Pills, Patches, and Shots

Part 1: Can Hormones Prevent Aging?

For more than a decade, the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the federal government's National Institutes of Health, has supported and conducted studies of replenishing hormones and similar substances to find out if they may help reduce frailty and improve function in older people. These studies have focused on hormones known to decline as we grow older:

• Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
  
  
• Growth Hormone
  
  
• Melatonin
  
  
• Testosterone
  
  
• Estrogen

The results from these NIA-sponsored studies and other research projects likely will improve our understanding of the pros and cons of hormone supplementation. Until the results of these studies are compiled, analyzed, and a consensus among scientists is reached, recommendations to use supplemental hormones and hormone-like molecules to influence the aging process and health problems associated with aging should be viewed with skepticism. It is not yet known, for instance, how much is too much or too little, and when or whether hormone supplements should be taken at all. This fact sheet provides information about what is known so far and what researchers are doing to find out more.

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