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Low Testosterone appears to increase long-term risk of
death
Newswise — Men may not live
as long if they have low testosterone,
regardless of their age, according to a new
study. The results will be presented at The
Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in
San Francisco.
The new study, from Germany,
adds to the scientific evidence linking
deficiency of this sex hormone with
increased death from all causes over
time—so-called “all-cause mortality.”
The results should serve as a
warning for men with low testosterone to
have a healthier lifestyle, including weight
control, regular exercise and a healthy
diet, said lead author Robin Haring, a PhD
student from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University
of Greifswald, Institute for Community
Medicine.
“It is very possible that
lifestyle determines levels of
testosterone,” he said.
In the study, Haring and
co-workers looked at death from any cause in
nearly 2,000 men aged 20 to 79 years who
were living in northeast Germany and who
participated in the Study of Health in
Pomerania (SHIP).
Follow-up averaged 7 years.
At the beginning of the study, 5 percent of
these men had low blood testosterone levels,
defined as the lower end of the normal range
for young adult men.
The men with low testosterone
were older, more obese, and had a greater
prevalence of diabetes and high blood
pressure, compared with men who had higher
testosterone levels, Haring said.
Men with low testosterone
levels had more than 2.5 times greater risk
of dying during the next 10 years compared
to men with higher testosterone, the study
found.
This difference was not
explained by age, smoking, alcohol intake,
level of physical activity, or increased
waist circumference (a risk factor for
diabetes and heart disease), Haring said.
In cause-specific death
analyses, low testosterone predicted
increased risk of death due to
cardiovascular disease and cancer but not
death of any other single cause.
DPC Biermann, Bad Nauheim,
Germany, provided the testosterone reagent,
and Novo Nordisc provided partial funding
for this analysis.
The news conference featuring
this release will be webcast on:
http://www.endo-society.org.