December 7, 2004

Dr. Moore

If you are using DHEA how do you know that it is not being converted to dihydrotestosterone or estrogen? Good question. Conversion of DHEA to Estrogen is particularly common. For that reason it is only very, very rarely you will give it to a female under 50 years old. In men, conversion to Estrogen will occur only when DHEA is taken in excess. Saliva Testing can be useful, but is rarely necessary. You will generally give DHEA only to men who tend to be EI and/or ANA and/or KETOGENIC. 25 mg. is a good trial dosage. 25 mg. 2 X daily is max. Conversion to DHT has not been a problem -- probably because the DHEA is kept at equal to or less than 50 mg, and because the trace minerals from Nutri-Spec minimize AROMATASE enzyme excess.*

* I've seen cases of Prostatic Hypertrophy (generally associated with excess DHT) imporve dramatically with DHEA supplementation.

Can supplemental pregnenolone increase cortisol levels? Very unlikely. Pregnenolone is converted to either DHEA or Progesterone.

Have you ever used DHEA or pregnenolone? On many, many patients.

1. It may be that sublingual DHEA is utilized more effectively than DHEA in capsule form, but since micronized DHEA in capsules does the job perfectly well and cost effectively, I’ve never really investigated sublingual supplementation. If you check into it and find anything interesting let me know.

2. My personal choice of diet and supplementation is totally irrelevant to your use of NUTRI-SPEC. In fact, revealing information about my diet, my supplements, and even my exercise regimen would confound the effective use of Nutri-Spec for most doctors. If, for example, I mentioned in the Nutri-Spec Letter that I eat a particular food or combination of foods, there would probably be hundreds of doctors that would immediately start eating that food in complete disregard of the Nutri-Spec fundamental principal of biological individuality.

3. Yes, men 45 and older can safely stay on 25 milligrams of DHEA until they no longer test anaerobic, EI, or ketogenic. In fact, they can safely stay on 25 milligrams of DHEA until they begin to test dysaerobic, or, until there is some other objective indication of a negative reaction or an excess. Low body temperature in men is quite often an indication of DHEA insufficiency. When metabolic imbalances have been pretty well corrected and body temperature continues to remain low, DHEA is certainly worth considering, even in men who originally tested as dysaerobic.

4. There is good research demonstrating the benefits of the extract of saw palmetto. Yet, while it may be helpful, it is also probably unnecessary for patients on Nutri-Spec. Using pregnenolone as an adjunct to Nutri-Spec probably achieves much the same benefits, but I cannot quantify it. There is one major problem with saw palmetto, however, and that is that over 60% of the products on the market are fraudulent in that they do not contain the biologically active extract of saw palmetto, but are nothing more than ground up saw palmetto plants. I really do not often recommend saw palmetto for my patients. I do however sell it to patients who have been on it before becoming my patient and would like to stay on it. For them, I an only giving it to them to make sure they have a high quality product.

5. Several years ago when I first encountered the research on IC3, I became excited enough to begin experimenting with it quite heavily in my own practice. Regrettably, I could never determine any objective benefit from its use. Patients to whom I gave IC3 supplements responded beautifully, but so did those who did not get IC3. I did have patients report subjective symptomatic improvements from IC3, several cases in particular reported to me that when they ran out of the IC3 supplement they didn’t feel nearly as well as when they were taking it. Still, I was frustrated to never be able to determine any specific metabolic affect of it. Of course, that may be simply because its primary effect is to reduce estrogen stress, and estrogen stress can cause such a broad diversity of metabolic imbalances and symptoms.

< RETURN TO MAIN PAGE