Cortisol boost 101 - part 2 by chilln at Dr. 's forum.

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....cont'd from previous post (part 1)

BOOSTING THE CORTISOL-PRODUCTION-LINE, TREAT VIA PREGNENOLONE OR PROGESTERONE

General

Supplementing with either pregnenolone or progesterone (transdermal more likely

to work than oral - see next section) will boost the output of your

cortisol-production-line, and that will improve one or all of the following

biological processes:

a) improved stage 3 deep sleep, which results in more refreshed feeling in the

morning, and results in reduced mid-sleep wake-up events (from the boost in

neurotransmitters)

improved mental acuity (from the boost in neurotransmitters and from the

increased cortisol levels)

c) improved energy levels (from the boost in cortisol)

d) reduction in testosterone metabolism which reduces E2 (from the boost in

cortisol)

e) reduction in LDL cholesterol if LDL cholesterol is too high (from feedback of

pregnenolone within the liver)

f) increase in DHEA (one of the DHEA synthesis paths is pregnenolone -> 17

hydroxypregnenolone -> DHEA)

To determine whether pregnenolone or progesterone is initially too low, it's

preferable to measure both, but in some cases testing progesterone is more

accessable because:

if cost is critical, serum progesterone tests are lower cost than serum

pregnenolone tests,

a) progesterone is synthesized directly from pregnenolone, so when progesterone

is too low, then pregnenolone will also be too low,

c) some doctors are not prepared to issue alab requesition for pregnenolone, but

will issue a lab requisition for progesterone

d) this is unreliable only if you have a genetic anomaly where your progesterone

synthesis is downregulated because of a mild 3âHSD enzyme deficiency. This can

become obvious later in life - in which case it's not considered by the medical

profession to be CAH (congenital adrenal hyperplasy) so I'm going to call it

" non-CAH " (non congenital adrenal hyperplasy).

BOOSTING THE CORTISOL-PRODUCTION-LINE, TREAT VIA PREGNENOLONE OR PROGESTERONE

Oral versus Transdermal

In some people, oral pregnenolone, or progesterone, as either micronized or

micronized-lipid-matrix, is absorbed too quickly.

The pregnenolone or progesterone (whichever you're taking) converts into

cortisol very quickly, which suppresses the next pulse of ACTH (approx one per

hour during daylight hours), which will then suppress natural pregnenolone,

which will then suppress neurotransmitters, which will then cause drowsiness and

brain fog.

In others, oral pregnenolone or oral progesterone, as either micronized or

micronized-lipid-matrix, is metabolized quickly into urinary metabolites leaving

very little in the bloodstream for any significant duration.

So oral pregenolone and oral progesterone are still of use to the small group of

people who satisfy both:

a) they don't convert it mostly into urinary metabolites

and

they only absorb it relatively slowly so that ACTH is not suppressed

(therefore no drowsiness).

It's very easy to determine if you're one of these people, so you can work with

your medical professional adviser and run your own trial of oral pregnenolone or

progesterone.

###

However the range of people who can benefit from transdermal pregnenolone and

transdermal progesterone is much greater than the small range who can benefit

from oral pregnenolone or oral progesterone.

Transdermal formulations are absorbed much more slowly than oral formulations,

and are initially deposited into subcutaneous fat, and not dumped straight into

the bloodstream.

The body fat acts as a slow-release-reservoir, which turns out to be optimal for

the vast majority of people.

BOOSTING THE CORTISOL-PRODUCTION-LINE, TREAT VIA PREGNENOLONE OR PROGESTERONE

Getting Started

Until we have a lot more exposure to both, and there is an obvious choice, at

this time we recommend testing both, as follows:

1) Buy both transdermal pregnenolone and transdermal progesterone (Life-Flo)

together to save time.

2) Before first application of the first choice product (either pegnenolone or

progesterone, not both), commit to trying your first choice for at least two

weeks to optimize dosage based on " if you get the yawns, your dose is a little

high " (ACTH suppression)

3) Before first application of the first choice product (either pegnenolone or

progesterone, not both), commit to extending the trial to 4 to 8 weeks if you're

getting a noticeable increase in overall metabolism (based on symptoms) and / or

a noticeable increase in cortisol (based on symptoms).

4) Start applying your first choice product, at times when you need it. Some

need AM only, some need PM only, some just before sleep time. You have to

determine this via therapeutic trials (dosage-response trials).

5) Continue using your first choice if you're noticing positive effects, until

your improvements have stabilized, which means you're not able to get any more

improvement (one month, perhaps two months).

If you initially need larger doses, then just buy more product initially.

Eventually you should stabilize on a reduced maintenance dose.

6) Switch to your second choice and see if you can get any additional

improvement

7) Stick with whichever product you feel best suits your outcomes.

BOOSTING THE CORTISOL-PRODUCTION-LINE, TREAT VIA PREGNENOLONE OR PROGESTERONE

2 Dosing Strategies

A small percentage of us have two oral pregnenolone and progesterone dosing

sweet spots, but only one of them will be optimal. (see above discussion re oral

versus transdermal)

The vast majority of us have two transdermal pregnenolone and progesterone

dosing sweet spots, but only one of them will be optimal.

A very very small minority of people should not use pregnenolone or progesterone

to boost their cortisol because one of their adrenal enzymes is permanenly

downregulated which severly limits either:

a) pregnenolone <--> progesterone

or:

progesterone -> 17 hydroxyprogesterone

or:

c) 17 hydroxyprogesterone -> cortisol

###

So the vast majority of us can find two pregnenolone, and two progesterone

dosing sweet spots, and only one of them will be optimal.

The two pregnenolone and progesterone dosing sweet spots are:

1) Our pregnenolone and progesterone " top up " sweet spot, for those whose

cortisol-production-line operates at slow to normal rate.

2) Our pregnenolone and progesterone " replacement " sweet spot, for those whose

cortisol-production-line operates at a high / fast rate.

Initially we don't know what rate our cortisol-production-line operates at, and

we can't determine it from labs (we don't yet know which genes are responsible

for this rate) so we first find our pregnenolone " top-up " sweet spot since it

uses a minimalist approach. If we discover that we must dose pregnenolone or

progesterone more than 3 times per day, sticking to our " top up " sweet spot

dose, then we can switch to the pregnenolone or progesterone " replacement " sweet

spot dosing strategy.

cont'd next post (part 3)....

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Last edited by chilln; 13 Hours Ago at 11:12 PM.