You have probably heard of the hormone, "testosterone" and probably assumed from any conversation you may have heard about it that it's a male sex hormone. The assumption would therefore follow that its main clinical use would be associated with male hormone deficiency or imbalance. But in order to put testosterone in proper perspective, we need to stop thinking of it in terms of sex. While this is obviously one of its important roles, there is much more to this remarkable hormone than that. Testosterone is a metabolic powerhouse of amazing versatility. It is one of the major regulators of sugar, fat, and protein metabolism. In other words, testosterone is a very important key to good health and long life. Ample research now indicates that testosterone is our most neglected hormone, and when it's properly used is a marvelous adjunct in the fight against aging-in both sexes.
One area of increasing research as it relates to clinical use of testosterone is its role in the treatment of heart disease. Researchers in the past have wrongly assumed that testosterone lies behind high rates of male heart disease. Current studies indicate, however, that it may help prevent the disease. Doctors who have administered additional doses of testosterone to experimental subjects suffering from heart disease have found that testosterone increased the flow of blood through the coronary arteries (those that feed the heart). Other studies have shown improvement in angina pectoris (chest pain due to sudden decrease in the circulation of the heart muscle). These two uses of the hormone confirm a direct coronary-relaxing effect.
This seems to make perfect sense, since it has been determined that people who have had heart attacks tend to have low testosterone levels. A Columbia University Medical School study worked with 55 men undergoing x-ray exams of their arteries and found that those with a lower testosterone level had higher degrees of heart disease-blockage of the coronary arteries. This study also found that the protective HDL cholesterol levels were higher in men with higher testosterone levels.
Other researchers have studied the effect of testosterone in cases of angina pectoris, which is caused by either spasm or blockage of the arteries in the heart. Out of the 100 people studied, after testosterone injections, 91 showed moderate to marked improvement in their chest pain. In the cases showing improvement, both the frequency and the severity of the attacks were reduced.
Impotence is a definite alarm bell in males. When you become impotent, you can count on having about 20 years of life left. As your sexual ability deteriorates, everything else deteriorates also. Men's testosterone level begins to decline after age 25. At that age there is about 20 times the amount of free blood testosterone as there is at age 80. We have all probably heard about "male menopause" and snickered, thinking it was just a joke. It is not, and although it isn't usually as dramatic as menopause is for women, andropause is a reality and can have devastating effects. The andropausal man will experience specific disease conditions as well as general symptoms that make life a burden. These symptoms include weakness, impotence, pain, stiffness, dropping muscles, depressions, irritability, and excessive sweating with intolerance to heat. Most women do not hesitate to complain about the change of life, but most men suffer in silence and accept it as the inevitability of aging. Unfortunately, so do most doctors.
One might assume, that since testosterone is a "male hormone" that its benefits in heart disease would apply only to men. However, this is not true. Probably the biggest surprise arising from all this research on the benefits of testosterone therapy, is the discovery of how absolutely vital the hormone is for females. While anabolic therapy, as it is called, has been grossly neglected in males, it is essentially unheard of in the treatment of females. Although the female only needs 10 percent of the testosterone level men need for maximum health, that 10 percent is just as important to them as the quota needed by men. Many postmenopausal women have essentially no testosterone. So they have two major problems: menopause and andropause. Traditionally, women have been neglected in the study of heart disease. It has finally been discovered that women have heart attacks as often as men do-but they are diagnosed as something else. A series of studies has shown that women are more likely than men to die if they have a heart attack. Twice as likely. Now that we know women die more often than men from a heart attack, maybe doctos will pay more attention and stop called their chest pain indigestion or esophagitis. We now know that testosterone levels in women fall with age, as they do in men, so shouldn't they also be having their levels of testosterone regulated?
Part of the problem associated with this neglect of testosterone therapy in women is the over use and abuse of estrogen therapy. The experts have been saying for awhile now that hormone replacement therapy for women may prevent heart disease. But new research is showing that it could also aggravate it, according to researchers at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. In one university study involving nearly 2,000 postmenopausal women, it was found that taking estrogen therapy after a heart attack nearly doubled the chances of serious complications.
Perhaps it is time to stop thinking of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone as male or female hormones, because they are probably equally important, in the right proportion, in both sexes. Balance is the key.
Another study done at the Baton Rouge Menopause Clinic has confirmed the importance of hormonal balance in the prevention of breast cancer. In the treatment of 4,000 patients, a combination of estrogen and testosterone has shown a reduction in the incidence of breast cancer to less than half the national average. On average, there is one cancer discovered for every 100 mammograms performed. In those patients on testosterone therapy, there is only one cancer in every 1,000 mammograms-a decrease of 90 percent.
With testosterone therapy, there is a huge opportunity available for the treatment of andropause, menopause, aging, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer.
For more information on this subject and to locate doctors in your area performing this therapy contact the Broda Barnes Foundation, P. O. Box 98, Trumbull, CT 06611. Their phone number is (203) 261-2102, or reach them on the internet at http://www.brodabarnes.org/. For $15 they will provide you with an educational package about testosterone therapy.
Copyright 1999 by Michelle Johnson, ND