Low Testosterone May Mean Earlier Death
But some question whether hormone is a cause or an indicator
 (HealthDay News) -- Too much testosterone frequently gets the blame for men's dangerous behavior, from bar fights to aggressive driving. But too little of the male hormone apparently can cause trouble as well.
Researchers have found that men 50 and older who do not have high enough levels of testosterone are more likely to die within 20 years than are men with higher levels of the hormone.
And they say there's no evidence that boosting testosterone with supplements would help.
According to the Hormone Foundation, testosterone is an important hormone for men, responsible for the typical male characteristics and helping to maintain sex drive, sperm production, pubic and body hair, muscle and bone. The brain controls the production of testosterone by the testes.
The research study, which examined the relationship between serum testosterone levels and mortality, involved almost 800 men, 50 to 91 years old at the start of the study. They were followed for 18 years.
Men with low testosterone had a 33 percent higher risk of dying from any cause than were men with normal or elevated testosterone levels, the study found. The relationship stood up regardless of age, physical activity or lifestyle -- including smoking and drinking.
But the link grew weaker when it was adjusted for metabolic syndrome and inflammatory biomarkers, said study author Gail Laughlin, an assistant professor of family and preventative medicine at the University of California , San Diego .
Metabolic syndrome is a condition defined by a group of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure, high blood glucose and, for men, a waist diameter greater than 40 inches.
The study concluded that the relationship between low testosterone levels and mortality "is explained in part by the metabolic syndrome and is dependent on the association of low testosterone levels with elevated markers of inflammation."
Dr. Anne Cappola, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said it's possible that testosterone was not the culprit in the study but rather an indicator of another inflammatory condition.
"It is hard to know the chicken and the egg," Cappola told HealthDay . "Does low testosterone cause inflammation, or is inflammation leading to low testosterone? In this study, you can't necessarily tear that apart."
Laughlin stressed that, as an epidemiological observation, the study did not determine whether low testosterone levels actually cause increased risk of death or are simply a marker of some other disease process.
No man, then, should take the results to mean he should take testosterone supplements to reduce the risk of death, experts advised.
On the Web
To learn more about low testosterone, visit the Hormone Foundation.
SOURCES:
HealthDay News ; Gail Laughlin, Ph.D., assistant professor of family and preventive medicine, University of California, San Diego; Anne R. Cappola, M.D., Sc.M., assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia; Hormone Foundation (www.hormone.org)
Author:
Anne Thompson
Publication Date:
June 30, 2008
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