There are many medical conditions that
correlate with low levels of DHEA.
DHEA works in three important ways: it
maintains normal sex hormone levels, inhibits the damaging effects of stress,
and increases the production of antioxidant enzymes in the liver.
DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone, is a natural
hormone produced from cholesterol by the adrenal glands.
DHEA has the power to enhance the quality
of a baby boomers life. .. read on ..
Because DHEA levels decrease with age,
people above middle age can experience incredible results with DHEA
Supplementation.
In one of the first DHEA research projects
in England [Bulbrook, 1962, 1971] discovered that DHEA was abnormally low in
women who developed breast cancer.
DHEA is said to "the mother of all
hormones".
DHEA is rather unique hormone, there are no known DHEA
receptors in the body.
DHEA is the mystery hormone, no one knows exactly how
it does what it does in the body.
DHEA readily converts to estrogen in women & to
testosterone in men.
About the only thing that 45 years of research has
determined is that DHEA is easily converted into other hormones, especially
estrogen and testosterone.
Men have higher DHEA levels than women.
Once we reach about 30 there is a steady decline in
natural production,
The average 70-year-old has only 30% of the DHEA in
circulation that he or she had 50 years earlier.
Our natural production of DHEA declines from about 30
mg in our 20s to less than 6 mg per day after age 70.
60 YO Author note:
DHEA has had a major positive effect on me personally. DHEA had a
positive effect on several areas of my life. Sleep, Exercise Tolerance +
an enhanced outlook on life!
The most
abundant hormone in a 25 year old mans body is DHEA!
Dr. William Regelson, University of Virginia School of
Medicine reports that DHEA is "one of the best biochemical bio-markers for
chronologic age.
+ DHEA supplementation results in an almost immediate
improved sense of physical well-being.
DHEA was first identified as a unique hormone in
the early 60's by French researcher Dr. Emile-Etienne Baulieu.
In Europe DHEA is a prescription medication often
used to treat menopause.
In the EU DHEA is available as a prescription
drug in 5 and 10 mg doses (although it has been hard to obtain). It is
used primarily for the treatment of menopause
In women derive over 75% of their estrogen from it
and nearly 100% after menopause.
There are no known drug or nutrient interactions
associated with DHEA.
If animal results hold true with primates, supplemental
DHEA may prevent disease, reduce mortality, and extend lifespan in humans.
Another huge benefit of DHEA is its ability
to help the body burn calories for energy rather than store them as fat. DHEA blocks an enzyme named G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase) that is not
only essential for fat tissue production but also promotes cancer cell growth
By 1980 an impressive amount of research had been
done on this mother hormone.
There are several long term studies
on DHEA.
DHEA has multiple AntiAging properties + it
counteracts the stress hormone, Cortisol.
Cortisol cannibalizes our body and causes destruction
of tissues causing rapid aging.
In animal studies, DHEA extends rodent lifespan up to
50%. The animals not only lived longer, they looked younger. The graying,
course-haired controls could easily be distinguished from the sleek,
black-haired, DHEA-treated animals.
DHEA levels are directly related to mortality (the
probability of dying) in humans.
In a 12-year study of over 240 men aged 50 to 79
years, researchers found that DHEA levels were inversely correlated with
mortality, both from heart disease and from all causes.
This finding suggests that DHEA level measurements
can become a standard diagnostic predictor of disease, mortality and
lifespan.
Levels of DHEA are quite high at birth, drop during
childhood, and peak during young adulthood .. then fall of for the rest of our
lives.
DHEA reduces the bodies production of
glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), an enzyme that breaks down
glucose.
There are two glucose-metabolism pathways in the
body, the catabolic, energy-yielding pathway and the anabolic, biosynthetic
pathway.
G6PDH happens to be the first enzyme in the
biosynthetic pathway, the one which results in the synthesis of fatty acids
and ribose (the sugar used in making deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA).
Or, G6PDH turns glucose into fat .. & DHEA reduces
the amount of G6PDH available to produce fat.
DHEA helps the body burn glucose as fuel instead of
storing it as fat.
The increased utilization of glucose = increased
energy.
Research studies document that DHEA supplements can
improve mental state, preserve muscle mass, improve athletic performance, it
has documented positive effects on both Alzheimer & Parkinson disease,
improved libido, improved glucose utilization and metabolism, reduced fat,
improved glucose utilization / diabetes, increased energy, counteract the
effects of stress and cortisol production, improved immune response to
disease, has a documented positive effect on reducing tumor growth / cancer
and has multiple positive effects on cardiac disease.
In several independent studies DHEA in
rodent carcinogenesis and tumor induction, DHEA has preventative effects.
The reason for less tests with humans it is not
possible to induce cancer with humans.
It is also not possible to breed humans for specific
cardiac conditions.
DHEA is now beginning to be tested in human cancer.
Because it is not a patent-able medication that would
reap huge profits .. Research is limited.
Dr. Terrence T. Yen was studying the effect of DHEA on
genetically obese mice.
Although the mice on DHEA supplementation consumed
the same number of calories they remained thin.
+ the non-obese mice live longer. This "leanness"
effect was also conspicuously noted by Dr. Schwartz.
In a separate study with mice, Dr. M. P. Cleary found
that even middle-aged obese rats lost weight when fed DHEA-supplemented food.
Diabetes, a typical complication of obesity, was also
dramatically decreased.
DHEA was often low as much as nine years
prior to diagnosis of the cancer.
Of the 27 / 5000 women followed in the
study, developed cancer.
A disproportionate % of the 27 had
abnormally low levels of DHEA.
Another study investigating the
anti-cancer properties of DHEA, with mice Schwartz (1979), identified powerful
cancer protective effects in mice on a DHEA supplementation.
According to an 8 month project, the control animals
were developing tumors / cancer while the DHEA animals had no tumors.
In two later studies with different strains of mice,
Schwartz (1981; 1984) found 75% and 100% reductions in tumor incidence at 8
months of age and 50% and 75% reductions at 15 months of age.
Elizabeth Barrett-Conor, MD, charted DHEA
levels in 242 men, ages 50-79, for twelve years. She initially reported that
100mcg/dl increase in the DHEA sulfate level was associated with a 36% reduction
in death from cardiovascular disease.
These initial results were disputed & subsequent
analysis demonstrated a 15% reduction in cardiac incidents. Still significant.
Dr. Barrett-Conor's revealed that men with
above-average DHEA levels back in the early 1970s were only 15% less likely to
have died of heart disease, while there was no association between DHEA levels
and heart disease in women.
Dr. Barrett-Connor's group. They measured DHEA levels
in blood samples taken from almost 2,000 men and women between 1972 and 1974
and looked at how many died from heart disease. In 1986, they reported that
men with high DHEA levels were far less likely to have died of heart disease,
Neuronal degenerative or brain conditions
occur most frequently when DHEA levels are lowest,
Our brain tissue contains a rather high concentration
of DHEA.
Results of DHEA in MICE studies by researcher Dr.
Eugene Roberts has documented that very low dosage DHEA supplementation in
MICE was found to "increase the number of neurons, their ability to establish
contacts, and their differentiation" in cell cultures.
He also determined that DHEA also enhanced long-term
memory in laboratory mice that were in an avoidance training project The
assumption is that it has a similar effect on human brains.
In laboratory studies on MICE DHEA has demonstrated
protective situition regarding assorted tumors. Cancers of the skin, lungs,
bowel, breast and liver.
Such MICE studies have shown that DHEA can prevent or
delay the onset of cancer, "hardening" of the arteries, lethal viral
infections, lowered immunity, obesity, and diabetes. But what works in
rodents doesn't necessarily work in humans.
University of California, San Francisco
researchers found that DHEA levels are lower in people who are depressed, and
supplements of 30-90mg per day reportedly improved their state.
Much of DHEA's reputation as a wonder hormone
comes from experiments in which mice or rats were fed daily doses. Such studies
have shown that DHEA can prevent or delay the onset of cancer, "hardening" of
the arteries, lethal viral infections, lowered immunity, obesity, and diabetes.
But what works in rodents doesn't necessarily work in humans
The Biologic Role of Dehydroepiandrosterone
(DHEA), edited by Mohammed Kalimi and William Regelson [1990]. Is
the definitive research source.
Alzheimer's Disease
incidence by age: 5 % of all person above 65 years of age are diagnosed, about
20 % of those over 80 years and about 30 % of those over 90 suffer from
Alzheimer's disease.
The risk of developing
the disease diagnosis doubles about every 5 years over age 65.
Very few persons under 60
have a diagnosis of Alzheimers. The Under lying pathological condition
can be present for years before clinical diagnosis.
