DHEA: Overlooked or Overrated?
With DHEA (structure of DHEA-S, see image on the right; HMDB. V2.5 ) having been mentioned in a few of the last posts as a precursor to other androgens, I thought it might be interesting to have a brief look at the effect of DHEA supplementation on mood, body composition, sex life and human endocrine balance. Lately, a 1988 study by Nestler et.al. ( Nestler. 1988 ) has caught my attention. The researchers investigated the effect of 28 days of 1600mg/day (no, this is no typo) orally supplemented DHEA in 5 normal men (+5 men on placebo). The results were simply amazing. Apart from a 2.5x-3.5x increase in DHEA-levels, the researchers found: "In the DHEA group the mean percent body fat decreased by 31% , with no change in weight. This suggests that the reduction in fat mass was coupled with an increase in muscle mass ." ( Nestler. 1988 ) In addition mean serum low density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased by 7.5% (3.21 +/- 0.11 vs. 2.97 +/- 0.14 nmol/L; P less than 0.01...