There has recently been more buzz around low male sex hormones/”low-T” and heart attack/stroke risk. Not usually mentioned is the fact that “T” (testosterone) is a social hormone (most hormones are). Low social status lowers “T”. Injecting/supplementing T without proper attention to the psychology of the situation may make things worse.
Here are some more abstracts on the subject:
Low testosterone level as a predictor of cardiovascular events in Japanese men with coronary risk factors.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Recent epidemiological studies have found that testosterone deficiency is associated with higher mortality largely due to cardiovascular (CV) disease in community-dwelling older men. We investigated whether a low plasma testosterone level could predict cardiovascular events in middle-aged Japanese men with coronary risk factors.
METHODS:
One hundred and seventy-one male outpatients (30-69 years old, mean+/-SD=48+/-13 years) who had any coronary risk factor (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, and obesity) without a previous history of CV disease were followed up. At baseline, the subjects underwent examination of coronary riskfactors, measurement of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery as an indicator of vascular endothelial function and assays of plasma total testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), estradiol and cortisol.
RESULTS:
During the mean follow-up period of 77 months, a total of 20 CV events occurred. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis by tertile of plasma hormone levels revealed that the subjects with the lowest testosterone tertile were more likely to develop CV events than those with the highest tertile (P<0.01 by log-rank test). Cox proportional hazards models showed that the subjects with the lowest tertile of plasma testosterone (<14.2 nmol/L) had an approximately 4-fold higher CV event risk compared to those with the higher testosterone tertiles after adjustment for coronary risk factors including medication and FMD (unadjusted hazard ratio, 3.61; 95% CI, 1.47-8.86: multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio, 4.61; 95% CI, 1.02-21.04). Multivariate analysis did not show any significant association of DHEA-S, estradiol or cortisol with CV events.
CONCLUSIONS:
A low plasma testosterone level is associated with CV events in middle-aged Japanese men, independent of coronary risk factors and endothelial function. This is the first report to show the relationship between endogenous testosterone and CV events in Asian population.
Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Low dehydroepiandrosterone and ischemic heart disease in middle-aged men: prospective results from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study.
Abstract
The adrenal steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfate (DHEAS) have been characterized as “protective” against ischemic heart disease (IHD), especially in men, on the basis of sparse epidemiologic evidence. The authors used data from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a random sample prospective study of 1,709 men aged 40-70 years at baseline, to test whether serum levels of DHEA or DHEAS couldpredict incident IHD over a 9-year interval. At baseline (1987-1989) and follow-up (1995-1997), an interviewer-phlebotomist visited each subject in his home to obtain comprehensive health information, body measurements, and blood samples for hormone and lipid analysis. Incident IHD between baseline and follow-up was ascertained from hospital records and death registries, supplemented by self-report and evidence of medication. In the analysis sample of 1,167 men, those with serum DHEAS in the lowest quartile at baseline (<1.6 microg/ml) were significantly more likely to incur IHD by follow-up (adjusted odds ratio = 1.60, 95 percent confidence interval: 1.07, 2.39; p = 0.02), independently of a comprehensive set of known risk factors including age, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, serum lipids, alcohol intake, and physical activity. Low serum DHEA was similarly predictive. These results confirm prior evidence that low DHEA and DHEAS can predict IHD in men.
Lower endogenous androgens predict central adiposity in men.
Abstract
Central adiposity, sometimes described as male pattern fat distribution, is adversely related to cardiovascularrisk and mortality independent of other measures of obesity. In a cohort of 511 men aged 30 to 79 years in 1972 to 1974, levels of androstenedione, testosterone, and sex hormone-binding globulin measured at baseline were inversely related to subsequent central adiposity, estimated 12 years later using the waist-hip circumference ratio. The observed differences in waist-hip ratio between top and bottom tertiles of these hormones and sex hormone-binding globulin were similar to mean waist-hip ratio differences between men with stroke or ischemic heart disease and those without in another prospective study. These findings, consistent with studies suggesting that testosterone seems to mobilize the abdominal depot on males, suggest that “male pattern” fat distribution may be a misleading description for central adiposity, at least, in men. Degree of maleness as indicated by total androgen levels is, in fact, negatively associated with central adiposity. However, the role of sex hormone-binding globulin in regulating androgenic activity warrants further investigation.
- PMID:
1342319
[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
