Common Symptoms That May Be Related to Low Testosterone

Men with low hormone levels are more predisposed to disease.

Men with low testosterone levels may be more prone to developing Alzheimer's Disease, according to a study from Saint Louis University in the USA. According to researchers, the discovery serves as a warning for older men with low hormone levels who exhibit memory problems or other signs of cognitive impairment.

To conduct this study, 153 men were monitored in social centers. All of them were over 55 years old and had no form of dementia. Of these men, 47 had mild cognitive impairment or memory loss issues. Testosterone levels were periodically monitored.

After one year of research, 21% of the men in the group with some cognitive deviation developed Alzheimer's Disease. All of them had lower testosterone levels in their body tissues, in addition to elevated levels of apolipoprotein E, a substance correlated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure.

According to the scientists, testosterone may have a protective value against Alzheimer's disease. They state that the next step is to conduct a large-scale study investigating the use of the male hormone in preventing Alzheimer's disease. For older men with memory problems, testosterone hormone replacement could be a preventive measure to delay Alzheimer's.

Obese men often show a significant decline in testosterone levels, while in adolescent girls, the situation is reversed. Obese girls exhibit much higher levels of the sex hormone than those of normal weight, according to scientific research conducted in the USA.

Two different studies published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism revealed that both obese adult men and obese adolescent girls are subject to greater health harms.

Testosterone is a male sex hormone also found in women. It helps maintain muscle mass and acts on bone density, in addition to influencing sexual performance, physical energy, and overall health.

The hormone naturally declines as men age. According to researchers, fat has a similar effect. A man who weighs 13 kilograms more than his normal weight experiences a drop in testosterone equivalent to 10 years of aging.

If a man undergoes a traumatic experience, such as the loss of his wife, he also shows drastic changes in hormone levels.

Obese girls in early puberty exhibit the opposite problem. They have two to nine times more sex hormones than leaner girls. In this case, an increase in testosterone can lead to reproductive problems, the onset of diabetes, and even undesirable factors like excessive hair growth.

The research was conducted with 1667 men and 104 women, and it was proven that obesity interferes differently with hormone levels in each sex.

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