How DHEA Benefits Health

Treats Osteoporosis

Research suggests DHEA supplements could be beneficial in the treatment of osteoporosis. A study conducted in 2009 at Washington University in St. Louis followed 113 patients between sixty-five and seventy-five years old. The study participants were randomly assigned to take either fifty milligrams of oral DHEA or a placebo each day. All participants also took seven hundred milligrams of calcium and sixteen micrograms of vitamin D per day throughout the study period. Bone density tests were provided, and the patients were given blood tests to measure markers associated with bone metabolism. After one year, females who took the DHEA supplements experienced a 1.7 percent increase in their bone mass on average, and the placebo group did not have any increase. After an additional year, bone density improvements averaged 3.6 percent in the group of female patients who took DHEA. Male patients did not appear to benefit from the DHEA supplements. More recently, a 2017 study in the Journal of Bone Metabolism noted that patients who had the highest levels of DHEA in their blood also had significantly higher bone density compared to patients who had the lowest DHEA levels. Additional research is necessary to determine how gender may impact DHEA benefits.

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