A new research has suggested that testosterone levels might help improve men’s cognitive performance.
With age, all the characteristics of body including mental functions change. Aging makes new learning slower and also new information is processed less carefully, and details often slip.Such changes give rise to the “senior moment” in healthy elders and to cognitive impairment and dementia in others.
Likewise, testosterone levels also decline with age. According to the journal Harvard Men’s Health Watch falling hormone levels might account for some problem. The data is far from conclusive, but studies have found some connections. For instance, higher testosterone levels in midlife have been linked to better preservation of tissue in some parts of the brain. And, higher testosterone levels in older men have been linked with better performance on cognitive tests.
The finding raises the question of whether testosterone therapy might help in improving mental function in healthy older men, or even in those with cognitive impairment. Some small studies have reported subtle improvements on cognitive tests. However, high testosterone levels may have harmful effects as well.
Harvard Men’s Health Watch suggests that until more research findings are available, men should not use testosterone or any other androgen to improve mental function.
The study is published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch.
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