DHEA: 280 People Took 50 mg a Day for a Year. Here Is What Changed.

People pay thousands of dollars for young-blood plasma infusions.

Meanwhile there is a hormone that costs about $12 a bottle, and its level in your blood falls year after year as you age.

It is called DHEA.

What DHEA is

DHEA is made by your adrenal glands. Your body turns it into testosterone, DHT and estrogen where they are needed. Blood levels peak in young adults and decline steeply with age.

The DHEAge study

• 280 healthy men and women, 60 to 79 years old
• 50 mg of DHEA or placebo every day for one year
• Double-blind, published in PNAS

What changed in the DHEA group:

• DHEA-S returned to young adult levels.
• Skin improved, especially in women: hydration, thickness of the epidermis, sebum production and pigmentation.
• Bone turnover improved in women over 70.
• Libido increased in women over 70.
• No harmful build-up of hormones was recorded.

The authors' own summary: it normalized some effects of aging, but it does not create supermen.

A second trial: well-being

In an earlier crossover trial, 30 men and women aged 40 to 70 took 50 mg at night. Blood DHEA reached young adult levels within 2 weeks. IGF-1 went up.

67% of the men and 84% of the women reported better physical and psychological well-being.

The honest part

Not every trial agrees. In another study, 39 older men took 100 mg a day for 3 months and the researchers found no improvement in well-being or sexual function, only small and temporary changes in blood values.

And DHEA sits in the middle of the hormone pathway. It can become androgens or estrogen. In the DHEAge study both testosterone and estradiol rose slightly. If your aromatase is high, more of it goes toward estrogen.

How I think about it

• Small doses. I stay low, around 5 mg. The trials used 50 mg.
• Fix the basics first: enough carbs, a good metabolic rate, low stress. They decide where DHEA ends up.
• Get DHEA-S tested before and after.

Related: your cortisol to DHEA ratio may matter more than either number alone.

Quick answers

Does DHEA slow aging?

In the one-year DHEAge trial, 50 mg a day restored DHEA-S to young adult levels and improved skin, bone turnover and libido, mainly in older women. The authors concluded it normalizes some effects of aging but does not create supermen.

What dose of DHEA was used in the studies?

The main trials used 50 mg a day. One trial in older men used 100 mg a day and found no benefit for well-being.

Does DHEA raise estrogen?

It can. In the DHEAge study there was a small increase in both testosterone and estradiol, particularly in women.