Pregnenolone

[Dan W]

Are all those Dans sugestions just based on ingredients that they dont contain any "contaminats". What I am looking at is that is that the pregnenolone is of high quality, that supplements contains exactly what it says.

Yes, all of those are me just trying to find the least-questionable listed ingredients. Once I learn more about pregnenolone production, hopefully I'll be able to get some clues about quality by bugging the companies.

Some of the ones that say "available on Amazon" are also available on iHerb, I just check Amazon first. I think MRM is probably the best one on iHerb (ingredients-list-wise).

Has the Consumer Labs tested any pregnenolone supplements?

They have, though I can't see the results without buying a membership. Although from what I can tell, they didn't test any powders. Personally, I bet on powders being purer and better-dosed than capsules/tablets. That's probably especially true with pregnenolone where you need a lot of capsule-filler since the volume is so tiny.

What makes you suspect that, Dan? I'm pretty sure i don't benefit that much from it, but I always suspected some sort of toxin, rather than low vit A content.

Hmm...I hadn't thought about a toxin. I'd switched from another brand, and started to get acne while using an identical dose. I've bumped up to a higher dose for comparison, but can't draw any strong conclusions yet because of some stressful times.

Also, there was a story on the facebook group of someone comparing the effects of different brands and coming to the conclusion that NOW was probably overstating things.

 

[j.]

Hi everyone, I think Pregenenolone is causing me trouble. I started about two months ago with 50 mg.

I just started experimenting with pregnenolone. 100 mg per day made me feel great. I think lowering the dose might be helpful in some situations. What's the smallest amount you have tried? Have you tried buying the 10 mg dose and using it every other day?

I'm a male by the way.

 

[5magicbeans]

I emailed RP regarding pregnenolone and excess androgens in women:

"Low thyroid and high estrogen, resulting from various things such as high PUFA, low nutrient diet, interfere with progesterone synthesis, and the adrenals compensate, producing androgens instead. Pregnenolone helps to lower adrenal androgens, progesterone can be used topically on some hairy areas."

 

[5magicbeans]

Interesting study too:

[highlight=#ffbfff]Anti-androgenic activity of fatty acids.
Liu J, Shimizu K, Kondo R.
Source

Department of Forest and Forest Products Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
Abstract

In this study, we show that 5alpha-reductase derived from rat fresh liver was inhibited by certain aliphatic free fatty acids. The influences of chain length, unsaturation, oxidation, and esterification on the potency to inhibit 5alpha-reductase activity were studied. Among the fatty acids we tested, inhibitory saturated fatty acids had C12-C16 chains, and the presence of a C==C bond enhanced the inhibitory activity. Esterification and hydroxy compounds were totally inactive. Finally, we tested the prostate cancer cell proliferation effect of free fatty acids. In keeping with the results of the 5alpha-reductase assay, saturated fatty acids with a C12 chain (lauric acid) and unsaturated fatty acids (oleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid) showed a proliferation inhibitory effect on lymph-node carcinoma of the prostate (LNCaP) cells. At the same time, the testosterone-induced prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNA expression was down-regulated. These results suggested that fatty acids with 5alpha-reductase inhibitory activity block the conversion of testosterone to 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and then inhibit the proliferation of prostate cancer cells.[/highlight]

It seems that extra androgens could be caused by excess 5alpha-reductase which could be reduced by fats esp. lauric acid (coconut oil!)...oh my

 

[Jenn]

I emailed RP regarding pregnenolone and excess androgens in women:

"Low thyroid and high estrogen, resulting from various things such as high PUFA, low nutrient diet, interfere with progesterone synthesis, and the adrenals compensate, producing androgens instead. Pregnenolone helps to lower adrenal androgens, progesterone can be used topically on some hairy areas."

Hairy areas? You mean like woman whiskers? I have a friend who thinks I'm a kook, but she may listen to this.... She says can't see them to pluck them anymore.

 

[j.]

That quote is interesting because I think he also said that he used progesterone to regrow hair in balding man. So progesterone can prevent and encourage hair growth?

 

[wildtruffle14]

I'm almost certain that Pregnenolone stopped my hair loss. I had to find the right amount first, though. I take between 300-500mg/day now and my hair shedding went from 30+ hairs lost a day to 0-5. of course, just the hair fall that I'm aware of... I'm thinking of cutting back now and seeing what the effect is.

 

[charlie]

Wow! That's a lot of pregnenolone. What other effects do you notice from it?

 

[j.]

Even if you stop, it might have fixed some things already.

 

[charlie]

Wildtruffle, and what time of the day do you take your preg?

 

[j.]

Suggestion: If I were a mod, I would ask the original poster permission to move this to a new thread in the testimonials section so that this one doesn't become infinite.

 

[wildtruffle14]

yeah, it's a lot a day and also expensive so I need to try this whole cycling thing or seeing if I don't need it right now. I take 200-300mg in the morning and maybe 100-200mg at lunch. (Premier Research Labs brand). Before I did pregnenolone I was a bit more hyper and borderline manic (but in a good way, I think). Since Pregnenolone, I found I still have good energy but it's a bit more stable (less hyper peaks). Also found the facelifting and face freshening - but this effect seemed to fade a bit after a few weeks.

 

[montmorency]

Oh I did have some positive effects- the facelift effect is tighter skin, and one of those days where I took 30/40 mgs I had quite a lot of wine. I normally would have ill effects the next day but I did not- this was unexpected bonus. There is some info on the web about this supplement nullifying alcohol effects.

I got wasted the other night but drank a lot of oj and had almost no hangover, interesting.

Supposedly, fructose will detoxify alcohol, or rather, it will help it metabolise.

Chris Masterjohn has written about this I think. Or I found a study about it (or maybe both).

Anyway, I now quite often eat grapes while drinking wine....

 

[Mastemah]

What Cliff said. My only addition would be like I said occasional doses between 100mg and 1000mg can be useful. Since you get a response off of so little, run with it:)

 

[mayart]

I have taken the PREGNENLONE for 2 years straight without a day off.
I just ordered more from Smart Powders.
I have not felt a difference from the powder but I do not keep track how many scoops I take either.
I know my hair is 5 times thicker, and my face was always lifted so maybe it is extending that.

I like it for now and I am taking it for recovery from working super hard at my job which was super physical and mental.
Now I am 98% recovered completely and thriving with excellence thanks to Ray Peat and my sons who found him and listened an dread and studied his research.

This is great, and I am thankful for pregnenlone and more.

 

[sladerunner69]

I have taken the PREGNENLONE for 2 years straight without a day off.
I just ordered more from Smart Powders.
I have not felt a difference from the powder but I do not keep track how many scoops I take either.
I know my hair is 5 times thicker, and my face was always lifted so maybe it is extending that.

I like it for now and I am taking it for recovery from working super hard at my job which was super physical and mental.
Now I am 98% recovered completely and thriving with excellence thanks to Ray Peat and my sons who found him and listened an dread and studied his research.

This is great, and I am thankful for pregnenlone and more.

Glad to hear someone getting good results. Unfortunately not every does, nutrition is hardly an exact science. How much preg do you take each day? Could you ballpark it?

 

[jyb]

Been peating for a couple years and never got pregnenolone to work until recently. I could see the positive effects of supplemented DHEA or progesterone, for one-off uses (didn't seem useful after a couple day of use), but I had never made pregnenolone nor thyroid to work, except maybe a stress response from pregnenolone.

I tried it again and got that stress response, it felt like adrenalin and had another round of insomnia later at night. However I noticed that despite all that, my head didn't ache as much as I expected to from severe sleep depravation. I didn't feel that bad the following day. So I decided to take another dose of pregnenolone. This time, only a short-lived stress response and fine the rest of the day.

So last few days I continued taking quite a lot of it, and noticed that I got less prone to get into hunger state (hypoglycemia, lightheadedness), never got any headache and felt the same anti-anxiety of DHEA. It seems like I can go functioning during the day for a LOT longer than before without eating. Almost like my calorie needs got cut into half.

 

[kineticz]

Can anyone advise why pregnenolone cream might increase anxiety, pupil dilation, grogginess, OCD tendencies, depression, whereas before it helped mood and everything?

 

[kineticz]

Can I get some help for what to do when pregnenolone has been applied but due to lowering ACTH excessively has slowed metabolism, caused fatty liver, and due to high prolactin has caused hypogonadism. What is the best way to restart.

 

[jyb]

A few weeks into continued high dose pregnenolone supplementation. I still feel calmer than usual, so seems like I had chronically high stress prior to that. Cyprohetpadine made me calmer too, but not as consistently as this. My sleep is not great, I wake up too early (after 5-6hrs), though overall I don't know if its better or worse than what I'm used to. However, no headaches - the kind of symptom I previously associated with sleep deprivation.