DHEA: Your Body's Anti-Stress Hormone

By Al Sears, MD

Last week, DR, a new patient in my clinic, told me she was feeling overwhelmed and had trouble focusing on her work. Her original doctor had given her anti-depressants, but she had come to me hoping for a better alternative.

You may not realize it, but stress and anxiety have a hormonal connection. And, indeed, when DR's tests came back, her cortisol (stress hormone) levels were through the roof - and her DHEA barely registered.

I call DHEA the "anti-stress hormone." The most abundant product of the adrenal glands, it helps your body produce hormones like testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. You have a lot of those hormones when you're young, but production dwindles with age. By the time you are 65 years old, you'll only have about 10 percent of the DHEA you had when you were 20.

People with higher levels of DHEA experience:

. Less stress

. Reduced body fat

. Enhanced energy

. Increased libido

. A boost in immune system function

. Sharper memory

. A reversal of wrinkles and signs of physical aging

It is important to get your DHEA levels checked. Your doctor can do this by performing a simple blood test. Youthful levels of DHEA for men range from 400 to 560. For women, levels range from 350 to 430.

After your levels have been checked, you can determine how much DHEA to take. I often use a starting dose of 10 mg daily. DHEA is absorbed well and can be taken at any time, but is best taken first thing in the morning in order to mimic the natural daily fluctuations in your body's levels.

DHEA is becoming more popular as a supplement, and I regularly use DHEA therapy at my clinic to treat patients who suffer from lack of energy, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
What's more, DHEA is very affordable. Surf the Internet and do some comparison shopping. I recently found 300 capsules - at the 10 mg dose - for just $14.99.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears is a practicing physician and an expert on heart health.]
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It's Fun to Know: The World's Tallest Garbage Dump

An estimated 50 tons of garbage, including oxygen bottles and climbing gear, litters the slopes of Mt. Everest, the result of half a century of mountaineering. A Japanese climber started a clean-up campaign in 2000, and on his fifth and most recent trip he brought down about 1,100 pounds of trash with the help of two other climbers and 12 Sherpas.

The Nepalese government recently cracked down on litterers on the mountain, requiring expeditions to pay a $4,000 fine if they leave anything behind.

(Source: Associated Press)
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Word to the Wise: Longueur

"Longueur" (long-GUR) - French for "length" - is a dull, tedious passage in a book, play, musical composition, etc.

Example (as used by Peter Ackroyd in a London Times review of Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family, and Affections, by Frances Spalding): "If this book of 400 pages had been devoted to her alone, it would have been filled with longueurs, but as the biography of a family it has the merit of originality."

Michael Masterson
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2084, 07-03-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.