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From the article:

Dr. Resnick, Scott Moffat, Ph.D., and their colleagues evaluated the testosterone levels of 574 men, ages 32 to 87, who participated in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). The investigators examined free and total testosterone levels-measured over an average of 19 years-in relationship to subsequent diagnosis of AD. Based on physical, neurological and neuropsychological exams, 54 of the 574 men were diagnosed with AD.

The research team found that for every 50 percent increase in the free testosterone index in the bloodstream, there was about a 26 percent decrease in the risk of developing AD. Although overall free testosterone levels fell over time, these levels dropped more precipitously in those men who later developed AD. In fact, at the end of the study, men who were diagnosed with AD, on average, had about half the levels of circulating free testosterone as men who didn’t develop the disease. In some cases, the drop-offs in free testosterone levels associated with AD were detected up to a decade before diagnosis.

Previously, Dr. Resnick and her colleagues found that older men with high levels of circulating free testosterone have better visual and verbal memory and perform spatial tasks more adeptly than their peers.

“It is quite possible that circulating free testosterone has a broad range of influences on the aging brain,” Dr. Resnick said.

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