- what about pregnenolone?

[Guest guest]

I've been researching again and somehow I started looking at

pregnenolone. Has it been looked at for our kids? Here's some

highlights of intriguing things I found on it:

" Pregnenolone is a GABAB antagonist and increases neurogenesis in the

hippocampus.[1] "

________

" " . For some of us, debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer's

disease, arthritis, and coronary artery disease may play a predominant

role in our lives. What if a supplement could turn back the clock and

help restore the quality of life we once had? Researchers have shown

that a naturally occurring hormone called pregnenolone may be just

what we need.

Pregnenolone is a precursor to the body's other naturally occurring

hormones, including dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), progesterone,

estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol.1 Pregnenolone is synthesized

directly from cholesterol and is responsible for countless functions

in our bodies. By the age of 75, however, the body's production of

this valuable hormone has declined by as much as 60%,2 and levels of

the hormones for which pregnenolone is a precursor have also diminished. "

________

" Boosting acetylcholine levels, increasing neurogenesis (the creation

of new neurons), and regulating gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are

among the ways pregnenolone may help improve memory and cognitive

function.4-6 Acetylcholine is a critical neurotransmitter that helps

brain cells communicate with each other. Many Alzheimer's medications,

such as Aricept® and Reminyl®, work by inhibiting the breakdown of

acetylcholine. In one study, French researchers discovered that

infusing pregnenolone sulfate (a sulfated derivative of pregnenolone)

into the brains of rats boosted acetylcholine release by 50% while

improving cognitive recognition of a familiar environment. "

__________

" In healthy men aged twenty to thirty, administration of pregnenolone

(1 mg daily) was found to improve sleep quality and decrease

intermittent wakefulness.

http://www.bodyandfitness.com/Information/Womenhealth/Research/pregnenolone.htm

_________

" Pregnenolone supplementation may help to correct any existing hormone

imbalances.

Pregnenolone, however, being at the source of the steroid pathway,

let's your body decide how much DHEA it needs and the amount of

testosterone and estrogen appropriate for you at any given time. The

body, in it's wisdom, determines how much pregnenolone is:

A. Used as pregnenolone.

B. Converted to DHEA and used as DHEA.

C. Converted to progesterone and used as progesterone.

D. Converted to DHEA or progesterone and then converted into other

hormones, such as estrogen, testosterone, cortisone, etc. "

__________

" 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. "

________

" Other actions of pregnenolone include limiting allergic reactions and

reducing inflammatory processes, such as arthritis. It also improves

energy levels by protecting our energy-producing mitochondria from

environmental toxins.

Interestingly, in a study of rats subjected to spinal cord injury,

administration of pregnenolone in combination with the

anti-inflammatory medication indomethacin and an immune-modulating

substance (bacterial lipopolysaccharide) promoted recovery of nerve

function. "

____________

" Pregnenolone may inhibit or enhance the activity of GABA receptors,

thus helping modulate nervous system function.6

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/nov2005_aas_01.htm

_________________

" The typical excitatory brain chemical that activates those

memory-enhancing NMDA receptors is the amino acid glutamate, which is

present throughout the brain.15 And while glutamate is critical for

normal learning, too much excitation by glutamate over time can damage

neurons—in fact, overstimulation, or excitotoxicity, by glutamate is

thought to be one of the underlying factors in neurodegenerative

disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.16,17 What makes pregnenolone so

important in this context is that it seems to trigger the NMDA

channels18,19 through a mechanism that is independent of glutamate,20

which in turn may account for the observed neuroprotective effects of

pregnenolone on brain cells.21 The bottom line of all this intricate

science is that pregnenolone may play a pivotal role both in laying

down memories in the first place, and then preventing their loss by

directly protecting the nerve networks that store them! These

complementary and versatile actions of pregnenolone are sending shock

waves of interest through the scientific community because of the

enormous implications for treating all sorts of age-related disorders

of memory.5,22,23

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/nov2007_report_pregnenolone_01.htm

____________

" Evidence suggests that neuro-steroids such as pregnenolone may offer

important neuroprotection in Alzheimer's disease. When researchers

introduced the destructive amyloid-beta protein into animal brains,

the level of progesterone (a neurohormone synthesized from its direct

precursor, pregnenolone) fell off dramatically.28,29 Likewise, in

humans, Alzheimer's disease patients have lower levels of

pregnenolone, allopregnanolone (a pregnenolone metabolite) and

DHEA-sulfate (DHEAS) in all the main memory-related areas of their

brains, compared with control patients.30-32 Furthermore, the brains

of patients with the highest neurosteroid levels display the lowest

collections of the destructive amyloid-beta proteins.30

It therefore seems reasonable to speculate that as natural levels of

pregnenolone and other neuro-steroids fall with aging and the onset of

neurodegenerative diseases, supplementing with these vital compounds

should have a neuroprotective effect. This is exactly what researchers

have found. French scientists have paved the way in this field with

their study of the effects of pregnenolone on cognitive aging. In

fact, the results have been startling, with pregnenolone sulfate (the

form found in brain tissue) completely reversing memory deficits in

older, memory-impaired rats. 33

Even more remarkably, from a treatment standpoint, researchers have

also shown that pregnenolone increases brain levels of acetylcholine,

a key neurotransmitter required for optimal brain function, which

becomes deficient in patients with Alzheimer's disease.34

Acetylcholine is not only vital for thought and memory, it is also

involved in controlling sleep cycles, especially the phase of sleep

that is associated with memory (called paradoxical sleep or the random

eye movement [REM] phase). Scientists have used this knowledge to

study the effects of pregnenolone on sleep cycles and discovered that

it dramatically increases memory-enhancing sleep.

Together with previous findings that pregnenolone increases nerve cell

growth (neurogenesis),11,35 researchers have concluded that

pregnenolone can improve cognitive function in older animals by

increasing acetylcholine levels, which stimulate new nerve cell growth

in the brain areas most closely associated with memory and learning. "

___________

" As well as protecting against memory loss and even recovering some

failing memory, pregnenolone and other neurosteroids are showing

promising results in acquiring memory and learning in the first place.

Research has shown that neuro- steroids improve memory performance in

healthy animals and help restore memory in animals given experimental

anesthesia-inducing drugs.36 "

________

" They discovered the learning deficit induced by scopolamine could be

prevented by pregnenolone within a very short time. Such a rapid

effect of pregnenolone on memory processes led the team to conclude

that it may be acting directly at receptor sites that are known to be

active in memory formation. In other words, the researchers had

confirmed that pregnenolone has both neurosteroid-like and

neurotransmitter-like activities—a boon for the treatment of memory

impairment. "

_________

" A second group of French researchers may have unlocked another door

to the role of pregnenolone in learning. They found that pregnenolone

dramatically stimulated the construction of ultramicroscopic

structures called microtubules in brain cells.40 Microtubules are

essentially tiny intracellular " muscles " that nerve cells use to

rapidly rearrange their structures, making the myriad new connections

that form the " structure " of memory. In fact, pregnenolone's dramatic

effect on " bulking up " nerve cells' internal muscles brought interest

in the hormone to a fever pitch in France, where, in 2004, a new

private company was started to develop pregnenolone derivatives as

pharmaceutical drugs for memory enhancement and the treatment of

Alzheimer's disease. "

_________

" Pregnenolone is biochemically, the " mother hormone, " made directly

from cholesterol within the mitochondria of the adrenal glands and, in

small part, of the nervous system, with the help of the cholesterol

side chain cleavage enzyme, p450scc. Pregnenolone being a precursor to

various hormones, such as progesterone, mineralocorticoids,

glucocorticoids, androgens, and estrogens, can help the body to

maintain normal hormone levels, which in turn help numerous body

functions.22-24* "

__________

" There's remarkably good news here. Again it's related to the speed

with which pregnenolone acts on nerve cells, and on its role as the

" parent " hormone that quickly gives rise to other hormones to

counteract any potentially negative effect of overstimulating neuronal

pathways. By providing a stockpile of raw material, so to speak, ample

pregnenolone levels allow brain cells to manufacture just the right

chemical (excitatory or anti-anxiety) at just the moment when each is

needed.4,6

Here's how it works: just as pregnenolone itself acts at excitatory

receptors in the brain to stimulate nerve cell activity and enhance

learning, other neurohormones produced from pregnenolone (such as

allopregnanolone) act on inhibitory brain receptors, called gamma

amino-butyric acid (A) (GABA(A)) receptors, which suppress brain cell

activity to produce a calming, anti-anxiety, and even sleep-inducing

effect.43 "

____________

" The factory workers noted improved production rates while taking

pregnenolone. They felt less fatigued, better able to cope with their

jobs and experienced an enhanced sense of happiness and well-being.

Interestingly, workers in stressful job environments improved more

with pregnenolone than those with less demanding tasks. "

__________

" Although the researchers studied only the hippocampus, their research

implies that the brain's recuperative powers may be far greater than

previously thought. " We've known for some time that the brain

generates new cells throughout life, " says Shors. " These results

suggest that one of the functions of these new cells is related to the

process of memory formation. "

In an earlier study, the two researchers demonstrated the nostrum,

" use it or lose it. " In the earlier study of rat brains, they found

that while most new brain cells die within weeks of their generation,

putting them to work through hippocampal-related learning improved

their survival rate. "

______________

" Pregnenolone also enhances the activity of the cytochrome P450

detoxifying enzymes, which help our cells (especially the liver and

brain) to detoxify poisons of all sorts, whether from the outside

world, or our own metabolically produced toxins. Pregnenolone is

generally safe and effective at doses of 25mg to 200mg per day. "

(Note: other places said this: " Directions: One tenth to one tablet

pregnenolone tablet (10 mg. tablet) as needed, preferably in the

morning. One tenth of a tablet would equal about 1 mg pregnenolone. Do

not exceed 10 mg pregnenolone per day. Discuss with your physician if

planning to use pregnenolone continuously for more than 1 week. "

___________

" Supplemental pregnenolone is molecularly identical to the

pregnenolone that the body makes naturally.3 The raw material to

create pregnenolone comes from wild yams (Dioscorea villosa), which

are grown in Mexico and other tropical regions throughout the world. "

________

" Pregnenolone is a natural hormone that cannot be patented. " (Hence

no drug companies are interested.)

" How is pregnenolone made?

There is a type of plant called a wild yam that is grown in certain

parts of the southern U.S. and in Mexico. This wild yam contains a

compound called diosgenin that is the precursor to steroid hormones.

In a laboratory, diosgenin is converted into pregnenolone. Further

laboratory processing can convert pregnenolone into DHEA. The human

body does not have the ability (the required enzymes) to convert

diosgenin (a six ring structure) into pregnenolone (a four ring

structure). Therefore, if you swallow pills that are extracts of wild

yams (diosgenin), you will not get pregnenolone or DHEA. The

conversion of diosgenin to pregnenolone has to be done in a

laboratory. If you want pregnenolone or DHEA, the bottles you buy must

say that they contain actual pregnenolone or DHEA, not extracts of

wild yams or diosgenin. "

Any comments anyone? Forgive me if this has already been discussed.

Priscilla K