Szymczak J, et al. Evaluation of sex hormone

levels and some metabolic factors in men with coronary atherosclerosis.

Aging Male. 2004 Sep;7(3):197- 204.}

5) In a study of men having suffered an

acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), a prior heart attack, and

patients with normal coronary arteries, the results showed

significantly higher levels of estradiol in both groups of heart attack

patients compared with those without coronary disease. {Reference:

Mohamad MJ, Mohammad MA, Karayyem M, Hairi A, Hader AA. Serum levels of

sex hormones in men with acute myocardial infarction. Neuro

Endocrinol Lett. 2007 Apr;28(2):182- 6.}

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