Hormones Discussion + Questions

[perga]

Okay! So a number of you are far more educated on the topic than I, so I would like to pick your brains. My main reason for looking into this is some brain fog I get from fin + my supplements.

Here is a nifty little SVG showing the production of hormones and several enzymes along the way. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... enesis.svg

Word on the street is, 5-a-reductase inhibitors result in increased testosterone production, which, I would imagine, means increased production of everything in the chain that produces that testosterone starting with cholesterol. That means increased production of ALL products from everything in the chain. So, according to that little image above, some things that are increased by inhibiting 5-a-reductase are: progesterone, estradiol, estrone, estriol, cortisol, corticosterone, aldosterone, and a few in between.

Is that correct so far?

After a bit more research, it seems like that is not accurate. It seems progesterone production is reduced by 5-a-reductase inhibitors, possibly (guessing) due to competition over pregnenolone and the path towards androstenediol->testosterone winning. That would mean that progesterone + cortisol + corticosterone + aldosterone are all reduced as a result of 5-a-reductase inhibition. Is this the source of depression related to Finasteride? Does this have any effect on hair? With increased testosterone production and no path towards DHT available, estradiol + estrone + estriol production is increased. Is this the source of reduced libido + gyno? Does this have any effect on hair? After even more research, it looks like progesterone production is inhibited because of an increase in estradiol which regulates it, and not the competition idea I said above.

So the goal of naturals would be to increase progesterone (based on a touch of research, Turmeric/Curcumin would be the best natural way to boost progesterone/hit progesterone receptors), and reduce the path towards estrogen/estradiol production, which would mean an aromatase inhibitor to prevent gyno/progesterone reduction.

So, I may need to add a natural aromatase inhibitors to my regimen. Looks like quercetin + resveratrol are both good, but I already take res, so quercetin. Is the reduced progesterone->cortisol etc the source of Finasteride/5-a-reductase inhibitors brain fog effect?

If I have made any mistakes above, please correct me. There are a ton of questions in this post, so sorry for that... but I'm going to throw one more down just cause I can...

Currently supplement regimen...
Country Life-Maxi Hair.
Country Life-Resveratrol
Jarrow-Curcumin
Jarrow-Toco Sorb
Now Adam's Superior Men's Multi w/ Saw Palmetto... lycopene... etc etc
Now Astragalus for immune system stuff (helps with mouth sores)

Can anyone (Jacob!!) recommend better supplements, perhaps that combine some of this stuff + add quercetin.

[Jacob]

You lost me at "Okay!". Although I do have an excuse..I'm verrrrrrry tired at the moment. Whenever I see the "brain fog" comment though..I wonder if Prevagen would help. But it doesn't seem to address what you think is causing it or how it should be dealt with.

It'd be hard to find something that would include all those supplements. I know there are some resv/curcumin etc combos..there was a decent powdered drink mix that contained a bunch of things, and the curcumin and couple of other ingreds were as phytosomes. I'll try to dig it up some time.