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Male Pattern Baldness
@andrew2, but don't forget that "cranial pressure" is one of those known VA toxicity symptoms that even makes it to the short list on Wikipedia.
You are right, though, MPB IS multifaceted.
In fact, on youtube I saw a practitioner who does lymphatic massage and is bald. So... That being said, I bet said practitioner thinks VA is a great vitamin.
Sometimes I wonder if my husband's LOVE of onions helps him.
Anyways the reason I'm posting is that over the last week I was pretty impressed with the whole idea of lymphatic massage and the idea that some of these toxins might be stuck around the skull made me think of you guys.
Personally I'd never do botox in any way, shape or form, but that is just me. All toxins matter, ie, add to the burden, IMO.
I have started dry brushing several times a week in the mornings in front of my fire wave red light. It does feel good. Its a new addition to my self care routine. I also often do a little roll massage on my face with a fascia ball before going to bed, and I like to use my fascia roller for the back and legs too. I just often forget. But it is nicely relaxing.
@lil-chick agreed - not something I'd want to do either. But if my hair shedding and loss progressed to a bald patch / easily viewable thinning, then I might try it in desperation hahaha! Definitely holding off for now.
That said, the success of the study re-opened the idea to me that tightness in the muscles *surrounding* the scalp may be a significant contributor to the thinning -> it is a blood flow issue, not necessarily "genetic" or something else.
I can't for the life of me think why it would affect men more than women though ... maybe to do with cranial shape differences between genders, possibly muscle strength, or actually that there are other causes and that this is just a single contributing factor ... perhaps women's progresterone is protective? Who knows.
Photo shows the occiptals and frontalis muscle - thie idea is that when these (and the temporalis) are tight, the scalp becomes taut like a drumskin, preventng blood and nutrients from getting to the top of the head, preventing hair follicles from being able to bloom.
Uploaded files:
One thing's for sure, when I massage my occipitalis, and my frontalis, there is a deep tenderness there ... lie I used to have when foam-rolling my calves hahaha.
The reason I keep referring to my husband is because he has thick hair at 60 years. So what can we learn from him?
My husband is definitely VA toxic (MY OPINION, hope he doesn't come here and yell at me haha). Sigh. I gave him tons of cod liver oil and the usual heavy doses of liver and butter that WAPF wives will do. And he does get cranial pressure sometimes. When he does, he takes Lysine. This is because he has sometimes associated headaches with oncoming cold sores. Has this helped him over time? Along with lots of onions, he has also gotten a couple home-raised eggs for breakfast every day for the last 25 years or so (the other Andrew would approve of the choline).
My husband is the body type that I think stores VA generally in fat around the middle and in the lower face, although he does get some eczema on the legs and has recently come out with some rosacea. He doesn't seem to lean (like me) toward so-called auto-immunity, but more toward having excess weight that won't budge around the liver. Has this spared his hair?
Like many here, his sugars aren't great and neither is his thyroid. But yet not bad enough to stop him from being a dynamo.
(FYI, my hair is thin around the temples.)
I'm wondering if the lymphatic massage might help his snoring.
I think there has always been MPB, more now than ever before, doesn't keep men from being sexy, but I do think it is a symptom.
I've seen many many many dating profiles where women specifically say that they want a bald man. There is something about us bald men. 😉 Once you try bald, you never grow old.
Jaw and scalp tension affecting the galea aponeurotica and blood supply to the scalp, hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, liver disease, heavy metal toxicity, Hypervitaminosis A, micronutrient deficiencies and more can all be present in a woman and they will still be unlikely to experience MPB. Why? The same reason eunuchs don't go bald. Lack of DHT. Only if you inject testosterone into a eunuch can they go bald.
This is relevant to the post about beta catenin that @orion recently linked to:
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the most potent androgen that regulates hair cycling. Hair cycling involves cross-talk between the androgen and Wnt/β-catenin pathways. However, how DHT regulates hair follicle (HF) growth through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway has not been well investigated. This study aimed to investigate the roles of DHT in hair growth in vivo and in vitro. Human scalp HFs were treated with different concentrations of DHT (10-5, 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, and 10-9 mol/L) for 10 days. The effects of DHT on hair shaft elongation, the proliferation of hair matrix cells, and the levels of β-catenin, GSK-3β, and phosphorylated GSK-3β (ser9) were evaluated in the cultured HFs. The effects of DHT were further investigated in C57BL/6 mice. Moreover, the growth of cultured human HFs was observed after interfering with the β-catenin pathway through inhibitors or activators in the presence or absence of DHT. We found that different concentrations of DHT had different effects on human HFs in vitro and C57BL/6 mice. At 10-6 mol/L, DHT inhibited HF growth and β-catenin/p-GSK-3β expression, whereas 10-7 mol/L DHT induced HF growth and β-catenin/p-GSK-3β expression. In addition, a β-catenin inhibitor (21H7) inhibited HF growth in vitro, while a β-catenin activator (IM12) promoted HF growth in vitro and antagonized the inhibition of HFs by high levels of DHT. These results suggest that DHT plays a pivotal role in region-specific hair growth, which may be related to the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.
Hair development involves crosstalk between the epidermal and dermal compartments in the hair follicle [17,25]. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is a master regulator of hair cells, including outer root sheath cells (ORS), hair matrix cells, and derma papilla cells during hair morphogenesis and the regeneration of hair follicles. Furthermore, Wnt/β-catenin signaling induces the onset of anagen and regulates the hair cycle [10,21,26]. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway also plays an important role in hair morphogenesis and the regeneration of hair follicles [26]. Huelsken et al. demonstrated that genetic ablation of β-catenin failed to cause placode morphogenesis in mouse epidermis [27], implying that Wnt signals are important in hair development. Thus, the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is a potential factor in treating hair loss.
In addition, many studies have demonstrated that various natural products effectively activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway against hair loss [94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104]. Tocotrienol, a vitamin E analog, has antioxidant properties. Ahmed et al. demonstrated that topical treatment with a tocotrienol-rich formulation (TRF) significantly stimulated epidermal hair follicle development and the onset of early anagen in the depilated dorsal skin of mice [94]. In addition, TRF suppressed the expression level of E-cadherin and stimulated the nuclear localization of β-catenin [94].
This study saw impressive results but unfortunately it doesn't specify what kind of hair loss the volunteers were suffering from:
Effects of Tocotrienol Supplementation on Hair Growth in Human Volunteers
Studies have shown an association between oxidative stress and alopecia. Patients with alopecia generally exhibit lower levels of antioxidants in their scalp area as well as a higher lipid peroxidation index. Tocotrienols belong to the vitamin E family and are known to be potent antioxidants. Hence, a study was conducted to investigate the effect of tocotrienol supplementation on hair growth in volunteers suffering from hair loss. Twenty one volunteers were randomly assigned to orally receive 100 mg of mixed tocotrienols daily while 17 volunteers were assigned to receive placebo capsule orally. The volunteers were monitored for the number of hairs in a pre-determined scalp area as well as the weight of 20 strands of 1 cm length hair clippings at 0 (before supplementation), 4 and 8 months. The number of hairs of the volunteers in the tocotrienol supplementation group increased significantly as compared to the placebo group, with the former recording a 34.5% increase at the end of the 8-month supplementation as compared to a 0.1% decrease for the latter. Nevertheless, the cumulative weight of 20 strands of hair clippings did not differ much from the baseline for both supplementation groups at the end of the study period. In conclusion, this trial demonstrated that supplementation with tocotrienol capsules increases hair number in volunteers suffering from hair loss as compared to the placebo group. This observed effect was most likely to be due to the antioxidant activity of tocotrienols that helped to reduce lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in the scalp, which are reported to be associated with alopecia.