Low Testosterone Level May Increase Risk of Death in Men

According to a new study presented at the 90th Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco, men may not live as long if they have low testosterone regardless of their age. This study conducted from Germany adds to the scientific evidence linking deficiency of the male sex hormone with increased death from all causes over time, called "all-cause mortality".

This study should serve as a warning to several men with low testosterone to start a healthier lifestyle. They should have better routine when it comes to weight control, regular exercise and a healthy diet to avoid repercussions of their medical condition.

"It is very possible that lifestyle determines levels of testosterone," Robin Haring, lead author of the study and a PhD student from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine said.

In the study, Haring and co-workers looked at death from any cause in nearly 2,000 men aged 20 to 79 years who were living in northeast Germany and who participated in the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). Follow-up averaged 7 years. At the beginning of the study, 5 percent of these men had low blood testosterone levels, defined as the lower end of the normal range for young adult men. The men with low testosterone were older, more obese, and had a greater prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure, compared with men who had higher testosterone levels, Haring said.

Men with low testosterone levels had more than 2.5 times greater risk of dying during the next 10 years compared to men with higher testosterone, the study found. This difference was not explained by age, smoking, alcohol intake, level of physical activity, or increased waist circumference (a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease), Haring said.

In cause-specific death analyses, low testosterone predicted increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease and cancer but not death of any other single cause.

Simple Exercise Can Cut Cancer Deaths in Men, Study Shows

A recent study published in the British Journal of Cancer revealed that men who exercise often are less likely to die from cancer than those who don't. The study found that men who walked or cycled for at least 30 minutes a day had a 34 per cent lower risk of dying from cancer than men who did less exercise or nothing at all.

The study involved a team of scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who monitored a number of 40,708 men aged between 45 and 79 years. During the seven years period of the study, 3,714 developed cancer and 1,153 died from the disease. The researchers suggest that half an hour of walking or cycling a day increased survival among these men by 33 per cent.

"These results clearly show for the first time, the effect that very simple and basic daily exercise such as walking or cycling has in reducing cancer death risk in middle-age and elderly men," one of the researchers, Professor Alicja said. "Additionally, this study threw up some really promising data on the role exercise can play in preventing cancer which we would like to explore further in future work."

They found that a more intensive program of walking and cycling for between an hour and an hour and a half a day, led to a l6 per cent lower incidence of cancer.

It's not entirely clear from this study what role exercise plays in preventing cancer in men, but it somehow proved that a healthy lifestyle can prevent up to half of all cancers - and regular exercise forms a key part of this. Cancer Research UK recommends maintaining a healthy body weight, eating sensibly and taking regular exercise as key to a healthy life - along with avoiding smoking.

Exercise for Different Sexes (Nope, Not the Dirty Kind)

The question about male and female equality may never well be answered, well at least when it comes to physical fitness. This is one of the points presented in a study conducted at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. According to Danielle Day, one of the researchers involved in the study, said that female may never had the chance to catch up with men when it comes to physical strength and capabilities.

This is because men are bigger and have more muscle and higher levels of that powerhouse hormone testosterone than women. But as researchers have begun to unravel the differences between the sexes with regard to physical activity, they're learning that there's more to the story. Men and women also differ in energy metabolism, lung function and other factors during exercise.


But this study was not conducted to undermine the female population. This is done in an effort to pave the way to sex-specific training regimens for athletes and recreational exercisers as well.

"We're not the same. Our physiological systems are not identical," says Earl Noble, director of the school of kinesiology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He likens exercise to a drug "that needs to be given in the appropriate dose and intensity and should be varied for sex differences."

One real-world application of such research may be the development of workouts that optimize weight-loss for women and men. That is after several researches confirm what frustrated women have long known to be true — that females have a harder time losing weight through exercise than men, says Day. Men's bodies respond more favorably to exercise, whereas women's bodies go into survival mode, slowing metabolism and hanging onto fat. She and other experts say that's an evolutionary response intended to keep a woman healthy for child-bearing.

This is actually good news to everyone, both male and female, as there will be specific exercise, not only to target their needs with different body parts but also needs as a man or women.