Testosterone, an anabolic steroid, plays a critical role in human health and disease. Essential in sexual maturation, testosterone remains important throughout life. Hormone levels typically decrease with advancing age, creating deficiencies that affect cardiovascular health and cancer risk. Supplements and drugs can alleviate low testosterone, as can changes in lifestyle. Increasing testosterone has many positive benefits, yet it may also cause negative reactions. Patients should first consult a doctor before beginning replacement therapy.
Muscle Strength
Professional and recreational athletes often abuse testosterone to increase their strength. Such abuse typically includes large doses of testosterone used during short periods of time. When taken in a more careful manner, testosterone can usually facilitate increases in muscle strength without causing side effects. A report by S. Bhasin and co-workers presented in the February 2005 edition of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism looked at the impact of testosterone on the strength of younger and older men. Five months of weekly testosterone use increased the men's maximum leg press relative to baseline. Testosterone treatment, in general, was effective and safe. Yet about 10 percent of the subjects tested had to withdraw due to negative reactions.
Body Composition
Men with low levels of testosterone often experience frailty resulting from the loss of lean body mass and bone mineral content. Bodybuilders use testosterone as an anabolic steroid to increase their size, and similar effects can help patients with testosterone deficiencies. A study by S. T. Page and colleagues offered in the March 2005 issue of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism evaluated the effects of testosterone treatment. Healthy older men with low testosterone were given hormone injections every other week. Patients receiving testosterone showed significant improvements in body composition relative to those given placebo. Lean body mass increased through a reduction in body fat. Testosterone use also lowered cholesterol scores. The subjects tolerated the treatment well as they did not report any significant side effects.
Heart Health
Resting heart rate and blood pressure tend to increase with age. These changes place additional stress on the heart, and they can lead to cardiac arrest. Because testosterone also decreases with age, replacement therapy may counteract the negative age-related changes in heart function. An experiment by M. Zitzmann and E. Nieschlag described in the October 2007 edition of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism assessed the effects of testosterone on cardiac parameters. The study tested older men with low levels of natural testosterone. These men received a testosterone injection every few months. Relative to baseline, testosterone replacement lowered heart rate and blood pressure. Most patients tolerated the therapy well, but several obese men displayed adverse events during the study and had to stop receiving treatment.
References
- Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism: Older Men Are as Responsive as Young Men to the Anabolic Effects of Graded Doses of Testosterone on the Skeletal Muscle
- Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism: Exogenous Testosterone (T) Alone or with Finasteride Increases Physical Performance, Grip Strength, and Lean Body Mass in Older Men with Low Serum T
- Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism: Androgen Receptor Gene CAG Repeat Length and Body Mass Index Modulate the Safety of Long-Term Intramuscular Testosterone Undecanoate Therapy in Hypogonadal Men
