Men Osteoporosis estrogen

Men Osteoporosis and estrogen? Estrogen? I can understand studying testosterone but estrogen? The anwer is, Yes.

In the year 2000 a study was submitted to Clinical Investigations a journal published by the American Society for Clinical Investigation titled: "Relative contributions of testosterone and estrogen in regulating bone resorption and formation in normal elderly men". This article was published in the December 15th issue of Clinical Investigations .

"Relative contributions of testosterone and estrogen in regulating bone resorption and formation in normal elderly men" was authored by Alireza Falahati-Nini, B. Lawrence Riggs, Elizabeth J. Atkinson, W. Michael O’Fallon, Richard Eastell, and Sundeep Khosla1 of the Endrocrine Research Unit, and Department of Biostatistics, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota, USA and Division of Clinical Sciences, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, United Kingdom.

The abstract tells us that the following was the basis for this study about Men Osteoporosis:

1. It might be that estrogen regulates bone turnover in men as well as women since it is known that young adult males who cannot produce or respond to estrogen are osteopenic.

2. It is unclear whether a lack of estrogen or a lack of testosterone is the more important fact that leads to increased bone resorption and the lower bone formation inaging men that leads to osteoporosis since it is known that the bioavailable of both estrogen and testosterone decrease substantially in aging men.

"Thus, we addressed this issue directly by eliminating endogenous T (testosterone) and E (estrogen) production in 59 elderly men (mean age 68 years), studying them first under conditions of physiologic T (testosterone) and E (estrogen) replacement and then assessing the impact on bone turnover of withdrawing both T (testosterone) and E (estrogen), withdrawing only T (testosterone) , or only E (estrogen), or continuing both. Bone resorption markers increased significantly in the absence of both hormones and were unchanged in men receiving both hormones. By two-factor ANOVA, E (estrogen) played the major role in preventing the increase in the bone resorption markers, whereas T (testosterone) had no significant effect. By contrast, serum osteocalcin, a bone formation marker, decreased in the absence of both hormones, and both E (estrogen) and T (testosterone) maintained osteocalcin levels."

The conclusions drawn from the study of Men Osteoporosis were:
"We conclude that in aging men, E (estrogen) is the dominant sex steroid regulating bone resorption, whereas both E 9estrogen) and T(testosterone) are important in maintaining bone formation.

Implications of this study. This would seem to be an important study about Men and Osteoporosis. It certainly offers some explanation as to why FOSAMX, a Bisphosphonate that reduces bone resorption by impairing osteoclast cells, has proved to be successful in treating male osteoporosis. But the study from 2000 might offer some new directions for enabling men to increase their formation of new bone.

While estrogen replacement therapy has had some very mixed reviews when used with menopausal and postmenopausal women, I know of no studies about its use with older men.Also, the alternative medicine practitioners suggest a number of ways for increasing estrogen levels in women. Their use with men seems undocumented. But if increased estrogen levels in men is associated with greater bone formation, this may prove to be a line for additional research.

To read the abstract of this article and get a list of others studies which reference it, go to: Men Osteoporosis or to read the full text of the articles go to Men Osteoporosis Estrogen Testosterone