Alcohol Use and Hair Loss

[stanleysteamer]

This has probably been brought up here before, so I apologize in advance. I ran a search for "alcohol" but mostly came up with results pertaining to creating a RU vehicle.

What are people's experiences with the correlation between alcohol use and hair loss? I have recently (within the last 6 months) noticed an increase in my drinking, and also noticed my hair loss becoming increasingly severe in about that same timeframe. I generally drink 12-15 drinks per week spread out over the course of 3 nights, so no more than 5 drinks per night. I realize that this is probably more alcohol consumption than the average person and I will reduce it but just curious to see what your thoughts are on the effects of alcohol on hair loss.

Edit: Aside from the alcohol use, I'm generally very healthy. I'm 29 years old, within ideal weight range. My diet is low-fat, low-sodium. I work out 4-5 times a week and run 2 miles 5 days a week. I recently went for a check up and had my levels ran, liver functions were "within healthy range" (whatever that means.)

 

[cristi2011]

Yes there can be a connection. Alcohol affects the liver. The liver, among other functions, also rids the body of excess hormones, such as DHT.
Alcohol also raises DHT , so it keeps it blocked in the body, because the liver cannot reduce the excess.
Then alcohol also drains out vitamins and minerals from the body, which also affects hair growth.
This may mean nothing, but in fact almost every person i know who drinks a lot of alcohol also has some degree of hair loss.

 

[cristi2011]

Alcohol use does not cause male pattern baldness/Androgenetic Alopecia, if anything alcohol may have the opposite affect because it increases Aromatase enzymes.

I can absolutely promise you that drinking 5 drink's per day will not negatively affect your hair.

:woot:
No way alcohol can benefit hair, that's completely nonsense.
Alcohol of course doesn't cause male pattern baldness, that is genetic for god's sake, but it can contribute to making it worse or strating it earlier.

 

[slurms mackenzie]

Propecia can lead to Moobs

Alcohol can lead to Moobs

The case rests your honour, we can all go home

 

[s.a.f]

Alcohol lowers testosterone and inrceases eastrogen. If anything it would slow down hairloss. Ever notice most street wino's have great hair.

[attachment=0:3mv2ssk5]alcoholic.jpg[/attachment:3mv2ssk5]

 

[Hoppi]

Liver and candida.

lol

 

[cristi2011]

Alcohol increases DHT.
Alcohol does not cause baldness, it only can bost it.
If you drink alcohol and think it benefits your hair, i'm sorry for you. Anyway, some people cause their own trouble.
Alcohol increases the estrogen levels while decreases the zinc level in the body. Alcohol also lowers vitamin B, vitamin C and folic acid level in our body.
And that increase in estrogen is not good for men with hair loss, like some are tempted to think.

 

[sandyc]

I'm really curious about hairloss and alcohol. A lot of people in my family have been alcoholics and had full heads of hair until their 70's.

I drink most nights and smoke weed maybe once a month. My hairloss (I think I have it anyway) has been super slow over the last 6 years, maybe longer. I do often wonder what would happen if I stopped drinking.

I'm also a bit worried about drinking with I start Finpecia.

 

[freakout]

I agree with finfighter. Alcohol is one of the most sought after lifestyle habits in epidemiological studies. If there is a connection with male pattern baldness, it would have been shown decades ago.

And I also believe that drinkers might actually help prevent male pattern baldness but not very substantially.

It will be an extremely rare case if it causes hair loss to a particular person.

 

[Hoppi]

I actually see the opposite.

In fact, what I see is that people who drink AND eat a lot of unhealthy food (fat and carbs) lose their hair.

But people who drink but exercise caloric restriction (homeless people, etc) seem to not lose their hair as much.

It actually fits with my diagnosis of candida and the liver fairly well

Those who destroy their livers and still have hair, it's probs genes. It's complex though, I mean I can't explain every last observed thing to the Nth degree

 

[freakout]

In both equations:

alcohol + unhealthy diet = hair loss

versus

alcohol + exercise/active = more hair,

Wouldn't the two equations cancel out the drink and leave the two factors:

unhealthy diet versus exercise/ activity

as the only two significant factors?

Or does alcohol have to be present in either equation for each to become true?

 

[Hoppi]

I dunno.. the role of alcohol seems complex. I think that when combined with a bad diet it seems to make things worse, which makes sense.

I have no idea why when used on it's own even in large quantities, it doesn't seem to have the same catastrophic effect on one's hair. I dunno, that's complex I think (plus I've been up till 3:20am writing a Biological Anthropology practical write-up so my brain is shot haha )

 

[freakout]

I agree that diet has some level of influence but it does not come close to explaining the formation of patterns.

Thanks. I'll take your observation into perspective.

 

[kthxbi]

^ the above guys are wrong. sorry. neither alcohol nor diet will cause male pattern baldness- neither will it exasperate it significanty. if you're gunna go bald, you're gunna go bald whether or not you drink. i've got friends who started drinking and doing drugs age 14 (2 years before me) and who are still NW0, i'm a heavy NW2. if there's any connection at all, it's very minor.
sad fact is, being healthy =/= full head of hair.
f*ck, pete doherty still has a full head of hair.
you won't save hair by staying straight.
get on the big 3 and hope.

 

[freakout]

1. Androgenetic alopecia and prostate cancer: findings from an Australian case-control study. Giles GG, Severi G, Sinclair R, English DR, McCredie MR, Johnson W, Boyle P, Hopper JL

2. Milk estrogen: one of the risk factors for prostate cancer. Qin LQ, Wang PY, Kaneko T, Hoshi K, Sato A

Logically, dietary factors should have some level of influence on male pattern baldness.
Androgenetics is not the holy grail of male pattern baldness.

 

[cristi2011]

I'm not so sure that diet, drugs, alcohol, etc don't have any influence to male pattern baldness.
To experience male pattern baldness one has to have:
1)a genetic predisposition: the sensitivity of hair follicles to DHT
2)an increase in DHT so that sensitivity begins to have effects.
Alcohol, diet, etc, definitely cannot influence the first factor, that is purely a genetic inheritance.
But they can influence the second one: they can trigger production of more DHT.
We definitely know that some foods/substances/ steroids lead to more DHT production, the alcohol can have the same effect.
There are people who drink, smoke, etc and maintain hair, that doesn't prove alcohol is good for hair, it's only those people's genes: their follicles are not sensible to DHT at all, so the DHT level in their bodies really doesn't influence their hair.
And, for sure, alcohol takes some minerals and vitamins out of your body, and that can't be good for hair, especially if it's sensible to DHT. A normal hair follicle, not sensible to DHT, may not be affected by less zinc, or iron, or B vitamins in the body, but, when the hair is already sensible to DHT attack, and proper nutrition stops, due to alcohol intake, it will lose the battle with DHT immediately.
So, as a person who wants to maintain the hair, or regrow it, i would stop any alcohol intake immediately. And that would do good not only to my hair, but to my body also. The alcohol affects health considerably.
And i think that drinking alcohol and having a completely unhealthy lifestyle and diet, can make you experience male pattern baldness at 20-30, even if , with a healthy lifestyle you would experince it at 60 or even 80 or never!
Think about it: there are people losing hair at 20, when their fathers and grandfathers have, at 50-70, more hair than them at 20! This is not normal! What's the explanation in this increase in premature male pattern baldness ?? It could be what you eat(with all the chemicals now in the food, it is'nt a surpise), what you drink, and the lifestyle in general. These factors must not be overlooked.

 

[Mens Rea]

You keep mentioning that alcohol raises DHT but this seems highly unlikely.

 

[cristi2011]

You keep mentioning that alcohol raises DHT but this seems highly unlikely.

I may be wrong, i haven't seen it scientifically proven that alcohol raises DHT.
I think alcohol affects the liver, who cannot then eliminate the excess of DHT.

 

[Mens Rea]

You keep mentioning that alcohol raises DHT but this seems highly unlikely.

I may be wrong, i haven't seen it scientifically proven that alcohol raises DHT.
I think alcohol affects the liver, who cannot then eliminate the excess of DHT.

I think it's speculation really. I mean, alcohol will disrupt the liver's processes but its not an exact science how that's going to translate to DHT for everyone. It is said to increase estrogen/SHBG so i can see why would could deduct increases in DHT. On the other side of the fence, alcohol is supposed to lower testosterone too. Given about 0.3% of tesosterone is converted to DHT, then with lower testosterone you'll have lower DHT. So by that rationale you have the opposite.

I would personally conclude that its the overall health of your body (vitamins, healthy metabolism of all hormones) that alcohol effects negatively to the point it would accelerate hairloss is the overriding liklihood of effect.

 

[Hoppi]

Freakout... yeah I've wondered about the connection to milk estrogen as well. I wouldn't be surprised to be honest, but I don't think it's the cause of male pattern baldness in my case personally (digestive issues seem too closely tied to it).

I do however agree that milk estrogen should be limited, and I think I will switch to water kefir once I've corrected my digestive tract...