The Hormonal Profile of MPB

cjm

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Meh. May have worked better if caught earlier. Still may as well give it a try. Look at his entire stack and read all his blog posts.

May as well also add in the scalp massages and some topical (SSKI/iodine-protocol? MSM lotion? Something..).

Haha, "meh" is how I feel about losing it. I have one of those lucky head shapes that looks good bald/shaved. I dodged one bullet. I may not put extra effort into my scalp. Having a microneedler makes roughing up the tough tissue more convenient. I swear I get smarter after a session (more circulation in the whole body fascia net actually) but I'm still highly aversive to getting pricked. If scalp work ultimately increases thinking ability, then absolutely, I'll do anything. Speaking of anything, I bought Bowle's book on Amazon and he says a couple friends got shingles ramping up the dose and stopped -- but between Alzheimer's and shingles (he claims the hair re-growth and thickening was a side effect!) he'd pick shingles. I guess, me too. I've learned to survive as a brain on a dried out meat stick (that's a metaphor, though jerky is great) so whatever happens to my body is a gift to my brain for not killing me (edit: I am impressed with the dosages Jeff is using and the apparent safety AND his professional enthusiasm, I don't think it would be much risk to hit the anti-AD dose of 120mg+). I don't have Alzheimer's but I do have an incredible block in the center of my head and a complete lack of spontaneous thought. It is all "gummed up" in there. Truth be told I went ahead and took 20 mg melatonin so far today. That part of my head now "participates" in a stretch and isn't seized up as much. If it continues to loosen, I can only imagine positive effects on my scalp, which feels not as glued to my head as before.
 

cjm

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Look at his entire stack and read all his blog posts.

I'm on it, boss. (Thank you)

 

cjm

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Here's a table I made showing tests performed and whether the values were significantly elevated, decreased, or had no difference

View attachment 23889

@baccheion

LH significantly elevated in 3 studies is an important correlation between MPB and Jeff' Bowles' work with melatonin. The problem is that Jeff's looking at the correlation between LH and Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is solid (51 studies -- see Chapter 9, "LH Causes Alzheimer's - History of the Theory", of his Melatonin book), and not LH and MPB, which is n=1 as far as his research is concerned (correct me if I'm wrong).

"Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) demethylates the genes of AS#4, luteinizing hormone (LH) of AS#5, and estrogen of AS#6 while cortisol may act cooperatively with FSH and LH, and 5-alpha dihydrotestosterone (DHT) with FSH in these role. The Werner's DNA helicase links timing of the age of puberty, menopause, and maximum lifespan in one mechanism. Telomerase is under hormonal control. Most cancers likely result from malfunctions in the programmed apoptosis of AS#5 and AS#6. The Hayflick limit is reached primarily through loss of cytosine methylation of genes that inhibit replication. Men suffer the diseases of AS#4 at a higher rate than women who suffer from AS#5 more often. Adult mammal cloning suggests aging-related cellular demethylation, and thus aging, is reversible. This theory suggests that the protective effect of smoking and ibuprofen for Alzheimer’s disease is caused through LH suppression."


Never mind your feelings about smoking and NSAIDs, the science is there. But again, it's tough to make the leap that LH causes balding because his research centers around AD. For the records, Jeff states that his hair thickened but the receding hair line did not come back. Nonetheless it's interesting.

Edit: to complicate matters, some of his friends on high melatonin end up having thinner hair than before. He's just not very concerned with the balding problem, seeing AD as the greater of two evils: "In women who have bald fathers, high-dose melatonin really made their hair start to thin and fall out--Not to the point of balding, but they lost about half their hair thickness, and usually stopped due to the effect. If women had fathers with full heads of hair, high-dose melatonin did not affect their hair. However, if you are a woman with beginning Alzheimer’s, I would think losing your hair versus losing your mind would be a choice that you would make. You can always get a nice wig." (p 91, Extreme Dose! Melatonin...)
 
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I'm uploading my latest lab tests against the Sanke numbers. I have SHBG that's actually a little above the upper limit of the reference range. My LH is high and FSH is low and LH/FSH ratio is what you would expect for a balding male. My DHEAS is low actually near the lower limit of the reference range. Not shown is my estradiol and cortisol. Estradiol is right in the middle of the reference and morning cortisol was on the higher side as was demonstrated to be characteristic of AGA by the Schmidt papers. I'd be interested for other people to post their labs so we can compare because I don't think any single hormone level can tell the tale but perhaps there is an underlying dysfunction that's common to all cases. My hairline was maturing at 17 and I have been more or less steadily losing hair since then and I'm 29 now.View attachment 23940
Doesn't this help prove that the androgens cause hair loss? Higher free testosterone?
 
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lucid&alive

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Doesn't this help prove that the androgens cause hair loss? Higher free testosterone?

Higher free T and low SHBG which binds testosterone is associated with MPB in some of these studies. My own anecdotal results are a testament against that as my free T isn't too high but my SHBG is high and I'm still balding. Testosterone can be converted to DHT by 5AR in the scalp or estrogen by aromatase. I don't know if this simplistic view really captures the pathology, though. IMO whatever is causing the hormone imbalance is the true cause.
 
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Higher free T and low SHBG which binds testosterone is associated with MPB in some of these studies. My own anecdotal results are a testament against that as my free T isn't too high but my SHBG is high and I'm still balding. Testosterone can be converted to DHT by 5AR in the scalp or estrogen by aromatase. I don't know if this simplistic view really captures the pathology, though. IMO whatever is causing the hormone imbalance is the true cause.
Then this case probably supports the DHT hypothesis (if you took a 5ARI your free T would go up, DHT go down). Have you tried finasteride?
 
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lucid&alive

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Then this case probably supports the DHT hypothesis (if you took a 5ARI your free T would go up, DHT go down). Have you tried finasteride?

I don't know my DHT though, it could already be low in my serum. But no I've never taken fin.
 

tallglass13

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Doesn't this help prove that the androgens cause hair loss? Higher free testosterone?
Thanks for posting your labs. Your prolactin has been elevated as well, Ray has said between 4 and 7 is optimal. So with a high morning cortisol, and prolactin, those are the two hormones where he says are implicated in balding. But that still doesn't explain everything, and the high testosterone thing is still up for debate I think.
 

tallglass13

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Dude pops up on estrogen and regrows hair
I've been watching people taking estrogen on the internet, such as this and they do seem to grow hair with estradiol. However Haidut will still argue that this patient is on CPA, which is mostly progesterone.
 

Dr. B

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chart2.png
this is how to lower and raise SHBG? its strange since Peat supports a combination of these things? like vit a and zinc deficiencies, t3, weight management, as well as vitamin d3, resistance training, no carb restricting...
 

Inaut

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Correct
this is how to lower and raise SHBG? its strange since Peat supports a combination of these things? like vit a and zinc deficiencies, t3, weight management, as well as vitamin d3, resistance training, no carb restricting...
.
 
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Thanks for posting your labs. Your prolactin has been elevated as well, Ray has said between 4 and 7 is optimal. So with a high morning cortisol, and prolactin, those are the two hormones where he says are implicated in balding. But that still doesn't explain everything, and the high testosterone thing is still up for debate I think.
Wrong person. Didn't post my labs.
 
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lucid&alive

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Dude pops up on estrogen and regrows hair
This is a bit of a spit-ball but I was thinking women with PCOS have over-anrdogeniziation and have MPB. Men with MPB are more feminine than non-balding men (per the Starka 2006 paper). Men can re-grow hair by becoming more feminine by using 5AR inhibitors and/or estrogen. So MPB is like an androgynous state, somewhere in the middle of male/female that can be cured in men by restoring maleness or by going further towards female.
 

GorillaHead

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This is a bit of a spit-ball but I was thinking women with PCOS have over-anrdogeniziation and have MPB. Men with MPB are more feminine than non-balding men (per the Starka 2006 paper). Men can re-grow hair by becoming more feminine by using 5AR inhibitors and/or estrogen. So MPB is like an androgynous state, somewhere in the middle of male/female that can be cured in men by restoring maleness or by going further towards female.
Well said. This is my understanding as well.

the LH being increased basiclally tells me weak functioning testicals.

in fact hypogonadism is associated with hairloss. And klinfelters syndrome based on the cases i saw online seem to bald horribly. Also look up myotonic dystrophy type 1. Mpb highly associated
 

Murse121

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I'm uploading my latest lab tests against the Sanke numbers. I have SHBG that's actually a little above the upper limit of the reference range. My LH is high and FSH is low and LH/FSH ratio is what you would expect for a balding male. My DHEAS is low actually near the lower limit of the reference range. Not shown is my estradiol and cortisol. Estradiol is right in the middle of the reference and morning cortisol was on the higher side as was demonstrated to be characteristic of AGA by the Schmidt papers. I'd be interested for other people to post their labs so we can compare because I don't think any single hormone level can tell the tale but perhaps there is an underlying dysfunction that's common to all cases. My hairline was maturing at 17 and I have been more or less steadily losing hair since then and I'm 29 now.View attachment 23940
Thanks for putting in the work by compiling these studies and comparing your lab work. Very interesting thread! Would be great to get as many members as we can to post lab work. Not to complicate things too much, but maybe members could also describe their hair loss (is it diffuse thinning only, recession, a combination etc) I plan on getting these labs as well and posting them. Did you get all of these through directlabs or through your doc?
 
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lucid&alive

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Thanks for putting in the work by compiling these studies and comparing your lab work. Very interesting thread! Would be great to get as many members as we can to post lab work. Not to complicate things too much, but maybe members could also describe their hair loss (is it diffuse thinning only, recession, a combination etc) I plan on getting these labs as well and posting them. Did you get all of these through directlabs or through your doc?

I got them through Marek Health who uses LabCorp. It was $300 for a bunch of tests plus I added a couple of my own like progesterone and cortisol and it came with an analysis and video call with one of their practitioners. Pm me if you want I can give you the email of the person I worked with.
 
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lucid&alive

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Pitts - 1987 - Serum Elevation of DHEAS Associated with MPB in Young Men

Design: 18 men with AGA ages 18 - 32 compared against 7 men without AGA ages 18 - 35

Tests Performed: DHEAS, free testosterone, bound testosterone

Results:

Testosterone levels not significantly different between subjects and controls

Difference in DHEAS levesl between subjects and controls are statistically significant
- DHEAS range for AGA: 340 - 730 ug/dl
- DHEAS range for control: 124 - 330 ug/dl


From Discussion: The activity of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase of the pentose system is normally increased during the growing phase of the human scalp follicle. Dehydroepiandrosterone strongly inhibits this enzyme in hair follicles, suggesting that excessive amount of DHEA would be capable of halting normal hair growth. (I doubt serum levels of DHEA work on this pathway meaningfully but I thought this was interesting because Ray has mentioned DHEA and progesterone being good for hair loss and skin in general. Maybe it's good for restoring skin function but inhibits actual hair growth when applied continuously.

Note: My own DHEAS levels as of my last test are 183 ug/dL. The range given as normal on my lab results is 138.5 - 475.2 ug/dL. For this reason I thought I was quite low but judging by this paper I'm actually in the normal range for those without AGA, albeit on the low side of that.
 

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