Smoking DOES cause hair loss, proven fact!!

[abcdefg]

That article require logging in for me, but I am not sure how much faith I would put in the New York Times when it comes to medical issues like male pattern baldness. I personally would put more faith in real scientists doing real conclusive studies using real scientific methods and principles. The new york times much like yahoo news and others is more interested in entertaining us and giving us the average joe view then really giving us anything worth looking at. It seems we get very little real science and mostly fluffy opinion supported by an occasional article someone found through Google. Smoking is not healthy. Why do we have to connect diet, smoking and lifestyle things like that to male pattern baldness when clearly plain as day many Norwood 1 men do all of these things. Clearly there is more at play and to I guess explain out lack of understanding at the moment everyone wants to I guess hide behind blanket statements like smoking makes you go bald when its not anywhere near that simple if smoking does anything at all.
Really by all of us clicking away at the New york times website they really accomplished what they wanted more money. I doubt they did any real science to come up with that.

 

[Matt Skiba]

That article require logging in for me, but I am not sure how much faith I would put in the New York Times when it comes to medical issues like male pattern baldness. I personally would put more faith in real scientists doing real conclusive studies using real scientific methods and principles. The new york times much like yahoo news and others is more interested in entertaining us and giving us the average joe view then really giving us anything worth looking at. It seems we get very little real science and mostly fluffy opinion supported by an occasional article someone found through Google. Smoking is not healthy. Why do we have to connect diet, smoking and lifestyle things like that to male pattern baldness when clearly plain as day many Norwood 1 men do all of these things. Clearly there is more at play and to I guess explain out lack of understanding at the moment everyone wants to I guess hide behind blanket statements like smoking makes you go bald when its not anywhere near that simple if smoking does anything at all.
Really by all of us clicking away at the New york times website they really accomplished what they wanted more money. I doubt they did any real science to come up with that.

It's odd that you needed to log in since I can read it easily and it seems everyone else on here can as well. The article is in fact about real scientists who conducted experiments in Taiwan examining statistics between smokers and non-smokers. It is also interesting since Asian men are generally less prone to going bald than Caucasians, which would mean that smoking would probably have even more of an impact to a Caucasian.. I'll do you and anyone else who might be experiencing this odd problem a favor and copy and paste the article so you can see it. The article states that results were "significant" and consistent

I have never heard of epigenetics, but I am very intrigued and I feel that it would be very interesting to read more into this, so thanks a lot for enlightening us!

As for the people talking about people with healthy lifestyles going bald, I believe that some people are pretty much genetically cursed the same way others are genetically gifted. I see myself as kind of being in the middle, hair loss doesn't run heavily in my family, but I'm sort of going on to nw2 if I'm not already there and I'm only 21 years old. I have a gut feeling that this is not the way I'm supposed to be, I have also read a couple stories about younger guys who've gotten their hair back by fixing their lifestyle.

 

[powersam]

First of all a research posted at the New York times is not neccesary valid. According to the NYT and many other reputable media there should be a cure for hairloss since the 1990 and every five years since then another one should appear.

I dont say that lifestyle doesnt have an effect on life quality...it justs doesnt matter for hair THAT Much. It may take away some of the shiny healthy look at them (as it does to the skin colour) but it will not accelarate Hair LOSS.

http://www.google.com.au/search?hair loss=en&q ... arch&meta=

I have not looked at the NY times article, but it would be safe to assume that they are writing an article about scientific research that other people conducted, not an opinion piece.

Also please provide STUDIES to back up your claim that smoking does not affect hair loss.

 

[abcdefg]

Please provide me a link to a double blind placebo controlled experiment with a statistically significant sample size over a long period of time by an unbiased group of researchers with no financial incentive to give skewed results. You give me that to prove as this post title says that smoking absolutely causes hairloss. You cant do it because no such science yet exists because as usual its to expensive so we all just offer flimsy studies under who knows what circumstances to support ridiculous claims.

 

[powersam]

Please provide me a link to a double blind placebo controlled experiment with a statistically significant sample size over a long period of time by an unbiased group of researchers with no financial incentive to give skewed results. You give me that to prove as this post title says that smoking absolutely causes hairloss. You cant do it because no such science yet exists because as usual its to expensive so we all just offer flimsy studies under who knows what circumstances to support ridiculous claims.

At the moment there is some evidence to show that it does, and no evidence to show that it doesn't. Or maybe there is, so you could go find the studies to support your opinion. Or you could stay here and make unreasonable demands for proof while providing none yourself.

There is also quite a lot of indirect evidence. For instance, smoking prematurely ages the skin - fact. A french study done awhile back found that balding men had prematurely aged skin on their scalps - fact.

This has been discussed many many times on this forum, use the search function and you'll find those threads and the various studies posted in them

 

[CCS]

They just found an association, not a cause/effect.

I suspect men who lose their hair get really depressed and smoke and drink and let themselves go. The reason there are more bald smokers is because many bald guys become smokers.

Look and see if balding non-smokers have 13% more DHT than non-balding non-smokers. I bet they do. That would invalidate the DHT study. The researchers should have looked at that.

Stop smoking so that your skin and other health looks good when HM comes out. Otherwise, all the hair in the world will not give you the youthful stud look you want. I doubt not smoking will save your hair though.

I never smoked, and I starting balding at 17 and was NW3/4 at age 23. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. And I eat lots of fruits and veggies, avoid the sun, and get 8 hours of sleep. My brother is NW5. So is my dad. Sounds to me like genetics. None of us ever smoked or drank.

What Norwood you would be if you had started smoking at 16??
Maybe you would be Norwood 6.

That is just speculation. Look at the facts: there are bald guys who smoke, and bald guys who don't. We see a small trend that more bald guys smoke. We see a long of NW1's who smoke, but we did not test their DHT levels. Those are the facts.
Then you speculate that the NW1's who smoke have great genes, but the bald guys smoking must be because of lifestyle. Double standard.

 

[CCS]

My brother is NW6 and he does not smoke. Still think that is lifestyle? He eats very healthy, and exercises daily, and gets his 8 hours. How much more obvious does it have to be that genetics are at play here?

 

[CCS]

but I am not sure how much faith I would put in the New York Times when it comes to medical issues like male pattern baldness.

Newspapers are well known for paraphrasing the abracts or any catchy statment in a study so as to make a headline that will sell the most papers. Often the study shows something completely opposite.

 

[powersam]

My brother is NW6 and he does not smoke. Still think that is lifestyle? He eats very healthy, and exercises daily, and gets his 8 hours. How much more obvious does it have to be that genetics are at play here?

The title of this thread could be read in many ways. If you read it in the way you have decided, in that it claims that smoking causes all hair loss, then it is incorrect.

The best title would have been that smoking can cause and/or exacerbate hair loss. Lifestyle can and does affect our bodies in many ways, it would be insane to think that lifestyle has no effect on hair loss whatsoever.

 

[beaner]

"THE BOTTOM LINE

Several studies suggest smoking can lead to premature graying and hair loss"



How does the above statement found at the conclusion of that article translate as "smoking DOES cause hair loss, proven fact!!" ??

Are we reading the same article?

I know many smokers with full heads of hair and many bald non-smokers. That article only suggests a possible correlation (as stated in it's conclusion) and in no way proves or concludes that smoking definitely causes hair loss.

I don't condone smoking cigarettes in any way, and agree it may be possible that smoking can make matters worse, but that article does not provide absolute proof of this and the title of your post is somewhat inaccurate in my opinion.

 

[ShowMeTheWay]

My brother is NW6 and he does not smoke. Still think that is lifestyle? He eats very healthy, and exercises daily, and gets his 8 hours. How much more obvious does it have to be that genetics are at play here?[/QUO

That is just speculation. Look at the facts: there are bald guys who smoke, and bald guys who don't. We see a small trend that more bald guys smoke. We see a long of NW1's who smoke, but we did not test their DHT levels. Those are the facts.
Then you speculate that the NW1's who smoke have great genes, but the bald guys smoking must be because of lifestyle. Double standard.

Genetics does not imply that something will happen for certain at that exact point in time and you can not delay it by making certain adjustments to your lifestyle. Cancer is genetic but does that mean for sure you will get it ? If you smoke chances are higher (proven fact) There is no singular gene that decides if you will go bald or not. The condition is multifactorial which makes it so complicated (fact). Everything in the human body is regulated by chemical reactions and in some cases a certain 'defect' makes some people more susceptible to imbalances and others not so much (genetics). I mean there are correlations with insuline resistance, cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer and high bloodpressure (cardiovascular correlation ofcourse).

Another user has also talked about epigenetics which has substantial evidence. Environmental influences can change your DNA.

For me it is pretty obvious that smoking CAN speed up hair loss. Everytime somebody comes up with a theory which MIGHT have an impact on male pattern baldness some guy comes up and bashes it with one single argument : "It is genetics" as if that says it all. I am not talking curing it. I am talking about having some control over the progression.

 

[disfiguredyoungman]

Nice necrophilia....why...

 

[BalderBaldyBald]

Yeah yeah we all pretty much know it can speed up the process but not start it in the first place.

Smoking cause premature aging of tissues and organs (skin, hair and scalp are organs) so yeah, what's more to say ?

 

[disfiguredyoungman]

I really doubt it speeds up hairloss to any substantial degree. I completely maintained while smoking with finasteride and I lost tons non smoking without it.


Genes are not everything, but impact wise they are definitely the driving factor.

 

[abcdefg]

I call BS. How on earth do you control for family history of male pattern baldness? I mean honestly not one person on earth can tell me exactly how male pattern baldness is even genetically passed to someone yet alone account for this. That is why this kind of study is so worthless. Your finding relationships sure, but they might not even really exist.
Lets say this smoking might speed up male pattern baldness in genetically susceptible men, but its wrong to say smoking CAUSES male pattern baldness directly because I have seen with my own two eyes men die at 60-70 with zero hair loss that smoke like chimneys for decades. If smoking caused male pattern baldness directly any man would start losing hair after smoking for enough time, and its just not true.
Smoking doesnt cause women to go Norwood 5 either.
I dont care if they want to make guesses, but dont pass off preliminary research as facts.

After controlling for age and family histories, the researchers found a greater rate of hair loss among the smokers, a risk that grew with increasing smoking.

 

[Kev123]

Not pattern baldness though.

 

[Retinoid]

Nicotine actually inhibits the breakdown of DHT so does increase its levels. If you are taking Finasteride, that too decreases the breakdown of DHT due to your body trying to conserve it so Nicotine should not cause any issues with DHT it you are taking a 5AR inhibitor. Nicotine does decrease estrogen levels as well. Obviously cigarette smoke is disgusting and causes a lot of problems since it is loaded with toxins. Nicotine itself has some positive benefits for the brain and weight management but is probably not great for hair. Though I doubt it makes much of a difference. Nobody went completely bald from smoking.

 

[g.i joey]

It's odd that you needed to log in since I can read it easily and it seems everyone else on here can as well. The article is in fact about real scientists who conducted experiments in Taiwan examining statistics between smokers and non-smokers. It is also interesting since Asian men are generally less prone to going bald than Caucasians, which would mean that smoking would probably have even more of an impact to a Caucasian.. I'll do you and anyone else who might be experiencing this odd problem a favor and copy and paste the article so you can see it. The article states that results were "significant" and consistent

I have never heard of epigenetics, but I am very intrigued and I feel that it would be very interesting to read more into this, so thanks a lot for enlightening us!

As for the people talking about people with healthy lifestyles going bald, I believe that some people are pretty much genetically cursed the same way others are genetically gifted. I see myself as kind of being in the middle, hair loss doesn't run heavily in my family, but I'm sort of going on to nw2 if I'm not already there and I'm only 21 years old. I have a gut feeling that this is not the way I'm supposed to be, I have also read a couple stories about younger guys who've gotten their hair back by fixing their lifestyle.

Don’t know how true this is as I’m in China right now and see many many bald and balding people, sometimes I feel like I see more balding people here than I do in Canada

 

[@GeraltOfRivia]

I am of age 20. I don't smoke don't drink bt balding far worse than my norwood 0 who drink smoke

 

[Retinoid]

I am of age 20. I don't smoke don't drink bt balding far worse than my norwood 0 who drink smoke

Smoking is not good for hair but will not cause what we call male pattern baldness.