The Association between Exercise and Androgenetic Alopecia: A Survey-Based Study
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
According to the results of this study, alopecia patients exercise more than the normal population, especially low-intensity exercise. Similar tendency was observed irrespective of the family history of AGA. Also the proportion of AGA patients showed an increasing trend as the frequency of exercise of low intensity increased. During the exercise, the testosterone level could be increased transiently4. However, as the subjects in this study were required to answer their lifelong exercise habit, long-ranged changes in hormone level would be more importance over the transient ones. According to a study, no differences in serum cortisol, total testosterone and free testosterone level were observed between lifelong exercise and no exercise group5. Accordingly, we hypothesized that factors other than changes of hormone level would take an important part in the occurrence of alopecia. If it could be assumed that exercise could induce alopecia, we conjectured that oxidative stress which is generated during exercise plays an important role in the process. Oxidative stress increases the entry of dihydrotestosterone into the dermal papillary cells, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), associated with oxidative stress, increase 5α-reductase concentration and activity6,7.
This does not surprise as me as frequent exercise for me and many others is a surefire way to speed up hair shedding. But what could be the mechanism here? Increase oxidative stress as suggested in the study? Higher endotoxin absorption?
Unfortunately the authors didn't test bodybuiding/weightlifting type exercises, which for me are the absolute worst in terms of hair health.
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