Overweight can be deadly, but the remedy – eating less and moving more – is more than some fat people can deal with. According to Russian endocrinologists working at the Research Center for Endocrinology, Moscow, injections of a slow-working testosterone ester can be a great help to people trying to lose weight, at least for overweight men. They published a case study in Arquivos Brasileiros de Endocrinologia e Metabologia.
The subject of the researchers’ case study was a 42-year-old man who weighed over 150 kg. He’s in the photo below [A]. The guy was not only overweight, but also ill. His blood contained more fat and cholesterol than doctors consider healthy; he had high blood pressure, was depressed and tired, had a reduced libido and impotence to boot. He was aware that he needed to lose weight, and had made unsuccessful attempts in the past, but by the time he became the subject of the study he had given up even trying to get more exercise or change his diet.
This may have been because he was suffering from depression, the researchers suspected. And that may have been caused by a low testosterone level – which is not
Nebido testosterone preparation restores fat man’s health unusual in obese men. This may have made him unable to make lifestyle changes, and why he continued to overeat. A vicious circle. But the Russians wondered whether it would be possible to break this with synthetic testosterone. They decided to give it a try.
They treated the man for sixteen months with Bayer’s long-lasting testosterone preparation Nebido. The active ingredient in Nebido is testosterone undecanoate. [Structural formula shown above] The doctors gave the man a 1000 mg injection in weeks 0, 6 and 12. Thereafter he was given a 1000 mg injection once every twelve weeks.
The researchers measured the man’s PSA level every three months. The more of this protein there is in your blood, the greater your chance of developing prostate cancer.
Nebido testosterone preparation restores fat man’s health
The man started to feel better immediately. He took up swimming twice a week and walking on the other days. He also started eating more healthily. The photo on the right shows how the man looked after 16 months.
He became healthier, which is hardly surprising if you shed 50 kg surplus weight. Before the 16 months began he was suffering from metabolic syndrome, a complex of disturbances in the body caused by being overweight. At the end of the 16 months, the disorders had disappeared.
“The dramatic weight loss and recovery of the metabolic syndrome was unexpectedly quick and successful”, the Russians write. “A case report does not allow to make far reaching conclusions as to the mechanism but it could be that, in addition to breaking the self-sustaining vicious circle of metabolic syndrome-obesity hypogonadal testosterone levels, the mood-elevating effects of normalizing testosterone may have played a role.”
Breaking the vicious circle of obesity: the metabolic syndrome and low testosterone by administration of testosterone to a young man with morbid obesity.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with low serum testosterone levels. Conversely, low testosterone levels induce MS. These operational mechanisms reinforce one another and induce a vicious cycle. This is a report on a morbid obesity 42 year-old man with the MS and serum testosterone of 5.0 nmol/L (N: 12.0-33.0), who was resistant to treatment with diet and exercise. He was treated with testosterone undecanoate for 16 months.
METHODS:
Anthropological and laboratory variables were measured before and during testosterone administration. Also the Aging Male Symptom Scale (AMS), the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and Beck’s Depression Inventory were assessed.
RESULTS:
After 16 months, there was a weight loss of 50 kg and a decrease in waist circumference of 36.5 cm. Blood pressure normalized and laboratory variables returned to the normal range. The patient did not meet the criteria for the MS anymore. There were improvements on the AMS, the IIEF and Beck’s Depression Inventory.
CONCLUSIONS:
Normalizing testosterone in men with morbid obesity in combination with diet and exercise, with the MS and low testosterone levels, may rescue them from the MS, improving their mood and their stamina to follow a diet and to exercise.
PMID: 20126860 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
