Help for all diseases
By CIDPUSA.ORG,
Sat, 31 May 2010 17:55:07

DHEA - THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

By Spice Williams-Crosby

Hormone Replacement Therapy is a very complex medical procedure, and will take scientists years to perfect before it can become cost effective and extend our life span beyond 150 years. This is mainly because each individual has a unique level of hormones in the blood, and the therapy has to be designed to fit each separate individual.

In the interim, however, I'm convinced that we can all do battle with Father Time by a constant replenishing of our "Dehydroepiandrosterone" (DHEA) -- the hormone that is produced by our adrenal glands, located a few inches north of the naval, serving a variety of functions. It's known as the "mother" hormone and has the ability to convert itself into other hormones such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone upon demand.

Because the levels of DHEA decline with age, the older you get the less DHEA you have. At age 25, the body begins to reduce the natural production of DHEA, and the aging phenomenon begins. In our early 30's, our bodies produce about 30 mg. of DHEA per day. By the time we reach our 60's, DHEA levels are under 5 mg. per day. These figures show us that by the time an individual reaches the age of 80, he or she will be producing only about 10 to 20 percent of the DHEA produced in their second decade of life. Clearly, this decline signals the beginning of many age-related diseases.

If you have high levels of DHEA, you are less likely to develop atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, not to mention its noted effects in such areas as autoimmune disease, obesity, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, osteoporosis, Epstein-Barr virus, chronic fatigue syndrome, memory and learning deficiencies, HIV infection and Aids, and Herpes viral infections.

In 1986, Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor found that levels of DHEA were inversely related to death due to all causes in men over 50, particularly in deaths from cardiovascular disease. Her work at UC San Diego, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that a 100 mcg/ml of increase in DHEA sulfate levels in the blood was associated with a 48 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease.

Other studies have shown the life span of laboratory animals to be extended by 50 percent when administered DHEA. Mice did not age as rapidly when they were fed DHEA, maintaining their youthful hair color and sleekness compared with the graying, coarsening hair of the control animals that were not given DHEA. Administering DHEA in elderly men and women has also shown to increase the "IGF-1" (insulin growth factor). Oddly enough, IGF-1 is the protein made in the liver which, upon stimulation by human growth hormone, is the protein that generates age reversal effects, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1990.

Immune-enhancing effects show that DHEA protects against bacterial growth and viral infections, and has shown to stimulate the T-cells, B- cells, and macrophages. In additional studies with laboratory mice who had the autoimmune disease known as lupus, the production of auto- antibodies were significantly restrained by the treatment with DHEA. For those of you that don't know, Lupus is an incurable, and sometimes fatal, autoimmune disease that results when a person's immune system, for unknown reasons, attacks the body's own connective tissues including the skin, joints and internal organs. Nine times as many women as men seem to contract this disease, usually during childbearing years. Women with lupus generally have lower levels of DHEA in their blood, and it is believed by the respected rheumatologist from Stanford University, Dr. Von Vollenhaven, that by bolstering the levels of this hormone, one might alleviate some of the symptoms of the disease. Other autoimmune diseases in men such as ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis has been successfully treated with a supplementation of DHEA.

Continue to next page of staying young