New Age Therapy

By LEON JAROFF

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.

Under the headline "DHEA Gets Respect," the Harvard Health Letter last July listed other preliminary trials in humans and animals. They involve the impact of DHEA on such disorders as lupus, skin cancer and diabetes. One of the experimenters, Dr. Raymond Daynes, a University of Utah pathologist, had some advice for consumers who might flock to health-food stores for DHEA supplements. "What is sold in health-food stores is garbage," he said, noting that these pills carry only enough DHEA to affect a "small mouse."

Daynes believes that the French press is "a little overly excited." He warns that high doses of DHEA could cause side effects, such as dramatic ; changes in the liver. "It takes on a different color," he says, "and may be more susceptible to cancer." DHEA should not be used by the public, he urges, "until more is known about its effects on the body."

One of those effects was cited at the National Institute on Aging, where chief of biology Dr. Anna McCormick is not sanguine about DHEA's potential. She notes that one human trial -- to determine the effects of DHEA on appetite -- was brought to a sudden halt when levels of testosterone increased and female subjects began to assume masculine characteristics.

While a comparable rise of that sex hormone in males may sound attractive to older men, it apparently would not confer all of the benefits enjoyed by the elders in Cocoon. Both proponents and naysayers agree that DHEA does not enhance sexual desire or performance.

With reporting by Paul Krueger/San Diego, Tala Skari/Paris and Dick Thompson/Washington