Yes, another one of these. I know we had countless threads on this topic in the past. Still, I think another one is warranted - especially cause I implemented some changes in my diet over the last few months which got my scalp oiliness down to 0 and my crown itchiness to almost 0. It's a little late for that now, being a NW4, but maybe what I found out will help others slow the progression of their hair loss.
The whole thing started with me reading up on whole-body chronic inflammation and this story. To make it short, Chinese men in the current age bracket between 18 and 30 are going bald at the same rate as Westerners. As most of you might remember, Asians (esp. Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) were known to keep all their hair until very old age. Now, however, young Chinese (and Japanese too) actually go bald at very high rates and the change happened in just one generation. How did this happen? Obviously, "genetic" is not the right answer. The Chinese population did not really mix with other nationalities, neither did the genetic makeup of China suddenly change. If within one generation there is a leap from "almost no one is bald" to "most in the age bracket between 20 and 30 are going bald", there must have been significant lifestyle changes. In fact, researchers who studied this rapid change claim that the change is mostly due to westernized diet. Another change that happened is that a mostly agricultural society with lots of outdoors activity got transformed into a mostly indoor one: office jobs and factory jobs. And what happens then happened in most technology-focused societies with office/factory jobs on the planet: vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is linked with Androgenetic Alopecia as well. Vitamin D is a strong anti-inflammatory agent - a role DHT might take over when there is a lack of vitamin D, as DHT is also used in anti-inflammatory immune response. I am strongly conviced that the elevated DHT levels in Androgenetic Alopecia scalp are the response to chronic inflammation, an understanding supported as well by the scarring that happens.
The more I read up on western diet and modern diseases, the more I found out about pro- and anti-inflammatory diets. The typical western diet is a high-energy pro-inflammatory diet. High in sugar, high in fat, and high in protein sources with steroids, pro-inflammatory agents and stress hormones mixed in (dairy and factory-farmed meat are full of steroids and stress hormones, both of which contribute to inflammation on the body, and pro-inflammatory agents because of pathogen concentration in factory farming).
So I did an experiment: I removed a number of typical western food staples from my diet (meat, alcohol, dairy, highly processed wheat and grains, and a few other things), and added each of them back in to my diet one by one, for about two weeks each time. Then, I would have cool-down period of about two weeks to get my body back to zero. The results were quote astounding: When switching from a no-alcohol, no-meat, no-dairy, no-processed-grains diet back to one that contained any one of these components, my scalp oiliness increased. Depending on what I added back in, the level of oiliness and itchiness increased to varying degrees. Some things increased oiliness a lot (beef, pork, dairy, alcohol, very sugary foods and drinks), others (wheat) by a bit. If you want to read more on my experiment, see this post.
But: Occasionally, I would still get a very oily and itchy scalp, even with a diet that was mostly deprived of these western staples (which are, by the way, also known to increase risks for tumors, heart and brain disease). This only happened when I really stuffed myself with carbs and/or sugar. Well, turns out, insulin resistance (a sign of too high caloric and/or glycemic load) is strongly correlated with Androgenetic Alopecia. There were indeed already studies that link metabolic syndrome and Androgenetic Alopecia. And, recently, someone found a study which showed general nutrient deficiency being strongly correlated with Androgenetic Alopecia, which is often a sign of gut microbiome problems.
Where am I going with all this?
After all my own experiments (removing and adding different dietary components & observations when really stuffing myself) I am now 100% certain that my diet has very immediate influence on my scalp oiliness and itchiness. Assuming that oiliness and itchiness are direct indicators of the level of DHT in my scalp, the conclusion that diet has a very big influence on Androgenetic Alopecia progression speed is not far off. And, in all honesty, if any of the above observations and conclusions are anywhere close to the truth, me being NW4 at age 31 is not surprising at all: until just a few years ago, I had a standard western diet (lots of meat and dairy) with very high amounts of carbs (for every meal, and also as snacks in between) and sugar (sodas, fruit juice). Having worked long hours in your typical office job for years, my vitamin D levels are way too low (confirmed time and again by blood panel - I already knew about it but never made the connection to Androgenetic Alopecia progression speed).
I know dietary influence on Androgenetic Alopecia is considered whacko by some and has often been criticized on these forums. So I invite those of you with an oily and/or itchy scalp to an experiment. Follow the dietary advice I'll explain below for four weeks and see what happens. I would like this to be a sort of "community diet trial".
Eliminate as much as possible the following:
- alcohol
- any kind of dairy, including milk, cheese, ice cream
- meat, no matter if beef, pork or chicken/turkey (especially factory-farmed meat is very bad due to steroids, stress hormones and pro-inflammatory substances due to high environmental pathogen concentration); instead, replace with oily fish (tuna, salmon)
- processed/ground grains; replace with whole grains instead. If you need flour, use corn flour
- sugar: especially in baking, desserts and drinks (soda/juices) but also in general
- carbs: bare minimum for a meal, don't stuff yourself with potatoes, chips, etc.
- unnecessary oils: lipitoxicity is a thing and may play a role
Also, avoid overeating at all costs. Stop eating right away when you are no longer hungry. Overeating leads to insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome.
Eat in general way more:
- vegetables and fiber sources, as a replacement for carbs
- fish
- beans and lentils
- corn and corn flour
- fermented foods (like kimchi)
- supplement vitamin D3
You may notice how the above diet is pretty close to the traditional Asian diet. Almost no meat and instead fish, very low in carbs and sugar, little alcohol, lots of veggies, no overeating (which is even a traditional value in China and Japan). In general, it is very anti-inflammatory. And the traditional Asian, pre-Western/pre-industrial diet is, I think, what gave Asians their amazing hair. Which they lose now that they switched to a Western diet.
I would be very happy to hear any feedback of anyone who wants to try the above dietary guidelines and even make a sort of "community trial" out of this. They have reduced my scalp oiliness and itchiness greatly. Way too late, being NW4 at 31. Had I known about this earlier, I am sure I could have slowed down my hairloss significantly. Maybe it'll help someone else though.
PS: In case it wasn't clear, this won't bring any hair back. Didn't bring any back for me. Diet is purely about progression speed. Whether you are prone to Androgenetic Alopecia is genetic - how quickly you actually go bald due to Androgenetic Alopecia genes is determined by lifestyle choices like diet, smoking, lack of vitamin D and a few other things.
The whole thing started with me reading up on whole-body chronic inflammation and this story. To make it short, Chinese men in the current age bracket between 18 and 30 are going bald at the same rate as Westerners. As most of you might remember, Asians (esp. Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) were known to keep all their hair until very old age. Now, however, young Chinese (and Japanese too) actually go bald at very high rates and the change happened in just one generation. How did this happen? Obviously, "genetic" is not the right answer. The Chinese population did not really mix with other nationalities, neither did the genetic makeup of China suddenly change. If within one generation there is a leap from "almost no one is bald" to "most in the age bracket between 20 and 30 are going bald", there must have been significant lifestyle changes. In fact, researchers who studied this rapid change claim that the change is mostly due to westernized diet. Another change that happened is that a mostly agricultural society with lots of outdoors activity got transformed into a mostly indoor one: office jobs and factory jobs. And what happens then happened in most technology-focused societies with office/factory jobs on the planet: vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is linked with Androgenetic Alopecia as well. Vitamin D is a strong anti-inflammatory agent - a role DHT might take over when there is a lack of vitamin D, as DHT is also used in anti-inflammatory immune response. I am strongly conviced that the elevated DHT levels in Androgenetic Alopecia scalp are the response to chronic inflammation, an understanding supported as well by the scarring that happens.
The more I read up on western diet and modern diseases, the more I found out about pro- and anti-inflammatory diets. The typical western diet is a high-energy pro-inflammatory diet. High in sugar, high in fat, and high in protein sources with steroids, pro-inflammatory agents and stress hormones mixed in (dairy and factory-farmed meat are full of steroids and stress hormones, both of which contribute to inflammation on the body, and pro-inflammatory agents because of pathogen concentration in factory farming).
So I did an experiment: I removed a number of typical western food staples from my diet (meat, alcohol, dairy, highly processed wheat and grains, and a few other things), and added each of them back in to my diet one by one, for about two weeks each time. Then, I would have cool-down period of about two weeks to get my body back to zero. The results were quote astounding: When switching from a no-alcohol, no-meat, no-dairy, no-processed-grains diet back to one that contained any one of these components, my scalp oiliness increased. Depending on what I added back in, the level of oiliness and itchiness increased to varying degrees. Some things increased oiliness a lot (beef, pork, dairy, alcohol, very sugary foods and drinks), others (wheat) by a bit. If you want to read more on my experiment, see this post.
But: Occasionally, I would still get a very oily and itchy scalp, even with a diet that was mostly deprived of these western staples (which are, by the way, also known to increase risks for tumors, heart and brain disease). This only happened when I really stuffed myself with carbs and/or sugar. Well, turns out, insulin resistance (a sign of too high caloric and/or glycemic load) is strongly correlated with Androgenetic Alopecia. There were indeed already studies that link metabolic syndrome and Androgenetic Alopecia. And, recently, someone found a study which showed general nutrient deficiency being strongly correlated with Androgenetic Alopecia, which is often a sign of gut microbiome problems.
Where am I going with all this?
After all my own experiments (removing and adding different dietary components & observations when really stuffing myself) I am now 100% certain that my diet has very immediate influence on my scalp oiliness and itchiness. Assuming that oiliness and itchiness are direct indicators of the level of DHT in my scalp, the conclusion that diet has a very big influence on Androgenetic Alopecia progression speed is not far off. And, in all honesty, if any of the above observations and conclusions are anywhere close to the truth, me being NW4 at age 31 is not surprising at all: until just a few years ago, I had a standard western diet (lots of meat and dairy) with very high amounts of carbs (for every meal, and also as snacks in between) and sugar (sodas, fruit juice). Having worked long hours in your typical office job for years, my vitamin D levels are way too low (confirmed time and again by blood panel - I already knew about it but never made the connection to Androgenetic Alopecia progression speed).
I know dietary influence on Androgenetic Alopecia is considered whacko by some and has often been criticized on these forums. So I invite those of you with an oily and/or itchy scalp to an experiment. Follow the dietary advice I'll explain below for four weeks and see what happens. I would like this to be a sort of "community diet trial".
Eliminate as much as possible the following:
- alcohol
- any kind of dairy, including milk, cheese, ice cream
- meat, no matter if beef, pork or chicken/turkey (especially factory-farmed meat is very bad due to steroids, stress hormones and pro-inflammatory substances due to high environmental pathogen concentration); instead, replace with oily fish (tuna, salmon)
- processed/ground grains; replace with whole grains instead. If you need flour, use corn flour
- sugar: especially in baking, desserts and drinks (soda/juices) but also in general
- carbs: bare minimum for a meal, don't stuff yourself with potatoes, chips, etc.
- unnecessary oils: lipitoxicity is a thing and may play a role
Also, avoid overeating at all costs. Stop eating right away when you are no longer hungry. Overeating leads to insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome.
Eat in general way more:
- vegetables and fiber sources, as a replacement for carbs
- fish
- beans and lentils
- corn and corn flour
- fermented foods (like kimchi)
- supplement vitamin D3
You may notice how the above diet is pretty close to the traditional Asian diet. Almost no meat and instead fish, very low in carbs and sugar, little alcohol, lots of veggies, no overeating (which is even a traditional value in China and Japan). In general, it is very anti-inflammatory. And the traditional Asian, pre-Western/pre-industrial diet is, I think, what gave Asians their amazing hair. Which they lose now that they switched to a Western diet.
I would be very happy to hear any feedback of anyone who wants to try the above dietary guidelines and even make a sort of "community trial" out of this. They have reduced my scalp oiliness and itchiness greatly. Way too late, being NW4 at 31. Had I known about this earlier, I am sure I could have slowed down my hairloss significantly. Maybe it'll help someone else though.
PS: In case it wasn't clear, this won't bring any hair back. Didn't bring any back for me. Diet is purely about progression speed. Whether you are prone to Androgenetic Alopecia is genetic - how quickly you actually go bald due to Androgenetic Alopecia genes is determined by lifestyle choices like diet, smoking, lack of vitamin D and a few other things.
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