Throughout time, whenever people start talking about baldness, they almost always focus on the threat to self-esteem. Most cultures have decided that men who lose their hair early are somehow worthy of mockery. Inevitably, this has put pressure on men to avoid or hide the problem. In reality, the poor quality of many wigs and toup?es signalled the wearer’s embarrassment and aggravated the social difficulties. In turn, this opened up a market to the unscrupulous to sell magic remedies. We still celebrate this time in our history by retaining the idea of “snake oil” and “elixirs” from the Traveling Medicine Shows. But the results in a recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology may be a sign that men who lose their hair early are the lucky ones. Instead of despair as their hair recedes, they should be celebrating the news their risk of prostate cancer is halving.

The study involved some two thousand men in their forties, half of whom had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. In reviewing their medical histories, the researchers noted that men whose hair began thinning in their twenties were the least likely to develop a growth in the prostate (whether cancerous or benign). In publishing these results, a clear distinction must be made between the natural thinning and loss of hair that affects all men as they age, and male pattern baldness which characteristically affects younger men. The reduction in the risk of cancer benefits those who lose their hair prematurely. The researchers speculate this is a consequence of the changing level of testosterone in those who go bald. The higher the level of hormone, the more the body produces dihydrotestosterone. With more DHT in the bloodstream, the hair follicles shrink. This thins the hair and slows the rate at which hair is replaced as it is shed. But, higher levels of testosterone seem to lower the risk of a growth. Read the rest of this entry »