Testosterone is a hormone that, while associated mostly with men, is produced by both males and females. The primary production of testosterone takes place in the testicles, and testosterone deficiency is known as hypogonadism.
For the most part, low testosterone is associated with men, and it is known for causing problems such as infertility, erectile dysfunction, and decreased muscle mass. However, recent studies suggest that low levels of testosterone can have even more serious consequences, one of which is diabetes.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease defined by the body’s inability or struggle to produce enough insulin. This deficiency of insulin causes much higher levels of blood glucose. There are two kinds of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2.
Type 1 diabetes, which used to be called Juvenile-Onset Diabetes, is caused by the body’s immune system destroying the cells in the body that create insulin. People with Type 1 diabetes are completely dependent on injected insulin because eventually, their bodies have no cells left capable of creating insulin. Type 1 diabetes only accounts for 5 to 10% of all people who suffer from diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the more common of the two, the person’s body cannot process and use insulin the right way, and eventually the pancreas may begin to produce less and less insulin, causing the body to have insulin deficiency.
The question is, what do low testosterone levels have to do with diabetes? Studies across the United States as well as worldwide indicate that on any given day, a randomly sampled group of men with diabetes tested for testosterone levels is likely to show that half of those men have low levels of testosterone.
Testosterone has many functions, and one of those is that it helps the body’s tissues absorb more of the sugar in the bloodstream created by insulin. Logically, the link between testosterone levels and diabetes makes sense. If there are lower levels of testosterone, the body struggles to absorb the sugar in the bloodstream coming from insulin.
The link between low testosterone levels and diabetes is most common with Type 2 diabetes. This is because Type 1 diabetes is the type of disease that is evident in a person’s body early on, usually appearing during childhood or early adulthood, explaining the former term “Juvenile-Onset”.
Type 2 diabetes is far more common in general, but it is also more common in adults, as it is a disease that develops and worsens over time, sometimes not even showing signs or symptoms until after the disease has been discovered and diagnosed. It is a disease that deals with the body’s system struggling to absorb blood sugar from insulin, something that testosterone helps the body do.
While causation hasn’t been proven, the correlation between low testosterone and diabetes is clear. In medical labs, it has been observed that the correct amount of testosterone injected into the body as replacement for low levels has resulted in drastically improved blood sugar levels, furthering the confidence that low testosterone levels and diabetes are indeed closely if not directly linked.