Testosterone  and Heart Disease
Many women and men tremble at the mention of a suggested hormone program including testosterone because of imagined links of "over-aggressive behavior." Like a lot of other things that require balance in our lives, the right amount of testosterone is good, and too much or too little is bad. Testosterone is very important for the maintenance of health in both men and women, and deficiency conditions are very common.

If you're over 35 and not feeling well, I always think to measure testosterone levels.
   
Testosterone is so vital to health in so many ways, but for the purpose of this article, we will confine the subject to testosterone heart health.
   
It has often been assumed that high testosterone accounted for the excess incidence of coronary artery disease seen in men as opposed to women. The problem is the evidence is completely contrary to that assumption. Specifically, every one of the first ten risk factors I think of off the top of my head are aggravated by low testosterone levels! These include cholesterol and triglyceride levels, blood pressure, arterial constriction, rising insulin levels, abdominal obesity, increasing estrogen levels, and increased lipoprotein (a), and fibrinogen to mention just a few.  

Furthermore as the premiere muscle hormone, testosterone is also crucially important in treatment of congestive heart failure where the pumping action of the heart fails due to heart muscle weakness. I don't think there is another single factor in the body that more extensively correlates with heart disease.  

I believe it is safe to say that testosterone is THE heart protective hormone, and we use it to protect men from the ravages of heart disease, and to rescue them from its clutches once the problem has already occurred.  

From a reproductive—global human race—survival of the species perspective perhaps nature cruelly determines that a 60 year-old-male whose hormone levels have dropped is "expendible" and has served his purpose. He has sired and raised the succeeding generation, so his job is done, his usefulness is finished, and the failing protective shield, his testosterone level, opens him up to a terminal event—a heart attack.  But in defense of these men, all men, and women, and in counterpoint to those who object to medical interventions that change the course of nature, we don't feel that our loved ones are expendible because they have served their biological purpose, do we? Therefore we intervene in this cascade of hormonal decline, and one of our most effective interventions is to restore youthful levels of testosterone.
   
Studies using angiographic analysis of coronary vessels, the excellent response of anginal chest pain to aggressive administration of testosterone, improvement in EKG's, and cases of reversal of diabetic gangrene in the extremities with testosterone therapy all tell the same story. Testosterone is the heart protective hormone.  

It must be recognized that as men age, their cells may become less sensitive to the effect of testosterone, so that higher doses must be used. Apart from the psychology of testosterone, I see that many men (and some physicians) also are concerned about the possibility that the hormone may put them at greater risk of prostate cancer or prostate enlargement. There is no evidence that testosterone levels correlate with PSA tests, prostate size, or the development of prostate cancer. Certainly the pre-existing presence of prostate cancer does contraindicate the use of testosterone, but it is not involved in the development of prostate cancer. If that were the case, we should expect prostate cancer to be a disease of younger, not older men. As a matter of fact, much evidence points to the possibility that it is rising estrogen levels in older men that accounts for the stimulation of cellular growth that accounts for both prostatic enlargement, and cancer.

If you have heart disease, you may want to  familiarize yourself with the details of the testosterone-heart connection. If you are healthy and want to stay that way, come in and get your hormone levels checked. Natural medicine using identical to natural hormone replacement therapy can help you protect your heart and your general well being.