Testosterone

A testosterone gel slowed brain deterioration and boosted thinking ability in men with multiple sclerosis, according to a small study showing a possible new way to treat the incurable disease. Writing in the May issue of Archives of Neurology, UCLA researchers said the study was based on the fact that men develop the disease less frequently than women and the idea that the male sex hormone testosterone may be protective. The men applied a testosterone gel to their shoulders daily for a year.

Living in a community where a common pesticide has gotten into the soil, water and air may interfere with sexual development in young men. Until now, scientists had evidence only from laboratory animals that pesticides could affect the male reproductive system. The challenge was finding a place where they could look for the effects of a single pesticide on humans.

Of all the obstacles athletes have had to overcome to compete in the Olympics, perhaps the most controversial has been the gender test. Originally designed to prevent men from competing in women's events, it is based on the premise that competitors can be sorted into two categories via established scientific rules. But the biological boundaries of gender aren't always clear. Consider the Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patiño. A gender test revealed that she had a Y chromosome, which normally makes a person male.

"Bullet to the Head" is an adrenaline shot to your movie memory if the blunt, gleefully dumb, no-nonsense ways of '80s-style action flicks are your nostalgia drug of choice. Mayhem mavens Sylvester Stallone and director Walter Hill ("48 Hrs. ") make their debut as collaborators on this New Orleans shoot-'em-up, based on a graphic novel about a double-crossed hit man named Jimmy Bobo (Stallone) teaming with a young, idealistic cop (Sung Kang) to investigate a murder. ("Investigate" in these instances is a loose euphemism for "kill until no one's left")

Criticism of the powerful Chinese women's swimming team at September's World Championships in Rome gained validity Wednesday when it was announced Yang Aihua tested positive for the muscle-building hormone testosterone. Yang, the 400-meter freestyle world champion, became the fifth Chinese swimmer to test positive for a banned substance in 20 months. Three were for anabolic steroids, one for ephedrine, a stimulant.

The fountain of youth apparently does not yet come in a pill. Widely used DHEA supplements and testosterone patches failed to deliver their touted anti-aging benefits in one of the first rigorous studies to test such claims in older men and women. "I don't think there's any case for administering these" to elderly people, said Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair of the Mayo Clinic, lead author of the study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Already beset by injuries and illness, Greg LeMond was further distressed last year because he feared his team, PDM of the Netherlands, would try to improve his lagging performances by tricking him into using a banned drug, the American cyclist's attorney said Monday. Although LeMond's break with PDM, the sport's dominant team, was primarily the result of a financial dispute, Ron Stanko of Reading, Pa.

Tests of male hormone levels in women's blood cannot predict diminished sexual function and should not be used in deciding on a course of treatment, Australian researchers report today. The report in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. questions the assumption among sex researchers that low sexual desire in women has roots in low levels of testosterone or certain related hormones.

Cellegy Pharmaceuticals Inc., a South San Francisco biopharmaceutical company, said Monday that the Food and Drug Administration rejected its experimental drug to treat sexual dysfunction. Cellegy's shares fell 38% on the news. Cellegy, which has about 20 employees, had hoped to get approval this year for its Fortigel testosterone gel. The drug was designed to treat men with a testosterone deficiency that results in fatigue and decreased libido.

A woman's tears can be a total turnoff for a guy ? if he smells them, that is. Men who sniffed the tears of weeping women produced less testosterone and found female faces less arousing, according to new research that suggests a novel evolutionary explanation for why humans cry. Communication isn't limited to language, said neuroscientist Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, whose study was published online Thursday...