Hi Madie,
DHEA needs to be taken on an empty stomach, like l-carnitine and SAM-e. I take it first thing in morning with my ore-meal supps and meds.
Freddd-! I did not know it needed ti be on an empty stomach? Why, I wonder? I often take it on an empty stomach because it never hurts my stomach so I take it when I first get up to be sure I don't forget it. I take it with pregnenolne, C, E, D3 (which is a sublingual so also never hurts my stomach). The rest of my pills go into a ziplock bag to take during breakfast.
However DHEA has a half life of only 10 hours. That means it is COMPLETELY out of your system in 20 hours. *I* cannot have that since DHEA is CRUCIAL to my bp (I could die in half a day w/o it my bp is so high). So I take a divided dose - 2/3 in the morning, 1/3 in the afternoon. The afternoon dose is whenevr is convenient for me - with lunch, or with dinner, or in the middle of the afternoon by itself.
Now here's the kicker...when you first start taking DHEA, if you are over 40, you also have waning testosterone (even if female) and DHEA will raise it back to whatever is normal for you. Rising testosterone causes you to (1) break out and (2) get horny. I find that if I let my DHEA go to zero, not only do I have less perfusion and less ability to think/act clearly and effectively, but when I DO take the morning DHEA, I get horny as hell each and every day (the breakout only happend 1st time I used DHEA, lasted a few days). I dont know what you were like when you were younger but I used to get horny like that once a month and called it "bunny mode". I only mentioned it to one friend once and she knew just what I was talking about so I think I am not the only female who experienced this. Rising testosterone via DHEA causes bunny mode. It is very hard to be an effective person when that happens because you dont really care about anything else but MEN. So...be alert to that and do whatever you think best.
Rydra
P.S. DHEA can keep you awake. I never take it past 7pm. Some people may find they cant take it past lunch or some other time of day...?
You cant make progesterone out of DHEA - that is why I also make pregnenolone. I believe that might be anti-cancer also but I dont really know.
I have adrenal issues during allergy season (EASY to tell as I have suddenly LOW blood pressure). I take DHEA all the time and as long as I take it before 7pm it has never prevented me from sleeping. I did never take potassium during adrenal exhaustion (or whatever the adrenal issue caused by severe allergies). Regarding labs taken during allergy season, LEF told me I need tyrosine according to several labs - dont remember which as I - dummy - called them while driving so never wrote down what they said. I found that an adrenal supplement by Nutrocology helped me during allergy season (it is dried adrenal, not really supplements for adrenal). I took some 'supplement for adrenal' herbal remedy from my doctor and it consitenly made me puke so I havent got a good adrenal remedy...I just take adrenal gland itself and when my allergy is over (30 days) then it takes about a week for my adrenal gland to recover and I am fine until next time. So...consider allergies for adrenal problems. I am pursuing getting some kind of peptide injection to cancel mine -- It should be ready in a month or so - it was a 6 month wait for lab results and should be ready soon.