DHEA and health: More questions than answers
What is it?
testosteroneestradiolDHEA and aging
Perhaps the most important reason that DHEA has attracted so much attention is its dramatic and puzzling relationship to aging. DHEA production begins during fetal life; in fact, fetal adrenal glands manufacture more than 200 mg daily, nearly 10 times more than the amount adults produce. After birth, though, DHEA production slows to a crawl, and blood levels are very low. That changes about the time of puberty, when levels begin to rise again. In both men and women, DHEA levels peak between age 20 and 30, after which they decline steadily by about 5% a year. At its peak in young men, DHEA achieves blood levels 10 times higher than any other steroid hormone, molecule for molecule. But by the age of 70, it has declined to very low, nearly negligible levels.
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