Deans' stroke musings: Lower Testosterone Levels Predict Incident Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack in Older Men

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Lower Testosterone Levels Predict Incident Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack in Older Men

Well I'm not old yet, 14 more years of youth left, time to get that bucket list completed. No self-prescribing, that's what your doctors are for.
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/94/7/2353.short

Abstract

Context: Lower circulating testosterone concentrations are associated with metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, carotid intima-media thickness, and aortic and lower limb arterial disease in men. However, it is unclear whether lower testosterone levels predict major cardiovascular events.

Objective: We examined whether lower serum testosterone was an independently significant risk factor for symptomatic cerebrovascular events in older men.

Design: This was a prospective observational study with median follow-up of 3.5 yr.

Setting: Community-dwelling, stroke-free older men were studied.

Participants: A total of 3443 men at least 70 yr of age participated in the study.

Main Outcome Measures: Baseline serum total testosterone, SHBG, and LH were assayed. Free testosterone was calculated using mass action equations. Incident stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) was recorded.

Results: A first stroke or TIA occurred in 119 men (3.5%). Total and free testosterone concentrations in the lowest quartiles (&lt11.7 nmol/liter and &lt222 pmol/liter) were associated with reduced event-free survival (P = 0.014 and P = 0.01, respectively). After adjustment including age, waist-hip ratio, waist circumference, smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and medical comorbidity, lower total testosterone predicted increased incidence of stroke or TIA (hazard ratio = 1.99; 95% confidence interval, 1.33–2.99). Lower free testosterone was also associated (hazard ratio = 1.69; 95% confidence interval, 1.15–2.48), whereas SHBG and LH were not independently associated with incident stroke or TIA.

Conclusions: In older men, lower total testosterone levels predict increased incidence of stroke or TIA after adjusting for conventional risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Men with low-normal testosterone levels had increased risk. Further studies are warranted to determine whether interventions that raise circulating testosterone levels might prevent cerebrovascular disease in men.