CAN THIS PILL REALLY MAKE YOU YOUNGER?

By Christine Gorman

This seems to be the season for wonder-drug books. Even as The Redux Revolution hits the shelves at Barnes & Noble, two other breathless volumes--The Super-Hormone Promise, by Dr. William Regelson and Carol Colman, and The DHEA Breakthrough, by Stephen Cherniske--are promoting testosterone, DHEA and other hormones as medical miracles that can slow or even reverse aging.

However, not all wonder drugs are created equal. Redux, despite the controversy that surrounds it, has a legitimate scientific pedigree. It has undergone thorough testing in animals and humans--including several large clinical trials--and has passed muster with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

DHEA, by comparison, is the modern equivalent of a patent medicine--an interesting compound being sold as a cure-all on the basis of the flimsiest scientific evidence. Like human-growth hormone and melatonin, two other drugs being promoted as antiaging compounds, DHEA is a medically active chemical with real value that has piqued the interest of mainstream scientists. But the claims that surround DHEA--that it can restore sexual vigor, prevent cancer and heart disease, and add decades to your life--run far ahead of the science.

DHEA (short for dehydroepiandrosterone) is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, tiny sacs that sit atop the kidneys. The body converts it into testosterone and estrogen in both men and women (albeit in different amounts). What makes DHEA so intriguing is that it seems to act like a biochemical marker for aging. People churn out copious quantities until the age of 30, when the levels in the blood start to decline. By the time they are 80, men and women have less than 5% of the DHEA they had at their physical and sexual peak.

Does that mean that taking DHEA can somehow stave off the aging process? When scientists tested this proposition on animals, they found to their astonishment that it seemed to do just that. When older, slower mice were given DHEA, they became more active and learned as easily as younger rodents to run mazes. Other studies suggested that the hormone may help fight cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

But all these effects were found in laboratory animals, not humans. Generalizing from mice to men is always risky, and it's even more so in this case because unlike humans, rats and mice make little or no DHEA on their own. Without conducting large studies of DHEA's effects on human subjects, nothing definitive can really be said.

Such in-depth research is only getting under way. In the interim, DHEA boosters point hopefully to a couple of small studies by Dr. Samuel Yen of the University of California at San Diego. They showed that giving DHEA to middle-age men and women elevated levels of yet another hormone, called insulin-like growth factor, which stimulates cell growth and cell division. Most of the subjects taking the hormone reported they felt more energetic, happier and better able to cope with stress. But neither finding, as Yen himself acknowledges, proves that aging has been reversed.

Meanwhile, many doctors fear that the new interest in DHEA, combined with its ready availability, could lead to widespread abuse. Thanks to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, DHEA and other so-called natural substances can be sold over the counter--without first being vetted by the FDA. This is the same law that allowed the sale of "herbal ecstasy," which has been blamed for numerous deaths.

So far, DHEA appears to be more benign than herbal ecstasy. At least one patient developed liver problems that went away after she stopped using DHEA. But anytime you boost the level of sex hormones in the body, as DHEA does, you risk triggering some pretty strange effects, including facial hair for women and enlarged breasts for men. And nobody knows what taking the compound for 20 or 30 years may do. Women could increase their risk of breast cancer, and men might be more vulnerable to cancer of the prostate.

Nor is it clear how DHEA may interact with other medications. "I'm much more concerned about DHEA than I am about melatonin," says Dr. James Fanale, whose practice includes many elderly people in Worcester, Massachusetts. "As soon as it's advertised and in the media, older patients will start taking it without telling their doctors."

Even Dr. Regelson, whose book promotes DHEA as "nature's antidote to aging," warns readers to use the hormone only under a doctor's supervision. Given the current state of research, however, no doctor can guarantee that DHEA is safe or effective. Further study could prove that DHEA really does all its supporters claim without causing more problems than it solves. Or it could show that this year's fountain of youth works no better than all the snake oil that preceded it.

--By Christine Gorman