Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Low Testosterone linked to Alzheimer’s
Disease
Newswise, October 2010 — Low levels of the male sex
hormone, testosterone, in older men is
associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s
disease, according to research by a team
that includes a Saint Louis University
scientist.
“Having low testosterone may make you more vulnerable to
Alzheimer’s disease,” said John E. Morley,
M.D., director of the division of geriatric
medicine at Saint Louis University and a
study co-investigator.
“The take-home message is we should pay more attention to
low testosterone, particularly in people who
have memory problems or other signs of
cognitive impairment.”
The study was published
electronically
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20693646 prior
to its print publication in the Journal
of Alzheimer’s Disease and
led by Leung-Wing Chu, M.D., who is chief of
the division of geriatric medicine at Queen
Mary Hospital at the University of Hong
Kong.
Researchers studied 153 Chinese men who were recruited
from social centers. They were at least 55
years and older, lived in the community and
didn’t have dementia. Of those men, 47 had
mild cognitive impairment – or problems with
clear thinking and memory loss.
Within a year, 10 men who all were part of the
cognitively impaired group developed
probable Alzheimer’s disease. These men also
had low testosterone in their body tissues;
elevated levels of the ApoE 4 (apolipoprotein
E) protein, which is correlated with a
higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease; and high
blood pressure.
“It’s a very exciting study because we’ve shown that a
low level of testosterone is one of the risk
factors for Alzheimer’s disease,” Morley
said.
The findings corroborate findings in previous studies of
older Caucasian men that show low
testosterone is associated with impaired
thinking and Alzheimer’s disease. They
suggest that testosterone may have a
protective value against Alzheimer’s
disease.
The next step, Morley said, is to conduct a large-scale
study that investigates the use of
testosterone in preventing Alzheimer’s
disease.
Morley and his co-authors advocate studying the
effectiveness of testosterone replacement in
older men who have both mild memory problems
and low testosterone in staving off
Alzheimer’s disease.
Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of
Medicine has the distinction of awarding the
first medical degree west of the Mississippi
River.
The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists,
conducts medical research, and provides
health care on a local, national and
international level. Research at the school
seeks new cures and treatments in five key
areas: cancer, infectious disease, liver
disease, aging and brain disease and
heart/lung disease.
