In the following excerpts from a new study on testosterone levels in old men, a certain recurring theme appears. I have placed this notion in italics. Can you guess why this story made me laugh?
"Older Men May Not Live As Long If They Have Low Testosterone"
Low levels of testosterone may increase the long-term risk of death in men over 50 years old, according to researchers with the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
The new study is only the second report linking deficiency of this sex hormone with increased death from all causes, over time, and the first to do so in relatively healthy men who are living in the community," said Gail Laughlin, Ph.D., assistant professor and study author.
In the study, Laughlin and co-workers looked at death, no matter the cause, in nearly 800 men, ages 50 to 91 years, who were living in Rancho Bernardo, California. The participants have been members of the Rancho Bernardo Heart and Chronic Disease Study since the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1980s, almost one-third of these men had suboptimal blood testosterone levels for men their age.
The group with low testosterone levels had a 33 percent greater risk of death during the next 18 years than the men with higher testosterone. This difference was not explained by smoking, drinking, physical activity level or pre-existing diseases (such as diabetes or heart disease).
Wait - here's one more howler from the good doctor:
"The study did show there may be an association between low testosterone levels and higher mortality. It did not show that higher levels of testosterone are associated with decreased mortality," explained Laughlin.
Oh, Lordy, don't tell me I have to go get my testosterone level checked in order to keep my mortality rate from rising higher than the guy next to me. Wait a sec - just how much farther above 100% can it go? And if they ever do show that using supplemental testosterone decreases mortality, does this mean I should go on the juice and renew my Cardinals tickets for the next, say, thousand years?
Sorry to be so cynical, but when you spend your career caring for people living with cancer, you don't worry a whole lot about the long-term risk of death. Until somebody with really good connections tells me otherwise I shall assume that the mortality rate is the same for ancient mariners with high testosterone levels as it is for 40 year olds with metastatic rectal cancer - 100%. The difference between the two is in the length of the journey toward that final day and in the heartaches, both physical and psychological, encountered along the way.
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Um, with all due respect, you said
While the passages you quoted all included referenceds to time scales:
I do take your point that you definitely deal with the prospect of death in a much shorter time frame, but aren't you in your final paragraph and the author you quoted both saying the same thing?
What the hell is your problem? Death rate per person is 100%; death rate per person per year is not. Yes I do want to know if I'm in a group which is falling off the perch faster than normal, and what to do about it.
Why are you even bothering to be an oncologist, if death is inevitable? Just say to every cancer patient who walks through your door, "dude, everybody dies sooner or later," and you can leave the consulting room and play a round of golf.
If your beef is that people are concentrating on small risks of death when your favourite cancer is being ignored, well, there are children dying in Africa for lack of treatment that costs pennies, while you're spending thousands giving middle-aged people a few more years of healthy life. It's not the way I think, but that's the end product of "my suffering's worse than yours" thinking.
Otherwise I can't figure out what your point is.
Well, it may not increase your mortality level, but it will grow hair on your chest.
Oh, and about falling off the perch faster than the next guy...well, after eating right, exercising and avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol there isn't much you can do. The doctor is correct, death is inevitable. And if you think this makes him a bad doctor, oncologists do a lot more than just try to cure cancer. A lot of what they do is treating the symtoms so we don't suffer so much.
Well, you didn't mention that low testosterone is associated with being overweight and at risk for diabetes and heart disease.
Testosterone in the title makes it more interesting and likely to be read. The headline "Overweight men with big waists 33% more likely to die" is a snoozer these days.