Testosterone Promotes Treg Production & Immune System

[macaroni]

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[plisk]

Its possible, but the parsimony principle of science is to use the simplest explanation that fits in the evidence, in which case the simplest explanation is that finasteride works because it DHT binds more strongly to the androgen receptor than testosterone does, and finasteride inhibits the formation of DHT which thus reduces the amount of androgenic signalling in the affected tissues.

I think for your hypothesis to work you would have to establish DHT as not also increasing tregs like testosterone... this seems unlikely, all androgens including synthetic ones developed by humans tend to act pretty similarly, just more or less strong (where "strong" is defined by its ability to bind to the AR) than testosterone.

 

[bridgeburn]

I highly doubt Testosterone is beneficial for hair other than the fact that it gets converted to Estrogen later. It doesn't explain Transgender regimes that suppress T and have dramatic regrowth. Women have much lower T than men, so even if T increases Tregs, then Estrogen surely does too.

T also has affinity to the androgen receptor just like DHT, they both cause the same downstream effects and masculine features but the difference is that DHT is much stronger and lasts longer on the receptors and can't get aromatised into estrogen.
and also that Testosterone is better for Muscles because DHT gets deactivated into 3a- adiol by an enzyme in our muscles.

5ar inhibitors like finasteride and dutasteride are beneficial because T is not as bad as DHT for our hair.

 

[coolio]

I think the evidence suggests that all adrogens are bascially bad for all scalp hair. All estrogens are probably good.

There is conflicting evidence but it's mostly a lot of correlations rather than good evidence of causation. Higher Testosterone might look good for hair on paper because it indirectly goes with a hormone profile that has lower DHT & higher Estrogen overall. Higher Estrogen might look bad for hair on paper if it's part of an overall profile that has more DHT. Etc.

 

[bridgeburn]

I agree; it's challenging and there are a lot of conflicting studies that contradict each other. At the end of the day i am starting to believe that disruption to the delicate balance of hormones is what causes hairloss in men and women. As counterintuitive as this may sound, i am now wondering if low testosterone in men is what triggers hairloss. Low testosterone in men doesn't mean absence of masculinity; perhaps too much testosterone is converted to DHT, affecting the balance and reducing free circulating T, but then again blocking DHT increases free circulating T which can in turn increase free circulating estrogen through T aromatase, and can also cause it's own version of hairloss.

This disease that plagues us all is truly a curse, made even worse by the lack of clarity as to what causes it.

It is very complicated indeed, I also wonder if too much androgen suppression over time, leads to sensitivity to androgens. Receptor upregulation So that less levels are required for the same effects and if that is one reason people can have great response to finasteride and dutasteride for years and then eventually start losing ground again.

 

[coolio]

As counterintuitive as this may sound, i am now wondering if low testosterone in men is what triggers hairloss. Low testosterone in men doesn't mean absence of masculinity; perhaps too much testosterone is converted to DHT, affecting the balance and reducing free circulating T, but then again blocking DHT increases free circulating T which can in turn increase free circulating estrogen through T aromatase, and can also cause it's own version of hairloss.

Agreed. The low-T epidemic is probably contributing to modern male pattern baldness problems by screwing with the balance. But I still think all androgens are probably bad for scalp hair in the literal sense, though.


I wonder if different areas of the head have greater & lesser susceptibilities to different androgens. I'm thinking the Norwood#1 area is more sensitive to Test than the Norwood#2-up is. That would explain why the "mature hairline" recession hits hard when guys are pretty young.

It would also explain why some guys swear Finasteride damaged their front hairline even though it helped the hair farther back - Finasteride elevates Test slightly while driving down DHT. So it would only damage Norwood#1 hairlines. Other guys who were already Norwood#2s when they started using finasteride (the vast majority) would never see the effect.

DHT levels are higher (in relation to T) as you get older. The crown area usually balds later in the process than the front and it seems very responsive to 5ar drugs. That would make sense.