DHEA and yams.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Re: DHEA IS DHEA!! YAMS IS YAMS!!!!!!!!
From: hrbmoore.rt66.com (Michael Moore)
Date: 7 Oct 1995 18:00:29 GMT

> Why would I buy YAMS which claims to magically turn into DHEA. PROVE IT! Meanwhile I can still buy DHEA which IS now already DHEA. Tell me why? There are hard working people fighting for your rights to have the real thing. I eat yams almost every day for the beta carotene. Don't get ripped OFF!!

I agree with you (natch) ... diosgenin (from Mexican Yams) was ONCE used to synthesize progesterone (1940s-1960s), THEN used as a precursor to other steroids (1951-1970s) ... nowadays it's more cost-effective (cheaper) to use lipoids and saponins from stuff like soybeans. The changeover occured when Mexico (observing the benefits of OPEC) decided to raise the price of diosgenin to something more than cost-effective (cheap). The drug manufacturers tumbled frantically about and found themselves more "cost-effective" raw materials.

WE can no more synthesize DHEA, Acetyl-CoA, Squalene or complete steroid hormones from diosgenin (or Mexican Yams or Wild Yam) than we can build bones or hydroxyapatite from chewing rocks or protein from inhaling inert nitrogen gas. We make all that stuff from ... LOW DENSITY CHOLESTEROL already in our bloodstream or already in the liver! If we don't make enough, it's because our metabolism doesn't WANT TO. We need to build up metabolic strength, improve the balance between catabolism and anabolism, feel better, be happier, eat better, etc. etc. WE DON'T NEED PRECURSORS! (pant pant)

By the way, Art, the "yams" you eat are actually horticulture varieties of sweet potatoes. Nobody sells real yams in North America, and most yams (Dioscorea spp.) are as edible as tree roots...and those that are never see the marketplace...they need the expert culinary arts of rural Central American cooks.