DHEA - weight loss

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Hormone marketed as supplement shows promise as a fat-fighter

By Healy / Los Angeles Times

http://www.detnews.com/2004/fitness/0412/09/h05-27021.htm

All right, it's not the fountain of youth. But a study published in the Nov.

10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that

DHEA, a hormone widely marketed as a nutritional supplement, decreases belly

fat and improves the body's use of insulin among the elderly when taken

daily for six months. Earlier studies have shown that DHEA supplementation

led to improved bone density and an enhanced sense of well-being.

" We were surprised that there was such an effect, " says Dr. Dennis Villareal

one of the study's authors. " It is an active medication that causes changes

... It's not snake oil. "

Dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, is a hormone naturally produced by the

adrenal glands. When broken down by the body, it becomes an active sex

hormone, such as testosterone or estrogen. But production of DHEA peaks at

about age 20, then declines gradually as one ages.

In a six-month study of 56 men and women, average age 71, researchers at

Washington University had half the participants take 50 milligrams daily of

DHEA as a supplement -- an amount that could be expected to return the

levels of DHEA circulating in their bodies to those of their youth. The

other half of the participants took dummy pills. In women who took the DHEA,

levels of belly fat fell by 10.2 percent, while men's belly fat decreased by

7.4 percent. In both men and women taking DHEA, subcutaneous fat -- stores

of fat carried just below the skin's surface -- went down by 6 percent. At

the end of the study period, subjects receiving the DHEA supplement also had

lower insulin levels in response to glucose tolerance tests, while their

glucose levels remained unchanged. That's an indication that they had

improved " insulin action, " a measure of metabolic health that tends to

decline with age. The study is " very promising, but we need to take it

cautiously at this point, " Villareal says.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/fitness/0412/09/h05-27021.htm

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