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Can't even tolerate 5mg of pregnenolone?

Messages
31
I'm a male and only 22, with a history of chronic dieting, exercise and anorexia. I embarked on a restrictive diet more than two years ago and experienced a sudden adrenal crisis, and have only recovered 60% since.

Ever since my adrenal crisis, I've experience many textbook adrenal fatigue symptoms, like blood sugar issues, chronic fatigue, brain fog, cognitive impairment, weight gain etc.

I have taken a basic, conventional blood test with normal results. A full thyroid panel that indicated great thyroid function. Moreover, an adrenal saliva test only showed a marginal DHEA deficiency and slightly insufficient cortisol later in the day.

In desperation, earlier in my recovery, I took desiccated thyroid (T3) with unpleasant side affects. I was prescribed Levothyroxine by a GP, a small dose of 25mcg, and it definitely aggravated a lot of adrenal symptoms, inducing throbbing head pressure that lasted for weeks for supplementing with T4 over only two days. Even vitamin and mineral supplementation have never benefited me.

It's been over a year since this happened. I have gained weight rapidly since then. Recently, since my DHEA levels were a little low, I took a small 5mg dose. I reacted poorly, and was severely fatigued and cognitively impaired for a few hours. I did a little more research and found that pregnenolone is a lot safer and stabilises cortisol and other adrenal hormones. I took a small 5mg dose two days ago and experienced similar effects to the DHEA, but less extreme yet different. My body temperature dropped, I had a minor headache and it induced extreme fatigue. My brain fog also intensified, and my cognitive performance declined. It's my third day on 5mg of pregnenolone and the symptoms are improving but not drastically, but libido is non-existent (it was okay before), I'm having some digestive issues and my body temperature is still low. Furthermore, the intensified brain fog is still lingering. My mood has also declined.

What could possibly induce such a reaction to a small dose? Dr Lam wrote a little about paradoxical reactions and how they are more common earlier in recovery, but I've been recovering for over 27 months. Sure, I'm not in a bedridden state of adrenal fatigue any more, but it's still debilitating, and I can't say things have been improving.

Please don't recommend any dietary or exercise plans. I eat in excess of 2500+ calories a day, mostly from whole food sources. I cannot exercise due to my unstable cortisol as it only aggravates my fatigue.

Thank you.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,098
Location
australia (brisbane)
Time i think and aggressive resting and relaxing . The way your using pregnenolone and dhea seem fine ie low and slow. Dont hesitate to take a day off if feel bad from them.

withania is a good herb for adrenal fatigue as its calming and can help one rest and sleep.
 

drob31

Senior Member
Messages
1,487
Pregnenolone boosted my E2 too high initially, but then it settled back into the normal range. I've been taking 100 mg/day though. I had pretty good results in the begining but things are starting to shift back again.
 
Messages
31
Time i think and aggressive resting and relaxing . The way your using pregnenolone and dhea seem fine ie low and slow. Dont hesitate to take a day off if feel bad from them.

withania is a good herb for adrenal fatigue as its calming and can help one rest and sleep.

Did taking pregnenolone eventually make you feel better and improve your health? How did you initially react?

Pregnenolone boosted my E2 too high initially, but then it settled back into the normal range. I've been taking 100 mg/day though. I had pretty good results in the begining but things are starting to shift back again.

Why do you think that may be? Other external factors? Stress?

I tried pregnenolone once and it made me feel absolutely crazy-wired. I would not try it ever again.

What was the dosage?
 
Messages
31
Does any one have any recommendations when to take pregnenolone? My cortisol levels are pretty high in the morning, but very low throughout the day. However, taking it mid-day seems to disturb my sleep. Any ideas?
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,219
Location
Canada
I had a bad reaction to 5mg of pregnenolone as well. Anything that promotes estrogen makes all my symptoms worse. I didn't stick with it to see if it would get better since the effect seemed cumulative.
 

drob31

Senior Member
Messages
1,487
Does any one have any recommendations when to take pregnenolone? My cortisol levels are pretty high in the morning, but very low throughout the day. However, taking it mid-day seems to disturb my sleep. Any ideas?

Pregnenolone won't nessasarily raise your cortisol, it will give your body a larger reserve from which to create it from, if it needs it. The problem is your brain doesn't always signal properly, however, giving yourself enough pregnenelone should prevent pregnenolone steal. That solves part of the equation, and it also acts as a neurotransmitter, which IMO is where it helped me. It raised my progesterone as well which is really important for optimal brain function, and cortisol is derived from progesterone.

Joseph Cohen from self hacked.com says to take it only in the morning. He recommends starting with 50 mg. That may be too high. For me, it wasn't enough, and I'm sure everyone is different.

Joseph Cohen isn't a doctor, he's an independant researcher, however take this in to consideration: I told a doctor I was using pregnenolone and he said "what the hell is that?"

So who do you trust, only someone with MD credentials or someone who KNOWS what they are talking about?