Sometimes when we want to believe that the fountains of youth and beauty are just a bottle of supplements away a study comes along and we snap out of it. In such a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Mayo Clinic endocrinologists rebuff the supposed benefits of the steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), often touted as an age-defying supplement. Researchers found that the precursor to sex hormones has no significant affect on measures such as muscle strength, peak endurance and muscle and fat mass in elderly women and men.

Over two years, Mayo researchers conducted a double-blind, randomized study of 144 men and women at least 60 years old, giving a regimen of DHEA to 29 men (75 mg per day), testosterone to 27 men (a 5 mg patch per day) and sugar pills to 31 men. Twenty-seven women received DHEA (50 mg per day); 30 received sugar pills. Blood samples were taken every three months and each participant’s supply of patches and pills was replenished. The Mayo team, led by Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair, measured physical performance, body composition and bone mass density, including hormone, insulin and glucose tests and PSA tests for men.

Participants were also asked to fill out a questionnaire asking about their perceived quality of life in order to assess emotional function while involved in the study. The team observed slight but significant increases in bone mass density in the femoral neck of men taking DHEA and testosterone, and in the ultradistal radius of women taking DHEA. Overall, DHEA did not have an impact on body-composition measurements or on many other measures, such as insulin sensitivity, monitored by the researchers. The also study found that DHEA supplements did not improve quality of life or cause adverse affects.