I have inflammatory bowel disease and during a recent flare (April - June) I was on high dose prednisone. I had deleterious effects like bone loss and skin thinning. I'm 33 years old. Normally muscular and robust, but the prednisone messed me up a lot.
As I finally got off the prednisone in August, I started taking DHEA and pregnenolone to try and help my ailing adrenals. Getting off prednisone was REALLY hard. I had to split 5mg pills in half and take 2.5mg otherwise I felt wrecked. I've been taking 50mg pregnenolone and 25mg DHEA daily, which I'm now reading here is a lot of DHEA.
My question is...
During my self-treatment, I went on vacation to visit family and I forgot my DHEA at home, and was taking pregnenolone on its own. My bowel symptoms came back with a vengeance. I thought maybe it was something in my diet so I started tweaking that. I thought the pregnenolone would be OK because "well, it converts to DHEA anyway". A week later I bought more DHEA and when I took it the bowel symptoms went away the very next day. It was like night and day.
I'm not asking for a diagnosis, I'm just curious if anyone knows what could have been going on? Adrenals not back online and making DHEA maybe? Although Ray says that DHEA is not only made in the adrenals. Pregnenolone not high enough to convert to DHEA? Prednisone takes the adrenals offline completely so that they produce nothing. Maybe taking pregnenolone alone didn't work because the adrenals lacked the capacity to turn preg into DHEA. I'm just theorizing.
So I'm very confused. Part of the reason why I'm asking is because I'm still taking 25mg DHEA and I'm starting to have hair loss. I'm also iron deficient so that could be why, but I've never lost this much hair before. I'm going to switch to 10mg DHEA pills. I'm afraid to stop the DHEA because I don't want my bowel symptoms to come back. I am a lot physically healthier now. Back to normal body weight and natural muscle tone has returned, but no way to know if this is from supplementing hormones or if my natural ability to make them has returned.
As I finally got off the prednisone in August, I started taking DHEA and pregnenolone to try and help my ailing adrenals. Getting off prednisone was REALLY hard. I had to split 5mg pills in half and take 2.5mg otherwise I felt wrecked. I've been taking 50mg pregnenolone and 25mg DHEA daily, which I'm now reading here is a lot of DHEA.
My question is...
During my self-treatment, I went on vacation to visit family and I forgot my DHEA at home, and was taking pregnenolone on its own. My bowel symptoms came back with a vengeance. I thought maybe it was something in my diet so I started tweaking that. I thought the pregnenolone would be OK because "well, it converts to DHEA anyway". A week later I bought more DHEA and when I took it the bowel symptoms went away the very next day. It was like night and day.
I'm not asking for a diagnosis, I'm just curious if anyone knows what could have been going on? Adrenals not back online and making DHEA maybe? Although Ray says that DHEA is not only made in the adrenals. Pregnenolone not high enough to convert to DHEA? Prednisone takes the adrenals offline completely so that they produce nothing. Maybe taking pregnenolone alone didn't work because the adrenals lacked the capacity to turn preg into DHEA. I'm just theorizing.
So I'm very confused. Part of the reason why I'm asking is because I'm still taking 25mg DHEA and I'm starting to have hair loss. I'm also iron deficient so that could be why, but I've never lost this much hair before. I'm going to switch to 10mg DHEA pills. I'm afraid to stop the DHEA because I don't want my bowel symptoms to come back. I am a lot physically healthier now. Back to normal body weight and natural muscle tone has returned, but no way to know if this is from supplementing hormones or if my natural ability to make them has returned.
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