"A master hormone known as DHEA has
earned enough respect to break into the national spotlight as the
most broadly useful natural medicine in the battle to resist
aging." (Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair Magazine, June
1996)
Scientific Discovery:
The discovery of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) is quite possibly the single greatest advancement made in the area of human biochemistry and health prevention. Hundreds of clinical studies have already proven DHEA's myriad of beneficial effects and more reports are flooding the pages of scientific journals every day.
DHEA is a powerful hormone normally produced in the adrenal glands. By facilitating communication between the billions of cells in your body, DHEA keeps biological processes in harmonious balance. It is the most abundant steroid in the human bloodstream and research has found that it has significant anti-obesity, anti-aging, and anti-cancer effects. It is often called "the Mother Hormone" since it serves as the critical building block from which the body produces other hormones like testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and some 15 other hormones that are essential for good health.
According to biochemist Dr. Norman Applezweig, DHEA de-excites the body's aging processes, and the diseases of aging caused by runaway production of nucleic acids, fats and hormones. DHEA regulates their production and thereby slows down aging.
Our bodies seem to be programmed to reduce the natural production of DHEA sometime between the ages of 20 and 25. From that point on, our bodies start to degenerate and we begin the process of "aging". In our early thirties, our bodies can produce about 30 mg per day of DHEA. By the time we reach our sixties, DHEA levels are barely detectable, under 5 mg per day.
Supplementation of DHEA has been tested in laboratory conditions, with very encouraging results. DHEA is difficult to obtain in natural food sources unlike vitamins and minerals. It is simply not there. But today, a revolutionary formula of 100% pharmaceutical-grade DHEA is available without a prescription.
Serious research at major institutions has revealed that high levels of DHEA in our bodies may be the key to vitality, resistance to disease, weight control, and slowing down the aging process. Over 40,000 studies and articles on DHEA have been done. Here are some of the more interesting findings:
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE - A 100 microgram per deciliter increase in DHEA sulfate concentration corresponded with a 48% reduction in mortality for any reason. The natural level of DHEA sulfate was measured, and those individuals with higher DHEA sulfate levels lived longer and had a much lower risk of heart disease. This was the result of a study of 242 men aged 50 to 79 over a 12 year period. The study was conducted by medical doctor Elizabeth Barrett-Connor at the University of California and reported in The New England Journal of Medicine (1986). An unrelated study at Johns Hopkins in 1988 demonstrated that rabbits with severe arteriosclerosis experienced a 60% reduction in plaque size when treated with DHEA.
BREAST CANCER - In a large population study conducted by British researchers on the island of Guernsey, it was discovered that women with DHEA blood levels less than 10% of the normally expected amount for their age group all developed breast cancer and died of the disease. Other researchers picked up on this observation and gave DHEA to rats that had been inbred to develop breast cancer. Predictably, the DHEA blocked all breast cancer. Dr. Arthur Schwartz, a researcher at Philadelphia's Temple University, found that women with breast cancer have lower DHEA levels and concurrent increase of an enzyme called G6PD (glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenate), which is blocked by DHEA.
FAT LOSS WITHOUT DIETING - Dr. Schwartz also noted that DHEA is a very effective anti-obesity agent because it blocks the G6PD fat-producing enzyme. DHEA increases the body's ability to transform food into energy, and not only burns off excess fat, but also prevents fat from accumulating in the first place. In a 1977 study Terrence Yen, a bio-chemist at Eli Lilly, found that when DHEA is fed to obese mice, their weight drops significantly even without any other change in diet or exercise.
MEMORY LOSS - Increasing DHEA in elderly patients appears to improve memory function. Research by medical doctor Eugene Roberts at City of Hope Medical Center conducted on 31 elderly volunteers indicated that the volunteers who took DHEA experienced less memory loss than volunteers who were given a placebo. At the New York University School of Medicine, psychiatrist Kenneth Bonnet reported that DHEA replacement therapy on test mice resulted in better memory. When Dr. Bonnet treated middle aged and old mice with DHEA, their retention and recall skills, which earlier had been much lower than those of the young mice, now increased to the same levels as in the young mice.
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - The Alzheimer's patients studies by Dr. C. R. Merril of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, showed DHEA levels 48% lower than the control group of non-Alzheimer's patients. We know that DHEA is a precursor building block of estrogen. In April, 1994, Prevention Magazine quoted Annlia Paganini-Hill, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, as saying that increased estrogen may be related to a decrease in the risk of developing Alzheimer's in women.
AIDS - In an article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (November, 1991), researcher William Regelson demonstrated that people with HIV virus do not seem to develop full blown AIDS until their adrenal output of DHEA drops. Dr. Regelson found that HIV-positive men with low DHEA levels had double the risk of getting full blown AIDS compared to those with normal DHEA levels.
LIFE EXTENSION - Other studies showed that when DHEA was fed to mice it increased their life expectancy by a third. The treated mice seemed younger and had a lower incidence of the typical diseases of aging. It reduced the risk of breast, colon, and lung cancer in mice. Other studies have found that DHEA can reduce the risk of liver, skin, and lymphatic tissue cancers.
The mainstream medical establishment usually takes years to endorse natural nutrition as a preventative to disease. Now, even medical doctors are feeling more and more confident about the importance of DHEA. Famous nutritionist Dr. Richard Passwater says that: "anybody over 25 should be supplementing their diet with DHEA."
In his newsletter, Health and Healing, widely quoted medical doctor and editor Dr. Julian Whitaker says: "the number of areas in which supplemental DHEA is helpful is almost alarming, because it covers such a broad range of diseases. When blood levels of DHEA are increased to the level you had at a younger age, many diseases just melt away. The body seems fully capable of using supplemental DHEA, as if it were processed in the body."
According to Dr. Ward Dean, MD, author of Smart Drugs and Nutrients, we have good reason to believe that taking the DHEA supplement may extend life and make us more youthful while we're alive.
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