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Aging News & Information
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Senior Men Testosterone
Decline |
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 For
men 65-69 years of age, average testosterone levels fell from
503 ng/dL in 1988 to 423 ng/dL in 2003. A normal, healthy adult
male usually has blood total testosterone ranging from 300-1000
ng/dL. |
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Senior Citizens Have Lower Testosterone Levels than
Peers of 15 Years Ago
Levels declining in
all Americans and not just due to age
October 24, 2006 – A study released yesterday found
that falls by male senior citizens may be due to low testosterone
levels. A study released today, however, makes matters even worse. It
says testosterone levels in older Americans have been declining steadily
over the last twenty years, and does not appear to be just the result to
getting older.
Testosterone levels in all American men have been
declining steadily over the past two decades, says this new study in the
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism concludes.
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Related Stories |
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Elder Care News
Falls by Elderly Men May Be Caused by Low
Testosterone Levels
 October 23, 2006 - Low testosterone levels may be
associated with a higher risk of falling in older men, according to a
report in the October 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of
the JAMA/Archives journals. And, it leads the authors to suspect that
low testosterone in these senior citizens may also indicate higher risk
for other problems.
Read more...
Women Age Faster but Live Longer - Is Testosterone
the Cause?
 Males allocate resources to intrasexual and intersexual competition
June 5, 2006 - It has been widely assumed that men
age earlier than women, as evidenced by their higher mortality rates and
shorter average life spans. But three Northern Michigan University
biology professors contend that the opposite is true. They say theory
and data suggest that females begin to exhibit signs of physiological
decline earlier than males, and that higher mortality figures are not
necessarily correlated with the rate at which we age.
Read more...
Low Testosterone after Age 40 Increases Death Risk
for Men by 88 Percent
Testosterone level declines
with age - about 1.5% yearly after 30
August 14, 2006 - Men who have a low testosterone
level after age 40 may have a higher risk of death over a four-year
period than those with normal levels of the hormone, according to a
report in the August 14/28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine,
one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Read more...
Estrogen plus Testosterone May Increase Breast
Cancer in Postmenopausal Women
July
25, 2006 – The effective treatment of the symptoms of menopause has been
a major quest, but it seems to run into multiple road blocks when the
women are studied in their senior years. Two studies reported in the
Archives of Internal Medicine Women well illustrate the challenge. One
says women who take a combination of estrogen and testosterone may have
an increased risk of breast cancer, and another says alternative and
complementary therapies don't seem to relieve the menopause-related
symptoms.
Read more...
Dementia in Older Men Associated with High Levels of
Female Hormone
High estrogen may be consequence of, or early AD sign,
rather than cause
July 24, 2006 - A new study has found that higher
estrogen levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of
dementia. By contrast, levels of testosterone were not associated with
cognitive decline.
Read more...
Read more
Aging News & Information |
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The reasons for this decline are unclear; the study
suggests that neither aging nor changes in certain health factors, such
as obesity or smoking, can completely explain the phenomenon.
“Male serum testosterone levels appear to vary by
generation, even after age is taken into account,” said Thomas G.
Travison, Ph.D., of the New England Research Institutes (NERI) in
Watertown, Mass., and lead author of the study.
“In 1988, men who were 50 years old had higher
serum testosterone concentrations than did comparable 50-year-old men in
1996. This suggests that some factor other than age may be contributing
to the observed declines in testosterone over time.”
Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone. It is
important for maintaining bone and muscle mass throughout life.
Insufficient levels of testosterone have been linked to diabetes, low
libido, and other medical conditions.
Typically, testosterone levels in men peak around
their late 20s, and then begin a gradual decline from age 30 onward.
Testosterone also is present in women, but at significantly lower
levels.
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Growing interest in testosterone levels |
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Researchers have long considered a considerable
loss of serum testosterone to be a feature of male chronologic aging.
Low serum testosterone has been associated with numerous age-related
adverse health conditions including abdominal obesity, diabetes and
pre-diabetic states (such as insulin resistance, impaired glucose
tolerance, and metabolic syndrome), dyslipidemia, low bone and muscle
mass, impaired sexual function, depressed mood, frailty, and decreased
quality of life.
The study released yesterday added falling as another
result of low testosterone in older men.
Testosterone decline across the life span therefore
represents an issue of great concern for public health.
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Travison and colleagues based their study on data
from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study (MMAS). The MMAS comprised three
separate data-collection periods over 17 years (1987-89, 1995-97, and
2002-04). The study involved collecting blood samples, as well as health
and biographical data, from approximately 1,500 randomly selected men
residing in the greater Boston area.
During each phase of the study, the researchers
analyzed the subjects’ blood samples to measure total testosterone, from
which they also calculated the amount of “bio-available” testosterone.
Bio-available testosterone includes both free testosterone (unbound to
proteins) and testosterone weakly bound to proteins (especially
albumin); as its name implies, it is available to tissues to support
various functions within the body.
The NERI team carefully analyzed the data to
compare men of similar ages during each phase of the study. After
accounting for age and additional factors such as obesity, smoking, and
medications, the researchers found that, each year, the subjects’ total
and bio-available testosterone decreased an average of 1.2 and 1.3
percent, respectively.
For men 65-69 years of age in this study, average
total testosterone levels fell from 503 ng/dL (nanograms/deciliter) in
1988 to 423 ng/dL in 2003. A normal, healthy adult male usually has
blood total testosterone concentrations that range anywhere from
300-1000 ng/dL.
(Note: A nanogram is one billionth of a gram and a
deciliter is a metric unit of measure for volume equal to 0.1 liter.)
Travison acknowledged that hormone concentrations
in the blood are difficult to measure, primarily due to normal daily
fluctuations. To ensure these changes did not bias the results, two
samples were obtained at each visit, and all were taken early in the
morning, when testosterone levels are at their highest.
In addition, each MMAS data collection period
utilized the same laboratory and the same technology to analyze
subjects’ blood.
“Nevertheless,” said Travison, “time and technology
march on, so it’s impossible to completely rule out the influence of
subtle changes in the way the samples were obtained or processed. That
being said, our results appear to be consistent across the various waves
of the study.”
The researchers point out that, although subjects’
current health was taken into account as part of the analysis, it is
impossible to account for certain health or environmental influences
that may have impacted the subjects’ testosterone levels prior to
enrolling in the study.
“This analysis deals with men who were born between
1915 and 1945,” said Travison, “but our baseline data were not obtained
until the late 1980s, when the elder subjects were about 70 years old,
and the youngest about 45.
Events occurring in earlier decades could certainly
help explain our results, if their effects persisted into recent years.”
It is also possible that current, but unmeasured, health or
environmental factors could be the root cause of the observed declines.
The researchers caution that, given the surprising
results, independent studies are necessary to replicate and confirm
their findings.
Other NERI researchers involved in the study
include Andre B. Araujo; Amy B. O’Donnell; Varant Kupelian; and John B.
McKinlay, principal investigator on the MMAS. Funding for the study was
provided by the National Institutes of Health. The Journal of Clinical
Endocrinology and Metabolism is a publication of The Endocrine Society.
Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society is the
world’s oldest, largest, and most active organization devoted to
research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today,
The Endocrine Society’s membership consists of over 13,000 scientists,
physicians, educators, nurses and students in more than 80 countries.
Together, these members represent all basic, applied, and clinical
interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Chevy
Chase, Md. To learn more about the Society, and the field of
endocrinology, visit our web site at
http://www.endo-society.org
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