Lifestyle May Influence Testosterone Level

By Eric Nagourney, The New York Times

December 19, 2006

As men age, they experience a natural decline in the male hormone testosterone. But a new study finds that unhealthy habits may hasten that process.

Even a fairly small increase in body mass index, for example, is associated with a drop in testosterone like that normally associated with 10 years of aging, the researchers said.
And that can put men at increased risk for diabetes, reduced bone and muscle mass and sexual problems.
The results suggest that changes in health and lifestyle might slow the drop in testosterone, the authors wrote. 
The study appears in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and was led by Thomas G. Travison of the New England Research Institutes in Massachusetts.
The researchers followed the health of more than 1,600 men in the Boston area over a period of about 17 years. Some things that were found to be associated with a drop in testosterone were out of the men’s control, like the death of a spouse. But other factors that the study looked at, like excessive alcohol use and being sedentary, were another matter.
“These results presented here suggest that while hormone declines appear to be an integral aspect of the aging process, rapid declines need not be dismissed as inevitable,” the authors said.