Taking DHEA every alternate day

It isn't true of all supplements but would taking 25 mg DHEA every two days be similar to taking 12.5 mg[which you can't get] every day?

Thanks

Alex

Alex: I don't think so as the half life of DHEA is 12 hours so your adrenal system could be getting pretty well exercised by 48 hour intervals in taking it. It's probably easier to cut a 25 mg pill with a drugstore pill cutter.

Ray Sahelian, MD, has a great discussion on DHEA supplementation:

[www.raysahelian.com]

Gordon

But, Ray Sahelian sez "DO NOT EXCEED more than 5 mg a day on a long term basis."??

Erling: Yes, he does. I follow him regularly and he's always pretty conservative about supplementation even though he sells a lot of them. Indeed he recommends frequent holidays on almost all supplements so our bodies won't get used to relying on the supplements and will continue to make their own essential nutrients.

OTOH, LEF leans more toward up to 75 mg/day of DHEA for men: I guess we should certainly get our DHEA levels tested at least annually.

"Life Extension Foundation Recommendations

Because of the overwhelming evidence connecting low levels of DHEA to the degenerative diseases of aging, Life Extension suggests that all people over age 40 begin DHEA therapy. For most people, the starting dose of DHEA is between 15-75 mg, taken in one daily dose. Many studies have used a daily dose of 50 mg. One recent study showed that doses under 30 mg were not enough to significantly raise blood levels of DHEA in young adults (Cameron DR et al 2005). At these levels, DHEA has shown no major side effects.

Ideally, DHEA replacement therapy should begin with blood testing to establish a base range. Since almost everyone over age 35-40 has lower than optimal levels of DHEA, most people begin supplementation and test their blood DHEA levels later to make sure they are taking the proper dose. Normal serum reference ranges and ideal ranges of DHEA-S are:
Normal
(depending on age) Ideal
Men 16.2-492 μg/dL 350-490 μg/dL
Women 12-407 μg/dL 275-400 μg/dL

After 3 to 6 weeks, another test is recommended to measure serum DHEA. All individuals react differently to DHEA replacement therapy, so it's a good idea to closely monitor your blood levels and side effects. If side effects appear, it may be possible to add 7-Keto DHEA and reduce the dose of DHEA.

Those with liver disease should use DHEA sublingual tablets, which bypass liver metabolism. Otherwise, capsules containing the more common micronized DHEA are quite effective in restoring DHEA to youthful ranges."

Here's a link to more from LEF: [www.lef.org]

Gordon

My FM MD always checks DHEA-S along with DHEA and we dose accordingly.

[www.anti-agingmd.com]

[www.metametrix.com]

[www.medfusion.net]

Jackie

A different though related point.

Assume we took our DHEA at 9 AM Day one and half life is 12 hours.

Would measured level on blood taken 10 AM day 2 [23 hours later] be different to the identical test taken 10 AM on day one?

In other words because of the half life question will the levels change according to the time we have taken the supplement ?

It is not just a DHEA question

Thanks

Alex

Alex: According ro Medscape, it takes 5 to 6 half-lives for a substance to reach steady state. Here's their post:

"One of the main reasons for this gets back to the issues of pharmacokinetics. To review some of the basics of pharmacology, medications vary in how long it takes to clear them from the body. Some are metabolized fairly quickly, while others can take a long time before they are eliminated. We quantify this with the use of the term "half-life." The half-life of a given medication is how long it takes for the body to get rid of half of the dose. When the patient is taking a medication on a regular basis, there is an ongoing process of drug absorption in the form of each dose of the drug and, concurrently, an ongoing process of drug removal with the drug's metabolism and clearance. Eventually, there comes a point when the amount of drug going in is the same as the amount of drug getting taken out. We call this "steady state." It takes somewhere between 5 and 6 half-lives for a medication to reach steady state. Thus, medications with short half-lives reach steady state relatively quickly, while those with long half-lives take a long time to reach steady state.

Many drug effects occur primarily when the blood level of the drug is either going up or going down. When the drug reaches steady state, these effects can be either attenuated or completely absent. For those of you who are familiar with calculus, one way to understand this is that these effects only take place if there is a first derivative other than zero. Unwanted side effects from a particular compound are great deal more acceptable if they only take place on the way to steady state (ie, they are transient). Another way to classify drug effects into 2 groups is to classify them into those effects that take place primarily while the blood level is changing and those effects that take place primarily when the blood level is stable at steady state. Ideally, for any drug, all of the unwanted effects would be in the former category and all of the therapeutic effects would be in the latter category. There are many examples of side effects of psychotropics that are considerably worse during increasing or decreasing blood levels of the medication. Extrapyramidal side effects from antipsychotic medications, gastrointestinal side effects from selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitors, and memory problems from benzodiazepines are some examples of this phenomenon."

Note that the efficacy time and half-life are not the same. The effectiveness of a drug/supplement is usually much shorter than the half life, perhaps half the half life in some cases.

Gordon