Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may be able to offset the increase in abdominal fat and accompanying increased risk for diabetes that often occur with advancing age. The study authors explain levels of DHEA peak at about age 20 and then gradually decline. They say by the time we are 70, we have only about 20 percent of the peak amount circulating in the body, which has been associated with the harmful effects of aging. Dennis T. Villareal, M.D., and John O. Holloszy, M.D., set out to examine whether complications of aging could be reversed 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 was randomly assigned to receive a placebo while the other half received 50 milligrams of DHEA daily. Using MRI measurements, the researchers found that DHEA supplementation resulted in a decrease in abdominal fat of 10.2 percent in women and 7.4 percent in men. It also resulted in a 6-percent decrease in fat below the skin surface for men and women. “Among the different fat stores, visceral [abdominal] fat is specifically considered potent and metabolically active because its blood drains directly to the liver,” the authors say. “Fatty acids from visceral fat get deposited in the liver and other organs and then mediate the decrease in insulin action that leads to an increased risk for diabetes.” In addition, patients receiving DHEA showed an improvement in insulin action. This shows a protective effect of DHEA against insulin resistance caused by a high-fat diet and the natural decrease in insulin responsiveness that occurs with older age, the study authors say. Dr. Villareal and Dr. Holloszy are now recruiting people for a larger study on the effects of one year of DHEA replacement.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2004;292:2243-2248