Stress and Pregnenolone Steal

We are a stressed out society, we don’t relax enough, and we are running our bodies into the ground.  Sometimes those effects are obvious to us, sometimes they are not, and other times, we just don’t care. Lets examine one small facet of hormones and see the effects upon our bodies.

Cholesterol(which is very important to survival) is converted into Pregnenolone.  (Pregnenolone is pretty much a super hormone, from which all steroid hormones are derived.)  From this point the body has a couple of choices, first is to convert it to Progesterone, which leads to Cortisol(think stress hormone).  Second is to convert it to DHEA, which leads to Androstenedione, which in turn goes to Estrone, Estradiol, Estriol and Testosterone.  The body is very intuitive and realizes that if the body is under stress it needs more Cortisol, the stress hormone.  The side effect of this is that it will diminish the DHEA production, which effectively ends sex hormone production. The other side effect of this is the suppressive nature of Cortisol on insulin receptors on our cells, which tells the body to secrete more insulin(think insulin resistance—>Diabetes).  This results in hyperinsulinemia and you get the negative effects of insulin from this.  Eventually though the Cortisol production will drop from adrenal exhaustion.  Then we lose the effect of Cortisol to return low blood sugar levels back to normal which will result in hypoglycemia.  Think about your stress and your symptoms and see where you fit in this puzzle.

Dr Stafford

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Article by Dr. Charles Stafford, Type 2 Diabetes Professional, Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX