Life is often about achieving balance between competing priorities, which occasionally means choices concerning our health care. For example, if you’re taking one of the statin drugs (ie. Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor) to combat high cholesterol, would you be surprised if I told you that your cholesterol can be too low?
It’s true.
A few years ago, a patient experienced frightening memory loss, while caring for someone with Alzheimer’s at the time and thought she was getting Alzheimer’s herself. After consulting with a hormone replacement therapist, a routine blood test revealed that her pregnenolone level was abnormally low. After a few months of pregnenolone replacement, the mental fog began to lift and her memories started returning.
A vital hormone and neurotransmitter created from cholesterol, pregnenolone is instrumental in spawning steroid hormones in the body such as: estrogen, testosterone, DHEA and cortisol among several others. An insufficient level of pregnenolone can cause memory loss, sleep disorders, depression, fatigue, symptoms that mimic Alzheimer’s and other debilitating conditions. Many of these other hormones which are synthesized from pregnenolone, such as DHEA, may lead to acceleration of the aging process when deficient.
When she came to The Care Group, we explained to her the importance of pregnenolone and showed her that while research has demonstrated that statin drugs do lower cholesterol and by extension have a moderate impact on cardiovascular problems, they also inhibit the body’s ability to create pregnenolone. In short, statins can decrease cholesterol to dangerously low levels and in an effort to curb heart attacks and other heart-related problems may open the door to a whole set of other health issues.
Of course, statins are not the only cause of low pregnenolone levels. The Care Group has patients with a low pregnenolone count who have never taken a statin. For example, menopausal women who have never taken a statin may have low pregnenolone levels.
In short, we know that statin drugs can inhibit the body’s natural production of pregnenolone, creating a variety of problems from memory loss to fatigue, as well as depression and sexual dysfunction. At the same time, other conditions can also lower pregnenolone levels such as advancing age, high levels of stress and anxiety.
If you feel your mind is not as sharp as it used to be, particularly if you are on a statin, your pregnenolone level may be low. The important thing is to have a simple blood test to check your pregnenolone level. If your level is low, we can easily reach optimal levels through replacement treatment.
