DHEA hormone supplementation reduces abdominal fat, improves glucose tolerance with no side effects

Produced by the adrenal glands, DHEA levels peak at age 20 and then begin to decline. At the end of the double-blind study, patients receiving DHEA had lower insulin levels (an improvement) during glucose tolerance tests than at the start of the study. Improvement in insulin action correlated closely to the amount of decrease in visceral fat. Fatty acids from visceral fat mediate the decrease in insulin action that leads to an increased risk for diabetes.

• In a six-month study of elderly people, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) significantly reduced abdominal fat and improved insulin action.
• This finding suggests that DHEA may be able to counter the increase in abdominal fat and accompanying increased risk for diabetes that very often occurs as we grow older.
• The decline in DHEA has been associated with the deleterious effects of aging, according to the researchers.
• Studies in rats conducted by Holloszy demonstrated that DHEA replacement has a protective effect against both the insulin resistance induced by a high-fat diet and the decrease in insulin responsiveness that occurs with advancing age.
• Volunteers ranged in age from 65 to 78, with an average age of 71, and the group was composed of 28 women and 28 men.
• The six-month study was double-blind: neither patients nor physicians knew who received DHEA or the placebo until the conclusion of the study.
• Using highly sensitive MRI measurements of the amount of abdominal fat, the researchers found that compared with placebo, DHEA supplementation resulted in a decrease in visceral fat (within the abdomen) of 10.2 percent in the women and 7.4 percent in the men.
• DHEA therapy also resulted in a decrease in subcutaneous abdominal fat (below the skin surface) averaging 6 percent in both the women and the men.