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Mario Dorizas DHEA's ability to increase libido, burn
fat and slow the
aging process may be reason enough to
consider taking the supplement. But in
addition to those,
DHEA could also help you prevent and
fight
cancer. New research on DHEA is giving
hope to many
cancer patients. While studies are still
navigating its positive and negative
benefits, scientists are finally taking
notice of the healing power of this natural
hormone.
What is DHEA?
DHEA stands for dehydroepiandrosterone.
It is a hormone produced in the
adrenal glands. The body produces
varying quantities of DHEA throughout one's
life, converting it to the major
sex hormones such as estrogen and
testosterone. Once regarded as a buffer
hormone, scientists had believed that DHEA
was involved only in the production of these
hormones. New research, however, has
found that DHEA-specific receptors exist in
many cells throughout the body and aid in
numerous functions, including possibly
helping you to prevent and fight cancer.
Mario Dorizas Sometimes referred to as the "Anti-Aging
Hormone," DHEA is the only hormone to
decline linearly with age in both sexes.
Because the natural production of DHEA in
the body peaks around age 25, scientists
correlated the waning of this hormone with
several kinds of age-related diseases. The
reason for this decrease is that the
endocrine glands begin to shrink, thereby
limiting the amount of DHEA your body can
naturally produce. Based on a number of
blood tests, anyone over the age of 40
who does not supplement their naturally
occurring DHEA levels is already deficient
by that age. By age 80, our bodies produce
only 10 percent of the DHEA produced at age
20.
Short history of DHEA
Mario Dorizas In the 1980s DHEA supplements were widely
sold as weight loss and anti-aging products.
However, in1986 the Food and Drug
Administration stepped in to halt the sale
of DHEA as a non-prescription supplement,
requesting more research on its long-term
effects. After an eight-year hiatus, DHEA
hit the markets again in 1994, partly
because of the U.S. Dietary Supplement
Health and Education Act. Since then, the
number of studies on DHEA has increased,
thereby offering new insights into its
cancer-fighting properties.
DHEA and cancer
In DHEA: A Practical Guide, Dr.
Ray Sahelian describes several ways in which
DHEA could prevent and fight cancer. In one
study, nine healthy elderly men took 50 mg
of DHEA for 20 weeks. Scientists found that
DHEA increased the activity of lymphocytes,
which are natural killer cells that find and
destroy not only viruses, but also abnormal
cells that may turn cancerous. Although the
number of T lymphocytes was unaffected, T
cell function was increased. In this way
DHEA increased the quality of the
body's natural defense against cancer, not
necessarily the quantity of cells
that do the fighting
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