PREGNENOLONE: The grandmother hormone

If DHEA is the ‘mother hormone’, then pregnenolone is the ‘grandmother hormone’, the substance from which the body makes DHEA and almost all other sex steroid hormones, including testosterone, oestrogen, Cortisol, and aldosterone. However; pregnenolone, unlike DHEA, can lead to progesterone production, making it an especially vital supplement to women by creating a balance with oestrogen to reduce the risk of certain cancers that develop in women.

Interest in pregnenolone dates back to the 1940s, when Dr Hans Selye, the father of the ‘fight or flight’ theory of stress, studied its usefulness against anxiety and fatigue. In 1950 his contemporaries studied it against rheumatoid arthritis. Pregnenolone controlled pain, swelling and other symptoms of the disease as well as the body’s other adrenal steroid hormones, but with an important difference: it was the only hormone tested that did not cause metabolic side effects.

Unfortunately the medical profession abandoned pregnenolone, perhaps because the corporations could not patent this natural substance, and turned their research attention to one of its offspring, Cortisol and its synthetic derivatives. Doctors soon heralded Cortisol derivatives as ‘miracle drugs’ for relief from rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory or autoimmune ailments. True, pregnenolone wasn’t quite as powerful as prednisone, prednisolone or similar medications. But it caused none of the horrendous adverse effects for which corticosteroids are so well known – including water retention, high blood pressure, susceptibility to infections, weight gain, greater risk of diabetes and that ballooning facial puffiness known as ‘moon face’.

These days, many doctors hesitate to keep patients on corticosteroid drugs, recognizing that the treatment may be worse than the disease. There is. I was awestruck upon learning pregnenolone’s history, and we’re now rediscovering its exciting possibilities. Atkins Center doctors are now using the hormone supplement to treat any condition for which prednisone would be prescribed – arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, temporal arthritis and lupus, to name a few.

Combined with DHEA, pregnenolone proves to be very useful for relieving depression. Finally, if results from some newer animal research hold true for humans, the grandmother hormone may become one of the most powerful substances yet found to enhance memory.

Because of its biochemical bias towards progesterone, pregnenolone could become the treatment of choice for several oestrogen-related health problems. In a woman’s body, progesterone accomplishes more than just rounding out the monthly menstrual cycle. It curbs the tendency of certain forms of oestrogen, to overstimulate breast and uterine cells. Unless checked by progesterone, this overstimulation can lead to breast cancer, uterine fibroids and fibrocystic breast disease.