Masturbation can cause more hair loss/DHT to those who are genetically prone to it.

[Mickael]

see my notes above

My point was that the genes associated to baldness, prostate cancer and such are only bad in a bad environment. Health = genes + environement. In fact, the genes associated to baldness and health problems might gives an advantage in a good environment.

If you get hearth disease, diabetes and such don't blame your genes, blame your lifestyle.

[burtandernie]

My point was that the genes associated to baldness, prostate cancer and such are only bad in a bad environment. Health = genes + environement. In fact, the genes associated to baldness and health problems might gives an advantage in a good environment.

If you get hearth disease, diabetes and such don't blame your genes, blame your lifestyle.

Everyone always says this. The issue has always been what percent of which and are all diseases/conditions created equal? No one knows. MPB could easily be 95 percent genes and 5 percent environment so in that case someone could say hair health = mostly environment.
The science on percentages is pretty lack luster some say its more one or the other. Meaning no one really knows

[Mickael]

Everyone always says this. The issue has always been what percent of which and are all diseases/conditions created equal? No one knows. MPB could easily be 95 percent genes and 5 percent environment so in that case someone could say hair health = mostly environment.
The science on percentages is pretty lack luster some say its more one or the other. Meaning no one really knows

There are some studies involving identical twins with hair loss and they show that even with the same genes, people go bald at different rates. This means that you can significantly slow down hair loss if you put yourself within in a certain environment. From what I have seen, insulin resistance is a common factor, but there are other factors such as stress. At least, they are certainly a big factor in aggressive hair loss and early onset of baldness.

Well, you might not completely stop hair loss, but you can probably significantly slow down the rate at which you lose hairs based on your environment. This might has zero value, because I am a random person from the internet, but I myself suffered from an aggressive and early onset of baldness and I managed to significantly slow down my hair loss by fighting insulin resistance and other health issues related to modern lifestyle.

[Aonyx262]

Eh. I've never felt there was a correlation, in my experience. Even if there was, I'm not going to stop having sex over some DHT. I'd just pop an extra finasteride and keep F*ckin

[Vic]

There are some studies involving identical twins with hair loss and they show that even with the same genes, people go bald at different rates. This means that you can significantly slow down hair loss if you put yourself within in a certain environment. From what I have seen, insulin resistance is a common factor, but there are other factors such as stress. At least, they are certainly a big factor in aggressive hair loss and early onset of baldness.

Well, you might not completely stop hair loss, but you can probably significantly slow down the rate at which you lose hairs based on your environment. This might has zero value, because I am a random person from the internet, but I myself suffered from an aggressive and early onset of baldness and I managed to significantly slow down my hair loss by fighting insulin resistance and other health issues related to modern lifestyle.

From my personal experience stress plays a HUGE roll. I had pretty much a full head of hair except for a muturing hairline. My fiancé turned out to be a slut, lost everything I ever worked for when the economy crashed(still had my hair) but soon after someone very close to me passed away and BOOM, 3-4 months later I lost 60-70% of my density. The only hair loss in my family was my cousin that had alopecia areata which grew back. Moms side don't even have maturing hairlines, full heads of hair/full density. Dads side has mature hairlines but full density.
Stress distroyed my hair!

[burtandernie]

Actually there is also a study on how identical twins that people thought were identical actually have different number of copies of some genes so they arent really identical. So a lot of studies using identical twins could be under false assumption that their genes are all identical.
All I know is castrated men never go bald. When someone proves to me MPB can be completely stopped or prevented through environment then I will follow that course, but no one has yet. There is no more convincing a case than proof MPB can be stopped through androgens by castration as hamilton proved decades ago. That to me proves its almost entirely androgen driven because the envirnment would vary for any castrated man yet hair loss never happens. Clearly its not environment as the major factor its something that changes naturally as you get older. Androgens fit that exactly and dut/propecia also prove that. Why randomly guess its the air, or stress, or a million other things that have no proof yet.
Maybe those things do contribute, but again no proof yet.

[Mickael]

Actually there is also a study on how identical twins that people thought were identical actually have different number of copies of some genes so they arent really identical. So a lot of studies using identical twins could be under false assumption that their genes are all identical.
All I know is castrated men never go bald. When someone proves to me MPB can be completely stopped or prevented through environment then I will follow that course, but no one has yet. There is no more convincing a case than proof MPB can be stopped through androgens by castration as hamilton proved decades ago. That to me proves its almost entirely androgen driven because the envirnment would vary for any castrated man yet hair loss never happens. Clearly its not environment as the major factor its something that changes naturally as you get older. Androgens fit that exactly and dut/propecia also prove that. Why randomly guess its the air, or stress, or a million other things that have no proof yet.
Maybe those things do contribute, but again no proof yet.

Yes it's obvious that androgen are the main cause of MPB. However, environment play a significant role on your androgen/hormonal balance and can influence how fast you go bald.

To make it quick:
Study A - It's been observed that men with early onset of baldness suffers from insulin resistance (pre-diabetics) and have low level of SHBG
Multiple Studies - It's been observed that the higher your insulin level is, the lower your level SHBG is, this likely means that high insulin level cause low SHBG level
Multiple Studies - Low SHBG level boost bio-availability of androgens including DHT.
Study B - AGA is linked to insulin resistance

This means that: Bad Lifestyle -> High Insulin -> Low SHBG -> More bioavailable DHT -> accelerated/aggressive hair loss

Even studies in twins with MPB have show that the environmental factors with high correlation of accelerating hair loss are all related to either hormones or insulin resistance.

It's been shown that people suffering from aggressive hair loss have more chance to get prostate cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and it's all related to insulin resistance.

[d0072]

Appreciate the time you took to post this. Although I've read articles that say that masturbation has no effect on the severity of hairloss or even causing hairloss itself, I do suspect that there is in fact a connection. In my personal experience, I've been masturbating since about 12. That was around the y2k era right before online porn became pretty mainstream. I feel that in my case, masturbation has perhaps increased the amount of my hairloss. Deep down my intuition tells me that the whole reproductive system (Testosterone, semen production, prostate, etc.) has some correlation with hairloss. Maybe my guess is completely off, but this post certainly gives me some reassurance about not being completely wrong.

[garlicandginger]

If you all want to think that baldness is the only thing on planet earth that has nothing to do with evolution, than go for it. Baldness is in a class of it's own, and has no evolutionary significance what so ever.

It's purely a cosmetic thing that just so happens to correlate with really shitty genetic diseases, weak cells (going secenent prematurely) and also coincidentally manifests in a visual appearance that makes it harder for your to reproduce when compared with non-balding (and healthier) people.

There are theories that suggest baldness is a defense mechanisms for other diseases: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17910907

Androgenic alopecia may have evolved to protect men from prostate cancer by increasing skin exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

Androgenic alopecia affects populations adapted to colder climate, and individuals at an age and hormonal status susceptible to prostate cancer. Male pattern baldness enhances absorption of UV radiation on the top of the head, an area directly exposed to sunlight during everyday activities. Ultraviolet radiation is reported to reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer. Here I propose that progression of androgenic alopecia rather than being a risk factor is a finely tuned mechanism evolved to protect against prostate cancer.

So there can be a link between vitamin D synthesis and DHT or other markers/hormones etc

Pair that with the fact that vitamin D synthesis needs cholesterol/fat to metabolize in skin, and there's an explanation for greasy scalp and hair loss. And consider that people are advised to wash hair frequently in case of hair loss which might worsen the symptoms since it strips the fats needed to make vitamin D.

The scalp is very vascularised which might explain the horseshoe pattern. http://www.erexam.org/wp-content/upl...asculature.png

Pair that with the fact that western society rarely gets any Sun, and vit D synthesis happens under UVB only (which is a narror timeframe, usually noon and in warm months when Sun is perpendicular to Earth - basically, the more inclined the angle it enters the atmosphere, the less UVB gets through), and that glass filters out UVB (so if you sit indoors behind a glass and Sun shines on you at noon, there will be 0 vitamin D synthesis).

[Tobias]

Sorry for digging it out, but too interesting=)

So, about the whole "is the rate of balding associated with bad health or even bad genes in general"...

If the studies that showed a correlation between balding rate and health are of good quality (which I didn´t check, but lets assume it is more than just a biased result), the this can mean two things: 1. Balding rate is a sign of bad genes. 2. Your overall health and lifestyle do have a strong effect on the rate of balding.

Number two is more likely and actually fantastic news and a very good reason for everyone to work on a less stressful and healthier lifestyle (don´t be fat, sleep enough, do some cardio, don´t worry too much about hair). Number one might be true for things that are directly caused by the setup of the androgen receptor gene (prostate cancer).