HealthBeat News

Category: Hormones

  • Testosterone For Men – It’s Really Safe After All!

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Poor testosterone – it has been so misunderstood, maligned, and feared for so many years now that any attempt by a doctor to use testosterone therapy is met with regulation and resistance from the powers-that-be and most doctors just won’t bother. Who needs the hassle? It is easier and less trouble for a doctor to prescribe narcotic drugs like Oxycontin or even morphine than it is to prescribe testosterone…

    And that’s a shame, since so many men can benefit from a little help to maintain normal, youthful testosterone levels…

    You see, most men are well-supplied with testosterone in their youth, beginning at puberty. Testosterone is what turns a pre-pubescent boy with high voice and puppy-fat into a muscular, broad-shouldered, deeper-voiced, virile young man. Most men continue to enjoy good levels of testosterone into their 30’s – but then something changes: for most men there is a slow and steady decline in testosterone levels from then on.

    This “slowing down” of testosterone production leads to a number of problems. Some guys may simply attribute these symptoms and problems as being “part of getting older” but it need not be that way.

    Falling testosterone levels can result in:

    • decreased libido
    • erectile dysfunction
    • depression
    • Increased fatigue
    • low energy
    • decrease in muscle mass
    • increase in abdominal fat
    • decrease in bone density
    • sleep problems
    • mood and motivation problems
    • and more, much more

    Despite all this, testosterone therapy has been shunned by conventional medicine since the 1940’s when it was wrongly accused of “activating” prostate cancer based on the experience of one single patient at that time. This enduring myth has been terrifying doctors and legislators ever since.

    More recently, fears were ginned up about cardiovascular risks with testosterone use. A flawed study by the VA claimed that testosterone therapy caused an increased risk of death from all causes, including heart attacks and strokes. I wrote about this and debunked the study and it’s conclusions back in 2013 in this article: Does Testosterone Therapy Increase Heart Attack And Stroke Risk?

    But things are looking up for testosterone. The 2013 VA study was soon acknowledged by many conventional medical sources to be deeply flawed in many ways. Sadly, while the initial reports of danger made big headlines the corrections to the study, though published in JAMA, did not receive much attention at all.

    Then, in 2015 a study was published that acknowledged that testosterone therapy used to normalize testosterone levels in otherwise generally healthy men does not increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. While the conclusions of the study fell short of acknowledging the many benefits of testosterone therapy it at least began the process of allowing doctors to feel a little more comfortable about considering testosterone therapy.

    Now, on April 3rd of this year, the results of a study were presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 65th Annual Scientific Session in Chicago which shows that testosterone therapy helps men with low testosterone levels who already have coronary artery disease to reduce their risks of strokes, heart attacks, and death.

    Here is a summary of the study and the results;

    The research team studied 755 male patients between the ages of 58 and 78, divided into 3 groups, over a number of years. The men all had severe coronary artery disease.

    Their conclusions:

    • After one year, 64 of the men who were not taking testosterone supplements suffered major cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke), while only 12 who were taking medium doses of testosterone and only nine who were taking high doses did.
    • After three years, 125 of the men not taking testosterone suffered major adverse cardiovascular events, while only 38 medium-dose and 22 high-dose men did.

    In short: The men NOT receiving testosterone therapy were 80 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

    WOW! Just Wow!

    This could prove to be a game-changer! We can only hope now that the FDA will begin to take notice and remove some of the roadblocks to prescribing testosterone therapy that have made doctors so reluctant, even skittish about it up to now.

    Until then, for those who might want to get a jump on it Dr. Myatt has been balancing male hormones (as well as female hormones) and prescribing testosterone for many years.

    Men, if you want to avoid or correct symptoms of low testosterone that can include include night sweats, low libido (sex drive), weight gain, depression, anxiety, hot flashes, gynecomastia (enlarged male breasts aka “man-boobs” or “moobs”), fatigue, irritability, weight gain, erectile dysfunction, loss of stamina and lean muscle mass, cognitive decline and decreased bone mineral density check out Dr. Myatt’s BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Programs and book a Brief Telephone Consultation today.

     

    References and Additional Reading:

    Morgentaler A, Controversies and Advances With Testosterone Therapy: A 40-Year Perspective. Urology. 2016 Mar;89:27-32. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2015.11.034. Epub 2015 Dec 9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26683750

    Abraham Morgentaler, MD. Defending Testosterone, Debunking the Myths. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/845705_5

    Morgentaler A, Testosterone and prostate cancer: an historical perspective on a modern myth. Eur Urol. 2006 Nov;50(5):935-9. Epub 2006 Jul 27. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16875775

    Intermountain Medical Center, November 9, 2015, Use of testosterone replacement therapy in healthy men does not increase risk of heart attack or stroke, new study finds. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151109160558.htm

    Intermountain Medical Center, April 3, 2016, Testosterone supplementation reduces heart attack risk in men with heart disease. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160403195920.htm

  • Seven Not-Surprising Health Updates From 2015

    As many of you know, Nurse Mark and I read the medical news every single day. There isn’t much in the way of a “breakthrough” that we’d ever miss. We even
    know about the “pseudo-breakthroughs” — those lab rat studies that are over-hyped in importance. Because of this, some of these hot-off-the-press findings you have already read about in previous HealthBeat articles. However, now that the research is being solidly reported in the conventional medical journals, some of it bears repeating.

    Here are the most recent “now it’s true because conventional medicine finally recognizes it” topics that you should be aware of. Don’t be surprised if many of these items fall into the “we told you so” category. That just means we’re doing our best to keep you on the leading edge of medical news!

    We Told You So About…

    1.)    Statin drug dangers. First, these drugs were so important that just about everyone – including children – should be taking them. Next they reported a “small increase” in diabetes with use. Oh, and that annoying problem of myalgia (muscle pain) and myopathy (rhabdomyelosis), and “brain fog” and other cognitive impairments. But not to worry, that doesn’t happen very often, so they say.

    The latest news is that the risk of diabetes increases by about 50%. Since diabetes is a serious risk factor for heart disease (the reason people take statins) AND since diabetes also increases the risk of cancer,Alzheimer’s, eye disease, atherosclerosis (narrowing and hardening of the arteries), kidney disease, and more, this is a big finding. “But don’t stop taking the drug until more is known” is the cry of Big Pharma.

    2.)    Acid-Blocking drug Dangers. We’ve talked a lot about this before in HealthBeat articles. Now add another risk of long-term use to the list of dangerous side effects: kidney disease. Sometimes severe enough to ruin the kidneys and require permanent appointments at the dialysis clinic and a spot on the transplant list. Ouch!

    These drugs, called PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors) were designed to be used short-term to treat ulcers. They work well for that. But “short term” means 6 weeks. If you have ongoing digestive distress and GERD, you need MORE stomach acid, not less. We’ve written about that, too.

    So, if you have been using acid blockers for anything other than ulcers, especially if you use them ongoing, I recommend that you stop before you have long-term consequences and take the time to figure out the real cause and correction for your GERD, heartburn and other digestive problems. If your stomach or esophagus hurt when you eat, consider that biofeedback from your body that something needs to be fixed, not masked.

    3.)    Sugar increases risk of breast cancer metastasis. I’ve mentioned this a gazillion times. In fact, ALL carbohydrates increase growth of ALL types of cancer. Conventional medicine just caught on.

    Meanwhile, watch for my upcoming book “The Ketone Diet for Cancer.”

    4.)    Testosterone therapy for men really is safe after all. We’ve heard for years all about the supposed dangers of testosterone therapy – mostly from politicians who have no medical training but plenty of skill in leaping to conclusions based on faulty research and fears of “anabolic steroid” use by sports figures and teenage body builders.

    As a result, testosterone, a natural substance present in everyone has been treated like some scary, evil drug by the FDA and prescribing it is a nightmare for physicians. That could change, as the bogus charges against testosterone therapy are refuted by study after study.

    It turns out that not only does Testosterone use NOT increase the risk of prostate cancer, and does NOT increase the risk of heart attacks as we have been told over and over in the past, Testosterone use actually reduces the risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke, and all-cause mortality, according to a large new retrospective study of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients.

    Sounds like more good reasons for men to consider hormone testing and replacement if needed. BHRT (BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy) is not just for women! I’ve been prescribing testosterone for some 30 years now, despite all the FDA / DEA hassles – it’s that important to men’s health.

    And Here’s one that we have been following – look for a HealthBeat News article on this very soon:

    •    Cell phone use increases brain cancer risk. First we were told that it didn’t. Then we were told “maybe” but the evidence is weak. Now in the medical news the evidence is no longer weak. There is a 3-fold increase in brain cancer (aggressive gliomas) that correlates with cell phone and mobile phone use when the device is held next to the head.

    Personally, I try to minimize cell phone use and have increased “old school” (corded phone) use and speaker phone use whenever I can. There is some thought (and many marketing claims) that the bluetooth earpieces for cellphones may be safe due to their very low power output – we are examining the research.

    And now for good news breakthroughs:

    •    Coffee is healthy. For years we’ve been told it wasn’t. Now, coffee up to 5 cups per day is not only safe but is actually the biggest source of antioxidants in the US diet. The study found that people who drank three to five cups of coffee per day had about a 15 percent lower risk of premature death compared to people who didn’t drink coffee. Do-dah!

    •    Eggs, (and other fats) are good for you! Every 5 years the government gives us their latest dietary advice – and, lo and behold, this year the old warnings about cholesterol (including eggs), fats, and meats being evil have been softened considerably. Not only that, they are no longer making such dire warnings about processed meats like bacon and hot dogs.

    Read all about it on the government website: http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/

    Woo-Hoo! Bacon and eggs for breakfast – with coffee!

     

    References:

    Statins:

    Reference: Henna Cederberg, Alena Stančáková, Nagendra Yaluri, Shalem Modi, Johanna Kuusisto, Markku Laakso.
    Increased risk of diabetes with statin treatment is associated with impaired insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion: a 6 year follow-up study of the METSIM cohort. Diabetologia. May 2015, Volume 58, Issue 5, pp 1109-1117

    Acid Blockers:

    Lazarus B, Chen Y, Wilson FP, et al. Proton Pump Inhibitor Use and the Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease. JAMA Intern Med. Published online January 11, 2016.

    Sugar / cancer connection:

    Jiang Y, Pan Y, Rhea PR, Tan L, Gagea M, Cohen L, Fischer SM, Yang P. A Sucrose-Enriched Diet Promotes Tumorigenesis in Mammary Gland in Part through the 12-Lipoxygenase Pathway. Cancer Res. 2016 Jan 1;76(1):24-9.

    Testosterone:

    Rishi Sharma et al., Normalization of testosterone level is associated with reduced incidence of myocardial infarction and mortality in men. European Heart Journal, 6 August 2015. http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/07/27/eurheartj.ehv346

    Jacques Baillargeon et al., Long-term Exposure to Testosterone Therapy and the Risk of High Grade Prostate Cancer. The Journal of urology, December 2015Volume 194, Issue 6, Pages 1612–1616. http://www.jurology.com/article/S0022-5347(15)04148-8/abstract

    Cell Phones:

    Hardell, Lennart et al. Mobile phone and cordless phone use and the risk for glioma – Analysis of pooled case-control studies in Sweden, 1997–2003 and 2007–2009.
    Pathophysiology , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , 1 – 13

    Coffee:

    Ming Ding, Ambika Satija, Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju,  Yang Hu, et al. Association of Coffee Consumption With Total and Cause-Specific Mortality in 3 Large Prospective Cohorts.  Circulation. 2015;132:2305-2315.

  • Dr. Myatt Talks About Hormones

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Hormones: Essential, important, complicated, confusing. Everybody’s got them, but not necessarily in the right amounts – our hormone levels are a very delicate balance. They tend to decline and become unbalanced as we age, though it doesn’t have to be so.

    It seems everyone wants to know more about hormones: how to keep them healthy, how to correct imbalances, how to replace hormones lost to age.

    We were at an event a few weeks ago and as always the subject of conversation turned to health, and because Dr. Myatt was chatting with several women, the subject quickly turned to hormones and health. (as I was sitting there I noticed a lot of men listening in on the conversation too!)

    Keeping a promise to send further information to one gal who was especially interested, Dr. Myatt sent the following email. See if it doesn’t help you understand hormones a little better too:

    Thoughts on Hormones
    You were interested in "hormones," but this is a broad term (all puns intended) and if I know specifically what your questions are, I can do a better  job of answering them. But I’ll make a guess just in case.

    Many people feel that maintaining hormone balance AND a bit higher levels of hormones as we age may have a longevity and health benefit. There is substantial research to validate this opinion and I for one use and recommend supplemental hormones. So did conventional medicine for several decades until the The Women’s Health Study showed higher rates of breast cancer among hormone users. So many women stopped taking them.

    Ah, but here’s "the rest of the story." (Since many of us know that Lame-stream media doesn’t do a good job of anything akin to actual journalism any more).

    Estradiol, the most potent female estrogen AND the one prescribed in conventional medicine is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. However, when used alone, it is associated with an increase of uterine cancer. This is called "unopposed estrogen" and it is not how the female body produces hormones so it is little surprise that this use of a single hormone causes problems.

    So in the Women’s Health Initiative Study, a progestin (synthetic progesterone) was added to estrogen. The combination cause a significant increase (24%) in breast cancer and more aggressive forms of breast cancer. This was reported as "estrogen causes breast cancer," a far cry from what the data showed. What actually raised breast cancer rates was the addition of a non-bioidentical progestin, a molecule that does not duplicate the progesterone a woman’s body naturally makes.

    On the "natural side," no large studies like the Women’s Health Initiative have been done to confirm the safety and effectiveness of bio-identical hormone replacement although there is data to suggest that it is a whole different ball game. But if you’ve read Suzanne Sommer’s book or similar, the benefits might be over-stated.

    DHEA, a sex-hormone precursor made by the adrenal glands, has quite a bit of study which shows that declining levels with age are associated with declining memory, strength, immune response and more. Progesterone is usually the first female hormone to decline at menopause and those lower levels are associated with diminished bone strength,  insomnia, hair loss, mood swings. The natural "bio-identical" form of progesterone has never been shown to cause problems like synthetic progestins cause. And sometimes estradiol or the weaker estrogen, estriol, can help with hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.

    I always perform a hormone test before initiating hormone treatment. Why would anyone want to shoot in the dark if they can turn on the light?

    Now that I’ve expounded on hormones, what specifically are you wanting to know about? This is a favorite interest of mine because
    I believe good hormone balance is important to overall health. Do you have any specific symptoms and you are wondering if hormones
    might safely help?

    Wow – there you have it: woman to woman advice and information about female hormone replacement.

    Fellas, did you know that Dr. Myatt is also expert in sorting out male hormones too? There is just as much mis-information and fear-mongering surrounding male hormone replacement as there is surrounding women’s hormone replacement.

    Why trust your hormone health to a conventional doctor handing out conventional cookie-cutter prescriptions for one-size-fits-all synthetic drugs when there are experts like Dr. Myatt available to help you find your perfect hormone balance and subsequent best health?

    Dr. Myatt is available very inexpensively for Brief Telephone Consultations and can design a Bio-Identical Hormone Program specifically for you.

    Learn More about Dr. Myatt’s Brief Consultation process here: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/BriefConsults.htm

    And learn more about bio-identical hormone replacement and Dr. Myatt’s Bio-Identical Hormone Programs here: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/BioIdentical_Hormone_Program.htm

  • Vitamin D – For Successful Dieting?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Vitamin D, once thought to have little more importance than for the prevention of rickets, is proving to be more valuable and even vital to our overall health and well-being with each passing day.

    We have long maintained here at The Wellness Club that Vitamin D is far more than just a “vitamin” – it is actually a mis-named hormone with a wide-ranging variety of effects in our bodies.

    Now it turns out that low Vitamin D levels are strongly associated with overweight and obesity, and that improving Vitamin D deficiency improves dieting success.

    Dr. Shalamar Sibley, a researcher in the University of Minnesota Medical School conducted a clinical study that looked at the relationship between Vitamin D levels and obesity and the success of weight loss efforts and said:

    “What is suggested here is that if you start out with an inadequate vitamin D level, it’s possible that this might inhibit or impede your ability to lose weight on a reduced caloric diet,”

     

    The researchers found that pre-dieting Vitamin D levels predicted weight loss success and that for every increase of 1 ng/mL in level of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (the precursor form of Vitamin D) dieters lost almost a half pound more over the course of their diet. Further, for each 1-ng/mL increase in the active or “hormonal” form of Vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol), dieters shed nearly a quarter pound more.

    The researchers also found that higher baseline vitamin D levels gave greater losses of abdominal fat.

    “Our results suggest the possibility that the addition of vitamin D to a reduced-calorie diet will lead to better weight loss,” Dr. Sibley said.

     

    So, what’s our take-home message from this?

    Vitamin D deficiency is common in the US population. Overall, 41.6 % of Americans are Vitamin D deficient, and that number skyrockets to 82.1% of African Americans and 69.2% of Hispanics.

    Obesity has become an epidemic in America – more than one in every 3 Americans are obese, and again Blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately affected.

    Vitamin D testing is available and is relatively inexpensive for the valuable information that it provides. Please learn more about a simple at-home Vitamin D test here.

    Vitamin D supplementation is cheap – mere pennies per day – and can be started while awaiting the results of your Vitamin D levels test. Learn more about inexpensive and effective optimal-dose Vitamin D supplements here.

    Can we promise you that taking Vitamin D will help you lose weight?

    Don’t be silly – of course we can’t promise that! You can only lose weight if you consume less energy (calories) than you need, forcing your body to turn to it’s “money in the bank” (fat stores) for energy.

    But it is very clear from this research that Vitamin D deficiency plays a greater role in obesity that we ever suspected, and it is also quite clear that improving levels of Vitamin D leads to greater fat loss over the course of a weight-loss diet.

    Finally, there is every other reason to ensure that your Vitamin D levels are plentiful – since Vitamin D deficiency is linked to many other health conditions, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, kidney disease, and a higher risk of cancer including breast and prostate cancers.

     

    References:

    Causal Relationship between Obesity and Vitamin D Status: Bi-Directional Mendelian Randomization Analysis of Multiple Cohorts. Published: February 05, 2013DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001383
    http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001383

    Vitamin D and weight loss, University of Minnesota, December 18, 2009
    http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2009/UR_CONTENT_165066.html

  • Does Testosterone Therapy Increase Heart Attack And Stroke Risk?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    A recently published study in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) has caused no end of worry among men. It seems that the study is quite clear in it’s conclusions that testosterone therapy does indeed cause an increased risk of death from all causes, including heart attacks and strokes.

    Yikes!

    Hey fellas, we better run, not walk to our doctors and get off that stuff that we’ve been prescribed, right?

    Not so fast guys… let’s take another look at this.

    First, what do the final numbers boil down to?

    In the group of men that were studied, some 8700 veterans, 20% had “bad outcomes” over the course of the study – meaning they died from a heart attack, stroke, or some other reason. And that was the group that was NOT taking testosterone. In the group that WAS taking testosterone, 26% of the men had “bad outcomes.”

    So, a whopping six percent difference between the two groups. That’s the difference between a fifth and a quarter.

    And who were these men?

    These men were veterans who had undergone coronary angiography – a heart imaging test. Many, probably most, had risk factors for heart problems, including blocked heart arteries. Of course they did – nobody does coronary angiography just for fun!

    According to the researchers:

    In the cohort [group] of 8709 veterans with a total testosterone level less than 300 ng/dL who underwent coronary angiography, there was a high burden of comorbidities. Approximately 20% had a prior history of MI, 50% had diabetes, and more than 80% had CAD.

     

    Wow! “Co-morbidities” ?!?

    One fifth of this bunch had already survived at least one heart attack.

    Half of the group had diabetes.

    Four out of every five of these guys had known coronary artery disease.

    Most had additional health problems including high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

    Talk about your “ticking time bombs”!

    Could the researchers have possibly found a group of men at higher risk? Maybe, but they would have had to work hard to find them – these guys were in rough shape!

    So let’s see… We’ll take a bunch of men with cardiovascular problems who are also experiencing the symptoms of low testosterone – low bone and muscle mass; increased fat mass; low energy; and impaired physical, sexual, and cognitive function – and we’ll give some of them testosterone.

    The guys that get the testosterone suddenly start feeling better, and some of them might even feel better enough to “over-do” things a bit. Since the body might take a little longer to be stronger than it does to feel better, can you see a potential problem developing here?

    “Well, Frank always loved tennis – but he hadn’t played much for the past few years, especially after that heart attack and the stents they put in. But then he saw his doc and started getting those testosterone shots and he was suddenly full of energy. His granddaughter came to visit and he just had to challenge her to ‘best two-out-of-three’ on the tennis court… He passed away that evening, after the big Thanksgiving family dinner – it must have been the testosterone that killed him, right?”

    Yeah, sort of…

    Or maybe this was a failure on his doctor’s part – perhaps a caution to “start slow, take it a little easy, and don’t over-do it just because you feel like you can” would have been in order… You see, Frank’s idea of excitement and activity for the past few years was sitting in his easy chair watching re-runs of “Dancing With The Stars” – he really hadn’t shown much interest or energy for anything else since the heart attack.

    But the numbers don’t lie – it’s a six percent increase in risk of death, right?

    Yes, the way the numbers were crunched in this study do show a six percent increase in risk of death.

    And the authors of the study acknowledge a number of “limitations” to the accuracy of their work:

    1. The study was “observational” meaning that they didn’t actually interact with the participants, they just looked at their records and drew their conclusions from that.
    2. They couldn’t know whether the reported testosterone levels were accurate since they had no way of knowing what time of day the tests were done. Testosterone levels vary widely throughout the day.
    3. This was a retrospective study – meaning that they got their cause of death information by looking at diagnosis codes in old patient charts – and ICD codes are not always entirely accurate. They didn’t go through the charts to see if the ICD code really matched what was in the patient’s records.
    4. This ended up being a small group of patients, followed over a long period of time – this tends be less accurate than looking at a large group of patients over a shorter time period.
    5. Finally, they acknowledge that this was a very specialized group of patients – and that this limits any ability to make the study apply to, for example, otherwise healthy men with low testosterone.

     

    Well, haven’t there been other studies that show testosterone is dangerous?

    Not really. There have been a few that have raised questions, but none that presented any “smoking guns.” One previous study, Adverse Events Associated with Testosterone Administration, also looked at a very small group of very debilitated (sick and sedentary) older men with low testosterone and found that improving their testosterone resulted in marked improvements in health and well-being, but also resulted in an increased risk of “cardiac adverse events”:

    RESULTS
    A total of 209 men (mean age, 74 years) were enrolled […] there was a high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity […]
    As compared with the placebo group, the testosterone group had significantly greater improvements in leg-press and chest-press strength and in stair climbing while carrying a load.

    CONCLUSIONS
    In this population of older men with limitations in mobility and a high prevalence of chronic disease, the application of a testosterone gel was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular adverse events. The small size of the trial and the unique population prevent broader inferences from being made about the safety of testosterone therapy.

     

    So that proves it’s dangerous, right?

    No, it proves that if you take a sedentary old guy with low testosterone and make him feel young and spry again with testosterone therapy you might be asking for trouble.

    But dangerous? Here’s what the paper Testosterone for the aging male; current evidence and recommended practice has to say:

    Contrary to fears of the potential adverse effects of testosterone on cardiovascular disease, there are over forty epidemiological studies which have examined the relationship of testosterone levels to the presence or development of coronary heart disease, and none have shown a positive correlation. Many of these studies have found the presence of coronary heart disease to be associated with low testosterone levels.

     

    But is it really safe? Why is the FDA so freaky about testosterone shots?

    Guys, there is a big, big difference between anabolic steroid abuse by athletes, bodybuilders and wannabe tough guys and the legitimate medical treatment of low testosterone levels.

    The feds are rightly concerned about the sleazy and dangerous side of this issue, and especially concerned with protecting impressionable young people from the dangers of inappropriate testosterone use. Contaminated and counterfeit testosterone products exist. “‘Roid-Rage” and other ill effects from abuse of steroids is a real thing. We really don’t need to have famous sports figures telling kids by example that they can only succeed / be popular / win by taking steroids.

    But in their usual fashion, the feds have gone overboard in their efforts to “protect” us, making it very difficult for anyone to receive needed treatment. Testosterone, a hormone that occurs naturally in the human body (both make and female) is now as tightly regulated and controlled as morphine or even heroin!

    So, if I’m just a regular guy with low testosterone it might be safe?

    According to Testosterone for the aging male; current evidence and recommended practice:

    …the effects of testosterone treatment are well recognised and it seems clear that testosterone treatment for aging hypogonadal men can be expected to increase lean body mass, decrease visceral fat mass, increase bone mineral density and decrease total cholesterol. Beneficial effects have been seen in many trials on other parameters such as glycemic control in diabetes, erectile dysfunction, cardiovascular risk factors, angina, mood and cognition.

     

    Alright, so what is your opinion on all this, Nurse Mark?

    Well fellas, since you ask… I am 58 years young now, and my testosterone levels are still within the “normal range” – so there is no possibility for me to use testosterone replacement therapy legally. But I can assure you that the day my T level falls below the reference range for normal I will be looking to start treatment. In my opinion the medical benefits of appropriately applied testosterone replacement therapy are far too important to be ignored, and the quality of life improvements far outweigh any minute risks that there may be.

    However – for me and for all the rest of you men considering testosterone replacement therapy, Dr. Michael Ho, a cardiologist with the VA’s Eastern Colorado Health System in Denver and the lead author of the study that reports the 6% increase in overall risk acknowledged that this “should prompt doctors and patients to discuss potential risks and benefits of using the products.”

    It can’t be said more clearly – in testosterone replacement or any other medical therapy – be aware of the benefits and of the risks, and discuss them fully with your doctor. If your doctor doesn’t have the time or doesn’t want to discuss the risks and benefits fully, get another doctor who will.

    And don’t allow “studies” like this one to spook you!

     

    References:

    Testosterone Treatments May Increase Heart Risks: http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2013/11/testosterone-treatments-may-increase-heart-risks?location=top#.UnwXSnBHTD4

    Association of Testosterone Therapy With Mortality, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke in Men With Low Testosterone Levels: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1764051

    Adverse Events Associated with Testosterone Administration: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1000485

    Low Serum Testosterone and Mortality in Older Men: Conclusions: Testosterone insufficiency in older men is associated with increased risk of death over the following 20 yr, independent of multiple risk factors and several preexisting health conditions. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2190742/

    Testosterone for the aging male; current evidence and recommended practice: Contrary to fears of the potential adverse effects of testosterone on cardiovascular disease, there are over forty epidemiological studies which have examined the relationship of testosterone levels to the presence or development of coronary heart disease, and none have shown a positive correlation. Many of these studies have found the presence of coronary heart disease to be associated with low testosterone levels. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2544367/