Washington, June 18 (IANS) Low testosterone levels in men might kill them early, regardless of age, according to a new study. The new study supplements evidence linking deficiency of this sex hormone with increased death from all causes over time - the so-called “all-cause mortality”.

The study found that men with low testosterone levels were older, more obese, and had a greater prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure, compared with men who had higher testosterone levels.

The results serve as a warning for men with low testosterone to have a healthier lifestyle, including weight control, regular exercise and a healthy diet, said co-author Robin Haring of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Germany.

“It is very possible that lifestyle determines levels of testosterone,” he said while presenting the findings of the study at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Haring’s study analysed such deaths in nearly 2,000 men aged between 20 and 79 years. Follow-up averaged seven years.

At the beginning of the study, 5 percent of these men had low blood testosterone levels, defined as the lower end of the normal range for young adult men.

Low testosterone men had more than 2.5 times greater risk of dying during the next 10 years compared to men with higher testosterone, the study found.

This difference was not explained by age, smoking, alcohol intake, level of physical activity, or larger waists (a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease), Haring said.

In cause-specific death analyses, low testosterone predicted increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease and cancer but not death of any other single cause.