The largest study of its kind recently published, evaluating over 83,000 older men with low testosterone, showed that testosterone replacement reduced the subsequent risk of dying over the next several years by more than 50%.
Notably, heart attacks and strokes were reduced by 50% with testosterone replacement. In other words, the men who had low testosterone and were not given testosterone replacement were twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke and twice as likely to die.
This large study was done by the Veterans Administration, initiated in Kansas City. I’ve talked about this clinical study in others, showing the remarkable reduction in cardiovascular events when men are given testosterone replacement.
But what about cancer?
There has been a misunderstanding among many physicians about the link between testosterone and prostate cancer. Testosterone replacement does not increase or decrease the rate of prostate cancer.
To repeat, testosterone replacement does not cause prostate cancer. There are numerous clinical studies to support this statement.
What about other cancers? A study published in 2017 evaluated testosterone levels in men with diabetes. It is well-known that men with diabetes have lower testosterone levels, and that testosterone replacement can reverse diabetes or at least improve it.
This study found that men with low testosterone not only had increased rates of cardiovascular disease, but they were twice as likely to have cancer. The increased rate of cancer in men with low testosterone is not prostate cancer. It was cancers overall.
Low testosterone is associated with increased rates of:
- obesity and weight gain,
- heart attacks and strokes
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
and other diseases are considered part of “normal aging”.
Testosterone replacement for men with low testosterone leads to the normalization of:
- Weight
- improvement or reversal of diabetes
- better blood pressure
- better sex life
- increased survival.
Low testosterone is associated with increased rates of cancer. Testosterone replacement does not increase rates of cancer. Currently, it remains unclear whether testosterone replacement decreases the risk of developing cancer, underscoring the necessity for continued investigation.
Research is ongoing looking at the effects of inflammation on testosterone levels, and the reduced inflammation associated with testosterone replacement.
At this time what we know is that low testosterone if untreated increases your chances of having a heart attack, stroke, and dying.
Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of men in the United States, yet rarely are men with low testosterone treated even though it is shown to significantly reduce the chances of dying a heart attack.
Get your testosterone level checked.
For a copy of Dr. Mok’s book “If your testosterone is low you’re going to get fat and 17 other things the FDA does not want you to know about low T” click here.
Sources:
“Normalization of testosterone level is associated with reduced incidence of myocardial infarction and mortality in men” Rishi Sharma et al. European Heart Journal (2015) 36, 2706–2715
doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehv346
“Low testosterone and clinical outcomes in Chinese men with type 2 diabetes mellitus – Hong Kong Diabetes Registry”. Diabetes research and clinical practice 123 (2017) 97 – 105, Cheng et al
