I've seen multiple anecdotes online in other forums like this of vegans getting a lot of body hair, sometimes including balding as well. Makes me think about how veganism has certain characteristics that may promote and make someone histapenic.
High copper intake as most vegan foods can be pretty high in copper, low protein (amino acids are needed to utilize minerals like copper properly), low zinc bioavailability, leading to copper build up and possible other heavy metals building up. Higher copper leading to excessive degradation of histamine and all the issues that come with very
To add personal experience, I used to take 50mg zinc every night for years before I found Peat, never ever grew body hair in any significant capacity except a little bit on the forearms and lower legs until I stopped taking it when I got here. Zinc and B3 raise progesterone and are used in decently high doses for histapenia, so its basically like taking progesterone.
@redsun I found your comments very interesting, therefore I'm resuscitating this thread.
Your personal experience matches mine. I took zinc/b6/b3 for about 2 years after a girl at my college introduced me to orthomolecular medicine. At that point in my life (23-24) I had developed no body hair at all, and had experienced a massive shed of hair loss from stress at 21-22. During the 2 years I took zinc, I continued not getting any body hair, despite the fact that I was 90% vegan.
My head hair also stabilized greatly and even regrew some (some areas had already become fibrotic so regrowth wasn't strong there). After a couple years of intense stress, my face became a lot more youthful as well, I got routinely mistaken for a 16-17 year old. I think the zinc and the b-vitamins must have increased my synthesis of progesterone greatly. I had a pretty good year and a half of health/life.
Eventually, my health crashed from overwork, mold exposure and wasting from veganism/lack of protein. I've spent the past 2+ years recovering since. During this period I've gained a massive amount of body hair all of sudden, from the ages of 26-28. (Still not the hairiest guy around, but I have a decent amount all around my chest, on my thighs, and on my lower back.)
It's definitely the constantly elevated cortisol/stress leading to overproduction of DHEA from the adrenals. It's seen in women too, hirsutism occurs during stress/PCOS. I also have a little acne, along with recurring MPB. (acne, hirsutism, alopecia, 3 main symptoms of PCOS/MPB)
I remember @haidut mentioning how cortisol activates the peripheral production of androgens during #4 Bioenergetic News podcast with Danny Roddy. Hopefully he can clarify this for us. But clearly, stress hormones elevated = adrenals produce androgens = virilization and unwanted hair growth.