Keto and DHEA Relationship

#1

I’ve been doing keto now for about 5 months (1 week off during vacation halfway through) and have struggled with getting my ketones above 1mmol consistently. When I do get them up, I’m eating only about 70 grams protein, 5 total carbs and 200 grams fat per day.

I recently had blood work and my DHEA-S levels were far below the normal range. 2 days after beginning 10mg each morning, my ketones were up to 3.1 mmol. But, today, back down to .4 mmol. It’s possible I over consume almonds and macadamia nuts occasionally and possibly could’ve yesterday, but I do believe there’s a relationship between DHEA levels and ketone production. I saw the abstract of the study that shows a 34% increase in DHEA levels after a week of a ketogenic diet, but that doesn’t explain too much.

As I type this, something occurred to me also, the first 2 days I took the DHEA I took it with a tablespoon of c8 mct oil, but yesterday I did not. Perhaps there’s something to that as well.

Anyone have any thoughts?
I’ll keep tracking ketones and update this as I go along and try to nail down the variables. For the record, I took 10mg DHEA about 30 minutes before the mct oil, so I imagine my ketones may be low again tomorrow. Lastly, to give an idea of what my macros could and should be, I weigh 209 with a pretty significant amount of muscle. I haven’t worked out in a few months due to injury but I was an avid bodybuilder/weightlifter.

(Ken) #2

Interesting. Coming from a different direction, it may be that the DHEA is stimulating another process that causes more ketones to be utilized, rather than their production being suppressed. Tests only show excess. I would think that is more likely. Felt any other effects, like energy, libido, etc.?

#3

My reaction to DHEA hasn’t exactly been favorable. It’s like extreme stimulation and all senses super enhanced, for example, my daughters rabbits cage smelled far worse than it should’ve. I’ve stuck with it so far but unsure if I will continue due to some estrogenic side effects kicking in.

#4

Ketones again at .4 mmol this morning. Starting to think DHEA had nothing to do with what happened and maybe I just underconsumed protein for several days without realizing it.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #5

MCT oil probably accounted for the big rise so quickly, it is exogenous ketones source.

#6

It’s just never done that before and I’ve used tons of mct oil in a day before…

#7

Old thread, but back on keto now and again struggling with my ketone numbers, not that they matter I guess too significantly but it still is bizarre everyone I know personally has ketones above 1 mmol and again had to drop my protein low to get them up to .6 this morning. I’m going to be testing this DHEA theory again with more consistency as I’ve read some research DHEA is required for some processes that are involved in liver fatty acid oxidation.

(Bunny) #8

This is not medical advice, it is just my opinion:

…you are preventing or inhibiting your endocrine glands and adrenal glands from manufacturing (from cholesterol) DHEA by SUPPLEMENTING with it and you will become exogenously dependent on it? A VERY BAD THING TO DO? (the absolute worst thing you can do because you are going to mess up the entire homeostasis of your endocrine system out-pacing the ability to actually normalize it?)

…the blood test results might be low in DHEA because their is too much glucose (for some reason?) in the blood stream and possibly gluconeogenesis (e.g. eating too much protein “70 grams”) going on from the liver? And/or glycogen storage from muscle tissue being released into the blood stream from a ketogenic fat adaption, fasting extensively or from fasting intermittently? Thus the circulation of glucose in the blood stream is blocking the body from untilizing HGH that’s being released from the pituitary gland thus lowering DHEA levels? DHEA is dependent on the presence or actual contact with HGH in the endocrine chain reaction telling it to manufacture more DHEA?

…and maybe no physical extertion? On the other hand the blood test may not tell you anything about what is truly going on because there may also be healthy fluctuations of DHEA going on?

Note: 4 oz. or less of protein is the usual baseline to figure out how much you need? FYI: Protein can spike insulin all by itself without glucose!

#9

Well, I’ve had multiple blood tests over the years while keto and not keto confirming low DHEA-S levels so this is doctor prescribed supplementation. I’ll continue updating this thread on my tests.

#10

After a few days of testing, without any dietary changes but adding in 5-10mg Sublingual DHEA, my ketones jumped to 1.1 from .4. Substantial increase. Mood and keto benefits have been significantly better as well.

(Andie) #11

I started keto to lower my DHEA levels among other reasons of course… Didn’t know if it would work but it did. I had a very high level of DHEA and now it’s normal.