National Institute on Aging
See also the "Media Campaign Cautions Consumers About `Anti-aging Hormone Supplements'" press release.
Hormones are powerful chemicals that help hang on to our bodies working normally. They are made inherently, by the body, and can affect us in wide ways. Levels of some hormones decrease as a middle-of-the-road part of aging. In other cases, the body may come to nothing to make plenty of a hormone for other reasons. In any case, the body s hormone level can be increased by taking hormone supplements -- pills, shots, or medicated skin patches.
Certain hormone supplements hold received a lot of attention lately, including DHEA (dehydro-epiandrosterone), human growth hormone (hGH), melatonin, and testosterone. Unproven claims that taking these, supplements can cause people have a feeling young again or that they can prevent, aging hold been appearing in the word. However, when it comes to hormones, more is not necessarily better.
The fact is that not a soul has but shown that supplements of these hormones add years to race's lives. And while some supplements provide health benefits for society with existent deficiencies of reliable hormones, they also can cause poisonous side effects. The right balance of hormones help us stay healthy, but the wrong amount might be dicey.
Another concern is that some hormone supplements are not regulated as drugs by the Food and Drug Administration; they are sold as nutritional supplements, instead. For this reason, the rules controlling how they are produced and sold are not as strict as the rules for drugs. For example, producers of DHEA and melatonin are not required to include significant health information on the label of their bottles. Researchers also have found that the dose nominated on the label of some bottles of melatonin may be at variance from the dose inside the bottle.
The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, conducts research to find out how hormone supplements affect ethnic group. In the case of most hormone supplements, it is not even so known how much is too much or too little, and for some, whether hormone supplements should be taken at adjectives. This fact sheet provides information around what is known so far and in the order of what researchers are doing to find out more.
Talk to Your Doctor
The NIA does not recommend taking supplements of DHEA, growth hormone, or melatonin, because not enough is particular about them. People who own a genuine negative amount of testosterone or human growth hormone (see below) should take them single under a doctor's supervision. The NIA does not recommend taking any supplement as an anti-aging remedy, because no supplement have been proven to serve this purpose. Talk to your doctor to cause sure that over-the-counter supplements will not interfere with other medication you are taking and that they will not affect any medical conditions you may have. You might want to show this reality sheet to your doctor, to help explain your concerns.
How Hormones Work
Groups of special cell -- glands -- make chemicals call hormones and release them into the bloodstream. Hormones taken as supplements also end up within the bloodstream. In either suitcase, the blood then carry hormones to different parts of the body. There, hormones influence the way organs and tissues work.
Hormone supplements may not own exactly the same effects on us that our own intrinsically produced hormones have, because the body may process them differently. Another difference is that elevated doses of supplements, whether pills, skin patches, or shots, may result surrounded by higher amounts of hormones within the blood than are healthy. When that happen, any negative effects that even the body's own hormones can produce may increase. Tiny amounts of these powerful chemicals, whether made by the body or taken as supplements, can have common effects.
DHEA
DHEA is made by the adrenal glands, which sit on top of respectively kidney. Although it is not known whether DHEA itself cause hormonal effects, the body breaks DHEA down into two hormones that are known to affect us contained by many ways: estrogen and testosterone (see below). Supplements of DHEA can be bought lacking a prescription, and also may be found under the first name "dehydroepiandrosterone." After people achieve the age of about 30, their bodies start to bring in less DHEA, and the amount of DHEA found contained by the bloodstream continues to drop as people grow elder. Supplements are sold as an anti-aging remedy claimed, by some, to improve punch, strength, and immunity. DHEA is also said to-increase muscle and drop fat.
Right very soon, there is no reliable evidence that DHEA supplements do any of these things. However, near are early signs that DHEA supplements may front to liver damage, even when taken briefly.
Some those's bodies make ample amounts of estrogen and testosterone from DHEA, while others make smaller amounts. There is no road to predict who will make more and who will create less. Researchers are concerned that DHEA supplements may create high level of estrogen or testosterone in some culture. The body's own testosterone plays a role in prostate cancer, and glorious levels of easily produced estrogen are suspected of increasing breast cancer risk. It is not yet prearranged for certain if supplements of estrogen and testosterone, or supplements of DHEA, also increase the risk of developing these types of cancer. In women, high-ranking testosterone levels increase the risk of heart disease and motivation growth of facial hair.
Overall, the studies that own been done so far do not provide a clear picture of the risks and benefits of DHEA. For example, some studies show that DHEA help build muscle, but other studies do not. Researchers are working to find more definite answers going on for DHEA s effects on aging, muscles, and the immune system. In the meantime, people who are thinking around taking supplements of this hormone should understand that its effects are not fully prearranged. Some of these unknown effects might turn out to be harmful.
Growth Hormone
Human growth hormone (hGH) supplements also are claimed, by some, to make smaller the signs of aging -- is, to increase muscle and decrease round, and to give population a feeling of well-being and punch. Even though there is no proof that hGH can prevent aging, some individuals spend a great deal of money on supplements. Shots of the hormone can cost more than $15,000 a year. They are available single by prescription and should be given by a doctor.
Human growth hormone is made by the pituitary gland, just below the brain, and is important for typical development and conservation of our tissues and organs. It is especially important for everyday growth in children. Human growth hormone level often drop as people age.
Studies enjoy shown that supplements are helpful to consistent people. Sometimes, children are unusually short because their bodies do not gross hGH. When they take supplements, their growth improve. Young adults who have no pituitary gland (because of surgery for a pituitary tumor, for example) cannot net the hormone, and they become obese. When they are given supplements, they lose weight.
Researchers are doing studies to find out if hGH can serve make elder people stronger by building up their muscles and whether it can diminish body fat. They are watching their patients deeply carefully, because side effects can be serious within older adults. Side effects of hGH treatment can include diabetes and pooling of fluid in the skin and other tissues, which may front to high blood pressure and heart flop. Joint pain and carpal tunnel syndrome also may go down.
People in prod of the "fountain of youth" may have a knotty time finding a doctor who will give them shots of hGH. Some empire put themselves in vulnerability by trying to get it any course they can. For example, some people go to a clinic in Mexico to get supplements. The clinic be shut down later because side effects be not being warily monitored by doctors.
Melatonin
The hormone melatonin is made by the pineal gland, in the brain, and decreases near age in some those.
Supplements of melatonin can be bought without a prescription. Some populace claim that melatonin is an anti-aging remedy, a sleep remedy, and an antioxidant (antioxidants protect against "free radicals," smoothly occurring molecules that cause interrupt to the body). Early test-tube studies suggest that melatonin may be effective against free radical, in hulking doses. However, cells produce an-tioxidants fluently, and in test-tube experiments, cell reduce the amount they brand name when they are exposed to additional antioxidants.
Claims that melatonin can slow or reverse aging are intensely far from proven. Studies of melatonin have be much too limited to support these claims, and own focused on animals, not people.
Research on sleep shows that melatonin does play a role in the sleeping and wake cycle people jump through daily, and that supplements can revolutionize sleep in some cases. If melatonin is taken at the wrong time, though, it can disrupt the sleep/wake cycle. The effects of supplements differ from creature to person, and more research is needed to find out underneath what conditions melatonin helps, not disturbs, sleep.
Side effects of melatonin may include confusion, drowsiness, and headache the subsequent morning. Animal studies suggest that melatonin may cause blood vessel to constrict, a condition that could be dangerous for those with elevated blood pressure or other cardiovascular problems.
The dose of melatonin usually sold in stores -- 3 milligrams -- can result in amounts in the blood up to 40 times higher than regular. It is important to remember that melatonin may be found to hold far-reaching effects that are still unknown even at the body's own commonplace levels, to read aloud nothing of the level that can be caused by megadoses taken for long period of time.
Researchers are working to find out more about melatonin's effects.
Testosterone
Testosterone is thought of as a mannish hormone, but it is found in both men and women. Because men hold more testosterone, their voices are deeper, they hold more facial hair, and their muscles are larger. Testosterone also plays a role contained by sex drive and erection.
Testosterone levels may drop as men age, and change that take place within older men regularly are wrongly blamed on lower testosterone. For example, the loss of erection some older men experience normally is due to unhealthy arteries, not low testos-terone level.
Supplements of testosterone are available, only by prescription, for men whose bodies do not be paid enough of the hormone. Examples of men who do not engender enough testosterone are those whose pituitary glands enjoy been destroyed by infections or tumors, or whose testes own been dilapidated (the testes are the glands that make testosterone within men, and the pituitary gland helps regulate it).
Supplements provide tons benefits for men with a frank deficiency of testosterone. Men's muscles and-bones become smaller and weaker short the hormone, and their sex drive and ability to hold erections decrease. Supplements serve prevent such problems by restoring normal level.
But too much testosterone is harmful. Stories roughly athletes who damaged their robustness by taking steroids -- testosterone supplements -- to build up muscle and strength have made headline. Now, stories about how testosterone can spawn older men have a feeling young again, and can restore their muscles and their sex drive, own become popular.
The problem is that most of these men already have adequate testosterone, and supplements cause them to own more than is normal. The result can be an enlarged prostate gland; detrimental cholesterol levels, which may head to heart disease; psychological problems; infertility; and acne. It is not yet prearranged for certain if testosterone supplements increase the risk of prostate cancer.
Estrogen
Because various women take estrogen supplements for symptoms of menopause, estrogen is included here fact sheet. Many immense, reliable studies have be done on this hormone, and show why it is important to discover both the productive and harmful effects of a supplement. It is clear that estrogen replacement is sympathetic to some women after menopause. Women with sure risk factors, however, might want, along with their doctors, that estrogen supplements are not right for them.
Women own much less estrogen after menopause because the ovaries clear dramatically reduced amounts of this reproductive hormone in after that life. Studies suggest that reduced estrogen level are associated with a complex risk of heart disease and osteoporosis -- a condition that weakens bones, allowing them to break more confidently. These are just two examples of the oodles areas of the body that can suffer without average estrogen.
Research has shown that estrogen supplements prescribed by a doctor can facilitate some women avoid osteoporosis and lower their risk factors for heart disease, the number-one slayer of women in the United States. Osteoporosis can head to severe bone fracture. Patients who are hospitalized for a broken hip have a annihilation rate 12 to 20 percent higher than others within their age group, due to complications. Estrogen helps prevent osteoporosis.
A recent study suggests that estrogen supplements also may rearrangement the onset of Alzheimer's disease, but more research must be done to confirm this rash finding.
On the other hand, some studies enjoy raised concerns more or less a link between estrogen and cancer of the uterus and a possible contact between estrogen and breast cancer. It appears that estrogen given to women after menopause also increases the risk of blood clots. Heart attacks, strokes, and other circulation problems may result from blood clots.
Although much is known something like estrogen, scientists are learning more. For example, a recent study suggests that elder women whose bones are found to be at lower risk of osteoporosis may be at higher risk of breast cancer (doctors can predict a woman's prospect of developing osteoporosis by measuring bone mineral density). Researchers reckon this increased breast cancer risk may occur within some women whose bodies have produced giant amounts of natural estrogen over their lifetime. More research is needed to relate whether estrogen supplements alone increase the risk of breast cancer.
Researchers have studied estrogen for oodles years. As a result, doctors are better informed about which women are potential to benefit from supplements and about the right doses to prescribe so that the risk of side effects is reduced. Adding progestin, another feminine hormone, to estrogen supplements lowers risk of uterine cancer.
The decision whether or not to steal estrogen is a personal one. Each woman, along with her doctor, should ask herself: Is at hand heart disease in my family unit? Or breast cancer? What are the results of my bone mineral density measurement? Have I have blood clots before, or have my doctor told me that I am prone to blood clots?
There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. Each woman must weigh her answers, base on her health history, near her doctor.
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