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Ageless Forever Anti-Aging News Blog
Monica

Monica

Medical Writer & Nutritionist

MSc Nutrition

University of Stockholm & Karolinska Institute, Sweden 

   Baylor University, TX, USA

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Long-Term Testosterone Therapy Improves Cardiometabolic Function and Reduces Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Real-Life Results

 
Most men with testosterone deficiency need testosterone therapy for the rest of their life in order to achieve and maintain best possible health outcomes. Therefore, studies that investigate the effects of testosterone therapy in real-life are needed, to shed light on adherence and health outcomes in routine clinical practice.[1] While randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are gold standard in medical research [2, 3], RCTs are conducted in highly controlled environments and therefore their results may not carry over to the uncontrolled setting of real-life.[1] It is increasingly recognized that conclusions drawn from RCTs are not always a useful aid for decision-making because evaluating the value of a drug or technology requires an understanding of its impact on current clinical practice and management of patients in a real-life setting.[4]
 
A series of “real-life studies” have been conducted, all showing numerous health benefits of testosterone therapy in testosterone deficient (hypogonadal) men and confirming its safety, with an observation period of up to 17 years.[5-23] Here I summarize the results from the most recent real-life study, published February 9th 2017 in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics which investigated the long-term effects and safety of testosterone therapy for up to 8 years in testosterone deficient men attending a urological office.[5] Differences in cardiovascular risk factors and deaths with testosterone therapy were compared to those seen in testosterone deficient men not receiving testosterone therapy but attending the same urological office.[5] 
 

Exercise – much more than just a calorie burning tool

 

Exercise is commonly seen as a tool to burn off calories and stored body fat. While exercise has potential to greatly increase calorie burn off and fat burning, as seen in elite athletes [1], studies show that for most people who are struggling with fat loss, dieting – i.e. reducing caloric intake - results in a greater weight loss (or fat loss in some cases) than exercising.[2-5] Why?
 
The problem is not that exercise is ineffective, but that the prescribed exercise dose or adherence to the prescribed exercise dose, is poor.[4, 6] In most studies, the energy deficit produced by the prescribed exercise is far smaller than that usually produced by dietary restriction.[4] In contrast, in studies that carefully compared the effects of an equal energy deficit caused by either aerobic exercise versus caloric restriction, the effect on weight loss is similar.[7-10] In these studies, subjects achieved an identical daily energy deficit of 500-700 calories, created either by diet or by supervised daily exercise, for a 12-week period. Similar weight losses (approximately 6 kg in women and 8 kg in men) occurred in both the diet-only and exercise-only groups.[7, 8]
 
Unfortunately, adherence to exercise programs that daily burn 500-700 calories per session is low and over half end up dropping out after 16 months, despite getting paid for their time.[11, 12] But this does not mean that lower amounts of exercise are "worthless". Here I will tell you how regular exercising – even if your workouts don’t result in large calorie expenditures - helps you stay on the fitness track…