How Was it Decided that DHT Was the Only Hormone to Cause Hair Loss?
This is not a personal question but a more general one. If i’m not mistaken, those who suffer from MPB have a variation of a gene that makes their scalp sensitive to androgens, while DHT is potent androgen – it’s still just one hormone. Why isn’t stronger anti-androgens being used? Obviously, you’d have to be castrated to fully eliminate the risk of going bald.
My question is, who or whom decided that DHT is where the line is going to be drawn? What made them not go further down the road, as there’s still loads of money to be made for the pharmaceutical companies.
I don’t think anyone necessarily just decided that DHT was the sole cause of hair loss. It is just one piece of a puzzle not yet fully solved. As I have said many times in the past, DHT is not the sole cause of hair loss. Your genetics are also the cause of androgenic hair loss. DHT is just one factor that we have discovered for men who have the genes for balding. If you do not have the genes for balding, DHT does not matter.
Big pharma and other companies are still working on various ways of treating hair loss with varying degrees of success.
To the person who asked this question:
julianne imperato-mcginley a renowned endocrinologist followed a group of pseudohermaphoridtes who were deficient in the enzyme 5 alpha reducatse type 2. 5 alpha reducatse type 2 binds with testosterone to make DHT. Those pseudohermaphoridtes never went bald, never had receding hairlines, prostate problems, acne, because of the defcinecy in type 2 reductase. DHT is the anrogen that causes hairloss.
The pseudohermaphoridtes had normal levels of the androgen testosterone and still never had hairloss. When they were given DHT they started balding. SO proves that DHT is the cause of hailoss.
when a person gets castrated he cuts of testosterone. when there is no testosterone, alpha 5 reductase can’t bind with it anymore to produce DHT. when castrated men are given testosterone shots, then they gets hairloss again becuase they have testosterone to bind with the alpha 5 reductase type 2
DHT is the main and sole cause of hairloss via alpha 5 reductase type 2. hence why finasteride works to treat hairloss.
I don’t think other androgens cause hairloss. The pseudohermaphrodites are a prime example and evidence of DHT causing hairloss
Given DHT is the most androgenic hormone in the human body and is the baseline for the androgenetic q ratio it’s probably safe to say if it’s caused by an androgen DHT is the culprit.