DHEA: Not 'Snake Oil' After All?

It might be the most astonishing comeback on the nutritional supplement front ever. Suddenly, DHEA is in favor again among “anti-agers” seeking the fountain of youth in a bottle. But are they playing with fire?

November 15, 2005 -- It might be the most astonishing comeback on the nutritional supplement front ever. Suddenly, DHEA is in favor again among “anti-agers” seeking the fountain of youth in a bottle.

DHEA is a substance produced naturally by our body, which converts it into the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen as needed. Peaking in our twenties, our DHEA level drops precipitously as we age.

In the 1990s researchers got the idea to see if restoring youthful DHEA levels, using supplements containing the substance, could ameliorate age-related declines in energy, muscle strength, mental functioning and even libido. There soon followed a tsunami of articles and books, and eventually web sites, touting DHEA as the long-sought-for magic pill against aging.

Then came the backlash. Experts popped up to pooh-pooh the initial claims for the anti-aging powers of DHEA supplements. They said the science was flimsy, the experimental results over-hyped. And, they warned that anyone putting extra hormones into his or her body risked all kinds of bad consequences, from liver disease to breast cancer or worse. One health writer called DHEA the “snake oil of the century.”

Now it's a new century, and the tide has turned again. Sales of DHEA supplements—in capsule, spray or cream form—are rocketing. During one week in November, 2005, searches for the term “DHEA” on one major search engine surged 300 percent over the week before.

What accounts for the sudden new interest in DHEA? In a couple of words: More science.

With more and better experiments being run, the evidence is accumulating that DHEA supplements might actually do the wonderful things the first wave of promoters claimed—and more:

Restore youthful energy
Melt belly fat
Improve thinking in older people
Promote endurance
Retard aging
Overcome erectile dysfunction
Enhance libido in both sexes (in one experiment, women taking DHEA started having more—and more powerful—sexual fantasies)
And ... maybe ... help us live to 120 or longer

As might be expected, along with the new enthusiasm for DHEA come new worries from experts who think that people who are self-medicating with it are playing with fire. They contend that DHEA still hasn't been tested adequately. They say that even if it does turn out to confer real benefits on its users, long-term safety is still a big question.

Steve Smith is one regular user of DHEA supplements who does not dismiss these concerns.

“I made my own decision, as an informed layman, to take a low-dosage DHEA capsule every other day,” Smith said. “I'm comfortable with the amount I take, and personally think that the benefits are real enough to justify using it.”

He urged anyone considering taking DHEA supplements, whether as part of an antiaging regimen or for some other purpose, to first gather as much information as possible. “There is tons of information available,” he noted, “but you have to be careful. Most of the web sites out there are one-sided. They're either completely pro-DHEA—and don't tell you about the possible risks—or they're against people treating themselves with supplements at all—and therefore try to scare you from taking even the most benign herb or vitamin, let alone DHEA tablets.”

Smith's own web site, called DHEA for Antiaging {http://www.dhea-youth.com), aims to give the whole picture and to let users make up their own minds. “I don't recommend for or against anyone taking DHEA supplements. People should make up their own minds. But knowledge is key,” he said.

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