How to use progesterone
Before considering using progesterone, it is important to understand that it is not a magic bullet and that the greatest benefit is gained by implementing a bioenergy diet approach that allows you to effectively burn glucose as a primary fuel without supporting electrons in the mitochondria. which reduces your energy production. My new book, “Your Guide to Cellular Health: Discovering the Science of Longevity and Joy,” will be published soon and covers this process in great detail.
Once you’ve improved your diet, an effective strategy that can help counteract excess estrogen is to take transmucosal progesterone (i.e., applied to the gums, not orally or transdermally), which is a natural estrogen antagonist. Progesterone is one of four hormones that I believe many adults can benefit from. (The other three are thyroid hormone T3, DHEA and pregnenolone).
I do not recommend transdermal progesterone, as your skin expresses high levels of the enzyme 5-alpha reductase, which causes a significant portion of the progesterone you are taking to be irreversibly converted primarily to allopregnanolone and cannot be converted back to progesterone.
Ideal way to administer progesterone
Please note that when progesterone is used transmucosally in the gums, as I recommend, the FDA believes that this somehow makes it a drug and prohibits any company from indicating it on their label. That’s why companies like Health Natura promote their progesterone products as “topicals.”
However, understand that it is perfectly legal for any doctor to recommend an off-label indication for a medication to his or her patient. In this case, progesterone is a natural hormone and not a drug and is very safe even in high doses. This is different from the synthetic progesterone called progestins that are used by pharmaceutical companies but are frequently and incorrectly mentioned.
Dr. Ray Peat has done seminal work on progesterone and was probably the world’s greatest expert on progesterone. He wrote his Ph.D. took estrogen in 1982 and spent most of his professional career documenting the need to counteract the dangers of excess estrogen with low-LA diets and transmucosal progesterone supplements.
He determined that most solvents do not dissolve progesterone well and found that vitamin E is the best solvent to optimally deliver progesterone to tissues. Vitamin E also protects you against LA damage. You just have to be very careful with the vitamin E you use, as most vitamin E supplements on the market are worse than useless and will cause you harm, not good.
It is imperative to avoid the use of synthetic vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate; acetate indicates that it is synthetic). Natural vitamin E will be labeled as “d alpha tocopherol.” This is the pure D isomer, which is what your body can use.
There are other isomers of vitamin E as well, and you want to have the full spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, specifically the beta, gamma, and delta types, in the effective D isomer. As an example of an ideal vitamin E, you can look at the label of our vitamin E in our store. You can use any brand that has a similar label.
You can buy pharmaceutical grade bioidentical progesterone as progesterone powder, bioidentical micronized powder, 10 grams for about $40 at many online stores like Amazon. That’s almost a year’s supply, depending on the dosage you choose.
However, you will need to purchase some small stainless steel measuring spoons, as you will need 1/64 of a teaspoon, which is 25 mg, and 1/32 of a teaspoon, which is 50 mg. A normal dose is usually 25 to 50 mg and is taken 30 minutes before bedtime as it has an anti-cortisol function and will increase GABA levels for a good night’s sleep.
Unfortunately, this supplier frequently runs out of product and if that is the case, you can use Health Natura’s Simply Progesterone. It is premixed with vitamin E and MCT oil. Again, although Health Natura states that their product is “for topical use only,” I recommend applying it transmucosally, rubbing it into the gums.
If you are a menstruating woman, you should take progesterone during the luteal phase or the last half of your cycle, which can be determined by starting 10 days after the first day of your period and stopping progesterone when your period begins.
If you are a man or woman who does not menstruate, you can take progesterone every day for four to six months and then stop for a week. The best time of day to take progesterone is 30 minutes before bed, as it has an anti-cortisol function and will increase GABA levels for a good night’s sleep.
This is what I have been doing personally for more than a year with very good results. I’m a doctor, so I have no problem doing this. If you are not a doctor, you should consult one before using this therapy, as transmucosal progesterone therapy requires a prescription.
