Exercise training improved artery health and function in middle-aged and older men
Twelve weeks of exercise training improved artery health and function in middle-aged and older men (ages 50-70 years) with low-to-normal testosterone levels, while testosterone therapy provided no benefits to the arteries, according to new research published today in
Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.
The natural aging process for men includes decreased testosterone and physical activity levels decline with age, leading to declines in artery health and function. Testosterone replacement therapy is often used to combat the symptoms of decreasing testosterone levels, including low energy, reduced muscle mass and reduced vigor. In the absence of any new clinical indications, testosterone sales have increased 12-fold globally in the past decades.
A 12-week exercise program improved artery health in middle-aged and older men, while testosterone treatment alone provided no benefits to artery health.
Wasps reveal age of Australiaâs oldest-known rock paintings
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In a network of rock shelters along the Kimberley, right at the tip of Western Australia, there are paintings thousands of years old. A gallery of echidnas, goannas, fish, yams, hand prints, silhouettes, stencilled boomerangs and lots of kangaroos.
They share a style: life-sized and realistic recreations of the things the artist saw in their day-to-day lives on the land of the Balanggarra traditional owners.
Traditional owner Ian Waina inspects a painting of a kangaroo that is more than 12,700 years old.
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It was regular exercise, not a testosterone cream, that helped aging men in a randomized trial with their vascular endothelial function.
In men ages 50 to 70 with central adiposity and low-to-normal testosterone levels, flow-mediated dilation (FMD) actually declined with daily testosterone application, whereas it increased after 12 weeks of exercise training (
P=0.033 overall) in the two-by-two factorial design comparison:
Testosterone plus exercise: FMD +0.5% from baseline
Placebo plus exercise: +1.0%
Placebo plus no additional exercise: +0.2%
FMD is a surrogate measure of the endothelial dysfunction implicated in atherosclerosis development.
Thus, investigators Daniel Green, of The University of Western Australia in Perth, and colleagues urged caution when prescribing testosterone primarily for vascular health.
Testosterone therapy fails to improve artery health in older men sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.