Alternatives to DHEA & Pregnenolone

DHEA and pregnenolone are important hormones for good health and vitality. Both decline as you age. Pregnenolone is at the top of the hormone production cycle in your body, followed by DHEA. Your options for restoring optimal levels are to replace these hormones directly through prescriptions or supplements or to take steps that will stimulate your body's natural production. Direct replacement can produce unwanted effects, so it's healthier to take steps to increase your body's production of these hormones. These alternative ways to restore pregnenolone and DHEA levels are safe, natural, and will leave you feeling more energetic and healthier.

Become Well Rested

• Perhaps the most important thing you can do to help your body achieve balanced levels of DHEA and pregnenolone is to get enough sleep. When you don't sleep enough, over time your body's chemistry changes. Inadequate sleep disrupts your metabolism and changes how your endocrine system functions. The endocrine system regulates your hormone production. When you don't get enough sleep your body under-produces hormones like DHEA and pregnenolone and over-produces stress hormones like cortisol, according to ScienceDaily.com. Most people need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night for their bodies to be at their best.

Control Stress Levels

• Stress impacts hormone production on every level. When you are under stress, your body begins producing adrenaline and cortisol. These two hormones give your body the resources it needs to function in spite of stress. Over time, however, they take a toll on your body that includes suppression of the production of other hormones like DHEA and pregnenolone.

  Busy schedules often don't allow for the elimination of stress. That means you'll have to find ways to respond more positively to stress and to reduce stressful input where you can.

  Getting a good night's sleep, as suggested above, helps improve the body's stress response. Scheduling time each day to relax can also help. Activities like meditation, reading, Yoga or journaling can help you to better manage stress, and that can promote a better balance of hormones in your body. Specifically finding positive ways to respond to stress can help to lower the levels of cortisol in your blood stream and lead to higher production of pregnenolone and DHEA.

Get Moving

• Exercise helps your body to balance its hormone production. To get the best results, you should do both cardio-respiratory exercise like dancing or playing basketball, and resistance exercise like lifting weights. Resistance exercises in particular help your body to produce more pregnenolone and DHEA.

  Try to spend at least 30 to 45 minutes each day being physically active. In addition, spend 30 minutes three times a week lifting weights or doing other resistance exercises.