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American Morning
Testosterone May Halt Onset Alzheimer's Disease
Aired January 27, 2004 - 08:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of men are getting testosterone therapy to maintain their hormone levels. Now a new study says that the presence of the male hormone can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's Disease in men.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details on that this morning -- Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Yes, this is one of the first studies to show that free testosterone has a significant effect on Alzheimer's Disease and suggests a causal relationship, a cause and effect relationship between the two.
It's sort of an interesting study, Soledad. This was a long-term study, about 20 years, looking at over 570 men between the ages of 32 and 87.
What they found, interesting, men with Alzheimer's had half the levels of testosterone as men without Alzheimer's. More importantly and perhaps for diagnostic sake, more importantly, testosterone levels, actually, drops, were detectable about a decade before the onset of Alzheimer's.
Important things here. Now, we're talking about free testosterone. I'll make a couple of distinctions, because there's something known as total testosterone, which circulates in your blood, and free testosterone. That actually gets into your brain, as well. Free testosterone can prohibit Alzheimer's brain changes and that's what all the excitement is about here. And not proven benefit from supplements, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that.
But here's how it might work and here's why -- and people ask, how does testosterone possibly cause some benefit in terms of Alzheimer's. Well, if you had this free testosterone circulating in the brain, it is possible that these plaques that you see here that are associated with Alzheimer's and the tangles, as well, that are associated with Alzheimer's, are not growing as much. They're not allowed to sort of expand as much and cause the sort of problems that do occur with Alzheimer's Disease.
That's the theory, at least. Again, suggestive of a causal relationship. But pretty exciting stuff -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Exciting, but no doctors are yet advising their patients to suddenly be on testosterone injections or things like that, free testosterone injections, are they?
GUPTA: Well, you know, they're not, but a lot of men still are doing that because of all the possible benefits of testosterone. The doctors are cautious, you're right, Soledad, about that, because there's not a direct cause and effect relationship yet. No one is saying as of right now that if you take testosterone, you won't get Alzheimer's. And on the flip side of that, there is also concern, such as it may increase the risk of prostate cancer, it may increase the risk of stroke and there are more studies certainly needed on the pros versus cons.
On the other hand, there are some men who probably are good candidates for testosterone therapy. There are men who have little or no testosterone that's measurable levels. They've had damaged pituitary glands or damaged testes, as well. Those are reasons possibly to get testosterone. Not yet for Alzheimer's, although that may be down the road -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Sanjay, does this mean that men go through like a male version of menopause?
GUPTA: Yes, that's an excellent question. A lot of people have toyed around with that. Certainly, testosterone levels do tend to level off a bit after adolescence, although they stay pretty stable, though, as men get older after that. So the chance is remote, in fact, that there's probably a male menopause, per se. Again, it doesn't, it hasn't stopped men from taking testosterone supplements in some way, shape or form. There are ways that you can get testosterone supplements if you are interested, intra muscular injections, patches and gels.
But, Soledad, you made the correct point, no one is saying run out and do that now, certainly not for Alzheimer's -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 27, 2004 - 08:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of men are getting testosterone therapy to maintain their hormone levels. Now a new study says that the presence of the male hormone can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's Disease in men.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details on that this morning -- Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Yes, this is one of the first studies to show that free testosterone has a significant effect on Alzheimer's Disease and suggests a causal relationship, a cause and effect relationship between the two.
It's sort of an interesting study, Soledad. This was a long-term study, about 20 years, looking at over 570 men between the ages of 32 and 87.
What they found, interesting, men with Alzheimer's had half the levels of testosterone as men without Alzheimer's. More importantly and perhaps for diagnostic sake, more importantly, testosterone levels, actually, drops, were detectable about a decade before the onset of Alzheimer's.
Important things here. Now, we're talking about free testosterone. I'll make a couple of distinctions, because there's something known as total testosterone, which circulates in your blood, and free testosterone. That actually gets into your brain, as well. Free testosterone can prohibit Alzheimer's brain changes and that's what all the excitement is about here. And not proven benefit from supplements, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that.
But here's how it might work and here's why -- and people ask, how does testosterone possibly cause some benefit in terms of Alzheimer's. Well, if you had this free testosterone circulating in the brain, it is possible that these plaques that you see here that are associated with Alzheimer's and the tangles, as well, that are associated with Alzheimer's, are not growing as much. They're not allowed to sort of expand as much and cause the sort of problems that do occur with Alzheimer's Disease.
That's the theory, at least. Again, suggestive of a causal relationship. But pretty exciting stuff -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Exciting, but no doctors are yet advising their patients to suddenly be on testosterone injections or things like that, free testosterone injections, are they?
GUPTA: Well, you know, they're not, but a lot of men still are doing that because of all the possible benefits of testosterone. The doctors are cautious, you're right, Soledad, about that, because there's not a direct cause and effect relationship yet. No one is saying as of right now that if you take testosterone, you won't get Alzheimer's. And on the flip side of that, there is also concern, such as it may increase the risk of prostate cancer, it may increase the risk of stroke and there are more studies certainly needed on the pros versus cons.
On the other hand, there are some men who probably are good candidates for testosterone therapy. There are men who have little or no testosterone that's measurable levels. They've had damaged pituitary glands or damaged testes, as well. Those are reasons possibly to get testosterone. Not yet for Alzheimer's, although that may be down the road -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Sanjay, does this mean that men go through like a male version of menopause?
GUPTA: Yes, that's an excellent question. A lot of people have toyed around with that. Certainly, testosterone levels do tend to level off a bit after adolescence, although they stay pretty stable, though, as men get older after that. So the chance is remote, in fact, that there's probably a male menopause, per se. Again, it doesn't, it hasn't stopped men from taking testosterone supplements in some way, shape or form. There are ways that you can get testosterone supplements if you are interested, intra muscular injections, patches and gels.
But, Soledad, you made the correct point, no one is saying run out and do that now, certainly not for Alzheimer's -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
