It seems that the discussion about this hormone supplement is pretty lean on the site.
nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drug … -dhea.html
This looking intriguing. I’m trying to figure out, however, why they sell this as a supplement at the local stores when it’s a hormone?
I’m new here, but I was just thinking the same thing. Have been taking propecia (actually proscar cut into 4) for 3-4 years, starting around 23 years old.
Have recently been tracking down the cause of my fatigue/daytime sleepiness, forgetfullness and anxiety. I’m not at the point where I suspect propecia, but I do have something interesting to add to the discussion about DHEA. During the last year of seeing various docs I went to an endo and blood tests showed very low DHEA for my age, along with low red and white blood cell counts. She prescribed sublingual B12 and DHEA supplements. 45 days later my tests showed everything in normal ranges. No improvement in symptoms though. Subsequent sleep test showed very fragmented sleep with more than 150 hypopneas (shallow breathing, currently a debate ongoing in the medical community as to whether they are as harmful as apnea). Have tried the usual drugs for sleep and wakefullness (ambien, lunesta, restoril, provigil, dexedrine, adderall) but nothing so far has helped. Also tried low dose thyroid due to TSH on the high end, but not over reference range.
Stopped propecia 3 weeks ago simply because I ran out and haven’t gotten more yet. Reading here has at least got me to stay off it for a couple more weeks and see if I notice a difference.
I have all the typical sides and had my hormones tested recently, low test, high estrogen. But my dhea levels were 5 times normal! Maybe there are answers in that, but I know just boosting dhea levels is certainly not enough, at least in my case.
Maybe, our bodies can’t process dhea properly, or something out of sync is telling my body to produce more, I don’t know.
I haven’t looked up what exactly dhea is, but as far as weight lifting supplements go, it’s pretty weak. I really don’t think hardly anyone uses it any longer. I forget the exact relationship, but I believe 7-keto fuel is one step stronger than dhea.
No one can tell you how your body will respond to it, I doubt it could do any further harm, good luck.
7-Keto is a metabolite of DHEA that supposedly can’t be converted to any of the sex hormones (DHEA goes on to become testosterone and estrogens, as well as doing its DHEA duty). This gives it the advantage of increased DHEA levels (it’s controversial whether DHEA supplementation does anything at all) without any potential negative effects of messing with the sex hormones.