Taken from ‘Prescription For Nutritional Healing’
by Dr James F. Balch M.D.
The most abundant hormone found in the bloodstream: dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is produced by the adrenal glands which sit atop the kidneys. Much like human growth hormone (HGH) and melatonin – two other hormones now known to have anti-aging properties – DHEA is produced abundantly during youth with production peaking around age twenty-five. After this though, production wanes. By the age of eighty, people are thought to have only 10 to 20 percent of the DHEA they had at twenty.
Research has shown that DHEA has many functions in the body pertaining to health and longevity. Among other things it helps to generate the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone; increases the percentage of muscle mass; decreases the percentage of body fat; and stimulates bone disposition, thereby helping to prevent osteoporosis. As the production of DHEA declines with age, the structures and systems of the body appear to decline with it. This leaves the body vulnerable to various cancers, including cancer of the breast, prostate and bladder, as well as to the artherosclerosis, high blood pressure, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, nerve degeneration and other age related conditions.
Research suggests that DHEA replacement therapy can have a number of highly beneficial effects. In a 1986 study based on 12 years of research involving 242 middle-aged and elderly men, small doses of DHEA appeared to be linked with a 48% reduction in death from heart disease, and a 36% reduction in death from other causes. In a 28-day study, DHEA enabled men to lose 31% of mean body fat without changing body weight. DHEA is thought to have caused this loss of fat by blocking an enzyme that is known to produce fat tissue and promote cancer cell growth.
In another study middle-aged and elderly men taking DHEA for one year experienced a markedly greater sense of wellbeing, including a better ability to cope with stress, increased mobility, decreased pain and higher quality sleep.
Research also indicates that DHEA supplements can help prevent cancer, arterial disease, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, treat lupus and osteoporosis; enhance the activity of the immune system and improve memory. Laboratory studies in animals have indicated that DHEA can increase life span by as much as 50%.
DHEA comes both in non-prescription-strength pills and capsules and in higher-dosage prescription-strength pills and capsules. Most of the DHEA that you can buy is made in laboratories from substances extracted from wild yams, the most common substance being diosgenin. Also available are extracts of the wild yams that have not been processed into DHEA but which the body may convert into DHEA.
DHEA therapy should be undertaken with caution. Some physicians believe that high doses of DHEA suppress the body’s natural ability to synthesize the hormone. Animal studies have indicated that high doses can also lead to liver damage. For this reason, while undergoing DHEA replacement therapy, it is important to take supplements of the antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium to prevent oxidation damage to the liver.
Please Note
Here, in Auckland, after using DHEA, people in the Support group have indicated they have grave concerns about taking DHEA because of its steroidal properties and the consequent effects.
If you want to benefit from taking anti-aging products, they say that: "the body's normal substances produced by the synergistic effect of the 100% natural ingredients in GH4 or Colostrum, and the consequent release of hormone from the pituitary gland, are preferable to the use of DHEA.
This whole process is totally natural and beneficial to people, in comparison to DHEA." - Jacqui, Convenor.
