In the News – Men with High Testosterone Have Less Cardiovascular Disease Risk?

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

A new Swedish study has shown that elderly men in the highest quartile of serum testosterone levels have around a 30% lower risk of cardiovascular events over five years compared with men in the lower three quartiles [1].

And the association remains even after adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors and excluding those with CVD at baseline, say Dr Claes Ohlsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) and colleagues in their paper in the October 11, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Senior author Dr Asa Tivesten (University of Gothenburg) told heartwire : “This paper is an important start, because previously data have been inconsistent about whether there is an association between serum testosterone and CVD events or not. We now know there is an association, but we don’t know what is causing it.”

Read the rest at Heartwire — Study confirms high testosterone/lower CV event link in older men

It’s a bold statement to say higher testosterone levels equal lower risks for cardiovascular (CV) events. What we don’t know is if a man with low testosterone takes testosterone, will this reduce the risks of CV events?

Heart disease generally takes many, many years to develop, so this study implicates that the testosterone was always high, though the dates do not support it.