Testosterone treatments help build and strengthen muscles, but for older men they carry a risk of heart problems, reports the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers reported this after they had to stop the study after six months due to cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms and skin problems that patients using testosterone gel had complained about.
I believe this research raises important questions about the safety of prescribing testosterone to the elderly, says Dr. Shalender Bhasin of the Boston University School of Medicine.
Testosterone levels in men decline with age. Taking supplements containing this hormone by healthy men helps to build muscle tissue. New research was to test the effects of testosterone for the first time in men over 65 who had problems with mobility (such as difficulty climbing 10 stairs).
The average age of the 209 volunteers was 74 years, often men who were obese, suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
The group that rubbed testosterone gel into their arms each day began to cope better with climbing stairs and strength exercises after some time. However, by the end of follow-up, 23 patients had experienced side effects such as chest pain, loss of consciousness, or even a heart attack, which resulted in the death of one of the men in the study. These symptoms only occurred in five placebo-controlled people.
Testosterone promotes water and salt retention in the body, which scientists believe could be one of the causes of side effects. However, specialists from the sponsoring study of the National Institute on Aging point out that the surveyed men could take too much of the hormone, even two or three times the recommended dose (PAP).