Pregnenolone - Master Hormone
for Women ...and Men!
"Of all the hormones in the body, the precursor hormone, pregnenolone, may be the most important
for health and longevity."
- D. Gary Young, Founder and President
Young Living Essential Oils
Reprint from the "Essential Edge" magazine, December, 2000
below, presents important information about pregnenolone:
Pregnenolone - Master Hormone
for Women ...and Men!
The booklet by D. Gary Young, Pregnenolone: A Radical New Approach to Health, Longevity, and Emotional Well-Being,
elicited cheers when it was announced; within two hours, the booklet was sold out.
(Available through
Essential Science Publishing: 800 336-6308).
The booklet contains a compilation of exciting research on this little-know hormone precursor, pregnenolone.
Here are some of the highlights:
Pregnenolone is made from cholesterol in the body. In turn, it can be synthesized into a number of hormones - estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, aldosterone, cortisol, etc. It is, in fact, the master hormone from which all the steroid hormones are derived.
But why have most people not heard about pregnenolone and its amazing benefits? One reason has to do with drug companies and profits. Pregnenolone research in the early 1940s was very promising and showed that pregnenolone is effective in relieving arthritis pain, reducing PMS and menopausal symptoms, fighting stress and fatigue, improving memory, and lifting mood. But just as this research was being printed in medical journals, the discovery of synthetic cortisone was announced.
Cortisone Produces Side-Effects
Cortisone showed powerful and immediate effectiveness against arthritis. Drug companies could patent their laboratory version of cortisone and then make a huge profit. Pregnenolone, however, is a natural substance and is not patentable. Because synthetic cortisone was so fast-acting and offered great profit potential, pregnenolone research was basically abandoned.
It was not discovered until later that cortisone had terrifying side effects (immune system suppression and osteoporosis being the two most devastating). Yet pregnenolone has been shown to be virtually free of side effects. A man in one pregnenolone study did develop a temporary rash; while in another study on memory, a participant reported the "side effect" of decreased symptoms of arthritis!
The beneficial effects of pregnenolone on arthritis and other bone, joint, and muscle diseases are well documented. In two studies on ankylosing spondylitis-an inflamitory disease of the joints that causes back pain and stiffening-patients showed marked improvement when treated with pregnenolone.1
Neurobiologist Dr. Eugene Roberts studied the arthritis research from the 1940s and 1950s and said,
"Treatment with PREG (pregnenolone) can be maintained indefinitely without apparent harmful effects and is much less expensive than with ACTH or cortisone or with other anti-inflammatory steroids."2
Lack of Cholesterol Hurts Pregnenolone Levels
Now, scientists and researchers are again looking at the value of pregnenolone. The research that D. Gary Young found establishes how pregnenolone declines in the body more than 60 percent between the ages of 35 and 75. Along with this natural bodily decline, our bodies have had to deal with a decrease in the building block of pregnenolone - cholesterol. "Low cholesterol" or "no cholesterol" has been pounded into the heads of health-conscious consumers. While the cholesterol link to heart disease is under question today, cholesterol-lowering drugs are causing hormone imbalance. Without cholesterol, there is no pregnenolone, which means the body cannot create the hormones it needs.
The lack of cholesterol (and thus pregnenolone) in our diets may be the cause of many cases of depression. Dr. William Regelson writes that,
"A recent study conducted by the National Institutes of Mental Health showed that people with clinical depression have lower than normal amounts of pregnenolone in their cerebral spinal fluid (the fluid that bathes the brain)."3
Spinal cord injuries may be minimized with pregnenolone according to a number of rat studies. Dr. Eugene Roberts would like to see a pregnenolone cream placed in first aid kits for use on the spine following earthquakes or accidents. 4
Pregnenolone is Help For Menopause
Menopause is a dreaded ordeal for the millions of women who choose not to use estrogen replacement therapy because of a four to eight tines higher chance of uterine cancer. The pharmaceutical companies developed 'hormone replacement therapy," which combines synthetic progesterone with conjugated equine estrogen. The majority of female consumers of this therapy are probably unaware that the estrogen they are taking is not natural to the human body and comes from a pregnant mare's urine (PMU). Dr. John R. Lee notes that 52 percent of the estrogens in this concoction are the horse estrogens equilin and equilenin, which are not natural to humans. 5
Raindrop Technique and Pregnenolone Combined
Synthetic estrogens and progesterones "plug" the body's receptor sites. "All of your prescription drugs are based on
petrochemicals and these chemicals plug receptor sites, creating even a greater imbalance, which suppresses and
compromises immune function," states D. Gary Young He explained the value of the Raindrop Technique
where certain oils are dropped along the spine:
"Along the spine happens to be one of the largest accumulations of receptor nerve sites, and that's why
Raindrop Technique
works so specifically. When the oils get in there and can start stimulating nerve transmission -- that's very,
very important. When you combine the oils with pregnenolone, then the oils carry the pregnenolone into the cell
structure to start that cell's rejuvenation. It is win, win, win, and balance, balance, balance."
Doesn't it make more sense to use a natural substance in hormone replacement therapy? The best thing about
pregnenolone is that is it is completely natural. The human body, the true "master chemist," transforms
pregnenolone into the hormones the body is lacking. Whether its estrogen, progesterone or testosterone,
using pregnenolone, the wisdom of the body makes what is needed most.
For Men, Too
Men are also susceptible to the age-related loss of pregnenolone in the body. They needn't fear that
pregnenolone might be turned into a female hormone. Research on memory by Rahmawhati Sih, Ph.D., showed that after
older men and women were given pregnenolone, the memory tests given three hours later showed gender variation.
The women rated higher in verbal recall, while men improved in visual spatial tasks that required three-dimensional
thinking.
Dr. William Regelson reviewed this research in his book,
The Superhormone Promise: Nature's Antidote to
Aging and wrote that Dr. Sih's "results suggest that pregnenolone is being broken down differently in men and
women; that is, it appears to have a testosterone-like effect in men and an estrogen-like effect in women."6
What's even better, is that pregnenolone does not function like synthetic hormones, which can cause debilitating
side effects. Instead, it has hormone-balancing effects throughout the body as well as other powerful anti-inflammatory
effects.
A rising tide of clinical research is just beginning to show the powerful therapeutic benefits of natural pregnenolone.
Benefits that can reverse decline, balance hormones, and increase longevity. All in a completely natural substance
that is non-toxic and virtually without side effects!
You can rest assured that pregnenolone is well tolerated and its safety has been well documented.
William Regelson, M. D., and Carol Colman stated in their book,
The Superhormone Promise: Nature's Antidote to
Aging, Pocket Books, 1996, "We know that pregnenolone is safe, well tolerated, and causes no know side effects..."
*Reprinted from Essential Edge Magazine, Fall, 2000
1. Sahelian, Ray, M.D. Pregnenolone: Nature's Feel Good Hormone. (Garden City Park, New York: Avery Publishing Group, 1997), 57.
2. Roberts, E. (1995) "Pregnenolone-From Selye to Alzheimer and a Model of the Pregnenolone Sulfate Binding Binding Site on the GABAA Receptor," Biochemical Pharmacology 49:1 (1995): 1-16.
3 Regelson, William, M.D., and Carol Colman, The Super-Hormone Promise: Nature's Antidote to Aging. (New York: Pocket Books, 1996), 79.
4. Young, D. Gary, Pregnenolone: A Radical New Approach to Health, Longevity, and Emotional Well-Being. (Salem, Utah: Essential Science Publishing, 2000), 21.
5. Lee, John R., M.D. "Natural" vs. "Synthetic" Hormones, A Question of Semantics. (3 July 1998).
6. Regelson, 77
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