Can DHEA slow aging in men?

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a hormone that is a precursor (a forerunner) to androgens and estrogen. The body breaks DHEA down into the sex hormones. Men who take DHEA report feeling more youthful, with increased energy and revived libido.

"I feel like I'm twenty again," says one sixty-year-old convert. "My wife has that sparkle back in her eye," says another. Unfortunately, a feeling of vigor and well-being does not mean that DHEA can't cause real damage.

There is a multitude of drugs (such as many illegal street drugs like cocaine and heroin) that make you feel good, but are actually bad for your health. DHEA might make you feel younger now, but we just don't know how it might affect your RealAge (physiologic age) in the long run. It may well make you older.

In the so-called "Rancho-Bernardo" study (conducted in Rancho Bernardo, California), which has been the most significant study on the effect of DHEA on aging to date, researchers found that over a twelve-year period, men whose naturally occurring DHEA levels remained high had a 40 percent lower risk of heart disease and arterial aging. This was initially very promising. However, the follow up study that covered nineteen years reported a much reduced benefit for having an elevated DHEA level.

In this study, the risk was only 14 percent less. In RealAge terms, that means the benefit of DHEA, at most, might be only 1 1/2 years. Subsequent randomized studies have found no definite benefit.

With regard to arterial aging, some of the studies found a benefit; some, a harm; and most, no effect at all.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.