The statement is about an association, not a causal link.  When
reading this, it is crucial to note the phrasing.  Compare it with
this cut-and-paste I just did:

_Countries that_ have lower levels of _TVs per household_ might be at
greater risk of
_having more children dying_.

That is true, by the way.  All you need to do is to consult the UNICEF
data.  And it's obvious that it would be true, since both childhood
mortality and TVs per household would be driven by similar socio-
economic variables.  But it is not the lack of TVs that's killing the
children.  We would not solve the problems in third-world countries by
sending them a bunch of TVs.

Notice how the journalists always put this stuff at the end of the
article.

That the researchers include this statement about lifestyle changes in
the report is tantamount to saying that they did not control for these
variables.

Another thing that they did not control for.  The wording "relatively
healthy" leads me to believe that they did not screen the men in the
study for diseases like PCa.

...

I've done a little more digging.  This has appeared in a few other
news outlets, but it's probably not been published in a journal yet,
as it was just presented a few days ago at a conference in Toronto.
The researchers did control for heart disease and diabetes, but
apparently not for lifestyle or PCa.  They are quite serious about the
caveat that they have found no causal link.  See, for example:

http://healthonnet.org/News/HSN/605224.html

where it's mentioned in the sub-headline.

--charlie

From: IATROGENIC@webtv.net
(From Bob)

On 6/27/07, the following article appeared in the "Men's Health
Spotlight" section of AM New York, a local free newspaper, have not been
able to find source elsewhere, article reads. Men who have lower levels
of testosterone might be at greater risk of dying early, according to
new research.
A study of nearly 800 California men ages 50 to 91 found that those with
the lowest testosterone levels had a 33% greater risk of death during
the next 18 years than the men with higher levels. "The new study is
only the second report linking deficiency of this sex hormone with
increased death from all causes over time and the first to do so in
relatively healthy men", said Gail Laughlin of the University of
California at San Diego School of Medicine, who presented the findings
this month.

====> this is a topic for those who have to go on HT because without
testosterone,  our muscles get weaker.  one way to look at this is when
our testosterone kicked in when we were teenagers,  our bodies bulked up
and get stronger.   removing testosterone  causes the body to go the
other way, such as in aging.  so, following this logic,  and since the
heart is a muscle,  reducing testosterone does affect heart function to
a point, and if you tie that into the above paragraph,  it would support
it as to the men with the lowest T level would have a greater chance to
die because of a weaker heart muscle.

i guess somebody will probably get a big grant to figure out the
obvious.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Bob wrote:

One age 50, one age 60, one age 70, and 797 age 80 to 91.

Sure, I'd guess those 797 men have a greater risk of death during
the next 18 years regardless of their hormone levels.