What is DHEA?
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid produced by the adrenal glands. DEHA acts like a hormone, so it is called a steroid hormone. A hormone is a chemical produced in one part of the body that is carried to another part of the body where it has a specific effect. The adrenal glands are located on top of the kidneys. DHEA is the most common steroid in humans. It can be transformed in the body into testosterone (the primary male sex hormone), estrogen (an important female sex hormone), or other steroids. In normal adults, DHEA levels are highest at about age 20, and then decrease steadily. HIV patients with lipodystrophy have very low levels of DHEA.
This hormone is better known as the mother of all hormones. It is used by the body as a precursor hormone meaning that it can be converted into Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone. Having this special quality means that it can be useful in situations where one or all three major female sex hormones are found to be unbalanced.
Dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, is a steroid hormone, a chemical cousin of testosterone and estrogen. It is made from cholesterol by the adrenal glands, which sit atop each kidney. For the first few years of life, the adrenals make very little DHEA. Around age six or seven, they begin churning it out. Production peaks in the mid-20s, when DHEA is the most abundant hormone in circulation. From one’s early ’30s on, there’s a steady decline in DHEA production, so the average 75-year-old has only 20% of the DHEA in circulation that he or she had 50 years earlier. At all ages, men tend to have higher DHEA levels than women. By definition, hormones are chemical messengers made in a gland or tissue that start, stop, or otherwise orchestrate activity in some other issue. That makes DHEA a hormone in name only, since no one knows exactly what it does in the body. For years it was thought to be a kind of chemical trash left over from making other hormones. Today, “we still haven’t been able to
Dehdydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid hormone produced chiefly by the adrenal glands, but it can also be made by the testes, ovaries, and brain. It is the most prevalent adrenal steroid in the body and serves a precursor to the human sex steroids, testosterone and estrogen (see diagram below). Animal studies have shown the presence of DHEA receptors in tissues such as the kidney, liver, and testes (11). This might suggest potential functions for DHEA other than simply serving as a hormone precursor. Humans are thought to produce between 1 and 2 mg of DHEA and 10 to 15 mg of DHEAS (the sulfate metabolite) per day (1). DHEAS is formed in the liver by adding a sulfate(SO4) molecule to it. DHEAS is cleared much more slowly by the kidneys, and blood levels of this metabolite remain much more stable throughout the day. When researchers want to assess blood levels of DHEA, they often measure the sulfate form because of its greater stability. Orally administered DHEA is usually converted
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) is a steroid hormone produced by the body’s adrenal glands. Scientists don’t yet know everything DHEA does in the body, but what they do know is that it functions as a precursor to testosterone, the male sex hormone, and estrogen, the female sex hormone. DHEA production peaks in the mid-20s, and in most people, gradually declines with age (as do testosterone and estrogen). DHEA supplements, made from plant chemicals, work by building up the adrenal gland and regulating the immune system, says Eric R. Braverman, MD, director of the Place for Achieving Total Health (PATH) Medical Centers in New York City and Philadelphia, and author of The Edge Effect and Younger You. Do they really work? That depends what you use them for. The supplements are most effective when administered in high doses to combat autoimmune conditions such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis (MS), Braverman says. As for other symptoms, such as the normal effects of aging, the jury is stil
