Hair Thinning? You Need To Know The Causes Of Hair Thinning In Men

Posted on 2009-09-26, 02:12, by peter1, under Conditions and Diseases.

What exactly are the major causes of hair loss in men?

If you are a man who is worried about the possibility of baldness, you need to know a little more about the causes of thinning hair in men. There are some well recognized causes of hair thinning and it is now possible to do something about most of them.

It is reasonably well known that the causes of thinning hair in men are a little different than the causes of hair thinning in women. By far, the biggest cause of thinning hair in men is androgenetic alopecia, which you may know as male pattern baldness. This is a condition which you inherit from your forebears, which means that you are genetically predisposed to hair loss, but this doesn't guarantee that you will lose your hair. Even if your father and grandfather were both bald, you may not be, but your chances of becoming bald are high.

Statistically, the chances of you carrying the gene for androgenic alopecia are 4 in 7. About 70 percent of men will find that they experience some form of thinning of the hair during their life and a quarter of these will, by the age of 30, see hair thinning start. By 60, around 60 percent will suffer some form of hair loss.

Whilst male pattern baldness, or androgenic alopecia, is the major cause of hair thinning in men, there are others. For example, there are some medical conditions and some medications that can cause hair loss. The most well-known of these is chemotherapy, but there are others as well. For this reason, if you are starting to worry about a receding hairline, one of the first things you should do is to consult a doctor and eliminate the possibility of a medical problem.

If you take any medications and are suffering from hair thinning, ask a doctor if the medication may be responsible.

Stress can cause hair loss, though this can be temporary, and poor diet can also cause hair loss. The Western diet, high in red meat consumption, is known to result in higher rates of hair loss.

Clearly the most common cause of hair thinning in men is male pattern baldness. So if you're suffering from hair loss what can you do about it? Fortunately there are some solutions and you should jump on the problem as soon as you know about it.

The mechanism by which the hair is lost in cases of male pattern baldness is now known and it comes down to plenty of male sex hormones. Men suffering from baldness are commonly chock-full of testosterone, and the testosterone creates another male hormone called DHT (Dihydrotestosterone) which is the hormone responsible for hair growth during puberty.

The DHT created from the testosterone attaches itself to their hair follicles and then gradually strangles the follicle by reducing the ability of hair to take in all the nutrients essential for good hair growth. Men suffering from male pattern baldness have more DHT around their hair follicles. This is the major cause of thinning hair in men.

Once science discovered this, then it was able to produce a cure and the result was the first product approved by the FDA as a male hair loss treatment called minoxidil. Minoxidil has been proven to be effective in treating most cases of male pattern baldness, though of course not all.

You can get minoxidil under different product names. One company has improved on the treatment of using minoxidil by adding a range of various essential hair nutrients to the treatment. Whilst the minoxidil blocks the operation of the DHT, it is also important that once the hair is able to absorb all the proper nutrition, those nutrients are available to it.

This is a better approach than just minoxidil on its own.

You can see that there is a wide range of causes of thinning hair in men, but it's true to say that the vast majority of men with hair thinning suffer from male pattern baldness which, if unwanted, will continue until a certain degree of baldness is realized.

Fortunately there are now treatments catch it early. The best hair loss treatment combines minoxidil with hair nutrients.

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