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Is it normal aging or low testosterone?

This is the question being asked by government researchers, specifically, the National Institute on Aging, which has seen big advertising dollars spent pharmaceutical companies hoping to turn old age into a treatable disease.

There is no real agreement on what the effects of low testosterone as one ages has on the body.

The normal range of 300 and 1,000 nanograms per deciliter fluctuates during the day and what seems low for one individual produces no adverse affects in another.

Unknown side affects, and dubious claims made by research funded by drug makers calls into question the validity of treatment claims.

Baby boomers are also pushing an industry to supply the “fountain of youth” when real vitality is better obtained through lifestyle choices than through medicine.

Adding to the confusion over what defines “low testosterone,” there’s not much understanding of whether testosterone replacement therapy actually improves men’s symptoms. Evidence of the benefits of testosterone is mixed, and the potential health risks are serious. The largest study conducted to date, a 2008 trial involving 230 patients in the Netherlands, found no improvement in muscle strength, cognitive thinking, bone density or overall quality of life among men taking testosterone. Muscle mass increased 1.2 percent, but not enough to improve physical mobility.
The National Institute on Aging is currently conducting an 800-man trial to definitively answer whether testosterone therapy improves walking ability, sexual function, energy, memory and blood cell count in men 65 years and older. But those results aren’t expected until 2014.
In addition to concerns about testosterone’s effectiveness, the long-term side effects of the hormone are not entirely understood because most trials to date have only followed patients for a few months. But the most serious risks include heart problems and prostate cancer. In fact, all testosterone drugs carry a warning that the hormone should not be given to men who have a personal or family history of prostate cancer.

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The CDC has done a great job of making the public aware of the dangers of hypertension yet many don’t make the changes necessary to keep their high blood pressure under control.

High blood pressure quadruples the risk of a death from stroke and triples it for heart disease. So the CDC is pushing for more action.

Previously, public health officials and groups in the private sector unveiled Million Hearts, a campaign to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. One plank of that plan is to improve the proportion of people with controlled blood pressure to 65 percent from 46 percent.

So what will it take to achieve a goal like that? The CDC has some ideas.

Among them:

Take the blood pressure medicines you’ve been prescribed.
Lose weight and stop smoking.
Measure and keep track of your blood pressure between doctor visits.

Simple lifestyle changes like consuming less salt and sodium and sugar along with maintaining a healthy weight and getting regular exercise go a long way toward keeping your blood pressure down.

Hypertension is a contributing factor to stroke, and heart attack.

Overuse of angioplasty procedures have come under review.

Aside from the expense there is the issue of risk from an invasive surgical procedure.

The American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and other professional organizations have published guidelines to help doctors determine whether patients are good candidates for the procedure — based on their symptoms and heart test results, for example.

For patients with severe chest pain or who have recently had a heart attack, the procedure is nearly always recommended.
But for people without such an urgent need, medications such as blood thinners and statins can sometimes be a better approach.

Prevention is the medicine and healthy lifestyle choices can help you avoid unnecessary invasive procedures.

Just one more reason to remain faithful; your health!

Cheaters often have affairs with younger women and may use drugs or alcohol to “keep up” with their partners.

The added stress of deception causes physical symptoms, as well.

The researchers — from the University of Florence — examined the medical literature related to cheating by searching for “unfaithfulness,” “extramarital affairs,” “infidelity” and “men.” Reliable statistics about cheating are hard to find because most people claim to be morally opposed to cheating and don’t chat to scientists about it. The authors report that anywhere from 15 to 25 percent to as many as 30 to 50 percent of men cheat at least once in their lives. Then the researchers looked at a variety of physical and mental health factors and the rates they occur in both monogamous and un-monogamous men.

Although he did not participate in the study Dr. Marc Gillinov, a heart surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic and co-author of the book “Heart 411,” which looks at cases of sudden coital death, among other cardiac events concludes that many of the anecdotal evidence is indeed based on truth.

More young women die of heart attack than men of the same age.

One problem is that women don’t present with the typical symptoms of heart attack.

Nausea, sweating, jaw pain and back pain are the more common heart attack symptoms that women experience.

Often, women dismiss these symptoms and take longer to seek care which delays treatment leading to higher mortality.

The study involved 1.4 million patients who experienced a heart attack between 1994 and 2006. It found that 42 percent of women arrived at the hospital without chest pain, compared to 30.7 percent of men.
Of those hospitalized, 14.6 percent of women died, compared to 10.3 percent of men. The differences between the sexes were more pronounced in patients aged under 55 and faded away by the age of 75.