Article: Personal Hormone Profile Part 3
Personal Hormone Profile Part 3
by: Dr. Janet Starr Hull, Ph.D., CN
http://www.sweetpoison.com/newsletter/
In this month's newsletter, I have written
about DHEA and pregnenolone. Many
consider pregnenolone to be the most
important hormone in the human body as it
is able to regulate the levels of all the
steroid hormones.
DHEA is the acronym for DEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE,
a human hormone synthesized from pregnenolone
and is easily converted into other hormones,
especially estrogen and testosterone. DHEA is
a steroid hormone, and is considered a
'chemical cousin' of testosterone and estrogen.
Much of DHEA's reputation comes from
experiments in which mice or rats were fed
daily doses. Such studies have shown that DHEA
can prevent or delay the onset of cancer,
"hardening" of the arteries, lethal viral
infections, lowered immunity, obesity, and
diabetes.
DHEA increases lean muscle mass while decreasing
body fat, stimulates bone growth, helps prevent
osteoporosis and lowers both total and LDL
cholesterol, thereby decreasing the chances of
heart attack. DHEA regulates the unwanted
effects of excessive cortisol levels, which in
turn improves energy and vitality, sleep,
premenstrual symptoms (PMS), mental clarity,
recovery from acute stress, and enhances the
immune system.
Made from cholesterol by the adrenal glands,
which sit atop each kidney, in the first few
years of life, the adrenals make very little
DHEA. Around age 6-7, they begin producing
more of it. The DHEA levels peak between ages
20-25 when DHEA is the most abundant hormone
in circulation, and then decrease approximately
10% per decade. From the early 30s on, there
is 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. Studies have also
shown that DHEA creates an increase in sexual
aggressiveness, which is a sign that DHEA is
indeed converted into testosterone.
Many diseases associated with aging have been
attributed to a decrease in DHEA. Exercise,
proper diet, stress management, and nutrient
supplementation can increase the circulation
of DHEA throughout the body, which in turn,
improves conditions associated with the aging
process.
A word of caution when taking DHEA supplements:
DHEA converts into estrogen and testosterone,
so taking DHEA in supplement form (any hormone
for that matter) can be dangerous if not
monitored closely -- since estrogen and
testosterone both can speed-up the development
of cancer.
Pregnenolone is converted directly from
cholesterol into DHEA, progesterone, the
estrogens, testosterone, and cortisol. Many
consider pregnenolone to be the most important
hormone in the human body as it is able to
regulate the levels of all the steroid hormones.
Pregnenolone is concentrated in the brain ten
times higher than the other stress-related
hormones and appears to be a memory enhancer.
Like DHEA, pregnenolone decreases with age.
By age 75, the human body produces less than
60% pregnenolone than when in our mid-30s.
This is one of the body's biomarkers of aging.
And since pregnenolone is the raw material
used for the production of the other steroid
hormones, they too, decline with age.
Studies show that pregnenolone increases
motivation, long-term memory, and the ability
to acquire knowledge while reducing
stress-related fatigue.
