The superhormone for your brain

Pregnenolone is the hormone that is key to keeping our brains functioning at peak capacity. Some scientists believe it is the most potent memory enhancer of all time.

Perhaps what is even more amazing are the studies that demonstrate pregnenolone enhances our ability to perform on the job while heightening feelings of well-being. In other words, this hormone appears to make us not only smarter but happier.

Like the other steroid hormones (DHEA, testosterone and estrogen) pregnenolone is synthesised from cholesterol. As you know, cholesterol is a kind of fat (lipid) from in certain foods (primarily meat and dairy products) and is also produced in our bodies.

In recent years cholesterol has gained a reputation as being unhealthy and something to avoid, because people with high levels of blood cholesterol are at higher risk of developing heart disease. As a result, we go to great lengths to cut out intake of cholesterol-rich foods, and some of us take cholesterol-reducing drugs if our levels are too high.

Cholesterol, however, has gotten a bad rap. Having too much cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease, but it is also dangerous to have too little cholesterol. In deed, without cholesterol you could not live.

Cholesterol is essential for many bodily processes: it is needed to produce vitamin D, which is necessary for the absorption of calcium and for the production of bile, used to absorb fat from the intestines. It is needed to make myelin, the fatty coating that surrounds nerves, including the nerves in the spinal cord and brain. Studies have shown that people with very low cholesterol levels are more likely to develop cancer or to suffer from mental illness.

Cholesterol is also a critical component in the production of steroid hormones. In a complex series of steps, cholesterol is broken down into different steroid hormones as the body needs them. It is first synthesised into pregnenolone and used by the body in that form. What is not utilised undergoes a chemical change that “repackages” it into DHEA. DHEA, in turn, is used by the body as DHEA and it is also broken down into estrogen and testosterone. Pregnenolone is also “repackaged” into progesterone which becomes the precursor to other steroid hormones in a chain of hormones known as the “steroid pathway”.

Because pregnenolone gives birth to the other hormones, it is sometimes referred to as the “parent hormone” which is probably the origin of its odd-sounding name.

Pregnenolone is produced both in the brain and in the adrenal cortex, the glands that sit about the kidneys. Like the other hormones, pregnenolone production declines with age. By the time we are seventy-five, we are making 60 percent less pregnenolone than we did in our thirties.

As our pregnenolone production drops, so does production of the other hormones in the steroid pathway. This makes perfect sense since pregnenolone provides the raw material for these other hormones, and as levels of pregnenolone decline, so will the levels of the other hormones that are made from it.

Pregnenolone, like progesterone and DHEA, is now being sold over the counter in countries like the USA and, in Australia, is available on prescription from compounding pharmacists.

Although few people may have heard of pregnenolone before, ironically, this hormone was one of the first to be studied and the first to be proven both safe and effective. In fact, in the mid-1940s, a group of industrial psychologists tested pregnenolone on studies and workers, and discovered that it markedly improved their ability to learn and remember difficult tasks. And as mentioned earlier, pregnenolone has recently been rediscovered as a potent memory-enhancing agent.

All this leads to a very intriguing question: If as we age we restore our pregnenolone levels to their youthful values, will we also be able to replenish levels of all other hormones that are made from pregnenolone? In other words, by simply taking pregnenolone will we be able to reverse the decline in all of the superhormones?

This is an intriguing questions, and no one knows the answer as yet. Some researchers who have pondered this question do not believe that pregnenolone supplementation alone will be enough to correct the age-related decline in other hormones but that a combination of DHEA and pregnenolone will do the trick. Many who have studied both hormones, such as Dr William Regelson, author or ‘The Superhormone Promise: The Definitive Book on DHEA‘, believe that the two appear to work in harmony.

Why bother to take extra DHEA if pregnenolone can do it all? The answer is really quite simple, according to Dr Regelson. As you know, as we age, our production of DHEA declines. Why? The decline in DHEA is due to a drop in product of an enzyme that is necessary to break pregnenolone down into DHEA. Therefore, if we take pregnenolone supplements, we still may not be able to produce enough DHEA because we will still be lacking this essential enzyme. As a result, pregnenolone may bypass the DHEA stage and instead be broken down directly into the sex steroids or to other hormones in the pathway.

There is another reason to add DHEA to the pregnenolone cocktail. If pregnenolone does indeed prime the pump that produces other hormone, there is a chance that it may also turn up the production of corticosteroids, or stress hormones, at least in some people. Since we know that DHEA dampens the effect of corticosteroids and is a potent stress reliever, this is all the more reason to include DHEA in the pregnenolone cocktail even if pregnenolone turns out to be all that these researchers believe it to be.

Pregnenolone and Depression

Many cases of depression in older people are actually caused by the decline in our hormones and, in particular, pregnenolone and/or DHEA. There’s a good chance that by restoring the hormones such as pregnenolone to their youthful state we may prevent many of the cases of depression that occur among older people and that are all too frequently written off as part of the “normal” aging process.

Evidence suggests pregnenolone is safe, well tolerated, and causes no known side effects, so it just makes good sense to try this approach first before you resort to stronger medication that can cause substantial side effects.

Pregnenolone and Arthritis

In the 1940s, pregnenolone was used quite successfully as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, the disease that causes severe joint pain and fatigue, and that continues to plague millions of sufferers.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that is more likely to strike as we get older.

There is yet no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, and the symptoms are usually treated with anti-inflammatory medication. Nearly a half a century ago, rheumatoid arthritis patients who took pregnenolone reported that they felt less pain and were less tired, and much stronger.

Despite the fact that pregnenolone showed promise as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, all research on pregnenolone as an arthritis treatment ended abruptly in the 1950s. One reason the medical community lost interest was that, like the other hormones such as progesterone, pregnenolone was a natural substance produced by the body and therefore could not be patented. As a result, no drug company was interested in investing the time or money to bring pregnenolone to market.

It is a sad fact of life that in the United States, no matter how effective a substance may be in treating illness or extending and improving the quality of life, if it is not patentable, it stands a good chance of falling by the wayside.

How to take pregnenolone

Firstly, confirm via salivary hormone profile that your levels of pregnenolone have declined and justify supplementation.

Second, look for specific signs of pregnenolone deficiency. If you find that you are not thinking as well as you used to, that you are not as smart and sharp as you once were, it may be time to replenish your pregnenolone levels to their youthful peak.

The usual dose for pregnenolone is 50mg daily, taken in the morning. Improvement in mental function is usually noticed within hours of supplementation.

Dosage needs to be individualised for your specific needs and outcomes, so regular salivary hormone profiles, say every 2-3 months, will ensure you get the best results.

The effects of pregnenolone is cumulative, therefore, the true beneficial effects will be felt over time.

Arthritis patients may not see results for up to several weeks.

How does progesterone fit into this picture?

As we’ve learned from previous chapters, progesterone primes and opposes estrogen. And, in a lot of cases, women have too much estrogen in ratio to their progesterone levels.

Well, when you supplement hormones like pregnenolone you have no control over what hormones will cascade from this supplementation. Pregnenolone is, after all, the precursor or building-block to DHEA, progesterone, testosterone. But what you have to consider here is that pregnenolone and/or DHEA can and possibly will increase your levels of estrogen! This might not be the approach you want to adopt in cases where levels of all other steroid hormones, excluding progesterone and estrogen, are within normal limits.

This is especially relevant for women fighting estrogen-driven cancers. You do NOT, under any circumstance, want to risk increasing your estrogen levels. Therefore, progesterone supplementation is the preferred choice of treatment to offset estrogen dominance.