What benefits can progesterone offer?

In his book The Super Hormone Promise, Dr William Regelson talks about some of the exciting work on progesterone being done in France by a group headed by Dr Etienne-Emile Baulieu’s team at the University of Paris. They found evidence that progesterone may be an effective treatment for certain nerve diseases, including multiple sclerosis.

It has long been known that progesterone is produced in the central nervous system and that it plays a role in helping nerves community with each other. That is why progesterone, like other superhormones such as estrogen and testosterone, is related to neurotransmitters, that is, substances that carry messages from nerve to nerve and help run the vast communication network within the body.

The French researchers found that progesterone is produced in yet another site in the nervous system, in special cells called Schwann cells. These are found in the peripheral nervous system, the collection of nerves that branch off from the central nervous system. In the peripheral nervous system, progesterone may play a previously undetected role in the maintenance of nerves, i.e. touch and motor function.

The French researchers discovered that progesterone promotes the formation of the myelin sheath, the fatty substance that surrounds and protects nerve fibers. The myelin sheath is to nerves which plastic insulation is to electrical wires.

They learned about progesterone’s role in myelin formation by injuring nerves in the legs of male mice and monitoring the mechanism in the body that repaired the injury. These researchers noted that concentrations of progesterone were significantly higher near the damaged nerves that in the blood, suggesting that progesterone plays a role in the healing process.

To test this theory, the researchers added supplemental progesterone near the damaged nerves and then noticed that there was a significant increase in the thickness of new myelin sheaths. When researchers administered a drug that blocked the action of progesterone, they noted that the thickness of the new myelin sheaths was decreased.

Based on these experiments, it appears as though progesterone does indeed play a role in myelin production and in repairing nerve injuries.

The reason researchers are so excited about progesterone’s newly discovered role in myelin formation is that several serious diseases can occur when myelin production is impaired, leaving the nerve tissues exposed. In fact, in multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system, the loss of myelin results in breakdown of the nerve signaling system throughout the body.

Symptoms of multiple sclerosis include muscle weakness or paralysis, vision problems, and lack of coordination.

To day there is no cure and there are few effective treatments for multiple sclerosis.

What is so exciting about the discovery of progesterone’s role in myelin formation is that it may one day lead to a treatment for this disease and similar myelin-deficiency diseases.