T-Nation Dummies?
Here is an interesting article I ran across earlier today.
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
Sounds like a gigantic leap to conclude that the brain cell death by too much testosterone would lead to aggression. If if it was that simple, wouldn’t the neural pathways responsible for aggression be as equally damaged as the pathways for controlling aggresion?
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
Sounds like a gigantic leap to conclude that the brain cell death by too much testosterone would lead to aggression. If if it was that simple, wouldn’t the neural pathways responsible for aggression be as equally damaged as the pathways for controlling aggresion?[/quote]
No, it’s a gigantic leap to drop testosterone on cells in a petri dish and conclude that whatever reaction is observed is the same in the human body.
To then go further and make some comment about muscle bound guys cutting you off in traffic takes it to an all new level of stupid.
The media tends to latch onto studies that the researchers peers reject. I need to see the study design, but from what I gather from the article, it doesn’t mean much.
[quote]teratos wrote:
The media tends to latch onto studies that the researchers peers reject. I need to see the study design, but from what I gather from the article, it doesn’t mean much. [/quote]
I found the abstract, but it goes into very little detail and doesn’t even tell where these brain cells came from. Were they from a male subject or a female subject. Were they from rats, lizards, or pigs? It doesn’t give any of that info.
I’m surprised they didn’t blame it on creatine.
It goes without saying that creatine is involved, as everyone now knows, creatine is a steroid.
DB
“Too much testosterone kills brain cells”
Yeah, but only the WEAK ones!
A book i read quoted a similar study that mentioned cell death by testosterone. Not in a “testosterone makes you stupid” context, but to explain why men are more “left brained” then women.
shrugs cell death, is a VERY VERY broad area and doesnt necessarily mean anything… Cell Turnover would be a more important term.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
To then go further and make some comment about muscle bound guys cutting you off in traffic takes it to an all new level of stupid.[/quote]
They obviously haven’t read the studies about testosterone boosting perception, spatial awareness, and problem solving capabilities in humans and animal models.
I could see how neurons that whither in the presence of testosterone could be useless and vice versa.
[quote]teratos wrote:
The media tends to latch onto studies that the researchers peers reject. I need to see the study design, but from what I gather from the article, it doesn’t mean much. [/quote]
Agreed on the study design, etc. but it was published in the J. Biol. Chem., if their peers rejected it, it got into a pretty well-read journal.
I know the author of that paper. She is in the Pharmacology Department. The press, as usual, has conveyed a gross misunderstanding on their part and has published it as fact. So, before everyone gets their shorts in a ball, here’s the REAL scoop on the research:
Excess testosterone causes an upregulation of insulin signalling. This, in turn, caused prolonged open channels in the calcium cascade, which initiated the apoptotic (cell death) pathway.
It is, at best, an indirect effect. Don’t forget that individual cells in tissue culture are very different from what actual living human brain cells experience. Also the human body has feedback loops that insure that this sort of thing cannot possibly happen.
All the hormones have undergone several metabolic changes in our bodies before they ever cross over into our brains. Not to worry. Testosterone and lots of it is a good thing!
I think I’ll cut that bitch off in the University parking lot this afternoon, while giving her the finger.
Why does a journalist do this? If only they could they be a little less responsible, that way they would completely forget to submit an article like this. Instead, they do just enough to be lackadazical.
[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
I know the author of that paper. She is in the Pharmacology Department. The press, as usual, has conveyed a gross misunderstanding on their part and has published it as fact. So, before everyone gets their shorts in a ball, here’s the REAL scoop on the research:
Excess testosterone causes an upregulation of insulin signalling. This, in turn, caused prolonged open channels in the calcium cascade, which initiated the apoptotic (cell death) pathway.
It is, at best, an indirect effect. Don’t forget that individual cells in tissue culture are very different from what actual living human brain cells experience. Also the human body has feedback loops that insure that this sort of thing cannot possibly happen.
All the hormones have undergone several metabolic changes in our bodies before they ever cross over into our brains. Not to worry. Testosterone and lots of it is a good thing!
I think I’ll cut that bitch off in the University parking lot this afternoon, while giving her the finger.[/quote]
LOL.
Yeah, I saw that research too… and basically came to the same conclusions as the rest here with respect to in vitro vs in vivo and media idiocy.
Talk about perpetuating myths in an irresponsible fashion!
Yo-momma, I would take a leave of absence for a little week or two.
A little known fact is that the branch davidand massacre was over steroids. When the DEA hears that they had liquid T at this place, they will probably roll in with Abrahms tanks.
[quote]BarneyFife wrote:
Yo-momma, I would take a leave of absence for a little week or two.
A little known fact is that the branch davidand massacre was over steroids. When the DEA hears that they had liquid T at this place, they will probably roll in with Abrahms tanks.[/quote]
I’ll fend 'em off with ultra-low frequency sound waves using my bass with the amp turned to the clear channel. How do you like me now, Feds?
Testosterone killing brain cells sounds like a fantastic path to follow as it relates to human evolution huh? If that was the case, we’d never have evolved at all.
[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
I think I’ll cut that bitch off in the University parking lot this afternoon, while giving her the finger.[/quote]
You are the best! 
[quote]lucasa wrote:
They obviously haven’t read the studies about testosterone boosting perception, spatial awareness, and problem solving capabilities in humans and animal models.
I could see how neurons that whither in the presence of testosterone could be useless and vice versa.[/quote]
Or low T levels associated with increased risk of depression.