Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is one of the most profuse steroids in the human body. It is involved in producing testosterone, corticosterone, progesterone, and estrogen. The latest research conducted on men ages 70 to 80 years, where DHEA levels were assessed, revealed that lower DHEA levels resulted in a greater risk of coronary heart disease. The researchers concluded that lower serum levels of DHEA and its sulfate envisages were robust markers for increased heart disease risk.
Prohormone is a term that refers to the precursor of a hormone. DHEA is a prohormone produced by the adrenal gland and can be transformed into active sex hormones. While the link between DHEA and age was discovered long ago, a prohormone’s biological importance, like DHEA, is mostly unknown. The University of Gothenburg study shows a strong link between a lower level of DHEA in the blood and coronary heart disease in older men.
According to the research, “the study has depicted the relationship between DHEA in the blood and coronary heart disease; still, this observation has not indicated whether the treatment regarding DHEA will minimize the chance of coronary heart disease in the patients.” According to a study available in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, “Even though there is a lot of literature on the metabolic rates and vascular actions of DHEA’s, there exists no evidence of an association between DHEA level and cardiovascular events.”
To further test that DHEA might be the reason for coronary heart disease or cerebrovascular disease (CBD is a vascular disease of the brain) in elderly men, the researcher conducted an extensive study including 2,416 patients between the ages of 69 to 81 years. The patients were studied for five years. The study results showed that 302 patients were shown to have coronary heart disease while 225 had CBD events (most commonly a stroke). There was a contradictory association between DHEA and DHEA-S level, and the age factor was also an essential factor for that cause.
