The effect of statins on testosterone in men and women, a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Statins are extensively used for cardiovascular disease prevention. Statins reduce mortality rates more than other lipid-modulating drugs, although evidence from randomized controlled trials also suggests that statins unexpectedly increase the risk of diabetes and improve immune function. Physiologically, statins would be expected to lower androgens because statins inhibit production of the substrate for the local synthesis of androgens and statins' pleiotropic effects are somewhat similar to the physiological effects of lowering testosterone, so we hypothesized that statins lower testosterone.

Alanine transaminase has opposite associations with death from diabetes and ischemic heart disease in NHANES III.

Purpose: Diabetes increases the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Stringent control of diabetes does not reliably reduce cardiovascular events. Some global regions, such as East Asia, have low mortality rates from IHD and high rates of diabetes.

Lifecourse infectious origins of sexual inequalities in central adiposity.

Background: Social disparities in obesity are often more marked among women than men, possibly due to social factors. Taking a life-history perspective, we hypothesized that childhood infections could be relevant via sex-specific effects of immune system activation on sexual development and, hence, body shape.

Methods: We used multivariable linear regression to assess the sex-specific, adjusted associations of 'childhood' pathogens [0 (n = 1002), 1 (n = 2199), 2 (n = 3442) or 3 (n = 4833) of HSV1, CMV and hepatitis A antibodies] and 'adult' pathogens [0 (n = 5836), 1 (n = 3018) or ≥ 2 (n = 720) of HSV2, HHV8 and hepatitis B or C) with waist-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) standard deviations (SDs) using NHANES III (1988-94).