August 15 2007, 9:34 am PT | Posted in: Hair Loss Causes
What is the relationship between insulin resistance and hair loss?
Stress and/or diseases which are out of balance may increase hair loss. An interesting relationship between high insulin levels is discussed at PubMed — Hormones and hair patterning in men: a role for insulin-like growth factor 1?. This raises an interesting issue that may or may not make sense: Would dropping sugar levels, which will reduce insulin in the blood stream, reduce or stop hair loss?
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Balding Forum
There is a study by Dr. Loren Cordain (of the Paleo diet fame i.e. lean meat, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables and no dairy, grains, or legumes) that references male vertex/pattern balding as one of a number of diseases caused by hyperinsulinemia, or too much insulin in the blood. You can find this study at http://www.paleodiet.blogspot.com I believe or Google anything here for more information. Interestingly, I remember reading something Dr. Rassman wrote here way back when in spring 2008 when I first came across this blog and was worried about my hair loss. He referenced something and said that Native Americans/Inuits from the Alaskan Bridge are the only people known that have 0% male pattern baldness in the population. And the Inuit diet is 99% or more fats and proteins with little, if any, carbohydrates. Clues clues clues…
For those who aren’t familiar with insulin (as I wasn’t until recently), starches and carbohydrates convert to blood sugar (glucose) much faster than protein and fats, and this causes insulin levels in the blood to spike. Insulin’s job is to carry the glucose from the blood into cells because too much glucose can be deadly, hence the reasons diabetics must watch their blood sugar and take insulin shots straight into the blood.
The theory is that while East Asians, especially Japanese, have little, if any, instances of male pattern baldness from the traditional diet, which includes white rice and soy (a legume), their varied diet of sea vegetables/seaweed, fish, avocado, fruits, and vegetables tempers their insulin levels caused by white rice. Essentially, while their diet is great, it can be improved upon.
The website is http://www.thepaleodiet.blogspot.com, not http://www.paleodiet.blogspot.com.
I came across another posting where supposedly the capsaicin in chilis increases IGF-1 and therefore helps with hair growth? Increasing IGF-1 seems contrary to what we want to do, so there seems like more to the story.