In the News – Korean Research Says Hair Loss Is Not Genetic for Half of Sufferers
Snippet from the article:
Heredity has been blamed as one of the main causes of hair loss but a recent study found that, for about half of those going bald, genes have nothing to do with it.
The Korean Hair Research Society traced the family records of 1,220 people suffering from hair loss and found that only 41.8 percent of their fathers had the same problem. About 47.1 percent seemed to have been affected by their father’s genes and about 10 percent are assumed to have been affected by both of their parents, but neither appeared relevant in 41.8 percent of cases. The team tracked the hair loss status of the subjects’ parents and grandparents.
Read the rest — Hair loss not as hereditary as believed
If the Korean Hair Research Society just looked at parents and grandparents, it might not tell the whole story since the genes for hair loss can skip generations. The article does go on to say that stress, extreme dieting, and some medications can cause hair loss… which I don’t think is a surprise to anyone that reads this site regularly.
Unfortunately, I don’t know that these percentages can be applied to a larger population, as I haven’t even seen the actual study. There’s no information on where or if this study was published, but even so, the numbers just don’t sound right to me. Though certainly there is a percentage of hair loss cases caused by factors other than genetics, I still believe the vast majority are cases originate from somewhere in the family tree.
Are they talking about male pattern baldness or hair loss in general?
I think this is another example of misrepresentation of science. I doubt whether the researchers concluded that baldness is not genetic. They merely found that in a sample of the population (presumably just in Korea) those who showed baldness did not necessarily have fathers or grandfathers who showed baldness. This is not the same as saying there is no genetic component. And goes against many other studies which show that there is.
I think all we can really say from this study (and given that we can’t actually look at the paper itself) is that the causes of baldness are more complicated than our current understanding. Something regular readers of this blog will be aware of. And something that is at the root (no pun intended) of our current inability to prevent or treat it.