New Age Therapy

IN THE 1985 FILM COCOON, THREE OLD codgers played by Don Ameche, Hume Cronyn and Wilford Brimley begin taking furtive dips in a secluded swimming pool next door to their Florida retirement home. The pool, being secretly used by space aliens to rejuvenate companions left behind on a previous expedition, turns out to be a veritable fountain of youth. The senior citizens suddenly come alive: their arthritis disappears; their cancers dissolve; they disco into the night and regain their sexual prowess. Asked a film reviewer: "Wouldn't it be wonderful if decay were so easily washed away?"

If the opinion of a prominent French scientist means anything, something like that might just come to pass. Dr. Etienne-Emile Baulieu, developer of the controversial RU 486 "abortion pill," had Paris in a tizzy last week. In a cover story in the French weekly Le Point, he touted the potential of an antiaging pill based on a hormone that might ease many of the discomforts of the elderly.

Wire services spread the word around the world, and the press laid siege to his office at Paris' Kremlin-Bicetre hospital, leaving Baulieu somewhat perplexed at the sudden interest. He stresses that the pill would not extend life but might, after further testing, enable people to "age well." Even that possibility remained in doubt, though. In the U.S. Baulieu's comments sparked skepticism at the National Institutes of Health and other medical centers.

The drug in question is known as DHEA, a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands and also found in the bloodstream in another form, called DHEAS. The hormone first appears in humans around age seven, and its level increases until it peaks at age 25. It then begins to fall off and by age 70 is at only about 10% of its peak level. But does this suggest that replenishing DHEA in the elderly will ease some disorders of aging?

Since Baulieu first encountered DHEA more than three decades ago, it has been scrutinized by many researchers, most extensively by Dr. Samuel Yen, an endocrinologist at the medical school of the University of California at San Diego. In a 1986 study, Yen and a colleague found a correlation between low DHEA levels and death from cardiovascular disease.

Results of Yen's most recent trial, which involved giving elderly people small doses of DHEA daily, were published last June in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. They showed improved well-being, which Yen defines as "the ability to cope," increased mobility, less joint discomfort and sounder sleep. In the November issue of the same journal, Baulieu reported tests on 57 subjects showing that "DHEAS is a good individual marker" of age. As people age, he says, "everybody's level diminishes. But somebody who has a lot of DHEAS to start with will maintain a fairly high count, while those who had a low level in the beginning will always be in the lowest category."

Yen is currently giving DHEA to another group of older patients to determine whether it will halt or reverse the natural decline in their strength and muscle mass. Meanwhile, Baulieu plans to analyze blood samples from 600 elderly people, trying to correlate DHEAS levels and general health. And he hopes soon to begin testing small doses of the hormone on as many as 200 volunteers, measuring any changes in memory, behavior, skin and muscle tone, cholesterol levels, cardiac activity and joint pain.