\r\n \r\n Anyone on this board using DHEA? The folks at Life Extension market this substance heavily, and if you buy into their thoughts, it seems to be a fountain of youth. I think, however, they are irresponsible in their push to have people use it. I feel it could possible stimulate beginning breast or prostate cancer we may unknowingly have. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail letter I just sent off to the LEF people:
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\r\n I was concerned about Cherniske\'s caveat that men being treated with androgen ablation for prostate cancer should not use DHEA. I was wondering if he said the same thing in both articles I have read. https://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/...er_dhea_01.htm
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\r\nLast year I discovered I had advanced PC and began a testosterone reduction therapy (Lupron). During that first course, my research led me to realize that testosterone reduction as a treatment is a primitive, dangerous, and cruel treatment. Testosterone per se is not the enemy. The offending hormones are DHT and estradiol.
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\r\nAfter my treatment wore off, I began using DHEA, hoping to establish a better level of testosterone. It is when T is low later in life that PC usually develops. T is protective. However, shortly after using DHEA, my PSA began to skyrocket all the way to 500. I was in bad shape, thinking that my ideas were wrong. I therefore began androgen ablation once more-' + '-which worked for about nine months, putting me in hell via all the nasty side-effects.
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\r\nThat is when I used an anti-fungal (ketoconazole) which dropped my PSA from 300 to 28 in short order. The current thinking is that ketoconazole works by inhibiting androgens at the adrenal level. But my total testosterone and DHT levels were already extremely low. Inhibiting adrenal androgens could not have possibly been responsible for such a decline in PSA.
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\r\nWhat I found is that ketoconazole seems to work by inhibiting DHEA. In some men DHEA converts rather strongly to estradiol which is the initiating factor in DNA damage. My experience is that using DHEA nearly killed me even when I was off the anti-androgen treatment.
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\r\nI realize that when you market DHEA, you advise those with hormone sensitive cancers not to use it. Cherniske, I believe, does not say that. He says to avoid it only when you are being treated for cancer. I relied too heavily on his thoughts. His writing seems to suggest that DHEA may even fight cancer.
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\r\nBeyond that, there are thousands of folks walking about with the beginning stages of prostate cancer and are not aware they have this disease. For them to use DHEA could be disastrous-' + '-possible even fatal in the long run, Therefore, despite all the good your organization does, I feel it is irresponsible to market DHEA without fully informing folks to either 1) be tested to make sure they do not already have cancer or, 2) to make absolutely sure they have their hormone levels monitored to make sure that when using DHEA they do not experience a rise in DHT or estradiol. Advice could also be given to use 5-alpha-reductase and aromatase inhibitors if one decides to use DHEA.
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\r\nSince DHEA can be coverted to either T (and therefore DHT) or to estradiol, it can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on which path it takes. But the path it takes is based on a crapshoot.\r\n

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