Most people gain abdominal fat in the midsection as they
age. Scientists have linked this to reduced production of the naturally
occurring prohormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA).
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
found that prohormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) reduced abdominal fat
and the accompanying risk for type 2 diabetes that often occurs with
age.
DHEA levels peak by age 25, when we are “in our prime”, and decline
about 2% per year thereafter.
DHEA is a base for most hormones we
produce.
By age 35, people produce about 20 percent less DHEA than at
age 25. This gradual decline continues as we age. Reduced DHEA levels
have been associated with many diseases of aging.
Dennis T. Villareal,
M.D., and John O. Holloszy, M.D., set out to examine whether conditions
of aging could be effected if DHEA levels were supplemented. "Earlier
human studies indicated DHEA supplementation improved bone density and a
sense of well-being," Villareal says. "In this study, we wanted to test
whether our findings in the rat studies would hold true in people. We
investigated whether DHEA could reverse some of the metabolic
complications of aging if DHEA levels in elderly people were returned to
the levels of their youth."
The study included 56 people with an
average age of 71. For six months, half of the group received a placebo
while the other half received 50 milligrams of DHEA daily.
Using highly
sensitive MRI measurements of the amount of abdominal fat, the
researchers found that compared with placebo, DHEA supplementation
resulted in a decrease in visceral fat (within the abdomen) of 10.2
percent in the women and 7.4 percent in the men.
DHEA therapy also
resulted in a decrease in subcutaneous abdominal fat (below the skin
surface) averaging 6 percent in both the women and the men. The
researchers found no adverse effects from DHEA supplementation.
Recent
medical research shows why DHEA is best delivered to the body as a
transdermal cream, not as a pill. Why? Because orally ingested DHEA is
destroyed by the liver. The liver eliminates most DHEA before it can do
any good. DHEA sulfate levels are increased by oral DHEA supplements,
but not DHEA. DHEA is what the body uses as a base for most hormones,
not DHEA sulfate. The two are not interchangeable.
Furthermore, the human
body converts most DHEA into other hormones in the skin. So
bio-identical transdermal DHEA,
Twist 25 DHEA cream, provides what the
body uses naturally where it can be used, in the skin.
