EDIT NEW THREAD WITH RESULTS AND PICTURES:
http://www.gourmetstylewellness.com/interac...to-listen-Pics-included?p=1230326#post1230326
The following are numbered because after all of my research, I think I can say with certainty that male pattern baldness is caused by cranial pressure caused by poor blood flow to the scalp. The reasoning is also cited by more than one independent sources. I have begun a regime today, and will post back results. I am thinking of foregoing any medication/topical solutions except the vasodialtor minoxodil.
My girlfriend of over four years left about 7 months ago. When I say left, she just straight up peaced. It was probably the lowest time in my life, since I didn't even see it coming, even after I tried to prevent her from just taking a dump all over me.
1. I was obviously pretty distressed and I still feel the stress of that bull **** to this day.
2. I began working out like crazy.
In 4 months I had gained 20-25 pounds. Starting at 6 foot, 145 pounds, I was also low body fat percentage. With a 6 day a week regime, I was probably at a lower body fat percentage with substantial muscle growth. I was very h appy with the results, and continued to go.
3. It was about after that 4 month time, that I noticed my scalp was red, started to hurt, and that my hair was falling out. I was not using anabolic steroids; in fact, before I began working out religiously, my testosterone was in the 300-400 range, which is rather low. I'm sure after working out, it had increased pretty dramatically.
The pain, redness, flaking, itching was baffling. My head felt really tight. The pain was really terrible, that I stopped going to the gym 3 weeks ago and got a derm appointment immediately. At first I thought it was sebhorric dermatitis or folliculitis. How could I be balding at 23, right? I had a full head of hair less than a year ago, without any worry about losing hair. My brother hasn't lost any hair, and he works out just as much as I do. I was really depressed.
The dermatologist said he saw no inflammation (I don't know how, its clearly red in the photo), and he prescribed me a corticosteroid for the "inflammation."
4. The steroid helped reduce the redness, but I still felt the pain and itch. It was like my body was destroying the hair I had.
My hair was still shedding like crazy. The dermatologist said it was probably male pattern baldness, but I was unaware that male pattern baldness can feel like your hair is "burning off." Guess what, it can. If you feel this burning, your hair is most likely being destroyed due to inflammation, which causes poor blood flow.
So I shaved my head yesterday so the dermatologist could take a look today in the hopes that maybe he'd find an infection, since my head is still burning (but the redness is away). My scalp feels very tight.
I went to the dermatologist, and he said he didn't see any inflammation again, despite me telling him about the pain. Turns out, that these symptoms are supposedly experienced in 30% of cases, but there is only one study that has been done on the subject. Knowing the cause of it clearly explains why there is a burning sensation, and people can feel the areas that are going to fall out. These areas, for at least me, and through word of mouth of other forums that call this phenomena "mbp itch" is for the following chain reaction, which is somewhat circularly linked due to the role that DHT plays in the entire cycle:
1) Increase of DHT in the area either due to natural causes (as you age, DHT levels rise as you age) or outside influences (working out, increase in free testosterone, decrease in circulation in the area).
2) DHT accumulates the hair follicles, cause an immune system response, causing inflammation, causing a decrease in O2 levels, causing an increase in DHT levels.
3) Go back to 1
So I started reading everything I could on the subject. Here are my conclusions; I will try to cite everything with evidence, but you may need to google to find some on your own.
Conclusion:
1. Stress increases inflammation. Chronic stress can cause hair loss because of this inflammation across the body, called telogen effluvium. Once the inflammation is reduced, hair loss begins again.
In male pattern baldness, inflammation has a link without a doubt, but since this inflammation is completely localized to the galea and not the entire body, we only have hairloss in that area.
Blood flow is important in hair developement, because DHT ratio to Testosterone (which compete with eachother to bind to the same receptors), is swayed towards DHT when oxygen levels are less than ideal.
This article contains sources for the above claims: http://longevitypost.com/stop-fearing-testosterone-dht/
2. I increased my testosterone, much like someone one anabolic steroids. Since I increased my T, free T increases as well. Since my scalp was "tight," for whatever reason this may be, whether aging or stress, DHT ratios are elevated is obviously causing a negative response in my scalp causing pain and discomfort.
But why is DHT causing pain and discomfort here?
Turns out, DHT is the reason your skull expands:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18789604
The above article and one of its related article seem to say exactly this. It also explains the pattern of hairloss. It is also, subsequently, the one region that few people stretch through muscle exercises.
Also, it explains the "pattern" of hairloss. How can two follicles, less than 1 mm apart, be programmed differently? They aren't. That's why minoxidil works as a vasodiolator; by allowing blood flow to these areas to increase, we can restore this ratio of testosterone and DHT.
So in the chain what happened to me, disregarding my "stress," because stress just aggravates inflammation, doesn't cause it, it goes:
Increased testosterone -> DHT levels rise disproportionately to testosterone in my scalp -> my head starts to expand from the DHT -> my scalp gets "crushed," reducing blood flow -> DHT builds up -> my body begins to fight by inflaming the area -> DHT rises
And so on and so forth until it causes all my hair to remain dormant.
It also explains why all the current treatments work:
1. Minoxidil: increases blood flow to the regions that have poor blood flow. This stimulates growth because more oxygen is in the blood which in turn lowers DHT levels.
2. finasteride/Du: literally just removes a ton of DHT in your body, thus creating the correct ratio of T/DHT in your scalp. Its also explains why finasteride/Du don't fix the issue, and must be taken permanently, since hte blood flow remains the same, but hte DHT ratio is artificially corrected.
3. ru58841: protects the hair from DHT, and allows the follicle to survive.
4. Botox: This is the big one that points exactly to the reason male pattern baldness occurs. If male pattern baldness wasn't causes by low oxygen in the galea, botox would not cause hair to regrow at all. But it does, and its very successful, but only while the botox injection's effects are there.
5. Immunosupressors: if you take them, some people with male pattern baldness regrow hair.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7528050
This is because it stops the inflammation response from the immune system.
It all has to do with blood flow.
http://www.hairloss-research.org/blog/?p=102
I have been to MGH dermatology, and they clearly state that "despite what everyone is saying, blood flow and microinflammation caused by DHT has a direct effect on hair loss.
His full article can be found here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC199257/
I started doing my scalp exercises today. I can already feel my scalp feels better, and blood is rushing there. I will continue to update results with pictures.
What do you guys think?
http://www.gourmetstylewellness.com/interac...to-listen-Pics-included?p=1230326#post1230326
The following are numbered because after all of my research, I think I can say with certainty that male pattern baldness is caused by cranial pressure caused by poor blood flow to the scalp. The reasoning is also cited by more than one independent sources. I have begun a regime today, and will post back results. I am thinking of foregoing any medication/topical solutions except the vasodialtor minoxodil.
My girlfriend of over four years left about 7 months ago. When I say left, she just straight up peaced. It was probably the lowest time in my life, since I didn't even see it coming, even after I tried to prevent her from just taking a dump all over me.
1. I was obviously pretty distressed and I still feel the stress of that bull **** to this day.
2. I began working out like crazy.
In 4 months I had gained 20-25 pounds. Starting at 6 foot, 145 pounds, I was also low body fat percentage. With a 6 day a week regime, I was probably at a lower body fat percentage with substantial muscle growth. I was very h appy with the results, and continued to go.
3. It was about after that 4 month time, that I noticed my scalp was red, started to hurt, and that my hair was falling out. I was not using anabolic steroids; in fact, before I began working out religiously, my testosterone was in the 300-400 range, which is rather low. I'm sure after working out, it had increased pretty dramatically.
The pain, redness, flaking, itching was baffling. My head felt really tight. The pain was really terrible, that I stopped going to the gym 3 weeks ago and got a derm appointment immediately. At first I thought it was sebhorric dermatitis or folliculitis. How could I be balding at 23, right? I had a full head of hair less than a year ago, without any worry about losing hair. My brother hasn't lost any hair, and he works out just as much as I do. I was really depressed.
The dermatologist said he saw no inflammation (I don't know how, its clearly red in the photo), and he prescribed me a corticosteroid for the "inflammation."
4. The steroid helped reduce the redness, but I still felt the pain and itch. It was like my body was destroying the hair I had.
My hair was still shedding like crazy. The dermatologist said it was probably male pattern baldness, but I was unaware that male pattern baldness can feel like your hair is "burning off." Guess what, it can. If you feel this burning, your hair is most likely being destroyed due to inflammation, which causes poor blood flow.
So I shaved my head yesterday so the dermatologist could take a look today in the hopes that maybe he'd find an infection, since my head is still burning (but the redness is away). My scalp feels very tight.
I went to the dermatologist, and he said he didn't see any inflammation again, despite me telling him about the pain. Turns out, that these symptoms are supposedly experienced in 30% of cases, but there is only one study that has been done on the subject. Knowing the cause of it clearly explains why there is a burning sensation, and people can feel the areas that are going to fall out. These areas, for at least me, and through word of mouth of other forums that call this phenomena "mbp itch" is for the following chain reaction, which is somewhat circularly linked due to the role that DHT plays in the entire cycle:
1) Increase of DHT in the area either due to natural causes (as you age, DHT levels rise as you age) or outside influences (working out, increase in free testosterone, decrease in circulation in the area).
2) DHT accumulates the hair follicles, cause an immune system response, causing inflammation, causing a decrease in O2 levels, causing an increase in DHT levels.
3) Go back to 1
So I started reading everything I could on the subject. Here are my conclusions; I will try to cite everything with evidence, but you may need to google to find some on your own.
Conclusion:
1. Stress increases inflammation. Chronic stress can cause hair loss because of this inflammation across the body, called telogen effluvium. Once the inflammation is reduced, hair loss begins again.
In male pattern baldness, inflammation has a link without a doubt, but since this inflammation is completely localized to the galea and not the entire body, we only have hairloss in that area.
Blood flow is important in hair developement, because DHT ratio to Testosterone (which compete with eachother to bind to the same receptors), is swayed towards DHT when oxygen levels are less than ideal.
This article contains sources for the above claims: http://longevitypost.com/stop-fearing-testosterone-dht/
2. I increased my testosterone, much like someone one anabolic steroids. Since I increased my T, free T increases as well. Since my scalp was "tight," for whatever reason this may be, whether aging or stress, DHT ratios are elevated is obviously causing a negative response in my scalp causing pain and discomfort.
But why is DHT causing pain and discomfort here?
Turns out, DHT is the reason your skull expands:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18789604
The above article and one of its related article seem to say exactly this. It also explains the pattern of hairloss. It is also, subsequently, the one region that few people stretch through muscle exercises.
Also, it explains the "pattern" of hairloss. How can two follicles, less than 1 mm apart, be programmed differently? They aren't. That's why minoxidil works as a vasodiolator; by allowing blood flow to these areas to increase, we can restore this ratio of testosterone and DHT.
So in the chain what happened to me, disregarding my "stress," because stress just aggravates inflammation, doesn't cause it, it goes:
Increased testosterone -> DHT levels rise disproportionately to testosterone in my scalp -> my head starts to expand from the DHT -> my scalp gets "crushed," reducing blood flow -> DHT builds up -> my body begins to fight by inflaming the area -> DHT rises
And so on and so forth until it causes all my hair to remain dormant.
It also explains why all the current treatments work:
1. Minoxidil: increases blood flow to the regions that have poor blood flow. This stimulates growth because more oxygen is in the blood which in turn lowers DHT levels.
2. finasteride/Du: literally just removes a ton of DHT in your body, thus creating the correct ratio of T/DHT in your scalp. Its also explains why finasteride/Du don't fix the issue, and must be taken permanently, since hte blood flow remains the same, but hte DHT ratio is artificially corrected.
3. ru58841: protects the hair from DHT, and allows the follicle to survive.
4. Botox: This is the big one that points exactly to the reason male pattern baldness occurs. If male pattern baldness wasn't causes by low oxygen in the galea, botox would not cause hair to regrow at all. But it does, and its very successful, but only while the botox injection's effects are there.
5. Immunosupressors: if you take them, some people with male pattern baldness regrow hair.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7528050
This is because it stops the inflammation response from the immune system.
It all has to do with blood flow.
http://www.hairloss-research.org/blog/?p=102
I have been to MGH dermatology, and they clearly state that "despite what everyone is saying, blood flow and microinflammation caused by DHT has a direct effect on hair loss.
His full article can be found here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC199257/
I started doing my scalp exercises today. I can already feel my scalp feels better, and blood is rushing there. I will continue to update results with pictures.
What do you guys think?
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