In a new cross-sectional study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers found that lower levels of serum testosterone could be associated with a higher risk of developing arthritis.
For their research, the scientists analyzed data on 10,439 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), collected from individuals in the US. They accounted for specific factors in their data collection, including alcohol use, smoking, diabetes, level of education, sex, and marital status, and used three models to account for slightly different covariates.
Upon the analysis, the researchers discovered that participants with arthritis had lower serum testosterone levels than participants who did not have arthritis. They also found that lower levels of this hormone were linked to an increased risk for arthritis in analysis using certain models.
Dr. Cory Rice, chief clinical advisor at Biote, and internist and functional medicine specialist, who wasn’t involved in the study, says: “The clinical implications of this study are that we should continue to pay attention to the importance of joint arthropathies as it relates to hormone levels while we continue to await large scale studies further illustrating this pattern. The next logical step will be looking at HRT [hormone replacement therapy] in a scientifically rigorous way as it relates to joint health, both objectively and subjectively.”