Can exercise cause hair loss?

[Guest]

I lift weights and I thought that lifting weights raises testosterone levels. I am going on Proscar 1.25 mg per day and I'm wondering if this will be enough to withstand the extra barrage of DHT that I will be producing 5 times a week? I dunno.

I've heard conflicting information on the topic and I wanted to know what all of you thought. I have heard that it can exacerbate hair loss in people with a genetic history.

I'm looking for real info from studies if possible.



Thanks.

 

[jeffsss]

this isnt a study.. just my peronal opinion...

my uncle and father both have hair loss.

in hs/college my father played football.. he was a pretty big guy 6ft 225.
on the other hand my uncle went the track/crosscountry route.. so i'd say hes same height.. but more like 170lbs..

my father went bald much sooner than him. judging from pics.. my father started noticablly losing hair around 30.. my uncle had hair till at least 40.

again.. there are many other factors. diet.. stress.. but just based on that your theory could be correct.. and i've thought of it before.

 

[powersam]

no.

 

[sl]

I have no theory to prove it. But I believe it can from personal experience. I think whenever I train harder my hairloss speeds up.

 

[powersam]

and for every person you could find that agrees with you, i could find one that would state emphatically that his hairloss only started after he stopped training.

i have a few ideas on this one but will post more after i've researched a little more.

 

[jeffsss]

no.

well you didnt leave a lot of room for arguement.. lol

I can tell you for absolute fact that powerlifting alone raises test in your body.

wether or not the extra test turns into DHT and causes hair loss is unknown for sure to me so i wont argue that.

but i can tell you this... i'd rather be man size than woman size with hair.

 

[nervx]

doesn't really matter imo. having an awesome body more than makes up for the hairloss.

 

[global]

Training increases testosterone levels transiently which theoretically leads to higher DHT but the effect is so small as to be practically negligible in terms of increased hairloss.

Also offset the beneficial effects on your hair of being healthier.....

 

[Aplunk1]

Cardiovascular activity, in good amounts, lowers your total androgen level.

I've witnessed this myself.

My father was a swimmer for much of his life, who swam daily.

My uncle was a football player, who lifted daily.

Between the two, my father has about a Norwood 4/5, and my uncle is a full-fledged Norwood 7.

My uncle is also younger than my father.

 

[Thinning]

Cardiovascular activity, in good amounts, lowers your total androgen level.

I've witnessed this myself.

My father was a swimmer for much of his life, who swam daily.

My uncle was a football player, who lifted daily.

Between the two, my father has about a Norwood 4/5, and my uncle is a full-fledged Norwood 7.

My uncle is also younger than my father.

Sample size = 2, sorry not enough evidence to support your theory. There are probably a million other factors that differentiate your father and uncle - unless they are identical twins.

Why dont you find some identical twins who have the same diet, lifestyle, amount of sex, masturbation, ect - but one exercises and the other does not. Then again, find 1000 twins like that and you might have grounds for realistic scientific evidence.

But please people please dont post ridiculously small sample sizes and claim them as fact. Why not instead spend your time researching pub med for related arcicles to back up your theory?

 

[michael barry]

Theoretically speaking,

Distance excercise should decrease androgen levels in distance running, biking, swimming. Id favor the latter two much over the former gentlemen. Distance running as you age is harder and harder on your bones. You dont feel it because of the endorphins that release as you run, but that pavement pounding your joints is tough on you over the years.


Also theoretically speaking,

Heavy lifting SHOULD increase testosterone, and thus make more available (or its various metabolites) to your hair. However, if you dont have baldness genes like Jose Canseco, you can pump iron and take steroids and have all your hair at 43 like Canseco does. The rest of us might consider internal and topical anti-androgens to keep some of the excess away from our hair as we age.


Just an observational note..........................bodybuilders in general (but certainly not all of them) seem to have a tad less hair and alot of buzzcuts.

But internal propecia, topical revivogen, topical spironolactone, topical fluridil, probably topical saw palmetto or beta-sitosterol could help them with this. I hope a topical RU58841 will be synthesized by some chemcial company. I keep wishing someone will come up with a topical anti-androgen nanosomally delivered in shampoo thats good for 24 hours will be created also (perhaps in the future as technology advances). But we are lucky, at least we know androgens cause baldness........and what to avoid.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

HMMM, arnie has a full head of hair after heavy steroid taking, smoking cigars, a stroke etc....

u cud say that weightlifting decreases testosterone by end of ur session til the next day cudnt u?

 

[ang_99]

On a side note, isn't it well documented that steroids cause hairloss. Isn't that a well know fact?

 

[Aplunk1]

Cardiovascular activity, in good amounts, lowers your total androgen level.

I've witnessed this myself.

My father was a swimmer for much of his life, who swam daily.

My uncle was a football player, who lifted daily.

Between the two, my father has about a Norwood 4/5, and my uncle is a full-fledged Norwood 7.

My uncle is also younger than my father.

Sample size = 2, sorry not enough evidence to support your theory. There are probably a million other factors that differentiate your father and uncle - unless they are identical twins.

Why dont you find some identical twins who have the same diet, lifestyle, amount of sex, masturbation, ect - but one exercises and the other does not. Then again, find 1000 twins like that and you might have grounds for realistic scientific evidence.

But please people please dont post ridiculously small sample sizes and claim them as fact. Why not instead spend your time researching pub med for related arcicles to back up your theory?

My friend,

I thought this was common sense?

Anyway, I'm not going to go looking up studies.'

It is a fact that emphasis on cardiovascular activity lowers your androgen level/response.

 

[kalbo]

Well people will a high body fat ratio will usually go bald quicker than if their ratio was at a healthier number. From observation, I can tell that the overweight people who I grew up with started losing their hair a lot sooner than everyone else.

Exercise decreases body fat so I would also assume that it decreases the rate of hair loss.

 

[nervx]

Well people will a high body fat ratio will usually go bald quicker than if their ratio was at a healthier number. From observation, I can tell that the overweight people who I grew up with started losing their hair a lot sooner than everyone else.

Exercise decreases body fat so I would also assume that it decreases the rate of hair loss.

Makes sense to me. The fatter you are the more your body has to produce to meet it's needs and your head doesn't inflate like the rest.

There was this really fat guy on ign.com that was around 350-400lbs and his hair was very thin, you could see scalp all over. He now weighs around 200 and his hair has thickened up a ton.

 

[mu0325]

Cardiovascular activity, in good amounts, lowers your total androgen level.

I've witnessed this myself.

My father was a swimmer for much of his life, who swam daily.

My uncle was a football player, who lifted daily.

Between the two, my father has about a Norwood 4/5, and my uncle is a full-fledged Norwood 7.

My uncle is also younger than my father.

well i have witnessed it myself...i used to wight train 3 days a week and swim 2 days a week my hair looked better after a while and the shed decreased...

 

[Thinning]

Well my personal experience is that during last fall/winter, I did no cardio, just weights.. My bodyfat increased, and my hairloss decreased, looked the best its been in a while. So that goes makes no sense according to the theory in this thread.

Honestly I think it had more to do with religious use of propecia and minoxidil, no missing days, and using the Laser Comb every 2-3 days. But this spring when I started going hardcore cardio, I went through a bad bad shed.

 

[danish82]

Hey, I was thinking about the same! But the other way around..
What you look at tour de france, there is like no guys that is balding..
And professionel cycling must be one of the hardest kinds of sport...
whats up with that?

 

[Felk]

I think what all this is based on - the cardio vs weight training stuff, is a study showing endurance trained athletes have testosterone levels around 60-70% of normal.

How this relates to DHT, and hairloss, is another story.