| In an article published in the May, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri report that women who supplemented with the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) along with calcium and vitamin D experienced a greater increase in bone density than women who received calcium and vitamin D alone. Edward Weiss, PhD and his associates randomized 113 men and women aged 65 to 75 to receive 50 milligrams orally administered DHEA per day or a placebo for one year. For the second year of the study, all subjects received 50 milligrams DHEA while none received a placebo. All participants received a daily regimen of 700 milligrams calcium and 16 micrograms vitamin D for the duration of the trial. Bone mineral density was assessed via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and hormones and markers of bone metabolism were measured in blood serum at the beginning of the study and at one and two years. At the one year mark, women who received DHEA had an average 1.7 percent increase in spinal bone density, while those in the placebo group experienced no increase. When women in the placebo group were switched to DHEA during the second year of the study, bone density improved by 2.6 percent compared to the beginning of the study, while increasing to 3.6 percent above baseline in the original DHEA group. Estradiol, IGF-1, and testosterone increased with DHEA supplementation, and bone turnover markers decreased in both groups during the first year and remained decreased during year two. Men did not appear to derive benefit from DHEA, although spinal bone density increased in both the DHEA and placebo groups by 1 to 2 percent, leading the researchers to believe that the calcium/vitamin D regimen could be responsible for the improvement. Dr Weiss noted that low DHEA levels have been associated with decreased bone density, and that the 2 to 4 percent improvement in spinal bone density observed in the current trial is at least equivalent to that experienced by women who use estrogen or bisphosphonate drugs for osteoporosis, although DHEA did not have the benefit of affecting hip bone density. "The results of our study are very promising," he remarked. "Similar studies have demonstrated much smaller benefits for bone than we found. However, calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, which are present in half of older adults, may have prevented DHEA from improving bone density in the earlier studies. In our study, we supplemented all participants with calcium and vitamin D to ensure that deficiencies were not present. This may explain why our study showed more favorable effects on bone density." "In addition to its beneficial effects on bone, DHEA replacement may have other benefits including improvements in risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, improvements in immune function, and improvements in psychological health," Dr Weiss added. | 
