As we grow older it’s common to experience a breakdown in cardiovascular health. Studies over the last decade have shown mixed results when it comes to the effect of low testosterone & cardiovascular health. Studies by JAMA a few years ago sent the world spiralling into an anti-testosterone spiral but those studies were unfair and caused testosterone therapy to become even more of a controversial treatment. (You can read about them here and here).
The results of research conducted on the effects of testosterone therapy and heart disease have always had conflicting results. Some studies show that testosterone therapy harms the heart and increases the risk of heart disease, some of them show no increased risk and some of them showed the complete opposite and conclude that testosterone therapy can actually help the heart. The conflicting reports on the benefits and risks of testosterone & cardiovascular health often just confuse people.
Testosterone therapy has been around for years now but compared to other recognised medical conditions and therapeutic treatments it is still relatively new. It can really take 20-30 years of in-depth research from across the world to get people feeling totally comfortable with using a new therapy. While the testosterone market has exploded over the last decade the product still finds itself under scrutiny, especially when it comes to the risk of heart attacks and strokes in ageing men.
A study about Survival and cardiovascular events in men treated with testosterone replacement therapy was published in May 2016. (Wallis CJD, Lo K, Lee Y, et al. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.)
This study analysed the previous studies and concluded on some very interesting key points, especially when it comes to the duration of the testosterone replacement therapy in relation to cardiovascular health. We have to remember that there are short term effects and long term effects in every medication we take. The results often get grouped together, especially when it comes to media reporting.
People are so worried about the short-term effects on cardiovascular health that they don’t consider the long-term (and vice versa)
Here are some key points on of the effects of testosterone & cardiovascular health from this particular study on testosterone & cardiovascular health and survival.
5 years down the line, men with low testosterone who used a testosterone replacement therapy like AndroForte, experienced a 12% lower mortality rate than men of the same health who did not use testosterone therapy – This means that in the long term testosterone therapy must be helping men lower their risk of death compared with those men who have low testosterone but do not treat it.
This point is interesting but what you read below is fascinating!
Men who used testosterone therapy for only a short time experienced an 11% increase in mortality rates and had an increased risk of 26% when it came to cardiovascular events.
HOWEVER
Men who used testosterone therapy for a long time experienced a 33% decrease in mortality rates and had a decreased risk of 16% when it came to cardiovascular events.
That is a huge swing in statistics between short term use and long term use of testosterone therapy!
The same debate has raged when it comes to the effects of testosterone therapy on prostate cancer.
Men who only used testosterone therapy for a short period of time experienced no change to the risk of prostate cancer. However, men who used testosterone therapy long term experienced a decrease of 40% in prostate cancer diagnosis.
So what causes these huge differences in the body’s reaction to short-term testosterone use and long-term testosterone use?
“It is speculated that the increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality for men with the shortest duration of testosterone treatment could be driven by the consequences of underlying testosterone deficiency and inadequate treatment, rather than the testosterone treatment.” (Nebido).
It means that living with low testosterone and not treating it is actually harming your body and cardiovascular health.
If you are interested to read more about the Lancet study on testosterone & cardiovascular health then here’s the link to the full article on “Survival and cardiovascular events in men treated with testosterone”