Hair Loss and Prostate Cancer
Depressed about your hair loss? If you are a man, there is some good news. Men who lose their hair see their risk of prostate cancer cut in half. I kid you not!
Hair loss is often touted in the media as being driven purely by genetics. This is because the media usually likes to find a nice, simple answer that explains everything. As you and I know, this is simply not the way the world works. This is also true for hair loss. Part of the cause is definitely genetics, but hormonal factors also come into play.
The key hormone at issue is dihydrotestosterone. We'll call it DHT to keep my fingers from falling off while typing it. Regardless, DHT occurs when men tend to have too much testosterone in their body [hey, we're manly men!]. The presence of DHT has a disastrous impact on one's hair. The process is often misunderstood, so let's take a quick look.
Contrary to what you may have heard from some talking head, DHT does not kill the hair follicles in your scalp. Instead, the follicles shrink when exposed to excessive amounts of it. This then causes the hair produced to be thinner than one would normally expect. Secondarily, the shrinking of the follicle also results in a much shorter lifespan, which means the now thin hair actually falls out of the scalp faster than normal. In short, you get thinner hair that doesn't last as long.
So, what does any of this have to do with prostate cancer? Well, it is believed the presence of excessive amounts of DHT either restricts or eliminates the tumors associated with the cancer. This is particularly true if you started balding before the age of 30. If you fit this profile, your cancer risk is cut by 47 percent. See, now you don't have to be so depressed about going bald.
They say there is a silver lining to every bad experience. Personally, I think they are full of it if you know what I mean. That being said, a drop in the prostate cancer risk level is not a bad tradeoff for losing one's hair.