DHEA & DHT

IH, I wanted to confirm you're theory that low DHEA could signal your body to produce more DHT. Of course this isn't too scientific, but still interesting.

December 2007
DHEA 432 (5-1476 ug/24hrs) (Not on any DHEA supps)
THF 2281 (942-2800 ug/24hrs) (5AR Activity)
5a-THF 2382 (796-2456 ug/24hrs) (5AR Activity)

February 2008
DHEA 1268 (5-1476 ug/24hrs) (I was on oral DHEA and Preg, this level is a little too high)

BUT, check out how much lower my 5AR activity is:

THF 1936 (942-2800 ug/24hrs) (5AR Activity) (-345)
5a-THF 1638 (796-2456 ug/24hrs) (5AR Activity) (-744)

Watch out for Adrenal Fatigue people! It's a hair killer!!!

Joe-Did your hair improve during this period?

Did you get these tests using your blood sample?

Thanks

GoodThings wrote:Joe-Did your hair improve during this period?

Did you get these tests using your blood sample?

Thanks

My hair improved slightly, but there were some other things at play that I didn't know at the time that I know now (copper overload, zinc/b6 deficiency). Plus I brought up my DHEA a little too much to where it brought on a "buzzed feeling" all day long.

These tests are from a Rhein urine panel.

I've seen a study that may contradict what you said, I've seen one where they took 7 prematurely balding males and tested their DHEA and their DHEA levels were about double what the average male should have at that age.

Espio wrote:I've seen a study that may contradict what you said, I've seen one where they took 7 prematurely balding males and tested their DHEA and their DHEA levels were about double what the average male should have at that age.

DHEA protects you're body from cortisol. If the men in the study had elevated DHEA activity it means that they probably were in early stages of adrenal fatigue and had off the charts cortisol numbers. DHEA initially rises to combat the elevated cortisol levels. Eventually in later stages of adrenal fatigue your body can't keep up and lowers production of DHEA and continues pumping out cortisol until that gives out too.

DHEA is a protective shield from evil-hair-destroying hormone cortisol.

Joejoebaggins - That's very interesting. It would make sense. Also I think you hit it right on with the explanation about DHEA and cortisol.

Based on your initial numbers you were within a 29 year old male range (desired) of DHEA when you started the therapy:

http://www.anti-agingmd.com/dhea.html

lunda wrote:Based on your initial numbers you were within a 29 year old male range (desired) of DHEA when you started the therapy:

http://www.anti-agingmd.com/dhea.html

Those numbers are from a urine test, not blood. At the time I was on TRT, and while I'm not sure of the mechanism you need to replenish DHEA when you supply TRT.

If you have adrenal fatigue, you probably have sub levels of DHEA and are also an undermethylator.

Perfect - thanks for that clarification.

So what is the normal reference range for DHEA (say 29 year old male) in urine? I will try to lookup....

Thanks

I'm starting to believe that my hair loss and weight gain were definitely caused by adrenal fatigue. The day IH posted the symptoms of it, I realized I had every single one of them.

Since I started IH's regimen and now added DHEA, my waistline is shrinking, I'm going to bed way before 1am, getting tired early (before I couldn't fall asleep until 4am) and I'm falling asleep easily. I'm also more productive during the day.

I'm not advocating that DHEA is going to cure my hairloss -- I have no evidence of that, but if you legitimately have the symptoms of adrenal fatigue that IH describes, you might want to investigate DHEA and any other supps IH recommends for adrenal fatigue.

I think about it and about 3 years ago I had a very stressful event. After this my hair loss began and my waistline expanded even though I was exercising. For the past years I haven't been able to recover the hair or the physique I had, but just the other night I fit into a brand new suit I bought 6 years ago. I didn't realize how much my body has changed over the past 6 months of religiously following IH's advice and now adding in the DHEA which has kick started something in me.

My wife has been telling me about the change, but I didn't see it until I tried on the old size I was.

I'm still not seeing massive hair regrowth, although my remaining hair is thicker and healthier. It seems the thin wiry brittle hairs are falling out now -- I hope they are all replaced by healthy hairs in the coming months. I'm thin/diffuse on top down the middle of my scalp. I still have my hairline in tact and my center forelock is still thick. From there straight back is where my hair is thinning out a lot.

Hopefully, we're all on to something here in regards to adrenal fatigue, stress, hair loss and aging.

lunda wrote:Perfect - thanks for that clarification.

So what is the normal reference range for DHEA (say 29 year old male) in urine? I will try to lookup....

Thanks

The reference range that Rhein Labs uses is above:

(5-1476 ug/24hrs)

For serum LEF recommends (I usually take their recommendations with a grain of salt):

Normal Ideal
Men 280-640 ug/dL 500-640 ug/dL
Women 65-380 ug/dL 250-380 ug/dL

For a younger adult (I'm 23) you want it middle to higher end. Not too high, that's when problems arise that can lead to to morehair loss.

hadrion wrote:I'm starting to believe that my hair loss and weight gain were definitely caused by adrenal fatigue. The day IH posted the symptoms of it, I realized I had every single one of them.

Since I started IH's regimen and now added DHEA, my waistline is shrinking, I'm going to bed way before 1am, getting tired early (before I couldn't fall asleep until 4am) and I'm falling asleep easily. I'm also more productive during the day.

I'm not advocating that DHEA is going to cure my hairloss -- I have no evidence of that, but if you legitimately have the symptoms of adrenal fatigue that IH describes, you might want to investigate DHEA and any other supps IH recommends for adrenal fatigue.

I think about it and about 3 years ago I had a very stressful event. After this my hair loss began and my waistline expanded even though I was exercising. For the past years I haven't been able to recover the hair or the physique I had, but just the other night I fit into a brand new suit I bought 6 years ago. I didn't realize how much my body has changed over the past 6 months of religiously following IH's advice and now adding in the DHEA which has kick started something in me.

My wife has been telling me about the change, but I didn't see it until I tried on the old size I was.

I'm still not seeing massive hair regrowth, although my remaining hair is thicker and healthier. It seems the thin wiry brittle hairs are falling out now -- I hope they are all replaced by healthy hairs in the coming months. I'm thin/diffuse on top down the middle of my scalp. I still have my hairline in tact and my center forelock is still thick. From there straight back is where my hair is thinning out a lot.

Hopefully, we're all on to something here in regards to adrenal fatigue, stress, hair loss and aging.

I think you're right on buddy. If you have adrenal fatigue you might also explore if you have a zinc/copper imbalance.

Joejoebaggins - other than a blood test, do you know of any way to tell if you have a copper/zinc imbalance.. ie. would there be any symptoms or conditions associated w/ excess zinc or excess copper?

Project: JS wrote:Joejoebaggins - other than a blood test, do you know of any way to tell if you have a copper/zinc imbalance.. ie. would there be any symptoms or conditions associated w/ excess zinc or excess copper?

If you relate to any of the symptoms on this page you might want to dive a little deeper into it.

http://www.diagnose-me.com/cond/C514620.html

I knew I had copper toxicity because I was on a low cal vegan diet and blew out my adrenals. Adrenals are you starting point for moving metals out of your body. Once you screw them up everything goes down hill. But to answere your question I got several different blood/urine tests to link my copper/zinc imbalance to the evidence I had.

Joejoe - Excellent.. thank you. I fear I may have over-stressed my adrenals -and system in general- last year around this time (dealing w a shitty situation w/ my job at the time) and I have only recently started recovering from it. I will have to look into it further. This site you linked for me will be of help Im sure. Thank you!

This is a helpful thread. thanks everyone!

Can i conclude that approx 5mg Dhea daily is probably helpful for health/hair loss?

here are my dhea numbers that i got yesterday:

DHEA 1.16 nmo/L (normal 0.75 to 2.5)
DHEA-S 1174 pg/ml (normal 1303 to 3557)

my apologies, im in taiwan so its metric instead of US measurements. I'm still not sure how to convert it!

So I'm low on the DHEA-S and on the low-side on DHEA.

can someone tell me how DHEA and DHEA-S relate to each other?

How does DHEA/DHEA-S affect hair loss?

thanks you!!

Joe what are you currently on as in terms of TRT? As TRT effected your hair? Do you have a family history of hair loss.

bump for question about DHEA/DHEA-S affect on hair loss?

thanks guys!

My vote goes towards using magnesium chloride to raise DHEA levels. A google search should provide some good info.

Here is one link

http://www.naturalnews.com/024847_magnesium_insulin_medicine.html

A quote

"Dr. Shealy has determined that when the body is presented with adequate levels of magnesium at the cellular level, the body will begin to naturally produce DHEA and also DHEA-S."

I've been taking 20 mg DHEA and 20 mg of Pregnenalone among a bunch of other stuff for adrenal fatigue for 3 weeks, and I think I've been having more hairs fall out as I run my hands through my hair, so i think it may be accelerating the hair loss, so i'm going to stop taking the hormone stuff and stick with everything else for adrenal fatigue.

jdp710 wrote:My vote goes towards using magnesium chloride to raise DHEA levels. A google search should provide some good info.

Here is one link

http://www.naturalnews.com/024847_magnesium_insulin_medicine.html

A quote

"Dr. Shealy has determined that when the body is presented with adequate levels of magnesium at the cellular level, the body will begin to naturally produce DHEA and also DHEA-S."

jdp710,

thanks for the info! i just started 600-700mg of Magnesium chelate. I'm going to see if this does the trick. i would rather not start taking dhea supplements. i heard risk of hair loss on dhea because of what it can do with testosterone and DHT.

Espio wrote:I've been taking 20 mg DHEA and 20 mg of Pregnenalone among a bunch of other stuff for adrenal fatigue for 3 weeks, and I think I've been having more hairs fall out as I run my hands through my hair, so i think it may be accelerating the hair loss, so i'm going to stop taking the hormone stuff and stick with everything else for adrenal fatigue.

good idea on stopping DHEA here. what are you taking for ADRENAL FATIGUE?

i think i have adrenal fatigue as well. curious to know if what you are taking is helping

only take DHEA if you verfied via blood testing (DHEA-S) and continue to to blood test.

What I'm taking for AF:

sea salt
cordyceps
vitamin B multi
hydrolized collagen
Proline
adrenal glandular
vitamin C
magnesium citrate
MSM
Cod liver oil
GABA
5-HTP

Was taking:
DHEA
Pregnenalone

I got this list from Dr. Rind's site:
http://www.drrind.com/therapies/adrenal-support-recommendation-sheet

But like I said I'm cutting out the DHEA and Pregnenalone because I think it may be causing increased hair loss, since premature balders like myself tend to have really high DHEA anyway. I figured my DHEA must of been low because I have low total testosterone but high free testosterone, but i guess i was wrong.

do you think premature balders have adrenals fatigue most of the time?