Green Tea Polyphenols, Particularly Egcg Inhibit Androgen Receptor Upregulation

[GoldenMane]

Have a quick search on google scholar, interesting stuff. Also East Asians, the primary green tea drinkers and producers, tend to keep their hair longer which may be more than a coincidence.

What do you guys think?

 

[WMQ]

This has been brought up for quite a while. I'm East Asian and come from a family that never runs short of tea. My father in particular, who actually studied tea in college (some agriculture major) and drinks tea on a daily basis for all his life, is the baldest among his brothers.

On the other hand, tea is commonly used to combat mild hairloss and SD here. Topically though. Some people soak their heads in brew of tea, tea seeds, etc. It's all over the Chinese SD boards. Some SD patients swear by it. For hair loss my impression is those who benefited from it are mostly female.

But seriously judging from these studies, EGCG, equol, quercetin, tumeric, and a wide range of naturals can basically cure hair loss already. But the fact is it just doesn't work that way...

 

[GoldenMane]

What age did your dad go bald though? He may have gone bald younger if not for the tea. Also the quality of the tea, the types and concentration of polyphenols vary a lot. It's only green tea that specifically has the polyphenols that are relevant, not black tea, oolong tea or other varieties. I've had at least three cups of black tea with milk every day for all my life, but it's the wrong kind of tea.

 

[WMQ]

What age did your dad go bald though? He may have gone bald younger if not for the tea. Also the quality of the tea, the types and concentration of polyphenols vary a lot. It's only green tea that specifically has the polyphenols that are relevant, not black tea, oolong tea or other varieties. I've had at least three cups of black tea with milk every day for all my life, but it's the wrong kind of tea.

Yep black tea and other fermented tea types have much lower concentration of EGCG. He drinks mostly green tea though, as do most people here.
He started balding in his late twenties judging by some old photos. He's now 50 with a NW3 hairline and badly diffusing over the entire NW5/6 area.
I'd be curious to see if someone here would like to try the topical tea brew thing. Maybe for SD and acne as well since I've never seen Caucasian try this. The Asian consensus has it that this is mostly useful for keep down the sebum. But really I didn't see many success stories with Androgenetic Alopecia in males. This might suggest that it's too weak to fight it. Trust me orally is absolutely useless. It's a tiny amount diluted in your whole bloodstream if not killed by the stomach and the liver.

 

[GoldenMane]

Perhaps a concentrated EGCG extract would be better than green tea itself. I don't have access to the full journal articles, just abstracts so I don't have the details, but it seems it can be used to reduce AR receptor protein expression.
I'm going to see if there's any supplement containing high EGCG, can't hurt...

 

[GoldenMane]

A quick search suggests that it may be a good addition to topical solutions, just saw in another forum that it has low bioavailability but works better if dissolved in a solvent. Maybe crush some up in minoxidil...

 

[Armando Jose]

"we have described a new property of tea polyphenols that inhibits androgen action by repressing the transcription of the androgen receptor gene"

http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v19/n15/full/1203511a.html

In a full paper

 

[WMQ]

in LNCaP prostate cancer cells

 

[GoldenMane]

All studies are on prostate cancer cells. It's not unreasonable to think that EGCG might reduce androgen receptor transcription in other cells too but nobody is ever going to do a study on that.
I'm going to buy some EFCG supplements anyway, not sure how I'll take them, by I intend to do so mainly as a preventative.
Androgen receptor upregulation is my biggest fear right now...

 

[Armando Jose]

All studies are on prostate cancer cells. It's not unreasonable to think that EGCG might reduce androgen receptor transcription in other cells too but nobody is ever going to do a study on that

Sadly, is the truth, maybe in basic science but in business .... "Money is money"

 

[Roberto_72]

Sadly, is the truth, maybe in basic science but in business .... "Money is money"

To be honest there are lotions with APPLE polyphenols.

But I found it highly unstable


https://www.clubroots.com/blogs/ingredients/procyanadin-b2

 

[tjnpdx]

All studies are on prostate cancer cells. It's not unreasonable to think that EGCG might reduce androgen receptor transcription in other cells too but nobody is ever going to do a study on that.
I'm going to buy some EFCG supplements anyway, not sure how I'll take them, by I intend to do so mainly as a preventative.
Androgen receptor upregulation is my biggest fear right now...

They have concentrated EGCG in capsulated form, which I've taken for months, and I can say they have no affect on hair. I'd be interested in a concentrated lotion containing EGCG that could penetrate the skin well enough and be adequately absorbed; the stuff is potent as hell.

 

[GoldenMane]

The bioavailability of egcg seems to vary by species, even from mice to rats, quite widely.
I've read there are supplements that can enhance its low bioavailability. Would be interested in making a DIY topical