This is what’s called a review study, meaning that to do their study, the researchers looked at other studies and kind of helped connect some of the dots.
In this case, they did so with DHEA, and I think the results are fascinating for anybody who is concerned about the health of the liver, or their blood sugar, or getting cancer.
DHEA has amazing properties that may allow it to fight diabetes, get rid of cancer, and make a man years younger.
Let’s first talk about DHEA and diabetes.
Many studies suggest that DHEA increases insulin sensitivity and may help reverse the symptoms of diabetes.
One researcher gave DHEA to diabetic women and reported their insulin sensitivity went up 30% over one year.
This is enough to often reverse the symptoms of type II diabetes.
Diabetic patients, it turns out, produce far lower amounts of DHEA then normal people. Giving them some DHEA helps diabetic patients a lot.
Another huge issue where DHEA may be useful is in gluconeogenesis, which is the process where the body digests its own tissues in order to produce blood sugar, or glucose.
Gluconeogenesis occurs at a higher level when you’re doing intensive exercise, and during the night when you’re sleeping because you are fasting.
Gluconeogenesis results in the loss of lean mass, the loss of heart muscle, thymus gland, and the loss of cells in every part of the body except (unfortunately) fat.
It’s the reason why we sort of shrink away as we get older.
But when they gave DHEA to people, or at least to mice, the mice had much lower levels of gluconeogenesis.
They were able to get more of their sugar from diet rather than from digesting their own tissues.
Let’s discuss DHEA and liver problems.
Surprisingly enough, when mice are given liver cancer in the laboratory, DHEA helped to protect the mice against the cancer and helped diminish the damage that the cancer did to their livers.
They found an extremely protective effect against colon cancer with DHEA.
Based on the results, DHEA is considered to be a chemopreventive agent against colon cancer.
The problem with DHEA has been that people take too much of it.
Physiologically healthy amounts of DHEA may be as low as 5 mg three times a day.
Hmm, why is too much DHEA harmful?
Normally, DHEA is turned into testosterone and DHT in the body.
At least for man.
However, if you take too much DHEA, the excess can turn into estrogen, rather than testosterone.
What will DHEA do in your body?
In this study, they actually gave men and women DHEA and observed the results.
They gave men what I regard as a dose that’s too high, 50 mg, but even there they observed very positive results.
I think that they gave men way too much DHEA.
10 mg a day would have been more appropriate.
Serum levels of DHEA doubled during the test, in any event.
Specific statements of well-being ranged from improved quality of sleep, more relaxed, increased energy to better ability to handle stress.
What to do now?
In many parts the world, you can buy DHEA over-the-counter, or you can easily get a prescription for it.
It may pay to experiment with DHEA, but, in any event, do not take quantities of 50 mg or 100 mg a day because those are way too high.
And yet, that’s the level where many of the studies on humans have been done.
Citations
Prevention of diabetes, hepatic injury, and colon cancer with dehydroepiandrosterone
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0960-0760(03)00219-X
Effects of Replacement Dose of Dehydroepiandrosterone in Men and Women of Advancing Age*
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Nolan9/publication/15684493_Effects_of_replacement_dose_of_dehydroepiandrosterone_in_men_and_women_of_advancing_age/links/54200bd30cf2218008d43691.pdf
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