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Disease Treatment & Management Expertise for exceptional medical care and management is offered in our Colorado Springs network of independant providers, featuring Dr. Joel B. Klein, Physician. Dr. Klein utilizes a systemic orientation (whole body) and integrates both traditional medicine with alternative & homeopathic treatment. Over 20 years of clinical practice follows Dr. Klein. Patients love the integrated method that he uses and fresh treatment perspectives often missing in single-method medical practices. Dr. Klein offers office hours in Colorado Springs and Denver. Please expect his office to set up times and locales. Articles About Metabolic or Age Related Conditions Understanding
Adrenal Function James
Abernathy, PhD. Editor Pregnenolone
-- The Basics Pregnenolone, like DHEA, is a steroidal hormone manufactured in the body. Pregnenolone is a precursor hormone synthesized from cholesterol, principally in the adrenal glands, but also in the liver, skin, brain, testicles, ovaries, and retina of the eyes. Steroids are a large family of structurally similar biochemicals that have sex-determining, anti-inflammatory, and growth-regulatory roles. Indeed, pregnenolone is the grand precursor from which almost all of the other steroid hormones are made; including DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, the estrogens, and cortisol. Despite
its powerful metabolites, pregnenolone is acknowledged to be without significant side effects, with minimal or no anabolic,
estrogenic or androgenic activity. Pregnenolone has been found to be 100 times more effective for memory enhancement than other steroids or steroid-precursors
in laboratory mice. Pregnenolone appears to be the most potent memory enhancer yet reported in animals. Pregnenolone has been
reported to not only make people smarter but happier and enhance ones ability to perform on the job while heightening feelings
of well-being. Pregnenolone has also been reported to reduce high stress induced fatigue. As is the case with the steroid-hormone
precursor DHEA, pregnenolone levels decline with age. Many physicians and scientists believe that replacement of pregnenolone
to youthful levels is an important step in the treatment of aging and symptoms of aging. Pregnenolone may be one of the most
important hormones because it seems to have a balancing effect. It is a precursor to many other hormones and may be able to
bring the levels of other hormones up or down as needed. Other benefits of pregnenolone may include
stress reduction and increased resistance to effects of stress, improvement of mood and energy, reduced symptoms of PMS and
menopause, improved immunity, and repair of myelin sheaths. Pregnenolone also operates as a powerful neurosteroid in the brain,
modulating the transmission of messages from neuron to neuron and strongly influencing learning and memory processes. As with
DHEA, pregnenolone levels naturally peak during youth and begin a long, slow decline with age. By the age of 75 our bodies
produce 60% less pregnenolone than the levels produced in our mid-thirties. For this reason pregnenolone is one of the biomarkers
of aging. Like counting the rings of a tree, by measuring the level of pregnenolone at any given point of a person's life,
it is often possible to make an educated guess as to his or her age. Some other hormones that decline with age are DHEA, the estrogens, testosterone,
progesterone and growth hormone. These are considered biomarkers of aging as well. Since pregnenolone provides the initial
raw material from which all the other steroid hormones are made, some of our other hormones will decline in a parallel fashion.
While our youth-giving hormones are diminishing, loss of quality-of-life progressively settles in. We slowly begin to experience
physical and mental decline; loss of energy, memory loss, visual and hearing impairment, arthritis, cardiovascular disease,
and sexual decline, just to name a few. Supplementing small amounts of these neuro-hormones may slow these age-related processes,
improving one's quality of life by rejuvenating the body to more youthful experience. Pregnenolone -- A Little History Research on pregnenolone,
as well as usage of pregnenolone, dates back as far as the 1930's. Human studies were conducted in the 1940's on factory workers
to test the effect of pregnenolone on anti-fatigability and auto-immune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis. The results
were successful and improvements were noted. Even though pregnenolone was proving to be not only effective, but safe as well,
it was discarded when Merck's newly introduced pharmaceutical agent, cortisone, was announced to be a cure-all for rheumatoid
arthritis in 1949. Soon after cortisone and cortisol came into use, the synthetic steroid hormones dexamethasone, and later prednisone,
were introduced. Remember that these steroids are hundreds of times more powerful than pregnenolone (or DHEA for that matter).
Because they could be patented, it was more politically and economically advantageous for pharmaceutical companies to promote
these drugs rather than pregnenolone. Additionally, these steroids were very fast acting compared to pregnenolone. Users and
doctors preferred the quick fix. However,
these steroidal compounds proved to have serious downsides, including compromising the immune system and inducing osteoporosis,
among other serious complications. Even though cortisone and cortisol are stress hormones that are natural to the body, they have historically been
and continue to be administered in pharmacological doses rather than at physiological amounts natural to the body. The pharmacological
levels at which cortisone and cortisol are generally administered give them a risk profile not unlike that of the synthetic
hormones. Scientists
have been studying the impact of hormones on learning and memory for many years. Various studies have found that pregnenolone
enhances motivation, the ability to acquire knowledge, and long-term memory. A research group of industrial psychologists
conducted studies in the 1940's to test pregnenolone on students and workers for the ability to enhance job performance. They
found that the students/workers had a markedly improved ability to learn and remember difficult tasks. It is also amazing that pregnenolone
not only enhanced job performance of the students/workers; but they additionally experienced heightened feelings of well-being.
The same research group performed a study on factory workers to see if pregnenolone could improve their work productivity.
Productivity increased most notably in the workers whose situations were considered the most stressful; for example, the workers
who got paid per piece and whose living depended on their productivity. Improvement was noted, but less so, in workers who
got paid a fixed wage regardless of their productivity levels. Not only did pregnenolone improve productivity for both groups,
but the workers also reported enhanced mood.As previously
mentioned, despite successful results, research on pregnenolone halted in the 1950's when cortisone became available as an
immediate cure-all. Because pregnenolone, unlike cortisone, couldn't be patented, pharmaceutical companies had no financial
incentive to pursue the research. It is unfortunate that pharmaceutical companies are governed by a financial system and healthcare
system that imposes the requirement that for a molecule to be profitable it must be patent-able. If there were half as many
studies done on pregnenolone as the patented drugs, pregnenolone's therapeutic potential would be expected to be far reaching. Where is pregnenolone found? Human studies show that there are much higher concentrations of pregnenolone in the nervous
tissue than in the bloodstream. Animal studies indicate that pregnenolone is found in the brain in ten-fold larger concentrations
than the other stress-related hormones (including DHEA); Common
Causes Of Adrenal Stress
Associated Symptoms And Consequences
Of Impaired Adrenals
Functions of DHEA
What Cortisol Does
Excess Cortisol
Balancing Your Meals For Blood Sugar Control To maintain proper adrenal
function it is imperative to control your blood sugar levels and the following guidelines will help you do that:
An excessive ratio of carbohydrates to protein results in excess secretion of insulin, which
often leads to intervals of hypoglycemia. The body, in an attempt to normalize blood sugar, initiates a counter-regulatory
process during which the adrenals are stimulated to secrete increased levels of cortisol and adrenalin. It follows that an
excessive intake of carbohydrates often leads to excessive secretion of cortisol. This contributes to chronic cortisol depletion
and consequently, adrenal exhaustion. Reduced DHEA is an early sign of adrenal exhaustion. In order to stabilize blood sugar, you must
maintain a balance between two hormones, glucagon and insulin, which are produced by the pancreas. Protein in the diet induces
the production of glucagon Carbohydrates in the diet induce the production of insulin. Insulin promotes fat (energy) storage.
When excess carbohydrates are eaten, the body produces large quantities of insulin and little glucagon. This high level of
insulin results in more fat being formed and stored. When insulin is high and glucagon is low, the adrenals are called upon to produce excess
cortisol (see later on in the document what cortisol is all about) as a back-up response to help raise blood sugar in the
absence of adequate glucagon. This occurs at the expense of the adrenal glands, contributing to adrenal exhaustion. Balance Your Meals The optimal level of insulin to glucagon is achieved by a diet that contains low glycemic
foods, adequate fiber, and lots of color. Most people do well when they eat three principal meals and two snacks between the
meals. Calories should be sustained around 500 –800. The body has trouble using calories over 500 in an hour.
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