News: Testosterone may help men's hearts

Testosterone May Actually Help Men's Hearts
http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/106/108041.htm

Men's Higher Heart Disease Risks May Not Be Tied to Testosterone

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Monday, May 16, 2005

May 16, 2005 -- Middle-aged men may suffer more frequently from heart
disease than women, but testosterone may not be to blame.

A new Finnish study shows that testosterone may actually help protect
men from atherosclerosis (or hardening of the arteries) and reduce
their risk of heart disease.

Researchers say the results once again call into question the view that
estrogen is good for heart health and testosterone is bad.

Recent studies in older menopausal women have shown that estrogen
replacement therapy does not offer the benefits in reducing heart
disease risk once assumed that it would, and this study shows that
testosterone therapy may not necessarily be as harmful to the heart as
previously thought.

Although animal studies have shown that testosterone may have negative
effects on heart health, such as altering cholesterol levels,
researchers say this study as well as others in humans suggest that the
male sex hormone may have potential benefits.

"The evidence overall is starting to show that normal testosterone
levels in aging men are good for the heart," says researcher Olli
Raitakari, MD, PhD, of the University of Turku in Finland, in a news
release.


Testosterone and the Male Heart

Testosterone and the Male Heart

In the study, researchers compared the extent of atherosclerosis in 99
generally healthy middle-aged men who had symptoms of andropause (low
testosterone), such as fatigue, low libido, and depression, to that
found in 140 men with no signs of andropause.

The results appear in the May 17 issue of the Journal of the American
College of Cardiology.

Ultrasound testing showed that the thickness of the carotid artery, the
main artery in the neck and a measure of the extent of atherosclerosis,
was greater in the men with symptoms of andropause compared with the
other men.

The thickness of the wall of this artery is a predictor of a higher
risk of heart disease. The study showed that the wall thickness
increased as testosterone levels dropped. They show a link between
increased wall thickness and the levels of another hormone called
luteinizing hormone -- a marker for male menopause. Researchers say
this is the first study to link atherosclerosis to luteinizing hormone.


New Questions About Testosterone Therapy

Experts say this study and others are challenging the notion that the
female advantage in heart disease risk is due to either a protective
effect of estrogen or a harmful effect of testosterone.

"This study suggests that higher testosterone levels are associated
with less atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries, and that's contrary
to what we thought," says Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, of the
University of California-San Diego, in the news release. "And on the
other hand, most middle-aged men who complain of low libido, fatigue,
or the other complaints that go with "andropause" symptoms, don't
actually have low testosterone levels."

For example, she points out that only 6% of the middle-aged men in this
study had both symptoms of andropause and low testosterone levels.

"These results suggest that testosterone is not as bad for your heart
as we had thought. Clinical trials of testosterone therapy will be
necessary to confirm this idea," says Barrett-Connor, who also wrote an
editorial that accompanies the study.


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SOURCES: Makinen, J. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, May
17, 2005; vol 45: pp 1603-1608. News release, American College of
Cardiology.



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