Excessive Testosterone and Hair Loss
How does Excessive Testosterone Affect Hair Loss
Excessive Testosterone and Hair Loss is becoming more common than before. In ancient civilizations, there was a practice of early castration of a specific group of men. These men then became servants in the royal house because the royalty felt that they no longer were a threat to take over power.
One amazing observation was that they didnot lose their hair. As society evolved beyond self-castration and royal castration, other men that lost their testicles through accidents also kept their hair through the aging process. It became apparent that a link between the two was inevitable. Scientists now find there is a link between Excessive Testosterone and Hair Loss.
Excessive Testosterone and Hair Loss
Testosterone is the main form of androgen produced by men. You manufacture it and adrenaline in the adrenal glands. Since you create adrenaline when the body faces stressful situations so it can start the fight or flight syndrome, any stress stimulates the production. At the same time, the body creates testosterone, too. Consumption of fatty foods, including red meat, also increases the production.
Testosterone is the Link
While testosterone doesnot cause the loss of hair, one of the by products of testosterone does. Testosterone changes to DHT, scientifically called dihydrotestosterone, once its introduced to the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. If you have a genetic predisposition to the production of this enzyme, chances are you�ll go bald. Men and even women with this condition have androgenetic alopecia called AGA. AGA causes them to overproduce the enzyme and therefore make more DHT. While the condition mostly occurs in men, once womens hormone levels of estrogen drop during menopause, they have a potential for it to occur.
What DHT Does
DHT causes hair loss by binding to the receptors and changing the normal events that cause the hair to grow thick and fast. It sends signals to the hair cells that are false and eventually the hairs become thinner and have shorter growing phases. Since the growing phase is shorter and the hair is thinner, you begin to show signs of balding. The thinner hairs make eventually become peach fuzz and then appear no longer.
Pattern Excessive Testosterone and Hair Loss
Men with this condition lose their hair first at the temporal area, next, the crown and finally on the top of the scalp. This is the location where the DHT is most concentrated due to the sweat glands that carry it.
Prevention of Excessive Testosterone and Hair Loss
Several products on the market attempt to block the production of DHT and help prevent the loss of hair. There are some natural remedies also that help stop hair loss. Green tea, saw palmetto, l-lysine and phytosterol complex which includes beta sitosterol all bind to the enzyme 5 alpha reductase and stop it from changing the testosterone to DHT.
Scientific studies show that over 60 percent of the males in the studies had an improvement in hair retention when they used saw palmetto combined with beta sitosterol.
Other studies on mice and rats showed that there was significant regrowth of hair when green tea extract was in their water. This is because the extract contains an amino acid that inhibits the growth of the 5-alpha reductase that changes the testosterone.
One last study using women with the problem reported that L-lysine also slowed the production of the 5-alph reductase and the women slowed the loss of their hair.
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