TRT: When it works—it works!
The number one killer of men in North America is heart disease and stroke. This will be the cause of death in almost 30% of us. That is why it is crucial to be constantly on the lookout for remedies to this eventuality or, at least, ways of reducing the carnage that cardiovascular disease has on men.
Today I want to tell you about an important study I uncovered regarding the benefits of Testosterone Replacement Therapy in Men. The title of the study was: Normalization of testosterone level is associated with reduced incidence of myocardial infarction and mortality in men by Rishi Sharma et al.
So, as you might surmise by the title, the researchers found normalizing the total testosterone levels in men diagnosed with low testosterone reduced the incidence of myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and mortality (death) in men. Big news! You would think that would significantly change how we treat men in North America. Especially as over 50% of us will develop low testosterone over time. Unfortunately, it is news that has not penetrated the media, the medical community or to men in general. Furthermore, this reduction in myocardial infarction and mortality was not just by a little bit but by A LOT!
Let’s get into the weeds on this one and see what I found. The study was published in the European Heart Journal although it was conducted in the USA. The study was conducted and published by the Division of Cardiovascular Research, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Division of Nephrology, VA Medical Center in Kansas City and the Division of Cardiovascular
Diseases and Division of Health Services Research, University of Kansas City Medical Center and the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of California San Francisco. In this study they were looking at the relationship between normalization of total testosterone with testosterone replacement therapy and cardiovascular events as well as all-cause mortality in patients without a previous history of myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and strokes.
In this study they examined over 83,000 male veterans with documented low total testosterone. The men were then categorized into 3 groups:
• Grp 1 Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) with normalization of the Total Testosterone (TT) levels,
• Grp 2 Testosterone Replacement Therapy without normalization of Total Testosterone levels,
• Grp 3 Did not receive any Testosterone Replacement Therapy.
They then followed these men for up to 6 years. The results showed that men without a history of previous MI or stroke who have low Total Testosterone levels and that received Testosterone Replacement Therapy were associated with a significant decreased risk of myocardial infarctions, strokes and all-cause mortality. As I said before this was not an insignificant drop either.
The most important groups to compare are those between group 1 (low TT with normalization of the TT levels with Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and group 3 (those with low TT that had no Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).
Between those two groups:
1. Myocardial infarction rates dropped to 189 per 100,000 person-years in group 1 from 263 per 100,000 person-years in group 3. That’s a 28 % reduction!
2. Stroke rates dropped to 43 per 100,000 person-years in group 1 from 59 per 100,000 person-years in group 3. That’s a 27 % reduction!
3. All-cause mortality dropped to 1,654 per 100,000 person-years in group 1 from 3635 per 100,000 person-years in group 3. That’s over 50 % reduction!
With cardiovascular disease and strokes being the leading cause of death in men with it comprising almost 30% of all male deaths, this is an incredibly important study and speaks to the importance of normalizing total testosterone levels in men. The median age for the participants in this study was 66 years. We definitely need to spread the word and use evidence-based medicine to change many of the outdated practices of how we care for the healthcare of men. This means testing for and treating men with low testosterone.
At Transform Men’s Health, we go one step further, and believe not only in the normalizing of men’s testosterone levels but in the optimization of them.
We want to Transform Men’s Health!
Join us.