Cortisol & Hair Loss

[DammitLetMeIn]

Hair loss has been linked to periods of increased stress (and elevated
cortisol levels). Several studies have indicated that excessively
elevated levels of cortisol can indeed cause hair loss, though at
least one study also links elevated cortisol levels to hirsutism
(excessive body hair).

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=175738

“CORTISOL and cortisone, the so-called "stress hormones," are also
androgens and are possibly implicated in baldness. We know for sure
that they are involved in acne. Anecdotally, stress is known to cause
hair loss. One study (Schmidt 1994) did find SIGNIFICANTLY ELEVATED
CORTISOL IN ANDROGENIC ALOPECIANS, BOTH MALE AND FEMALE, as compared
with controls. It also found alopecians to have significantly elevated
androstenedione. In women there was also very frequent hypothyroidism
and/or elevated prolactin (it’s possible that prolactin stimulates the
production of androgens). Balding men, on the other hand, had higher
serum estradiol than controls.â€￾


lol we are all alopecians. like a new race...

 

[docj077]

In women there was also very frequent hypothyroidism
and/or elevated prolactin (it’s possible that prolactin stimulates the
production of androgens).


lol we are all alopecians. like a new race...

I'm going to make an addition here before you get yourself into trouble. Prolactin feeds back at the level of HPA and inhibits the secretion of GnRH. This will essentially shut down LH and FSH secretion, as well as sex hormone production. This includes androgens produced in the testes as the leydig cells require LH for testosterone production.

As for your cortisol comment, I have nothing to add to that except that increased cortisol can be caused by stress, but large increases are typically caused by pituitary adenomas, an ectopic ACTH producing tumor, adrenal hyperplasia, or an adrenal tumor.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

I'm going to make an addition here before you get yourself into trouble. Prolactin feeds back at the level of HPA and inhibits the secretion of GnRH. This will essentially shut down LH and FSH secretion, as well as sex hormone production. This includes androgens produced in the testes as the leydig cells require LH for testosterone production.

As for your cortisol comment, I have nothing to add to that except that increased cortisol can be caused by stress, but large increases are typically caused by pituitary adenomas, an ectopic ACTH producing tumor, adrenal hyperplasia, or an adrenal tumor.

cortisol rises can also be caused by eating simple high glycemic carbohydrates.

Edit: btw they're not my comments but rather the comments of the person in the link who is deriving their information from studies.

 

[docj077]

I'm going to make an addition here before you get yourself into trouble. Prolactin feeds back at the level of HPA and inhibits the secretion of GnRH. This will essentially shut down LH and FSH secretion, as well as sex hormone production. This includes androgens produced in the testes as the leydig cells require LH for testosterone production.

As for your cortisol comment, I have nothing to add to that except that increased cortisol can be caused by stress, but large increases are typically caused by pituitary adenomas, an ectopic ACTH producing tumor, adrenal hyperplasia, or an adrenal tumor.

cortisol rises can also be caused by eating simple high glycemic carbohydrates.

Edit: btw they're not my comments but rather the comments of the person in the link who is deriving their information from studies.

Wait...what? Cortisol promotes gluconeogenesis and antagonizes the effects of insulin. Why would high glycemic foods cause cortisol to increase immediately if blood sugar levels are already high? I could understand such an event occuring hours later once the blood sugar begins to drop from increased insulin production. Then, cortisol would increase to try and raise/maintain blood glucose levels again.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

Wait...what? Cortisol promotes gluconeogenesis and antagonizes the effects of insulin. Why would high glycemic foods cause cortisol to increase immediately if blood sugar levels are already high? I could understand such an event occuring hours later once the blood sugar begins to drop from increased insulin production. Then, cortisol would increase to try and raise/maintain blood glucose levels again.

Not immediately but following the insulin spikes which accompany eating simple carbohydrates.

Excess cortisol is known to interfere with skin regeneration and healing.

 

[docj077]

Wait...what? Cortisol promotes gluconeogenesis and antagonizes the effects of insulin. Why would high glycemic foods cause cortisol to increase immediately if blood sugar levels are already high? I could understand such an event occuring hours later once the blood sugar begins to drop from increased insulin production. Then, cortisol would increase to try and raise/maintain blood glucose levels again.

Not immediately but following the insulin spikes which accompany eating simple carbohydrates.

Excess cortisol is known to interfere with skin regeneration and healing.

Yep, that's true. It's also an immune suppressant and is capable of functioning as a mineralocorticoid.

It interferes with a lot of processes, but problems with the hormone are associated with prolonged elevation of cortisol. That's why we have a syndrome named after it (Cushing's Syndrome). Short bursts associated with high glycemic foods and brief periods of stress are not damaging to the body. Long periods of stress are however. I could imagine cortisol influencing the body if your diet was high sugar for every meal. Then, your body would switch between high insulin and high cortisol levels throughout the day. Still though, they wouldn't be elevated for long without an underlying disease process.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

Yep, that's true. It's also an immune suppressant and is capable of functioning as a mineralocorticoid.

It interferes with a lot of processes, but problems with the hormone are associated with prolonged elevation of cortisol. That's why we have a syndrome named after it (Cushing's Syndrome). Short bursts associated with high glycemic foods and brief periods of stress are not damaging to the body. Long periods of stress are however. I could imagine cortisol influencing the body if your diet was high sugar for every meal. Then, your body would switch between high insulin and high cortisol levels throughout the day. Still though, they wouldn't be elevated for long without an underlying disease process.

throughout the day everyday seems long enough to do damage. add this to the inflammation which comes with insulin resistance and the body ain't lookin too healthy

 

[docj077]

Yep, that's true. It's also an immune suppressant and is capable of functioning as a mineralocorticoid.

It interferes with a lot of processes, but problems with the hormone are associated with prolonged elevation of cortisol. That's why we have a syndrome named after it (Cushing's Syndrome). Short bursts associated with high glycemic foods and brief periods of stress are not damaging to the body. Long periods of stress are however. I could imagine cortisol influencing the body if your diet was high sugar for every meal. Then, your body would switch between high insulin and high cortisol levels throughout the day. Still though, they wouldn't be elevated for long without an underlying disease process.

throughout the day everyday seems long enough to do damage. add this to the inflammation which comes with insulin resistance and the body ain't lookin too healthy

Yeah, but that means that you'd not only have to have some form of insulin resistance, but poor diet and poor response to life's stressors and cortisol. We've limited our possible patient population to about a quater of the U.S. or more. That still doesn't get us up to 40-50% where we need to be. Again, you've offered a possible contributing factor, but I wouldn't say it's the cause of male pattern baldness.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

Yeah, but that means that you'd not only have to have some form of insulin resistance, but poor diet and poor response to life's stressors and cortisol. We've limited our possible patient population to about a quater of the U.S. or more. That still doesn't get us up to 40-50% where we need to be. Again, you've offered a possible contributing factor, but I wouldn't say it's the cause of male pattern baldness.

Rosedale believes everyone has insulin resistance to some extent as I've explained.

Every time you insulin spike you make some cells insulin resistant.

 

[docj077]

Yeah, but that means that you'd not only have to have some form of insulin resistance, but poor diet and poor response to life's stressors and cortisol. We've limited our possible patient population to about a quater of the U.S. or more. That still doesn't get us up to 40-50% where we need to be. Again, you've offered a possible contributing factor, but I wouldn't say it's the cause of male pattern baldness.

Rosedale believes everyone has insulin resistance to some extent as I've explained.

Every time you insulin spike you make some cells insulin resistant.

From what I've read, Rosendale is exaggerating a lot. I've read between 10 and 35%. No higher than that. That covers a few different studies.

Insulin resistance doesn't develop from an insulin spike. Nobody really knows, but the likely mechanism is a genetically defective insulin receptor.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

From what I've read, Rosendale is exaggerating a lot. I've read between 10 and 35%. No higher than that. That covers a few different studies.

Insulin resistance doesn't develop from an insulin spike. Nobody really knows, but the likely mechanism is a genetically defective insulin receptor.

Dr. Rosedale:

'Any time your cell is exposed to insulin it is going to become more insulin resistant. That is inevitable, we cannot stop that, but the rate we can control. An inevitable sign of aging is an increase in insulin resistance.'

'So every time you have a surge of sugar and you have a surge of insulin, you get more and more insulin resistant and all of the problems we've talked about.'

'You eat a diet that promotes elevated glucose, and you produce increased glycated proteins and A.G.E.'s, you are increasing your rate of inflammation of any kind. You get down to the roots, including arthritis, headaches.'

 

[docj077]

From what I've read, Rosendale is exaggerating a lot. I've read between 10 and 35%. No higher than that. That covers a few different studies.

Insulin resistance doesn't develop from an insulin spike. Nobody really knows, but the likely mechanism is a genetically defective insulin receptor.

Dr. Rosedale:

'Any time your cell is exposed to insulin it is going to become more insulin resistant. That is inevitable, we cannot stop that, but the rate we can control. An inevitable sign of aging is an increase in insulin resistance.'

I disagree with that statement. It's not the exposure that counts. It's the frequency, concentration, and duration that determine insulin insensitivity. Not the mere presence of insulin.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

I disagree with that statement. It's not the exposure that counts. It's the frequency, concentration, and duration that determine insulin insensitivity. Not the mere presence of insulin.

I don't think he was indicating the 'mere presence of insulin'.

What he was saying is that every time a cell is hit by insulin it becomes more insulin resistant.

Thereby, we are all insulin resistant to some degree.

 

[powersam]

dammit are you actually trying to claim that insulin resistance etc is the sole cause of balding? i never got that impression from you.

as i said in the other thread i think it may be very important in premature male pattern baldness ie/ that which occurs in men under 30. not the sole cause.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

He describes the process:

So you get this rush of sugar and your body panics, your pancreas panics and it stores, when it is healthy, insulin in these granules, ready to be released. It lets these granules out and it pours out a bunch of insulin to deal with this onslaught of sugar and what does that do?

Well the pancreas generally overcompensates, and it causes your sugar to go down, and just as I mentioned, you have got a bunch of hormones then to raise your blood sugar, they are then released, including cortisone. The biggest stress on your body is eating a big glucose load.

Then Epinephrine is released too, so it makes your nervous and it also stimulates your brain to crave carbohydrates, to seek out some sugar, my sugar is low. So you are craving carbohydrates, so you eat another bowl of cheerios, or a big piece of fruit, you eat something else so that after your sugar goes low, and with the hormone release, and with the sugar cravings and carbohydrate craving your sugars go way up again which causes your pancreas to release more insulin and then it goes way down.

Now you are in to this sinusoidal wave of blood sugar, which causes insulin resistance. Your body can't stand that for very long. So you are constantly putting out cortisone.

 

[docj077]

I disagree with that statement. It's not the exposure that counts. It's the frequency, concentration, and duration that determine insulin insensitivity. Not the mere presence of insulin.

I don't think he was indicating the 'mere presence of insulin'.

What he was saying is that every time a cell is hit by insulin it becomes more insulin resistant.

Thereby, we are all insulin resistant to some degree.

You'll have to define that process, because the only way that a cell can become more insulin resistant is to decrease the amount of insulin receptors on its surface. I've never read of such a mechanism. People are born with a genetic tendency towards resistance, but downregulation of receptor production is the only way to alter it later in life.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

dammit are you actually trying to claim that insulin resistance etc is the sole cause of balding? i never got that impression from you..

No, I'm not. DHT obviously has a role to play. I feel that it is all interrelated. IGF-1 is elevated in vertex baldness after all. Figuring out the relationship is the hard bit.

as i said in the other thread i think it may be very important in premature male pattern baldness ie/ that which occurs in men under 30. not the sole cause.

I never said it was the sole cause. But genetics is not the sole cause either imo.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

You'll have to define that process, because the only way that a cell can become more insulin resistant is to decrease the amount of insulin receptors on its surface. I've never read of such a mechanism. People are born with a genetic tendency towards resistance, but downregulation of receptor production is the only way to alter it later in life.

Rosedale addresses the receptors enigma:

If you want to know if insulin sensitivity can be restored to its original state, well, perhaps not to its original state, but you can restore it to the state of about a ten year old.

One of my first experiences with this, I had a patient who literally had sugars over 300. He was taking 200+ units of insulin, he was a bad cardiovascular patient, and it only made sense to me that you don't want to feed these people carbohydrates, so I put him on a low carbohydrate diet.

He was an exceptional case, after a month to six weeks he was totally off of insulin. He had been on 200 some units of insulin for twenty-five years. He was so insulin resistant, one thing good about it is that when you lower that insulin, that insulin is having such little effect on him that you can massively lower the insulin and its not going to have much of an effect on his blood sugar either. 200 units of insulin is not going to lower your sugar any more that 300 mg/deciliter.

You know that the insulin is not doing much. So we could rapidly take him off the insulin and he was actually cured of his diabetes in a matter of weeks. So he became sensitive enough, he was still producing a lot of insulin on his own, then we were able to measure his own insulin and it was still elevated, and then it took a long time, maybe six months or longer to bring that insulin down.

It will probably never get to the point of the sensitivity of a ten year old, but yes, your number of insulin receptors increases, and the activity of the receptors, the chemical reactions that occur beyond the receptor occur more efficiently.


Increasing sensitivity:

The cell membrane is a fluid mosaic. The major part of our circulation is determined by what goes in and out. It doesn't make any difference what gets to that cell if it can't get into the cell. We know that one of the major ways that you can affect cellular circulation is by modulating the kinds of fatty acids that you eat. So you can increase receptor sensitivity by increasing the fluidity of the cell membrane, which means increasing the omega 3 content, because most people are very deficient.

 

[docj077]

You'll have to define that process, because the only way that a cell can become more insulin resistant is to decrease the amount of insulin receptors on its surface. I've never read of such a mechanism. People are born with a genetic tendency towards resistance, but downregulation of receptor production is the only way to alter it later in life.

Rosedale addresses the receptors enigma:

If you want to know if insulin sensitivity can be restored to its original state, well, perhaps not to its original state, but you can restore it to the state of about a ten year old.

One of my first experiences with this, I had a patient who literally had sugars over 300. He was taking 200+ units of insulin, he was a bad cardiovascular patient, and it only made sense to me that you don't want to feed these people carbohydrates, so I put him on a low carbohydrate diet.

He was an exceptional case, after a month to six weeks he was totally off of insulin. He had been on 200 some units of insulin for twenty-five years. He was so insulin resistant, one thing good about it is that when you lower that insulin, that insulin is having such little effect on him that you can massively lower the insulin and its not going to have much of an effect on his blood sugar either. 200 units of insulin is not going to lower your sugar any more that 300 mg/deciliter.

You know that the insulin is not doing much. So we could rapidly take him off the insulin and he was actually cured of his diabetes in a matter of weeks. So he became sensitive enough, he was still producing a lot of insulin on his own, then we were able to measure his own insulin and it was still elevated, and then it took a long time, maybe six months or longer to bring that insulin down.

It will probably never get to the point of the sensitivity of a ten year old, but yes, your number of insulin receptors increases, and the activity of the receptors, the chemical reactions that occur beyond the receptor occur more efficiently.


Increasing sensitivity:

The cell membrane is a fluid mosaic. The major part of our circulation is determined by what goes in and out. It doesn't make any difference what gets to that cell if it can't get into the cell. We know that one of the major ways that you can affect cellular circulation is by modulating the kinds of fatty acids that you eat. So you can increase receptor sensitivity by increasing the fluidity of the cell membrane, which means increasing the omega 3 content, because most people are very deficient.

That's what I figured the mechanism was...receptor up- and down-regulation occurs in a similar manner for numerous different receptors in numerous different tissues. I figured that insulin would be no different.