How To Convert Cholesterol to Pregnenolone

The human body naturally converts cholesterol into pregnenolone. Despite its bad reputation, cholesterol is the essential raw material from which many of our hormones are derived. More specifically, LDL (or low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is converted into pregnenolone, which can then be used to synthesize many other important hormones in the body. Pregnenolone production decreases up to 60 percent by age 75. Increasing pregnenolone levels may counter age-related memory loss, arthritis, fatigue, stress, heart disease and depression.

Things You'll Need

• Foods rich in dietary cholesterol
• Pregnenolone supplement

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Instructions

• 1

  Because the body converts cholesterol into pregnenolone, eat foods such as meat, eggs, poultry, butter and/or dairy to allow dietary cholesterol to be absorbed during digestion. The liver is also essential to pregnenolone, because it produces cholesterol on its own. Both endogenous (body made) and dietary cholesterol can be converted into pregnenolone.

• 2

  Get adequate sleep. According to best-selling fitness author Jeff Anderson, most of our essential hormones are produced while we sleep. Irregular sleep patterns can throw off our bodies' natural production of important hormones, including pregnenolone.

• 3

  Take 10 to 50 milligrams of supplemental pregnenolone to increase your body's stores of this important precursor hormone. According to "Pregnenolone: A Fruit of Cholesterol," taking a pregnenolone supplement should not interfere with the body's natural cholesterol/pregnenolone conversion and may signal cells to produce more of the hormone from dietary and endogenous cholesterol. Moreover, supplementary pregnenolone is in the same form as the body makes naturally and can be utilized for the same purposes, according to the Life Extension Foundation.