Low steroid levels linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease June 23, 2012 Low levels of a naturally
occurring steroid are associated with an increased risk of heart and
blood-vessel disease in elderly men, a new study finds. The results will be
presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston . The steroid in
question is dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, which is secreted by the adrenal gland
and circulates in blood mainly in a sulfated form, DHEA-S. In other tissues,
DHEA-S is converted into the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. Previous,
smaller studies found an association between low DHEA-S levels and heart and
blood-vessel, or cardiovascular, disease, although their results were
inconclusive. At this time, while we know that DHEA production decreases with
age, the exact health effects of its decline are unclear. In this large-scale
study, investigators study found that elderly men with the lowest DHEA-S blood
levels were significantly more likely than those with higher concentrations to
develop cardiovascular-disease events within five years. The increased risk
persisted even after controlling for other influences, indicating that low
DHEA-S levels are independently associated with a greater risk of disease. "Our
findings may be the result of DHEA-S being protective, or that lower DHEA-S
level is a marker for poor general health," said study lead author Åsa
Tivesten, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor at the University
of Gothenburg , Sweden . "More research is
needed to understand underlying mechanisms and to evaluate the potential
benefits of hormone replacement." Investigators used an advanced
laboratory technique to isolate, identify, and measure DHEA-S levels in the
blood. During the five-year follow-up, they used nationwide medical registries
to document 485 cases of cardiovascular disease among the study participants. Patients
included 2,416 men between the ages of 69 and 81 years. All were participants
in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Sweden study, which is a long-term project
designed to examine risk factors for a number of diseases. According to
Tivesten, it is important to note that this study's findings only indicate that
low DHEA-S levels may be related to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease.
"We cannot say that DHEA-S is protective because we have only studied an
association," she said. "A potential practical implication is that
established cardiovascular risk factors perhaps should be assessed and treated
more aggressively in men with lower DHEA-S levels. However, this must be
evaluated in future studies; today, DHEA-S level is not part of
cardiovascular-risk assessment." Provided by The Endocrine Society
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