Sleep Apnea causes Hair Loss??

[GoatsHair]

Hi folks,

I'm still researching the cause of my hair loss and came across this interesting article.

http://www.hairlossbuddy.com/21/sleep-apnea/

Do any of you folks have sleep apnea? I wonder if there is a true link because I've recently was told that I stop breathing a lot at night and may have sleep apnea.

 

[closertoheaven]

Hi, I've been lurking for a little bit and this is my first post. I don't feel like introducing myself or my story just yet, I'll save it for another time. But I do want to say thanks to all for creating this site (i think).

Anyway, this article caught my attention because it seemed like something that hasn't been asked dozens of times (not that there is anything wrong with that), and that seemed halfway based on science.

Of course, science I do not care about. At least not when it comes to this forum. As it has been pointed out time and time again, there are no FDA approved studies other than those for Finasteride and Minoxidil. So what I am interested in, and IMHO we should all be interested in, is anectodal evidence and observation ONLY.

I do have sleep apnea. But I don't have high blood pressure. But I do have hair loss (duh). It seems like what they are saying is that apnea causes high blood pressure, which in turn causes hairloss. So they claim high blood pressure is the culprit. I think that is BS. With the widespread amount of high blood pressure in this country that correlation should be obvious. Not noticing that bald people had high blood pressure would be as insane as if no one ever noticed that overweight people had high blood pressure.

Although it goes on to say that corticotrophin (CRH) levels can cause hair loss. Wtf? Has anyone else ever heard of "CRH?" I thought I knew my stuff but apparently not. Also, please explain wtf "leaky gut syndrome" is to me.

Also the testimonials are about someone's cat if you can believe it. Sounds like he's trying to find an angle.

Although I agree that apnea sucks. I feel like I'm going to die some nights. If I wasn't paying so much for f*cking head meds maybe I'd spring for the thousands it costs to get a decent sleep study.

Se la vie.

 

[ADL]

I think it's a part of the puzzle.

Hair loss and blood pressure medication shares a deep bond! Don't raise your eyebrows, because Minodixil, the medication for treating baldness was originally used to treat high blood pressure.

It is a drug for treatment of high-blood pressure is now used to treat androgenic alopecia, inherited loss of hair and other types of hair loss.

The Story Of The Strong Bond Between Hair Loss And Blood Pressure Medication

Mino dixil is a vasodilator and was used as oral drug Loniten for treating high-blood pressure. But mino dixil showed interesting side effects on hair growth and showed signs of reversing baldness.

Upjohn Corporation in 1980s made a topical solution containing 2% mino dixil under the brand name Rogaine in the US for treating baldness. Outside United States the brand name is Regaine. For treating men a 5% concentration solution is used and for women 2% concentration solution is used. Rogaine is a hairloss medication approved by FDA. The active ingredient of Regaine, minodixil, which was originally a drug for treating hypertension or hbp, was tested as a topical application for regrowing hair and came up with good results.

However how mino dixil stimulates hair growth is still unknown. Mino dixil contains a blood vessel dilator, structure of Nitric Oxide (NO) and perhaps a nitric oxide agonist. This may be the answer to how mino dixil causes hair growth and stops hairloss.

source:http://www.hairlosstreatmentforbaldness.com/hair-loss-and-blood-pressure-medication.html

 

[GoatsHair]

Thanks guys... anyone else have any experience with this topic?

 

[abcdefg]

I really doubt most of that stuff. There are men with high blood pressure and hair loss so that cant be true. Just because high blood pressure and hairloss happen to maybe happen together more of the time then separately doesnt mean there is any kind of cause effect happening. Its possible high blood pressure is bad for hair, but if you have high blood pressure shouldnt you be working at lowering it regardless of hair? i would think hair would be last on your mind when you probably will die prematurely mainly because you cant exercise and eat good by your own choice.

 

[barcafan]

You'd most likely have much more serious physical side effects of sleep apnea before you see hairloss from it.

 

[SkylineGTR]

No apnea doesn't cause hairloss. Genes and hormones cause hairloss. It maybe help along telogen effluvium or alopecia areata types of hairloss (which are just stress and blood related and can be reversed). But not your regular androgenic alopecia.

Hypertension in relation to apnea is just due to your blood oxygen/co2 levels getting thrown around as well as constant sleep disruption. When you fall asleep your heart rate is supposed to drop 5-10bpm and your blood pressure also drops a bit (which is why we get cold while sleeping). So when you get constant interruptions from apnea events that basically screws your hearts "rest period" (and also causes sleep deprivation.) Tack on years of this and you get blood vessel impairment and cardiovascular problems. Stroke/Hypertension/Heart failure .... etc...

On top of that the sleep deprivation will exacerbate any existing medical conditions because your body isn't properly healing itself. It also requires more insulin to keep your blood sugar in check when your deprived of sleep.

I'm saying this as a sleep technician. (yeah I'm the dude that runs the studies. I am running 2 right now as I post this at 3am lol)

But if you have insurance the studies are covered. You just need to see your Doctor. Insurance companies usually look for a few things.
Witnessed apnea (my wife says I stop breathing)
High Epworth (a little survey you take)
BMI and Neck size.
Just walk to your Doctor and have all 3 and your a shoe in. My lab I work at pretty much takes every insurance... even T-19.

To bad your not in milwaukee. My lab started up the reggie white foundation that funds studies for people that cant pay for them.

 

[GoatsHair]

Wow, good info, Skyline... thank you!

 

[RaginDemon]

No apnea doesn't cause hairloss. Genes and hormones cause hairloss. It maybe help along telogen effluvium or alopecia areata types of hairloss (which are just stress and blood related and can be reversed). But not your regular androgenic alopecia.

Hypertension in relation to apnea is just due to your blood oxygen/co2 levels getting thrown around as well as constant sleep disruption. When you fall asleep your heart rate is supposed to drop 5-10bpm and your blood pressure also drops a bit (which is why we get cold while sleeping). So when you get constant interruptions from apnea events that basically screws your hearts "rest period" (and also causes sleep deprivation.) Tack on years of this and you get blood vessel impairment and cardiovascular problems. Stroke/Hypertension/Heart failure .... etc...

On top of that the sleep deprivation will exacerbate any existing medical conditions because your body isn't properly healing itself. It also requires more insulin to keep your blood sugar in check when your deprived of sleep.

I'm saying this as a sleep technician. (yeah I'm the dude that runs the studies. I am running 2 right now as I post this at 3am lol)

But if you have insurance the studies are covered. You just need to see your Doctor. Insurance companies usually look for a few things.
Witnessed apnea (my wife says I stop breathing)
High Epworth (a little survey you take)
BMI and Neck size.
Just walk to your Doctor and have all 3 and your a shoe in. My lab I work at pretty much takes every insurance... even T-19.

To bad your not in milwaukee. My lab started up the reggie white foundation that funds studies for people that cant pay for them.

:stupid:

 

[metalheaddude]

Genes and hormones cause hairloss.

This is not 100% true. Yes genes play a massive role as do hormones, but as someone already mentioned there is more pieces to this hairloss puzzle than meets the eye, they have just not been discovered yet. Some other mechanisms are in play here, not just DHT and GENES. DHT is one big part of the puzzle but if it was 100% DHT causing hairloss than Dutas would be the cure as it blocks pretty much all the DHT, yet it does not stop or cure many people suffering from male pattern baldness. In some people it even speeds up. You only need to read the Duta forum to discover that little fact. So i wouldnt be so quick to eliminate any particular studies just yet...

 

[SkylineGTR]

Genes and hormones cause hairloss.

This is not 100% true. Yes genes play a massive role as do hormones, but as someone already mentioned there is more pieces to this hairloss puzzle than meets the eye, they have just not been discovered yet. Some other mechanisms are in play here, not just DHT and GENES. DHT is one big part of the puzzle but if it was 100% DHT causing hairloss than Dutas would be the cure as it blocks pretty much all the DHT, yet it does not stop or cure many people suffering from male pattern baldness. In some people it even speeds up. You only need to read the Duta forum to discover that little fact. So i wouldnt be so quick to eliminate any particular studies just yet...

If you look they take 1 a week .. or every other day. If they took it daily and saw a physical reaction they back off or stop it. If you look at my results 1-2 months in i did get WORSE before i got better and thats the period where most freak out and change things. Heck i even experimented with this and changed my dosage purposefully and you can see the drastic change from everyday to MWF in my hair.

Those low dosages might not be enough for them seeing the test results showed all the way to 2.5mg and your average dose is only .5mg daily. If you read on ANYONE that has taken 2.5mg and can handle it they had amazing results. Some people do not react well to the medications and just can't handle higher dosages. If you read up on the people who take .5mg daily they show either a slow down/stop/ or improvement. This just seems to be the wall that everyone as put up as the "norm" dose to take it at for hairloss and suffer minimal effects.

 

[abcdefg]

Think how dumb of a statement that is that there is more to this then genes and hormones.
What genes are involved in hairloss go ahead and list them here:
1.
2.
3.
.....
Then we have our scientists simply figure out how to turn off those specific genes you wrote down and we have cured male pattern baldness. So your saying theres more at play then the genes you cant identify because science hasnt found them yet?
male pattern baldness is a genetic disease. There is nothing else happening. If someone had no genes for hairloss at all they would never have hairloss except through artificial problems like chemo or maybe extreme environmental circumstances.

 

[metalheaddude]

Genes and hormones cause hairloss.

This is not 100% true. Yes genes play a massive role as do hormones, but as someone already mentioned there is more pieces to this hairloss puzzle than meets the eye, they have just not been discovered yet. Some other mechanisms are in play here, not just DHT and GENES. DHT is one big part of the puzzle but if it was 100% DHT causing hairloss than Dutas would be the cure as it blocks pretty much all the DHT, yet it does not stop or cure many people suffering from male pattern baldness. In some people it even speeds up. You only need to read the Duta forum to discover that little fact. So i wouldnt be so quick to eliminate any particular studies just yet...

If you look they take 1 a week .. or every other day. If they took it daily and saw a physical reaction they back off or stop it. If you look at my results 1-2 months in i did get WORSE before i got better and thats the period where most freak out and change things. Heck i even experimented with this and changed my dosage purposefully and you can see the drastic change from everyday to MWF in my hair.

Those low dosages might not be enough for them seeing the test results showed all the way to 2.5mg and your average dose is only .5mg daily. If you read on ANYONE that has taken 2.5mg and can handle it they had amazing results. Some people do not react well to the medications and just can't handle higher dosages. If you read up on the people who take .5mg daily they show either a slow down/stop/ or improvement. This just seems to be the wall that everyone as put up as the "norm" dose to take it at for hairloss and suffer minimal effects.

True. Many people do freak and are not consistant, skipping days etc. And to the guy above who says its all genes, well yes ultimately ur right also. Im just saying its not all DHT's fault.