Testosterone Surge Is For Losers, Too

It’s called the “winner effect,” because trainers have long believed that winning athletic competition actually boosts testosterone levels. Now a new study by researchers at Emory University suggests that it should be called the “winner and loser effect.” The researchers analyzed saliva samples of male and female cross country runners taken during warm up, before a race, and after a race.  The envelope please….The researchers found that testosterone went up from the baseline for everyone– both men and women during the warm-up, while levels of cortisol — a hormone related to stress — did not. At the end of the race, while both men and women  showed the expected increases in cortisol and surges in testosterone, neither hormone was related to finish time. In fact, one of the biggest testosterone surges occurred in a runner with one of the slowest times.