DHEA is one of those wonder supplements. The wonder is that they haven’t made it illegal.
If people were taking it properly, the drug companies would freak out and make it illegal everywhere.
However, the mistake that people make in taking DHEA is in taking too much!
If some is good, more is not better
I’ve always been puzzled at how many studies there are that do not show the kind of expected improvement with DHEA.
But they always use what are called the physiological dosages.
Dosages that are over 5 mg per day are physiological and can cause harm.
Let’s take a look at the role of DHEA in growing new brain cells.
This is a favorite diagram of mine, which is showing you a tree as if it was upside down. The root is at the top. The tip of the tree is at the bottom.
The root of the tree is cholesterol. You should have a lot of cholesterol in your body, so you can produce plenty of wonderful useful sex hormones.
These sex hormones include DHEA.
Our DHEA peaks from just before puberty, and slowly fades away until we’re in our 30s or 40s.
At that point, our DHEA is generally very low.
Which is a shame because DHEA can combat depression, fix anxiety, and help you grow new brain cells.
Prozac helps grow new brain cells
I’ve told you many times, that antidepressant drugs are very poorly understood.
The drug companies call them selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. But that isn’t really why they work.
In fact, it’s been found that drugs such as Prozac may work by causing brain cell growth in the hippocampus part of the brain.
It used to be that they thought you couldn’t grow new brain cells. But now they know that you grow new brain cells all the time.
And it may be that stimulating the growth of these brain cells, especially in the hippocampus, that may actually fix depression and anxiety.
And that brings me to DHEA
Because it’s been found that DHEA can stimulate the growth of new brain cells, perhaps better than Prozac can, and it’s fully natural. And it’s cheap.
One of the effects of DHEA in addition to growing brain cells, is to prevent damage caused by too much cortisol.
Cortisol is a stress hormone.
Most of us have too much cortisol because we have too much stress.
I’m talking about physiological stress in the body, not necessarily stress in the world.
In any event, many of us have high cortisol levels because our bodies feel stress inside.
DHEA may fight the cortisol and lower our internal stress levels.
Resulting in lower inflammation, and better overall health.
Just don’t take too much. 5 mg a day is in my experience the right amount.
Citations:
Anti depressants such as Prozac may work by growing new brain cells in the hippocampus
http://www.keck.ucsf.edu/neurograd/files/ns221_0809_materials/von%20Zastrow/Paper1_Santarelli_Sci_05.pdf
DHEA promotes neurogenesis
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joe_Herbert/publication/11195400_Dehydroepiandrosterone_%28DHEA%29_stimulates_neurogenesis_in_the_hippocampus_of_the_rat_promotes_survival_of_newly_formed_neurons_and_prevents_corticosterone-induced_suppression/links/00b7d52dd11f78b4f4000000.pdf
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