Lifestyle, do you think it has an impact on male pattern baldness?

[cleverusername]

I was thinking back to a couple years ago when I was studying in the UK. I took a weekend trip to London (I studied in Coventry which is only about an hour or so away) with some friends courtesy of 1 pound megabus tickets. Being students we stayed at the cheapest hostel we could find in East London. There we met 2 guys from Spain and another from Italy. They were all recent uni grads looking for work in London and had been living at this hostel for a few months. All 3 of them were losing their hair. They had been able to find decent work and were living off pasta and mcdonalds cheeseburgers all while drinking heavily and partying all the time. Basically living like students.

This struck me as odd because each time I went to Spain I rarely saw people with hair loss and they were always middle aged or older, never in their 20s like these guys.

So I began thinking of my own lifestyle. When I was growing up I used to pride myself on being the small kid who kid eat those giant burgers from fast food places and not get fat. My diet sucked and consisted of fatty fried foods and lots of simple carbs. I also got addicted to p**rn from about 13 when I caught it on cinemax accidently one night when everyone was sleeping. By 16 I was noticeably receding. I tried to mask it by bleaching my hair thinking that being closer to my skintone it wouldnt show up as much but I think in the long run it made it worse.

Skip ahead 8 years I'm about NW4 with a good amount of thinning on top. I've been on the big 3 for about 6 months and was having some great results. Then..I got laid off from my job about a month ago. I started feeling depressed, stayed in my apartment all day, didn't even have the will to go grocery shopping and would eat once a day something like a bowl of lentils or pancakes and syrup. Basically garbage, I would feel like sh*t and my sleep schedule got bizarre I would go to bed at 2pm wake up around 11pm and repeat for days. My face looks like sh*t, acne which I haven't had since early college all over my face, eyes swollen and bruised looking and I noticed my hair on top has thinned back down. It's still better than 6 months ago but definitely worse than it was a month ago.

I guess my point is I definitely think things like stress, diet and overall lifestyle have impacted my hair and overall appearance. I honestly believe watching p**rn everyday throughout high school fucked up my hormones because I was about the only 16 year old I knew that had to shave everyday. This stress from losing my job has really put me in a rut and it's been extremely difficult finding another one. Monday I'm filing for unemployment which is totally embarrassing but its only a temparary solution. Nobody in my family on either side is bald or even balding which leads me to believe I had some play in this outcome.

On a positive note. Yesterday I forced myself to get out of the house and buy some real food. I walked 15 blocks to the produce stand that had extremely cheap prices and walked back. Later I walked 8 blocks to the grocery store and bought the rest of the things I needed to make an actual meal. It's funny how just eating fruits, vegetables and real food actually boosted up my mood, gave me energy and helped me sleep better. Today I'm actually meeting up with friends and going to a drum and bass party, tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with some people I recently met and I feel much better. Will this have an impact on my hair, I don't know but what I have noticed is the people on this forum who have had good success also had extremely positive attitudes and seemed to have active lifestyles so I think it may play a part in the grand scheme of things.

I don't know if anyone will actually read all that but it feels good to tell someone. There's no way I could talk about my hair problems with my friends.

 

[follicle84]

I've heard masturbation and sex exausts the body, which can make you lose hair as it is like a type of stress. I've also heard that anything too fatty or too sugary can exaust the body and generate a lot of heat in the body again causin stress, which can make you lose your hair. A good example of this is the chinese. Before china had been westernised after the war. Hairloss was very uncommon and mainly present in the old. Since western culture has taken place in it, hairloss is suddenly common amongst the chinese, young and old. The reasons for this is probably lifestyle but mostly diet. The chinese originally lived on cold foods (food which dont cause too much body heat and exaust the body), such as soy beans, rice, fruit and vegetables. Now they have adapted to eating junk foods such as chocolate, beefburgers, milkshake etc which are full of free radicals and difficult to digest. In case you didnt know free radicals damage proteins in our DNA, which in turn wear us down and make it harder for us to regenerate the body. The result of which is accelerated ageing, which will obviouslly have detrimental effects on hair.

What this means is that what you eat wears you down, some foods more than others. The chinese believe anything that causes your body to generate too much heats is a form of stress that ages the body. Personally i think if your going to lose your hair your going to lose your hair. I do think however the way you live and eat can influence how fast you lose it.

When i was a kid i lived on junk food too and started too recede at 18. I stopped eating junk food from 5 days a week to once a month and my hairloss greatly slowed down. I started smoking last year and my hair loss took a nose dive. I went from receding slowly to fast in six months i have cut down now on smokes and seen a slower rate of hairloss proving my theory. I have familly members too who have hairloss who drank beer and ate junkfood frequentlly. Some of them are now frequentlly at the gym, eating healthly and not drinking alcohol anymore after ten years and they havent lost much hair despite their original hairloss being advanced ten years ago.

So yes i believe life style does have some impact on hairloss but not entirelly.

You want some advice take vitamins as they repair dna damage from free radicals caused by foods (mainly junk food). Drink green tea, it is anti-toxiant and will clean the body giving an overall regenerative effect to all the body including hair. Go running, exercise what ever it takes to increase circulation round the body (so your blood gets round the body to give it the nutrients needed to repair damage and grow new cells (for hair and body). Do yoga, acupuncture, meditate, listen to music anything to de stress your self. As stress lowers your protection from free radicals and exaust the bodies supply of oxygen needed to give cells life and protect the body. Lastly stay away from beef and cut down on dairy, processed food and sugary food. Replace it with fruit veg, salad and fish etc. Lastly dont smoke as this will certainly stress the body. Smoking depletes vitamins from your body, restricts oxygen and induces free radicals aswell as ageing you and your hair much faster.

 

[CCS]

I heard fat men have more estrogen and less testosterone, and therefor less hairloss. Many stories on here back it up. But I'm sure women would rather date a fit NW5 than an obese NW1.

 

[follicle84]

That may be so with some people as fat restricts circulation round the body meaning nutrients and vitamins are restricted from getting round the body. This would include certain types of vitamin b that are required for developing testosterone which would be hindered from making testosterone quicky, which would later form dht. However poor circulation can result in hairloss so its catch 22 i guess, as you need good circulation for the release of oxygen and other vitamins round the body to develop, grow and repair cells in body and hair.

 

[Petchsky]

There is no evidence or study that proves that a lack of blood circulation causes male pattern baldness, but i've come round to the way of thinking that what you eat has a bigger effect on your body than i previously thought. I think it is the food we eat that is responsible for a lot of health problems we suffer from.

You can't trust the FDA, or even established 'health experts' - seems to me the only person you can trust is yourself, which means you have to do all your own research and draw your own conclusions.

 

[barcafan]

There is no evidence or study that proves that a lack of blood circulation causes male pattern baldness, but i've come round to the way of thinking that what you eat has a bigger effect on your body than i previously thought. I think it is the food we eat that is responsible for a lot of health problems we suffer from.

You can't trust the FDA, or even established 'health experts' - seems to me the only person you can trust is yourself, which means you have to do all your own research and draw your own conclusions.

Exactly what i started doing since i started male pattern baldness.

Works wonders. How you live essentially determines your health. FDA is almost like a scam, they spend millions of dollars to make you think that you have no control over what's happening to you and that the only way to 'fix' it, is to buy their drug. This is only true <1% of the time. We're a pathology driven society.

 

[ali777]

There is no evidence or study that proves that a lack of blood circulation causes male pattern baldness, but i've come round to the way of thinking that what you eat has a bigger effect on your body than i previously thought. I think it is the food we eat that is responsible for a lot of health problems we suffer from.

Definitely.... A balanced diet with fresh food is a must have.

You can't trust the FDA, or even established 'health experts' - seems to me the only person you can trust is yourself, which means you have to do all your own research and draw your own conclusions.

You aren't supposed to trust the FDA in the first place :whistle:, you are supposed follow the EU legislations. (I'm not implying EU laws to be superior to the FDA)

I'm not sure how it works in the US, but in the EU the new generation food laws are a bit of an overkill. For example, all dairy products must be produced from pasteurised milk. I understand the dangers of unpasteurised milk, but as kids we used to drink unpasteurised milk in the farm and we survived. The law makers shouldn't target some small technicalities, but they should try to cut out all the chemicals in the processed food.

It feels like the big manufacturers that pump their products with salt, sugar, and fat get away with murder, but some innocent Italian farmer can't use his family recipe to make cheese because he can't use unpasteurised milk anymore.

The best part about the EU legislations is that all products must be labelled.... If in doubt read the labels... When buying processed food I check for salt, fat, E numbers and stuff.

Back to the original subject.... I believe lifestyle has an effect on hairloss. I'm not saying lifestyle gives you male pattern baldness, but someone susceptible to male pattern baldness may accelerate the rate of hairloss with his lifestyle.

 

[Cassin]

little to none

 

[barcafan]

little to none

I think it's definitely at least partially responsible to the onset of male pattern baldness, at the least.

 

[Cassin]

little to none

I think it's definitely at least partially responsible to the onset of male pattern baldness, at the least.

yeah thats why I said "little to none"

 

[Obsidian]

To me the 'stress' thing is a joke. My Grandma in her teens and early twenties had to worry whether or not she was going to eat and she still has thick hair at the age of ninety. My great grandfather never got enough to eat, was frail, and lived in a time when there was 'true' stress. His hair didn't start falling out in till old age.

To me the simple thing is some people lose their hair early, others lose their hair later in life, and some get blessed with never having major hair loss or the rare no hair loss at all.

 

[Ash]

I definitely think a bad diet can exacerbate hairloss. I guess it could be just coincidence, but after I eat some greasy pizza or a fast food meal my dome will start to itch soon after. On the other hand if I eat a meal of brown rice, chicken and vegetables I don't get the itch. As far as exercise goes I think any form besides long distance cardio is decremental to hair. I am pretty sure that HIIT and sprints release test, and lifting weights obviously does.

With that said I would only be concerned about your diet and exercise if you have aggressive hairloss. I doubt it has much of an effect on the typical person that takes decades to bald.

 

[s.a.f]

little to none

I agree with the emphasis more on the none.

 

[CCS]

little to none

I agree with the emphasis more on the none.

Fat guys with gyno have more estrogen in their blood, which can help slow hair loss a bit. It won't save you though.

When people ask this question, they are really ask if bad health causes hair loss. Answer is no, or the opposite is slightly true. Fitness might even speed it up just slightly. As for the foods you eat, phyto estrogens might slow it down just slightly, but then they would also slow down muscle growth too.

Muscle does not need DHT to grow, so just take propecia and that is really all you can do.

 

[CCS]

There is no evidence or study that proves that a lack of blood circulation causes male pattern baldness, but i've come round to the way of thinking that what you eat has a bigger effect on your body than i previously thought. I think it is the food we eat that is responsible for a lot of health problems we suffer from.

You can't trust the FDA, or even established 'health experts' - seems to me the only person you can trust is yourself, which means you have to do all your own research and draw your own conclusions.

totally agreed here. Basically, anything that makes you fit might also help you loose a bit of hair, but not a lot. But you would need the difference between muscular/cut vs fat slob to see even a minor difference in hair loss. Better to be fit.

Yeah, I'm sure if you ride a bicycle all day and cut off circulation to your testicals, you make less testosterone and it helps your hair a bit, compared to weight lifting. Not nearly as much as taking propecia though.

 

[ali777]

Yeah, I'm sure if you ride a bicycle all day and cut off circulation to your testicals, you make less testosterone and it helps your hair a bit, compared to weight lifting. Not nearly as much as taking propecia though.

That's a rather interesting line of thought...

Maybe I should cycle more. My lack of cycling might explain why my hair is thinning :dunno: :whistle: .

 

[s.a.f]

Basically, anything that makes you fit might also help you loose a bit of hair, but not a lot. But you would need the difference between muscular/cut vs fat slob to see even a minor difference in hair loss. When people ask this question, they are really ask if bad health causes hair loss. Answer is no.

Amazingly I agree with everything CCS just said. :shock:

 

[Fundi]

I think Lifestyle cannot cause or stop hairloss but..

Somethings you do I think can definately increase the rate of balding if you've already started. e.g. Lots of stress my overall increase your shedding - Which although will grow back as it's not due to male pattern baldness, could eventually make your hair look very slightly worse overall.


I think it's also possible to maybe promote balding earlier than you would have otherwise....but I'm not 100% on that.

 

[follicle84]

Anything that ages you will have an effect on hairloss since the older you are the more likelly you are to go bald providing you have the hairloss gene in you. Things like stress, smoking, eating junk food all age you and so make you more prone to hairloss.

 

[CCS]

Things like stress, smoking, eating junk food all age you and so make you more prone to hairloss.

Refuted time and again yet people keep saying it.

There was one small study which showed bald men tended to smoke more than non-balding men. I bet they drink more too because they are depressed about being bald. They did not show that either caused baldness. Instead, the beta sis in beer actually slows down hair loss by acting as an internal androgen receptor blocker. Alcohol also reduces testosterone production. Alcoholics get flabby, non-muscular bodies, and keep their hair better than non-alcoholics, but not nearly as effective as using propecia, which does not harm muscle growth like alcohol does.