Androgentic alopecia, or male pattern baldness as it is more popularly known (MPB), is the name given to hair loss related to sex hormones (androgens) and genetics.
Male pattern baldness is typically characterized by a receding hairline and hair loss at the top of the head – think Prince Harry, Bruce Willis and Patrick Stewart from Star Trek: The Next Generation (a through b to endpoint c).
Male pattern baldness, as suggested, tends to form a set of reasonably uniform “horseshoe” recession patterns and is usually easily identifiable to the naked eye – see The Hamilton/Norwood classifications of androgenetic alopecia in men here http://www.regrowhair.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/male-baldness.gif.
Note, a similar type of hair loss in women, female pattern hair loss (FPB), results in diffuse thinning hair on the vertex (top) of the scalp but is generally less severe than occurs in males.
Male pattern baldness is caused by a genetically determined sensitivity to the effects of the hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT as it is often abbreviated to; the production of DHT, meanwhile, is regulated by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase.
In male pattern baldness, DHT shortens the growth, or anagen, phase of the hair cycle, causing miniaturisation of the follicles and progressively thinner hairs – they shrink!
The hair is still there, for the most part, but the susceptible follicles become finer and finer and correspondingly less visible as they move through the natural and ongoing phases of activity and rest called anagen and catagen.
“The hair follicles are still alive, but are no longer able to properly perform their task,” says Dr Flemming Andersen MD (2005; 2008).
In conclusion, male pattern baldness has very little, if anything, to do with nutrition, hat wearing, hair care, badger baiting, etc.; fundamentally, male pattern baldness (androgentic alopecia) is caused by genetics and male sex hormones and a destructive combination thereof.
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Posted in Male pattern baldness
