Testosterone doses helps men ward off heart disease, prolong life: study by

Bhasin, who lead BWH’s research programme in Men’s Health: Aging and Metabolism, and his team recruited 300 males aged above 60 with low testosterone levels ranging between 100 and 400 ng/dL.

The use of testosterone supplementation in older men with low testosterone levels did not link to progression of atherosclerosis, nor improvements in overall sexual function or health-related quality of life.

The findings were somewhat surprising as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered that testosterone replacement therapies carry warning labels saying that they increase the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke.

The study, which continued for the period of 15 years, assimilated and observed the medical data of more than 83,000 male veterans who were receiving the therapy and were segregated into three different groups. One group was given the testosterone treatment via gel that they applied to their skin.

The average follow-up across the groups ranged from 4.6 to 6.2 years. The first of these was men who the treatment restored to normal testosterone levels, those who underwent treatment but did not manage to return to such levels, and men who had no treatment at all.

Rajat Barua, an assistant professor of medicine from the University of Kansas and corresponding author of the study said that this is the first study that demonstrates that significant benefits are seen only in the dose is appropriate enough to normalize the levels of testosterone in the body.

To measure secondary outcomes of sexual function and health-related quality of life, the research team had participants also completed a 15-item questionnaire.

The new VA study is likely to draw attention because of its large size and relatively long follow-up period.

“But our study finds that taking testosterone, when levels are in the low to low normal range, may not improve sexual function or quality of life”, he claimed in a paper which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The study was clear that the benefits were only present when testosterone levels were returned to normal after being too low.

Low testosterone is found in past studies to increase risk of diabetes, obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The second group was given identically looking bags of gel, but which were in fact placebos. Researchers also found out that these group have fewer cases of heart attack and stroke and even less deaths by any causes. It could have to do with body fat, insulin sensitivity, lipids, blood platelets and inflammation, they said.

Researchers wrote in the study that future studies will need to clarify the effects of testosterone on the cardiovascular system.