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DHEA:The Mother Hormone,Hormone

Anti-AgingThe

DHEA is often called the mother hormone because itsthe precursor for the other adrenal hormones, including all

the adrenal steroids, such as the stress hormone cortisol,

and all sex hormones, such as estrogen, progesteroneand testosterone. Of all the biomarkers for again, DHEA(dehydroepiandrosterone) is perhaps the most telling.

The level of DHEA, in turn, is probably the most rapidly

declining hormone as we age, starting in our midtwenties.The lower your DHEA, the more likely you are to have the

degenerative diseases of accelerate aging: atherosclerosis,

diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, and lowered immunity. Toput it more bluntly, the lower your DHEA, the more likely you

are to die from an age- related disease.Conversely high levels of DHEA may protect you from

or even reverse precisely the same diseases. The higheryour DHEA level, the better you feel, with a greater sense

of overall well-being and a better ability to deal withemotional and physical stress.

Study after study confirms that DHEA levels are an

excellent predictor of age related health problems.

By: Doctor Carlos A. RomanPhotos: Jim Rodriguez

DHEA is the most abundant hormone in your body ordinarilyyou make about 25 to 30 mg of it every day. If your DHEA

production drops, so does your production of all the other

related hormones.Your adrenal glands manufacture DHEA from cholesterol(you also make very small amounts of DHEA in your testes

or ovaries) . Yes, thats the same cholesterol that consensusmedicine insists is a dangerous substance that has no

business being in your blood. Yet if your blood levels ofcholesterol are inadequate your body doesnt have the

essential raw material to make the crucial hormone thats

the precursor for more than forty other critical adrenalhormones. The cascade of hormone production is seriously

disrupted, with predictably serious consequences for yourhealth. Almost every patient Ive given DHEA to, young or

old, has shown dramatic improvement as soon as his orher DHEA level was restored to an optimal level. Your levels

of DHEA peak when youre between twenty and twenty-five. After that, the amount of DHEA you produce declines

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naturally at the rate of about 2 percent a year. That meansthat by the time youre forty or so , youre making only

about half the DHEA you did at age twenty. At age sixty-ve, youre down to only about 10 to 20 percent of your

peak. At age eighty, youre making only about 5 percentof your peak. In general women make about 10 to 20

percent less DHEA than men: their rate of production still

declines at the same 2 percent a year.

DHEA AND HEART DISEASE

Low DHEA is a much better predictor than high cholesterolor heart attack, yet your doctor is very unlikely to test your

DHEA level. In fact your doctor will probably treat your highcholesterol with a statin drug that works by preventing the

manufacture of cholesterol and thereby further reducesyour production of DHEA. Exactly the opposite approach is

far better. Taking DHEA supplements will also lower your LDLcholesterol, but without the side effects of statin drugs. At

the same time, the DHEA will lower your chances of having

a dangerous blood clot. Of course, youll also be enjoyingall the other benets of increased DHEA levels.Theres a denite correlation between DHEA levels and

coronary artery disease. To give just one example, aparticularly interesting study of patients about to have

coronary bypass operations showed that the higher their

DHEA, the less severe was their coronary artery disease.

ENHANCING IMMUNITY WITH DHEA

A twenty-year-old can quickly shake off a cold or u

that would keep a sixty-year-old sick for a week. As youage, your immune system gets weaker, making you more

susceptible to illness and infection. Your aging immunesystem also makes you more susceptible to degenerative

diseases such as atherosclerosis and autoimmune diseases.If you could restore your immune system to its youthful level,

wouldnt you? You can with DHEA. This amazing hormonehas been shown to increase the production of antibodies

and increase the activity of infection-ghting immune cellssuch as monocytes and natural killer cells.

In 1997, a careful study of healthy older men showed just

how well DHEA enhances immunity. The test subjects took50 mg of DHEA a day for twenty weeks. At the end of that

time, all the men showed remarkable increases in immunecomponents in the blood. Most notably, their levels of white

blood cells, called monocytes increased on average by 45

percent.I see the evidence for the immune-enhancing function ofDHEA every day in my patients. At the Clinica Integral de

Medicina Complementaria we prescribe it for all patientswith impaired immunity. Its particularly effective for

patients with chronic fatigue syndrome or with autoimmuneailments such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Virtually

all of these patients have surprisingly low levels of DHEA;after they have been on DHEA for just a few weeks. I see a

strong improvement in their overall immune function. Thepatients feel much better, symptoms such as depression

and fatigue are usually much improved.

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CANCER AND DHEA

Its not a cure, but DHEA could be something even better

a supplement that prevents cancer from occurring. Animalstudies show that DHEA prevents cancers of the breast,

colon, liver, lungs, prostate, lymphatic system, and skin. Irst learned about using DHEA for any medical purpose in

the 1970s, when alternative oncologists in Germany beganusing it successfully with their cancer patients.

Your chances of getting cancer rise as your DHEA levelsfall-people with bladder cancer and women with breast

cancer almost always have much lower than normal DHEAlevels.

All the evidence points toward a strong role for DHEA as acancer preventive, even if the denitive studies have yet

to be done.One known exception: A man at risk for prostate cancer, or

one who already has it; needs to be very cautious aboutusing DHEA. I believe he can still benet from this helpful

hormone, but he needs to be monitored carefully by aphysician.

DHEA can increase testosterone production, which inturn could feed prostate cancer. To use DHEA safely, he

needs to have frequent PSA blood test to monitor his risk ofprostate cancer. A useful alternative here is 7-keto DHEA,

a variation that leads to the development of the adrenal

hormones but not testosterone ( or other sex hormones )production.

STRONGER BONES WITH DHEA

DHEA not only can stop osteoporosis, it can reverse it. This ishow it works: DHEA increases the activity of bone-building

cells called osteoblasts and inhibits the activity of bone

destroying cells called osteoclasts.People with osteoporosis generally have much lower levelsof DHEA than people who dont. Similarly, among older

adults, the people with the highest DHEA levels have thedensest bones. We know from animal studies that DHEA

supplements can actually restore lost bone density. Canit do the same for you? I think it can, which is why I use

DHEA supplements to create optimal blood levels for

all my patients male and female who are at risk forosteoporosis.

TAKING DHEA

All the above strongly suggests that you should be awareof your DHEA level and supplement it if its low. I have found

no problems when trying to restore the blood levels of mypatients to what is optimal for a thirty-year-old; in older

patients, the goal is to achieve the level of someone in hisor her twenties or thirties. For women, thats ideally between

200 and 300 units; for men, between 300 and 400.

Dr. Carlos A. RomanHe is a specialist in complementary medicine and have focused his practice on nutritionalmedicine and metabolic lesios. For further information you can contact him by e-mail:

ca rl os ro ma n9 @y ah oo .c om or call him to his clinic in San Jose (506) 2257-2493