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  Discussion on DHEA for cough
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New Member:
Floodfar

Posted on Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 5:26 pm:

I have a mare that seems to be having trouble with a recurring cough without fever following a bad viral infection she contracted a year ago. Initially, she had copious amounts of yellowish discharge with the cough. This gave way to a dry hacking cough, only upon exercise, that lasted several months until i took her out of the area, inland, to be bred. We live on the Washington coast. She was successfully bred and appeared to be very healthy with the exception of a persistant case of scratches which she developed right after breeding her. I ride her everyday and she is in great shape. She is a 14 yr old Arab. A couple of months ago, she and my gelding developed what appeared to be a cold with a cough...they both got over it in about a week. Now she is coughing again, only when I ride her, with little or no discharge...mostly clearish white. Can i give her DHEA to boost her immune system? I had similar problems when we first moved here and my naturopath reccommended i take DHEA, (after trying several conventional doctors and their medications.) This was over 10 years ago and DHEA has worked like a miracle for me. No more respiratory problems. I was 40 when we moved here and this naturopath said many people"s adrenal glands slow way down on the production of this hormone whaich is largely responsible for their immune system. Does this work the same for horses? This mare's mother developed heaves and i had to carefully manage her hay situation. As long as i soaked her hay, she was fine. This does not seem to be the case with my current pregnant mare though. My feeling is the viral infection of a year ago weakened her immune system and now she easily contracts colds and has a hard time comletely getting over them. This current cough started about 10 days after we hosted a clinic here at our farm. My other mare has also had a runny nose that began at the same time, but is not coughing and the gelding seems fine. This mare is 9 months pregnant. Thank you so much! I have raised this mare from a foal, as I did her mother and she is very special to me! Cindy Flood
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 9:01 am:

Taken from a November 19, 1996, issue of HealthNews, a newsletter from the publishers of The New England Journal of Medicine:

DehyDrOepianDrOsterone, or DHEA, is a steroid hormone, a chemical cousin of testosterone and estrogen. It is made from cholesterol by the adrenal glands, which sit atop each kidney. For the first few years of life, the adrenals make very little DHEA. Around age six or seven, they begin churning it out. Production peaks in the mid-20s, when DHEA is the most abundant hormone in circulation. From one's early '30s on, there's a steady decline in DHEA production, so the average 75-year-old has only 20% of the DHEA in circulation that he or she had 50 years earlier. At all ages, men tend to have higher DHEA levels than women.

By definition, hormones are chemical messengers made in a gland or tissue that start, stop, or otherwise orchestrate activity in some other issue. That makes DHEA a hormone in name only, since no one knows exactly what it does in the body. For years it was thought to be a kind of chemical trash left over from making other hormones. Today, "we still haven't been able to identify any mechanism of action," says Dr. Casson.

In fact, about the only thing that researchers can agree on is that DHEA is easily converted into other hormones, especially estrogen and testosterone.

The Food and Drug Administration isn't sure what to do with DHEA supplements. Ten years ago the agency told companies to stop selling DHEA, which was marketed at the time for weight loss, and classified it as an unapproved new drug, obtainable only by prescription. Then in 1994, DHEA was reclassified as a dietary supplement, allowing sales over the counter. For more on this see Quackwatch where I lifted this information.

If you had an inflammatory disease Cindy it is easy to see why a steroid would help you but you have a misunderstanding how it works, it does not potentiate the immune system, just the opposite it suppresses the immune system.

There is no work in horses on DHEA but being a steroid and the mare pregnant, I would avoid it at all costs. It does sound like a chronic inflammatory problem and could be hay mold related, it is unusual to find soaking makes a big difference, so this horse just may be more sensitive that your other. For more on managing this problem and some ideas on doing it without steroids see,
Equine Diseases » Respiratory System » Heaves & Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
and
Equine Diseases » Respiratory System » Chronic Lower Airway Disease.
DrO
Member:
Bobs

Posted on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 10:19 am:

Do not give DHEA to a pregnant horse. It is teratogenic and it will not work for cough. I am glad you had success with it but it will not work for your horse. From a pharmacy standpoint Dr O's comments are right on the mark.
Bob Stack R.Ph.
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