Testosterone Therapy May Reduce Bone Loss in Older Men

(HealthDay News) -- Injections of testosterone appear to improve bone density and reduce bone loss in older men who have low testosterone levels and may help to prevent osteoporosis, a new study suggests.

Testosterone therapy has been used to improve bone strength and muscle mass in some men. However, the hormone treatment is controversial, because it has been associated with increasing the risk of prostate cancer and high levels of red blood cells. And other potential effects of long-term use of testosterone therapy aren't known.

"These preliminary data show beneficial effects of testosterone therapy on bone turnover markers in older men with low-to-normal testosterone concentrations using both continuous and monthly cycled testosterone replacement," lead researcher E. Lichar Dillon, of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said in a prepared statement. "The effects of sex hormones on markers of bone formation are complex, but this is an important step in understanding how the process works."

Preliminary study results were expected to be presented April 7 at the American Physiological Society's annual meeting, during the Experimental Biology 2008 conference, in San Diego.

For the study, Dillon's team studied 13 men, ranging in age from 60 to 85. During the five-month trial, the men were either given weekly injections of testosterone, weekly injections of testosterone every other month, or a placebo.

The researchers found that men receiving testosterone had reduced bone turnover, compared with men on a placebo. While the effects of testosterone therapy over the long term aren't clear, the researchers said they believed the treatment would be beneficial by preserving bone mass and preventing osteoporosis.

One expert said the study was too small to prove or disprove the value of testosterone therapy in preventing bone loss and, perhaps, preventing osteoporosis.

"This small, short-term study indicates that men with low levels of testosterone respond to appropriate replacement as far as turnover markers indicate," said John Eisman, director of the Bone and Mineral Research Program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, in Sydney, Australia.

While calling the study "too small and too short to provide any insight into fracture-risk reduction or safety outcomes," Eisman said it does complement research he has done. "Our study showed that men with testosterone in the lowest quartile of the population had much higher risk of osteoporotic fractures," he said.

A large, long-term trial testing whether testosterone can prevent osteoporosis in men is needed to settle the question, Eisman said.

More information
To learn more about men and osteoporosis, visit the U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

Older Men With Low Testosterone Face Greater Depression Risk

(HealthDay News) -- Low testosterone levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of depression, an Australian study says.

Between 2001 and 2004, researchers at the University of Western Australia in Perth studied 3,987 males aged 71 to 89. The men provided demographic and health information and were tested for depression and cognitive difficulties. The researchers also checked the men's testosterone levels.

The 203 men who met the criteria for depression had significantly lower total and free (not bound to proteins) testosterone levels than those who weren't depressed. After controlling for other factors, such as cognitive scores, education level and body-mass index, the researchers concluded that men in the lowest quintile (20 percent) of free testosterone were three times more likely to have depression compared to those in the highest quintile.

The findings were published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
While more research is needed to determine how low hormone levels may be linked to depression risk, the study authors believe it may be caused by changes in the levels of neurotransmitters or hormones in the brain.

"A randomized controlled trial is required to determine whether reducing prolonged exposure to low free testosterone is associated with a reduction in prevalence of depression in elderly men," the researchers wrote. "If so, older men with depression may benefit from systematic screening of free testosterone concentration, and testosterone supplementation may contribute to the successful treatment of hypogonadal (with low hormone levels) older men with depression."

Between 2 percent and 5 percent of people are affected by depression at any given time, according to background information in the study. Women are more likely than men to be depressed, but that difference disappears at about age 65. A number of previous studies have suggested that sex hormones may be a factor.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about men and depression.

Report Finds 'Widespread Steroid Use in Baseball'

(HealthDayNews) -- New York Yankees pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, Houston Astros All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada and home run king Barry Bonds are among the big-name players cited in a highly anticipated report into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.

The report climaxed a 20-month probe by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who was hired by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to examine the use of performance-boosting drugs during the so-called "steroids era," which began in the mid-1990s and was marked by record-shattering performances by many players.

"For more than a decade, there has been widespread anabolic steroid use in baseball," Mitchell said, adding that all 30 major-league teams have players involved with drugs, ESPN.com reported.

"Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades -- commissioners, club officials, the players' association and players -- shares to some extent the responsibility for the steroids era,'' said Mitchell, who called for stricter drug testing. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on."

It was not clear if the report would result in any penalties or suspensions, the Associated Press reported.

Clemens was one of the most prominent names in the report. Others include Most Valuable Player award-winners Barry Bonds, the late Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, Juan Gonzalez, Mo Vaughn and Tejada. The report also includes the names of three of the top 10 home-run leaders of all time: Bonds, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmiero, The New York Times reported.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids are man-made substances that help build muscle tissue and increase body mass by acting like the body's natural male hormone, testosterone. But they can produce a variety of dangerous side effects, including heart trouble.

According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, the major side effects can include high blood pressure; increases in LDL (bad cholesterol) and decreases in HDL (good cholesterol); liver tumors and cancer; kidney tumors; severe acne; and trembling. There are also some gender-specific side effects:

• For men -- shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts, and increased risk for prostate cancer.
• For women -- growth of facial hair, male-pattern baldness, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris, a deepened voice.
• For teens -- growth halted prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes. This means that adolescents risk remaining short for the remainder of their lives if they take anabolic steroids before the typical adolescent growth spurt.

"For males in the U.S., heart disease is the number one cause of death, and steroid abuse makes heart disease even worse," Dr. Linn Goldberg, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University, and an expert on steroid abuse, told HealthDay following the 2004 heart-attack death of Caminiti, who had admitted to abusing both steroids and cocaine.

Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and medical director of the Women's Heart Program at New York University School of Medicine, said steroids raise almost all heart disease risk factors.

"One, steroid use raises blood pressure," she told HealthDay. "Two, it can also alter your sugar metabolism, so you have an increased risk of diabetes. Three, it makes the arteries vulnerable since, because of elevated cholesterol, you get cholesterol plaque buildup."

Steroid abuse can also cause a dangerous thickening of heart muscle called hypertrophy --- the same kind of heart-muscle enlargement seen in patients with congestive heart failure, experts warn.

Linn Goldberg (no relation to Nieca Goldberg) said his biggest concern remains the health risks to America's teenagers, who are increasingly influenced by the behaviors of their favorite sports stars.

"These are very dangerous drugs, and their effects on children are even greater than on adults, because they affect all their biological systems," he said. "It's a shock to their body, because the hormones are so powerful."

More information
To learn more about steroid dangers, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics.

FDA Panel Backs Prostate Cancer Vaccine

(Healthday News) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted Thursday to support approval of Provenge, a vaccine aimed at extending survival for patients with deadly metastatic prostate cancer.

The FDA panel voted unanimously that the vaccine was "reasonably safe," noting that while it failed to meet some study endpoints, it did extend patient survival, according to published reports.

The panel then voted 13-to-4 to say there was substantial evidence to show the vaccine was effective for treating advanced prostate cancer that no longer responds to standard hormone treatment.

The FDA does not have to follow the advice of its advisory panels, but it typically does. The agency is expected to make its final decision by May 15.

Hopes have been high for the vaccine, which researchers said was the first ever shown to have an impact on cancer patients' survival. Those claims were based on a three-year study, released early in 2005, of 127 men with advanced, metastatic prostate cancer.

The trial found that patients infused with Provenge experienced an average 18 percent increase in survival, compared to those on a placebo. That worked out to 4.5 months of extra survival -- 25.9 months for those receiving Provenge vs. 22 months for those not taking the vaccine.

Provenge was developed by Seattle-based Dendreon.

"The concept behind the vaccine is to try to stimulate the patient's own immune system to recognize the prostate cancer cells and keeps them in check," said Dr. Simon Hall, a prostate cancer specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City who worked on the trials for the vaccine.

In one phase III trial, men who had metastatic prostate cancer were three to four times more likely to be alive three years after vaccination, Hall said.

"However, the intent of that trial was not to show survival," Hall said. "The intent was to see if you could get patients to delay pain or new lesions in their bones. But they found it had no effect on that."

Before the panel met Thursday, FDA officials had expressed some reservations about the data submitted by Dendreon.

"The submitted data tend to support a finding of clinically meaningful increased survival, but doubts remain about the persuasiveness of the efficacy data," agency officials stated in documents released ahead of the meeting.

The advisory panel also noted that neither of the two studies submitted by Dendreon convincingly showed that Provenge met the primary goal of delaying progression of prostate cancer.

As reported by UPI, an increase in the frequency of "cerebrovascular accidents," such as stroke in men treated with Provenge, also "constitutes a potential safety concern," the FDA said. Stroke risk was 3.9 percent in treated patients compared to 2.6 percent in patients receiving a placebo.

Besides promising a potential benefit to men with prostate cancer, the therapy gives "proof of principle" to the idea that immune-based treatments can have a real impact on prostate cancer and other malignancies, experts said.

"There have been many failures with this kind of approach, and many have wondered if we shouldn't set the bar lower, somehow lower our expectations, and not hope for extended survival," Dr. Bruce Roth, a prostate cancer researcher at Vanderbilt University, told HealthDay when the 2005 study was released.

"But these findings are saying, 'No, looking for a survival advantage is a valid endpoint to look at for these agents,'" he said.

If caught early, prostate cancer remains very curable. However, despite advances in early detection, the disease remains the second leading cancer killer of U.S. men, according to the American Cancer Society. Even among men who develop the disease while it is still confined to the prostate, between 30 percent to 40 percent will experience a recurrence in years to come.
Because prostate cells depend heavily on testosterone to grow, therapies that reduce levels of circulating testosterone are often the first course of action in men who experience a recurrence. However, prostate cancer cells gradually grow resistant to hormonal therapy, and until very recently, doctors could only offer patients palliative therapies once that relapse occurred.
Hall said there was a new trial underway that was starting to confirm the survival results from the first study.

One advantage of the vaccine is that it has fewer side effects than chemotherapy, Hall added.
"The vaccine doesn't cure the disease, but it controls the disease for a period of time," he said. "And it is much less toxic than chemotherapy."

More information
For more on prostate cancer, head to the American Cancer Society.

Sex Drive Need a Tune-Up?

Q: Sex Drive Need a Tune-Up?
What is female sexual dysfunction? Is it a medical term for low sex drive? If so, what can be done about it?

A: You ask a provocative question. In its January 4, 2003 issue, the British Medical Journal published an article arguing that pharmaceutical companies are trying to create a medical diagnosis called "female sexual dysfunction," a condition that may not exist. And yet, according to some estimates, 43 percent of women suffer from it. One source for that figure was an article in the February 10, 1999 Journal of the American Medical Association, which reported on responses from more than 1,700 women to questions on whether they had experienced sex-related problems such as lack of desire or lack of lubrication that had lasted for at least two months. The authors did note, however, that some of the problems were related to non-medical issues, such as a drop in income, having young children at home, or stress.

A study from the University of Pennsylvania published in October, 2002, found that women who reported declining libido had fluctuating levels of testosterone, the hormone that governs sex drive in both men and women. Those who had the most variability in testosterone levels were two to three times more likely to report decreased libido than those who had the most stable levels. In the past, researchers believed that decreased levels of testosterone, particularly after menopause, were to blame for declining sex drive among women. Apart from fluctuations in testosterone levels, the only other factors affecting female sex drive discovered in this study were depression and the presence of children in the house.

Testosterone replacement can restore a flagging sex drive, but new evidence suggests that it may be a risky strategy. In July 24, 2006, a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that taking estrogen and testosterone together appears to more than double the risk of breast cancer. The findings came from the long-running Nurses Health Study, which includes more than 120,000 women.

Over 24 years of follow-up the researchers found that the risk of breast cancer among women taking the combination of estrogen and testosterone (most often in the form of the prescription drug Estratest) was 2.5 times higher than it was among women who never took hormones. Even after researchers accounted for other breast cancer risk factors, such as family history, age, and weight at menopause, they still noted an increased risk associated with taking the combination. Given these findings, testosterone replacement may not be the best option for women, at least not until we know more about the risks it presents.

Unfortunately, there are no other proven remedies for low sex drive in women. Damiana (Turnera diffusa), a plant native to Mexico with a reputation as a female aphrodisiac, may be worth a try, although it hasn’t been well studied. Look for it in health food stores and follow the dosage recommendations on the label. If vaginal dryness, a menopausal symptom, is the source of the problem, the over-the-counter lubricant Replens vaginal lotion can help. Topical estrogen, available by prescription, can also relieve vaginal dryness.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

Healthy Lifestyles Can Control Acne

Healthy Lifestyles Can Control Acne
Author: Edward F. Group III, D.C., Ph.D, N.D.,CCN
When treating a person for acne, the only way to get results from effective treatments is through various changes. This includes the way you eat, sleep, work, play, etc. It is extremely important to focus on all areas that need changing in order for a sustained effort be complete.

It is important in the treatment of acne to treat your whole self in as many ways as possible.
One common problem that faces people is stress, and not normal stress. What happens when the body gets too stressed out is the adrenal cortex converts adrenal androgens to testosterone in men and women, resulting in overactive sebaceous glands.

Women's ovaries produce 25% of the testosterone while 75% comes from adrenal androgens. When the male or female body is stressed, more adrenal androgen is released causing double the amount of testosterone. This causes the T zone of the face to be oily, while other areas are still dry from dehydration.

Adult acne is sometimes a by-product of stress and/or dehydration. Water calms the "body's stress alarm system". The most important type of acne treatment is to keep the skin from becoming dehydrated.

Clean, pure water is the most important acne treatment in that it is alkaline (pH 7.3) and can be considered a natural treatment or an almost free acne treatment. So the types of lifestyles you live will greater affect whether your body will reject acne or succumb to it.

Here are some tips that have helped other people and hopefully will help you:

Drink at least eight glasses of water per day (10 to 12 is better) to assist your body in getting rid of oil, waste and toxins. Water also helps moisten your skin, which keeps your pores from clogging. Most importantly, water helps relieve stress and relax your body so you can sleep better. Water and sleep help to reduce stress. Reduce coffees, soft drinks, teas and alcohols as much as possible as they are partial diuretics in that they push more water out of the body cell than they put in.

Astringent Natural Soaps and any astringent agents that shrink your skin's pores, such as witch hazel, oatmeal, very cold water, and rubbing alcohol, should be avoided. When your pores shrink, more oils are clogged in the pores of the skin.

Avoid stimulants, like coffee, tea, cigarettes, and excessive sugar from sweets and soda. Anything that affects your entire body, brain, and nervous system -- to awaken it in the morning or stimulate it during the day -- can easily stimulate the sebaceous glands to secrete more oil that has to leave the body via the pores, making your acne worse. Also, stimulants create stress.

Diet affects acne. Be careful what you eat. Try to eat foods as low in fat as possible.
Avoid alcohol considering it may worsen acne. People think of alcohol as a way to relax and relieve stress. It may do this but it also causes acne. Alcohol is an astringent that shrinks the skin pores, making them more prone to clogging. Also, alcohol inhibits sleep, causing more fatigue and stress, which lead to worse acne.

Avoid hot baths as well as very cold water on areas where you have acne. Use warm water well below 98.5 degrees on your skin. Scrubbing and abrasives should be avoided, since they irritate your skin, which should be left intact as a natural barrier against acne-causing bacteria.
Use Parfait Visage or Aquaspirit moisturizing natural facial lotion for dry sensitive skin' as it usually gives the best results for skin with acne. Parfait Visage and Aquaspirit can be purchased online at www.dreddy-clinic.com/ .

Spend limited time in the sun. You should get 15 minutes to the face and arms daily. The sun does kill bacteria, but it also acts as an astringent to tighten, dry, and clog your skin's pores. Avoid extremely cold weather as well, so you don't freeze and clog pores.

Moisturizing your face and body and staying in temperatures ranging from 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal. We suggest 100% pure Jojoba oil with no preservatives as a moisturizer. Jojoba oil can normally be purchased at GNC stores in the United States and Canada, and in most health stores throughout the world.

Reduce stress in your life. Allow as much time for tasks as possible to avoid time-pressured periods. Sleep seven hours or more per night so you can be alert during the day without a stimulant, like caffeine.

Avoid all hot foods and drinks until they have cooled to body temperature. Spicy-hot foods, too, can worsen acne.

Exercise for stress reduction by swimming in a properly treated indoor swimming pool. Use a Ozone purified pool if possible. Swimming pool water is usually 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which is well below your body's normal temperature of 98.6 degrees. Thus, it cools your whole body, including the acne-affected areas, while providing excellent exercise to the rest of you to reduce mental stress and physical tension.

Change linens such as wash cloths and body towels after each use, as they are a great place for acne-causing bacteria to grow and be reapplied to the skin later. Wash white facial wash cloths, pillow covers, and personal undergarments daily with Vinegar, tea tree oil or essential oils of Lime, lemon or orange to decrease acne-related bacterial growth. Also use a natural detergent available at Whole Foods or online. Change clothes and sheets frequently.

Moisturizers can be helpful in protecting the skin from dryness. We suggest 100% pure Jojoba oil with no preservatives which normally can be found at GNC stores in the United States and Canada and can be purchased in most health stores throughout the world.

Healthy lifestyles will lead to a healthier skin and a healthier body may require a permanent lifestyle change that will reward you with better general health, more energy, and clearer skin to show the world. Don't be afraid to make changes! The initial affects may be hard to grasp, but you will quickly learn to adapt.

More natural resource tips found right in your home
Blend a cucumber, apply externally, leave on for 20 minutes, then wash off.
Rub watermelon rind on the acne.
Apply Aloe Vera.
Eat watermelon or drink watermelon juice.
Drink tea made from carrots including the tops and beet tops.
Drink lukewarm water with 2 teaspoons of honey every morning on an empty stomach. This effectively lubricates the intestines. If one does not evacuate the intestines regularly, the toxins either end up in the liver or come out in the skin.
You may want to try the following Homeopathics, Essential Oils or Herbs
Belladonna— for people who experience flushes of heat to the face or who have inflamed pustular acne that improves with cold applications
Calendula— for skin conditions involving pustules or blisters
Hepar sulphur— for painful, pus-filled acne
Kali bromatum— for deep acne, especially on the forehead, in persons who are chilled and nervous ~ Silicea— for pustules or pit-forming acne
Chaste Tree Berry taken each morning can help prevent premenstual breakouts.
Lavender or Tea Tree Essential Oil can be applied directly to the blemish up to 3x daily.


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