Original research theory: How Androgenetic Alopecia is a manifestation of insulin resistance and its connections with CVD & PCOS

[balda]

For example,
there is Rosiglitazone/Thiazolidinedione as a potential preventive/revertive med for fibrosis.
have you heard that anyone tried a mixture with it topically?

 

[feelsbad]

Anyone following these recommendations and seeing a reduction in loss?

 

[thatslin]

Anyone following these recommendations and seeing a reduction in loss?

For me personally, whenever I consume a huge amount of sugar, on a cheat day for example, the shedding would be insane the next day. It happens to me every time. But constraint of sugar or even carbs intake does not do much for hair regrowth

 

[MagicBold]

Be sure Androgenetic Alopecia is always comming with fat/carbons metabolism errors. Obesity, METs, acne, heart disorder - regular satellite.

 

[qerqrqwrqwr]

this thread explains it

basically insulin resistance triggers the "balding but lots of body hair" phenotype

It is male PCOS,

The very short version is:
- androgenetic alopecia really is an early manifestation of insulin resistance, but there are both direct and indirect forms of insulin resistance - which is why it was not found yet
- androgenetic alopecia shares 3 of the 4 different root causes of female PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome)
- androgenetic alopecia can be halted with dietary and lifestyle changes, but not reversed (I myself achieved a small but visible amount of regrowth in the vertex by following the recommendations covered later in the document, but zero regrowth in the temples. I don't think regrowth can be reliably achieved unfortunately without drugs.)

The document which you can find attached to this post also covers the following topics:
- why androgenetic alopecia is statistically correlated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease and what this has to do with DHT and even shorter lifespans of men compared to women
- why androgenetic alopecia is statistically correlated with prostate hyperplasia and cancer
- how diet causes shiny forehead and oily scalp (sebum) experienced by many balding people
- the role of DHT in microvascular damage (which explains why DHT is not the root cause of balding but still an effective bottleneck to target in order to prevent balding)
- why there is calcification in balding scalps - it really is because of the same mechanisms that cause atherosclerosis
- photos from genetically identical (monozygotic) twins which have balded at very different rates, showing genetic predisposition is only half the story
- a study from China (a country which underwent rapid diet and lifestyle changes in a very short period) showing that only one third of balding Chinese today had a family history of balding, further underlining that genes are only half the story
- how exactly scalp tension (which many consider to be an esoteric hypothesis) plays a role: by pushing the post-inflammatory tissue recovery towards a fibrotic, rather than non-fibrotic, remodeling response

The whole thing is - I believe at least - rather elegant because it manages to combine a lot of conflicting theories and aspects (DHT, scalp tension, calcification, correlations with diabetes/metabolic syndrome) into one explanation that has "use" for all of them.
None of this stuff is new in isolation but I hope the theory can provide a consistent explanation that makes all the puzzle pieces fit together into one coherent view.

Unfortunately the document is quite long (could still be longer but so as not to exaggerate I left out the precise roles of PGD2/PGE2). I hope someone will find it helpful. The document is under a free license so anyone can share it in whichever way they'd like to whomever they'd like and wherever they'd like, if they'd like to. It is my hope that it'll help some people halt their balding progress and keep the hair they still have, even without medication.

If anything is unclear at all or if anyone has critical questions or remarks I'm happy to respond.

Hope someone will find it helpful or interesting - even if only a bit!

These people basically reached the same conclusion

what is causing body hair/nose hair and ear hair if not androgens?

@wester130 increase sodium

bioenergetic.forum

Hyperandrogenism caused by insulin resistance

 

[qerqrqwrqwr]

interestingly, this says metformin raises shbg, which is a drug for insulin resistance

SHBG – A Modulator to be Modulated | ZRT Laboratory

SHBG, or Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, controls testosterone effect in both men and women by modulating changes in sex steroid levels. When SHBG goes up, free testosterone goes down. Since it binds so specifically and tightly to testosterone, it makes up part of the equation that equals androgen...

www.zrtlab.com

"Insulin spikes = hyper insulinemia = low SHBG = hyperandrogenism = excess nose, ear, hair growth."

 

[feelsbad]

Thoughts on this @randomuser1?

 

[curlwaves]

Thoughts on this @randomuser1?

I think it's a bit dismissive regarding diet. Sugar and fat can lead to high insulin and insulin resistance. Which can lead to high DHT and inflammation etc.

 

[randomuser1]

Thoughts on this @randomuser1?

I believe this to be a very lazy and superficial video.

I would need to repeat a lot of what I wrote in the long PDF I linked in the OP, but some of the key points that that guy misses:
- lipid build-up on the skin: Why does he not question where it comes from? It is known that the skin produces lipids as a response to - drum roll - blood sugar.
- he has a screenshot showing that consumption of sugary beverages has a more than 57% chance increase of more aggressive hair loss (timestamp in the video at 00:26). That is more than 50% - just for one diet component.
- a lot of the video's statements are subjective without proper reasoning ("this seems somewhat backward in my opinion [...] it appears more plausible", at about 1 and a half minutes) - without him giving any sources, just stating his personal beliefs. Just "seems" and "I believe"
- PPAR-gamma - as both the video author and the author of the paper referred to in the video admit - trigger synthesis of lipids in overdrive with people in Androgenetic Alopecia. You know, whenever something is synthesized, you need the ingredients for synthesis. You know what the ingredient for lipid synthesis is? Surprise - it is mostly glucose or packaged glucose, otherwise known as triglycerides.

These are just the most obvious flaws but then there is also all the stuff the video's author does not mention, like the fact that a genetic mutation in some Amish people makes them immune to negative effects of dietary carbs and sugars, such as diabetes and CVD. The same people are also immune to hair loss. This finding alone - immunity against diabetes, CVD and hair loss at the same time through the same mutation! - is such a strong indicator that the main factor for Androgenetic Alopecia is diet and lifestyle.
Why else would immunity against the negative effects of a modern diet also lead to immunity against hair loss?

I also want to add a few words on SHBG, because it has been mentioned before:
Let us take a look at SHBG from an evolutionary point of view. SHBG is like a "throttle" or "brake" on our sex hormones. High SHBG = lots of inactivated sex hormones. Low SHBG = little deactivation of sex hormones.
But why would an organism need a throttle on their sex hormones?
Because sexual reproduction was - until very recently in evolutionary terms - something that needed to be timed (because it is energy intensive and risky). You could not just have kids whenever. You needed to make sure that your body (and especially that of the female) had enough energy to sustain both itself and the baby, while growing in the womb, for 9 months. What was a good predictor for the "season of plenty"? Availability of sugar because, especially far away from the equator, you could only get significant amounts of sugar from fruits, which depended on several months of sun for ripening. It may be unfathomable to us today, but until industrial sugar extraction and refinement, and to an even bigger degree before systematic fruit agriculture, sugar was a scarce good.
What does SHBG react to the most? In hair loss forums there are so many remedies touted for increasing SHBG, like green tea. But these increases are small. You know what increases SHBG a lot? Lowering your carb and sugar intake. Because your body interprets high carb and sugar loads as "we are in a time of plenty, we have enough energy for reproduction, let us activate those sex hormones". DHT is a sex hormone.