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Could testosterone supplements help prevent Alzheimer's disease? It is
possible, according to results of a new study in which researchers exposed
nerve cells to the male hormone. In the presence of testosterone, nerve
cells collected from rats and mice tended to produce a harmless or beneficial
form of beta-amyloid protein rather than the form that makes up plaques
in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients.
The testosterone directs the metabolism so that much more goes to the good
pathway and much less to the bad pathway. In other words, you get much less
beta-amyloid peptide and you get more of this secretory beta-amyloid precursor
protein, which is considered by most people to be beneficial for the health
of the nerve cells. While the findings do not necessarily apply to the treatment
of humans -- the brain being a much more complex system than a laboratory
culture dish -- the new findings suggest that testosterone may be helpful
in preventing Alzheimer's disease, according to the report.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
USA February 1, 2000;97:1202-1205.
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