How Low is Your Testosterone - and Does it Matter?
Introduction
Low testosterone levels have been associated with a variety of symptoms, such as decreased energy, reduced muscle strength, and a low libido. It's reported to affect 4 to 5 million American males. The Alliance for Aging Research, which is a not-for-profit advocacy organization, recently commissioned a survey of men over 39 aimed at determining how much they knew about testosterone levels in the body, and the effects of low levels, or low T, as it's sometimes called1
What was done
Harris Interactive carried out the survey on men over 39 years of age; it was conducted online within the United States between January 17 and January 24, 2006, with a final nation-wide sample of 522 men. Figures for age, sex, race, education and income were weighted, where necessary, to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' tendency to be online. The size of the survey was such that one might expect with 95% certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of +4.3 percentage points.
What was found
1. One third of the men reported experiencing two or more symptoms of low T out of the following: decreased energy, low libido, reduced muscle strength, increased body fat, weaker bones, and mood swings. [ read full article ]
Testosterone for Alzheimer's?
Introduction
In 2004 there was a report that men with low testosterone levels are at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (see the first link below). A natural question is whether testosterone supplements could be given to such men in with the aim of preventing Alzheimer's. (This would be analogous to the attempts to prevent or delay progress of the disease in women using an estrogen/progestagen preparation or estrogen alone.) Before these preventative trials have been reported, a publication of the effect of using the hormone in treating men with mild dementia has appeared in the journal Archives of Neurology .Earlier pilot trials have provided some tantalizing results. Here's a summary of the findings in this latest study.
What was done
This was a 24-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study1. Men with Alzheimer's disease were recruited from University of California clinics, and healthy men to act as controls were found through newspaper advertisements. There were 16 patients and 22 healthy controls; after randomization, 9 patients and 14 healthy controls received testosterone, while 9 patients and15 controls received the placebo.
The medications used were an alcoholic gel preparation containing 75 mg testosterone and a gel containing no active ingredients, applied to the skin at three different sites once a day. [ read full article ]
Eat Right to Fight BPH
Introduction
Benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), which is sometimes called prostatism, is an extremely common condition in older men. It causes increased frequency of urination, dribbling, incomplete emptying of the bladder, and a weak stream of urine. Having to get up at night is a common burden. There are plenty of treatments - both medical and surgical - but it would be ideal if the condition could be prevented in the first place. A report from Italy, published in the journal Urology, offers some hope in this direction. Here's a summary.
What was done
The study was done in 4 Italian provinces. Over 1350 men who were under 75 and admitted to hospital for surgery for BPH were compared with a similar group of men admitted for acute, non-cancerous conditions. A food-frequency questionnaire was given to all men in both groups. They were asked about their consumption of 78 different foods and beverages (with a separate section on alcoholic drinks) over the 2 years leading up to their diagnosis or hospital admission.
The odds ratio was calculated for different food groups, using a classification of the subjects into five classes, called quintiles, for each food group examined. An odds ratio(OR) is calculated by dividing the odds in the treated or exposed group by the odds in the control group. In this case, it's the number of events (BPH) divided by the number of non-events (no BPH) for each group - the odds - expressed as a ratio between the odds for subjects in a high vs. a low intake quintile for each particular food group. Odds ratios were also calculated for lifestyle factors - physical activity, smoking, and alcohol intake. [ read full article ]