Page 16 - The DHEA Debate - Life Extensions Magazine

General Psychiatry reports that DHEA supplementation produced significant benefits in
patients with schizophrenia.157
Etienne-Emile Baulieu, one of the world’s foremost hormone biochemists and a leading DHEA
researcher, stated in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism:
“Logic pleads in favor of oral administration of DHEA at a dose that provides so called
‘young’ DHEA levels in the blood and no T/DHT and E2 concentrations superior to those
of normal people of 30 to 40 years of age. Calculations based on production rates,
interconversion between DHEA and DHEAS, and metabolic studies suggest that
replacement doses of 25-50 mg once daily are able to fulfill this double requirement.”16
Concluding statements

Naysayer: I have to say that all of the data that you’ve supplied have surprised me, especially
the material relating to DHEA’s potential anticancer role. But there’s one fundamental issue that
we haven’t addressed, which could be called the natural law argument. DHEA levels peak late
in the third decade of life and then progressively decline. I believe that there is probably a good
reason for this, and that manipulating levels of this powerful hormone could have unforeseen
consequences, perhaps much later in life. Most of the doctors I know share this feeling and
therefore recommend that patients wait until long-term, conclusive studies have been
performed.

Stephen Cherniske: What you call “natural law” could also be called the “do nothing” argument,
or the “don’t mess with Mother Nature” argument, both of which are more romantic than
scientific. The doctors you refer to mess with Mother Nature every day. Mother Nature creates
infections that kill people. Doctors prescribe antibiotics to keep them alive. Cholesterol is purely
natural and blood levels rise with advancing age, but doctors last year wrote more than 80
million prescriptions to lower cholesterol. Diabetes is natural, but it is treated with a hormone
called insulin. We are constantly messing with Mother Nature to prevent death and maintain
quality of life. And by the way, a year-long review by the US Office of Technology Assessment
found that only 10-20% of all procedures used in medical practice have been shown to be safe
and effective by controlled clinical trials.158
In other words, health professionals are very comfortable with what is called the risk-reward
ratio, or benefits versus possible side effects. This is easy to do when you’re treating a life-
threatening infection or a fatal disease, or surgically removing a tumor. In these critical
situations, messing with Mother Nature is of no concern.
I simply want to suggest that, since aging contributes directly to virtually all disease states, it
makes sense to treat aging before the signs and symptoms arise. This is not rocket science.
Studies show that the hormone signal (ACTH) that produces a robust DHEA response in young
people is significantly blunted in elderly men and women.152 Restoring DHEA levels is not a
magic bullet, but it should be an integral part of any sensible anti-aging effort. Naysayers tell us
to wait for “more information” while they ignore the mountain of clinical and research data
already in hand. To summarize:
1. DHEA is the most abundant circulating hormone in the human body, and influences more
than 150 known anabolic (repair) functions throughout the body and brain.
2. Starting at about age 28, DHEA levels start to decline, and this loss of anabolic drive
accelerates with advancing age, so that by age 70, most people are producing only 10-15%
of the DHEA they were producing in their twenties.
3. High levels of DHEA are strongly associated with longevity.
4. Low levels of DHEA are associated with depression, dementia, obesity, diabetes, asthma,
autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, and increased risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease.