high DHEA lab interpretation

February 19, 2008

HI, my dad (76 yrs) had a DHEA level of 36 (80-560 range) in July

last year. Then in NOvember he did cortisol saliva testing through

canary club (Diagnos-Tech) and his DHEA was 4 (3-10 range), while his

cortisol was over 110 all 24 hours. Since last July when his DHEA

was low, he has been taking 25mg DHEA each day. He just had labs done

(regular blood test of DHEA sulfate), and now his DHEA is 183 (normal

is under 75). What does this mean? Should he stop taking DHEA

entirely? By the way, if anyone understands connections with high

cortisol and blood sugar...his blood sugar is chronically high, 127

fasting...but he just sees a cardiologist so has not really ever

addressed the high blood sugar (guess it's been elevated for years).

His other canary lab results:

fTSH: 45-normal

fT4: .12 low (.17-.42)

fT3: .51 normal (.28-1.10)

TPO: negative

Estradiol: 12 high (1-5)

Progesterone: 45 normal (5-95)

Free Testosterone: 17 (15-45)

(serum testosterone was 71 in July with ref range 62-512)

He's been dealing with post-shingles post-herpetic neuralgia which is

chronic nerve pain in his arm for 10 months now so he's under chronic

stress physically...also my mom died two years ago of cancer so he

had a big emotional stressor --but he is not depressed and seems

healthy otherwise.

thanks for any insight!

Liz

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