Hormones are chemical messengers, usually produced by an organ or gland. They work like a symphony orchestra, controlling various bodily processes. The hormone DHEA has been receiving more and more interest from the scientific community recently. DHEA is made in the adrenal glands, and it is the most abundant hormone in the human bloodstream, until it begins to decrease around the age of 30.
There have been numerous claims about DHEA in the past. Some of the more prevalent ones have been:
Some of these claims have no deep-rooted scientific evidence. But there is still very much interest in the hormone by researchers and scientists. In July 1995, the New York Academy of Sciences held a conference on DHEA. Researchers from around the world presented preliminary evidence showing that DHEA might help strengthen aging bones, muscles, and immune systems, while providing a defense against lupus, diabetes, and cancer. One small study at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine did show that older people felt better when they took DHEA. Another study involving 16 middle-aged to elderly men showed that taking DHEA for 1 year led to a 75% increase in their sense of overall well-being. The men said they coped better with stress, felt more physical mobility and slept better. And women given DHEA have seen their cholesterol levels drop. A landmark study in 1986 of 242 men, age 50-79, based on 12 years of research, stated that a small supplementation of DHEA (100mcg/ml) corresponded to a 48% reduction in death from heart disease and a 36% reduction in death from any cause, excluding accidents.
If you live to be 80, your body will probably have only 10-20% of the DHEA it had when you were 20 years old. This can leave you vulnerable to breast, prostate and bladder cancer, atherosclerotic plaque, nerve degeneration and other age-related conditions. Because laboratory studies have shown that DHEA may increase life span by 50%, some researchers believe that DHEA replacement therapy can have life-extending effects on humans. In the November 1991 issue of the Journal of Infectious Disease, Dr. William Regelson demonstrated that people with HIV virus do not suffer from full-blown AIDS until their adrenal output of DHEA drops. Blood samples from HIV-positive patients at the University of California at San Francisco were tested for both DHEA and T-cell levels, the immune cells that are primarily affected with AIDS. Men with low levels of DHEA had double the risk of full-blown AIDS compared to men with normal DHEA levels.
Reseachers found that overweight mice started to lose weight after taking DHEA every day without any modification of their eating habits. DHEA, among other things, increases the ability of the body to transform food into energy in a process which allows the body to not only burn excessive fat, but also to prevent the accumulation of this unwanted fat in tissue and blood.