22 Reasons Why DHT Does Not Cause Hair Loss

0:09 Hey everybody. This is Hunter Williams. I hope you were doing amazing wherever you are at in the world. Today's video is why DHT does not cause hair loss. So this is going to be probably a very controversial video, but I don't intend it to. Be so what I want this to, be if anything, it's just a counter viewpoint in a calendar argument to the prevailing narrative in. The world today, which is that DH T causes hair, loss specifically more specifically male hair lost. Today, I just want to present a counter argument to why DHT does not cause hair loss because there are, as we'll see in this video,

0:45 22 very strong reasons and other ways that are causing hair lost specifically in males that're not related to DHTs. And today I want to break those down and hopefully this is something that you are interested in or getting interested because of certain conditions you may be having like male pattern baldness. Hopefully this video is just a helpful, informative teaching video on how you can maybe navigate away from the DHT theory of hair loss to preserve your

1:18 hair and maybe even regrow your The main reason I'm doing this video is because one, I get asked this question a ton of times from guys. Uh, a lot of the times it's more private messages they send me because they know that I talk about peptides and they that there's peptide rigor hair. So they say, Hey, what's the best peptid stack to rigor here? And truth be told, feel bad about this because a of hair loss, um, comes from genetic factors. And thankfully, as you can see with me right now, you know, knock on wood, I have very good genetic factors from my grandparents,

1:49 the lead to hair loss of both sides of my family, on my mom and my dad's side. None of them really had baldness. And even my grandpa, who died of lung cancer over 10 years ago, was having his hair regrow back like full and dark while doing chemotherapy. So I'm very blessed in that sense. Sometimes I feel bad about talking about this because it's like, hey, I never was in a position where I re-grew my hair using peptides or anything like that. Um, sometimes I'm like hesitant because I don't want to like put my, uh, foot in my mouth, obviously, but then also to, like,

2:20 speak in somewhere I am not qualified just because fortunately for me, you know, I've used testosterone, and I have used peptides and have never had any sort of hair loss or anything like that. If anything now, because of hormone optimization, my hair is thicker and fuller. Um, but I thought it was the time, you know, it's a good time because I just kept getting asked this question from a lot of guys. Um. So what I want to do today is tell you why DHT is not the main cause of hair loss, even though there's some supporting evidence that may suggest that it like has something to with it. Uh, as we're going to see today, there are a of other, uh, reasons and pathways that eventually cause hair, loss that don't have to deal with DHP.

2:57 And ultimately, you know, we could get into debate all day about what causes hair loss, if DHT causes it or not. But the problem is most men think the DHC causes her loss. And as such, they begin to lose their hair and they go on a DH T inhibitor, which is one of the worst things you can do. So we never want to block DH t. I know people will want a debate on that, but just from what I've seen and talking to so many people I talked to, DHT inhibition is a very dangerous game that I would not recommend playing.

3:27 So I could probably extend this video into like a part two of why you should never use a DHG inhibitor. But before I do that, I want to set the foundation of YDHT doesn't cause hair loss. That's kind of the background on doing this and why I wanna like flesh this out in a whole video. And ultimately to like the horror stories I've heard from men that take DHT inhibitors, is motivation enough for me, because I think if one man hears this and he's like, yeah, I'm going to explore other options instead of a DHP inhibitor, or at least explore those other other option before a Dht inhibiter,

3:58 he is going have a much better life and not have all the nasty side effects that come from inhibiting DHTs. So that's what today's video is gonna be about. As always, You know, the links will be down in the description to sign up for the peptide cheat sheet, signup for fully optimized health. Cause this is the only group on the internet that we're talking about topics like these, uh, as in depth as I talk about them in my videos and even more so. Um, so those links we'll always be there. And, um, I'm going to do something from now on cause it seemed pretty popular in one of my other videos.

4:28 Uh, if this video gets 500 likes, meaning that all you have to just click the like button, you don't have for leave a comment or anything like that. Um, what I will do is post a link to my slides as a downloadable PDF. Um I didn't even think about this. It's just something I'd like kind of did on a whim because it takes more work on my end to do this, um, but if this video gets 500 likes, I. Post a pin comment in the pin comments section where you click on the comments. Uh, so it's the first one where. You will get a. To the actual slide file themselves so you can download it and have as. A reference.

4:58 Now this is not like a peptide sack or anything like that. So it just has the reasons and then also, description of the study to support those reasons. So that's it, but I think it's worth a try to do from here on out. If the video gets 500 likes, I'll post that in there. And if not, hey, no big deal. But anyway, it just kind of helps grow the channel, grow other people that are listening to this information, following it and hopefully implementing it in their lives. Without further ado, i'm going to share my screen and today we're going find out why DHT does not cause hair loss.

5:29 Today's video is DHT does not cause hair loss and it's going to be a counter argument to the prevailing wisdom. So think of this as just a court trial and I am on one side of the bench trying to convince you of one certain argument and kind of let you take it from there. Let's get into it. There we go. I think the slides got more animated. So just as an introduction, hair loss, especially androgenic alopecia, which I will refer to as AGA, just because androgens alapecia is a mouthful.

6:03 It's a condition affecting many individuals, obviously among the male group, but women too. Um, so the common belief is that DHT or dihydrotestosterone is the primary cause of hair. Loss. However, as we've learned more recently, there is emerging research and alternative perspectives to suggest otherwise. So today what I want to do is present an argument that DHT does not cause hair loss and basically explore other potential factors contributing to the condition of hair lost so that ultimately you can just make the best decision for your life of what you want You're experiencing hair loss and you want to create

6:41 some sort of intervention around that. So let's understand DHT first. Dihydrotestosterone is an androgen, which is basically a sex hormone that plays a crucial role in male development. The functions are it is responsible for the development of male characteristics such as body hair, muscle growth, deep voice, and typically everything we associate with testosterone. So a lot of people don't realize testosterone is a hormone in the body that gets converted into DHT and estradiol.

7:11 And what we typically associate testosterone with, at least in popular culture, is this idea of like manhood, masculinity, muscles, you know, libido, virility, all those things that would be probably considered now toxic masculinity is really more DHT because testosterone, again, it's not so great in and of itself. It's great that great and that it metabolizes into DHP as well as estradiol and estridiol.

7:41 provides more of the protection benefits from testosterone like neuro protection and cardio protection, blood vessel protection. And a whole host of other things. So that's kind of a little background on DHT. What is the traditional view on dht and hair loss? So basically, The main school thought, you know, over the last few decades is that DHT binds to androgen receptors in the hair follicles in body, causing them to shrink and eventually stop producing hair. So the thought is, that men with more DH or more dht expression will eventually go bald and go bald or earlier because the DHT is binding to the androgen receptor,

8:23 which causes that andogen receptor to shrink and eventually stop producing hair. Thus, you know, the result is male pattern baldness. So there have been some studies that have shown that there is a correlation with higher levels of VHT in the scalps of men with AGA compared to those without. This is kind of where we get this idea from that, amongst all of the literature and study conducting and everything that's going on out there. They can kind of correlate that higher levels of DHT eventually result in androgenic alopecia or AGA.

8:56 But as we know, correlation is not always causation and you can have a lot of different factors. And just because, you know you could look at the theory that more people that eat red meat end up with heart disease more. And it's like, is it the red meet or is that everything else going on in their life? And typically the more red meats someone eats is typically associated with tons of other risk factors from a lifestyle standpoint that puts them at risk for cardiovascular disease. So that's kind of my opinion again of where this comes from, but let's break it down even further.

9:27 So here are 22 reasons why DHT does not cause hair loss. So let's go to one. Ethnic variations in hair lost. What I'm going to do with this is present a study that provides some sort of data that shows that DHP is not a primary cause of hair. In 2010, there's study called ethnic differences in angina receptor, CAG polymorphism and association with AGA. And basically, this study found that ethnic groups with high DHT levels do not consistently exhibit high rates of AGH.

9:59 So what that means is certain ethnic group typically have different expressions of DHTs, meaning that someone from Asia may have a different level of the DHTS than someone in Europe. Someone from South America may different levels of someone in Australia. So basically when they compare ethnic groups, there are certain ones that have higher DHT levels. And when I look at this, they do not consistently, at least like pound for pound exhibit the same higher rates of baldness or androgenic alopecia.

10:34 in the win column for why DHT is not causing a loss. Now let's look at genetic predisposition. So I think a lot of this is going to come from this kind of like I talked about earlier in video with like our genetic traits. Before I say this, I'm not someone that is obsessed with genes. I've think of a of people in new biohacking, wellness, health world, they're very obsessed genes and gene tracking and genes being the ultimate determinant of your fate. Yes, we have certain genes. So I have some genes that code for me to have brown hair.

11:05 I can't change that. There's nothing I could do about it. But you know, albeit without me like meditating for the rest of my life, I don't think I'm going to be able to genetically transmit myself into being someone that is blonde. just because that's the genes I was born with. On the flip side, we can express certain genes based on what we dictate from the environment. So like if you're in a toxic environment, you are going to express genes that relate to the inflammation that is coming to toxic environments. A 2008 study found the genetic variants in the androgen receptor EDA2R pathway and androgynous alopecia.

11:41 So this study that specific genetic markers rather than DHT levels are strongly associated with AGA. There we go, much more genetic predisposition. Let's look at hair follicle sensitivity. A study in 2012 called the sensitivity of human hair to androgens is dependent on the paracrine environment And the findings were that hair follicle sensitivity to DHT varies among individuals, indicating there's other factors at play. So basically this means that the hair fallicle being sensitive to Dht varies widely among the individuals.

12:14 And that does not necessarily relate to whether those individuals express baldness or not. Number four, we have inflammation autoimmune responses. I think as we get into these, this one is going to be critical because we're looking at inflammation. Ultimately, all of the disease that the body expresses comes from inflammation, which leads to auto immune. 2016 study found that, the inflammatory infiltrate in scalp biopsies of androgenic alopecia. This found, that chronic inflammation around hair follicles is very common in AGA cases.

12:46 So when we're looking at the hair follicles, it's much more common to have chronic inflammation than it is any sort of DHT. Moving along, we have scalp blood flow. Again, very, important to how much Uh, hair is expressed at the scalp, but 1999 studies, this is actually even going back. So reduced blood flow in the scalpel of men with antigen alopecia was the name of the study. And it found that individuals with AGA have significantly reduced scalp bloodflow, potentially impairing follicle health.

13:20 So it's actually much more likely that someone that is bald has reduced blood flow to the scalp than it is that they have more DHT sensitivity or expression at the hair follicles. So very interesting. And I think when we look at peptide interventions, this is something that peptides are going to play a huge role in helping as we get more into understanding where baldness come from. So number six, we have a microbiome imbalance, which I think, again, is the cause of a lot of things. But let's look at this.

13:50 So a 2018 study called Scalp Microbiome and its impact on hair health found that imbalances in the scalp microbiomes can also contribute to hair loss. Basically, this means that the bacteria that we just like we have bacteria on our hands or our skin or wherever else on the body impacts hair loss. And there are things that we can do to improve that. Now I'm not an expert and I haven't researched that enough, but in researching this video, I thought that was pretty impactful. Cause a lot of times we think of the microbiome as like our stomach bacteria, which is obviously very important and probably related to hair losses as well.

14:24 But we look at the actual microbiomes of bacteria that's on scalp. There's something going on there that can contribute to your loss, Number seven is nutrient deficiencies. This is huge as well. I'd say probably 80 to 90 percent of people on planet Earth right now are walking around with nutrient deficiency. Now that doesn't mean they're not necessarily healthy or can't, you know, like live a healthy life, but a lot of us have nutrient efficiency just by the nature of where we live in today. So a 2013 study found that deficiencies in iron, vitamin D and zinc are linked to weakened hair follicles.

15:00 That's one of those things I don't talk about a lot on my channel, but basically when you have deficiencies in a lot of these minerals and different nutrients that are critical to the body. At the very least, let's look at those before we get to looking at DHT being a cause of hair loss. So the big one that's obviously a huge factor that I think everyone can attest to that we've all had periods of our life where we're affected by this is stress. So we look at stress and psychological factors. A 2003 study actually examined this and it found that chronic stress can lead to hair loss through telogen effluvium.

15:35 Basically, whenever the body is stressed out, especially for prolonged periods time, you're sending the signal to the buddy that, hey, like something's wrong here. We need to shut down a lot of these processes, and thus the Buddy expresses to a state of illness or disease and stress, again, a massive player. Number nine is thyroid. So I think this is probably more of a cause of the disease, or not disease but hair loss in women than it is for men. However, it definitely is a thing for man that most people will never even look at.

16:07 Maybe they get their thyroid paneled on their blood work, maybe they don't. 2000 study found or looked at thyroid function and its impact on hair lost. and found that thyroid orders can significantly contribute to hair loss. So again, is your thyroid function optimized? And when we look at that, I think you could say, well, yeah, my thyroid numbers are in range, but is it optimized and is firing all cylinders? Thyroid is very complex. I'm not going to go into all of that on this video, something that we all should look, at the very least covering our bases before we jump to DHT.

16:42 So let's look at hormonal imbalance beyond DHT. So are there other hormones at play? I mean, we just talked about thyroid, right? So there are other Hormones at Play. A 2011 study looked at these other androgens and other Androgans, not just DH T play roles in hair follicle health. Again, that's beyond the scope of this video, but there could be more going on with other hormons outside of DH t, particularly androgen hormones that are affecting hair growth, not just DHT itself, which again begs the question, why would we just attack DH T and think that that's going to stop the hair loss?

17:18 So lifestyle factors, 2014 study examined lifestyle actors. They found the diet, exercise and environmental factors significantly influence hair health. Well, I don't think. That's a big secret, but again, that one of those things that, uh, you know, someone that is smoking, they'd never exercises that works inside all day and a very stressful environment. will probably lose their hair faster than someone who doesn't. So you should always examine lifestyle factors for whatever issue you're trying to solve before you jump to other conclusions.

17:49 Number 12 is oxidative stress. I talk a lot about this a lots because basically this means that the body is under stress Um, from things in the environment. So 2006 study looks at octave stress and hair loss found that oxidative stress damages hair follicles contributing to hair lost. Basically, um, a lot of this can be traced back to environmental toxins, pollutants and things that cause the body. to oxidize at a more rapid rate, meaning that we age faster, we're less healthy, and in this case, going to be losing hair at faster rate than we normally

18:27 would have otherwise. So it's obviously a big factor in many health issues and particularly hair loss. Number 13 is pro-inflammatory cytokines. A 2017 study looked at this and they found that elevated levels of proinflammatories cytakines are observed in AGA patients, meaning that the more cytokines that we have that are there in response to inflammation, the less likely we are to have a healthy head of hair. So again, it goes back to managing inflammation.

18:59 The next is cellular senescence. So I've talked a little bit about this, but basically seniscent cells are zombie cells in the body, meaning that they're ones that should have died a long time ago and they are floating around in their body and causing all this havoc when they should be gone. Kind of like zombies in a video game, right? When you're attacking the zombies, they were dead. You can't really kill them though because they, are just wreaking havoc. 2019 study looked at hair follicle aging and this and I found that the cellular aging processes contribute to hair, follicles, miniaturization. Uh, long story short, the more senescent cells we have in the body, The more likely we are going to be prone and predisposed to hair loss.

19:36 So again, um, you can check out my channel for some videos on cellular senessence, but if we can control the cellular Senescence, we're going have a much better shot at defending hair. Now let's look at genetics again. So 2005 study examined this and I found that genes regulating hair growth cycles are crucial in AGA. Kind of connected to the genetic one, but this is more related to their growth cycle. Depending on how fast or slow someone's hair grows can affect whether or not that person's going to be predisposed to baldness or so.

20:07 Again, not the genes dictate everything, they're a pretty good indicator of a lot of stuff for us. Now let's look at differential receptor expression. So 2001 study looked at this and it found that varying expression of androgen receptors and hair follicles across different body sites. Basically that means that there's going to be different expressions of different andogen receptors, and the hair fallicles, across body sights, which eventually means that DHT is not always the cause because there's different expressions of androgens across all different body types.

20:43 So is it more of a scalp thing or is that in other areas of the body? So, um, we also have scalp health and hygiene. I think this is a huge one. One thing I definitely could do a better job of, but then on the flip side, I, think if you're over washing your hair, you could be doing more damage because of the environmental toxins and pollutants coming through. So 2015 study looked at this and they found that poor scalp hygiene. can absolutely exacerbate hair loss conditions, meaning that if you're not taking care of your health or your hair health,

21:15 you are not keeping it clean. You're doing everything you can. And I preface that because you could be shampooing your here, but if your shampoo is loaded with pherobins and sulfates and all this stuff that they put into shampoo products, well, that's going to cause more oxidative stress. So it's kind of a delicate balance, as they say. Um, let's look at hormone metabolism enzymes. So 2009 study looked at the role of five alpha reductase, uh, and aromatase in androgenic alopecia. This could be interesting.

21:45 Enzymes involved in hormone, metabolism plays significant roles in AGA. Basically what happens when the body. has testosterone is that these enzymes, in the case of DHT, it's called 5-alpha reductase, convert the testosterone into DHD. And in case estradiol, we have aromatase which converts the testosterone into estridiol. So it is actually more likely that the enzymes are having something to do with hair loss rather than the hormone itself.

22:16 Now we don't really know what that means and I think a lot of enzymatic function within the body is impaired because of the toxins and poor lifestyle choices and stress and everything. So these play significant roles in baldness, not just the hormone itself. To make a separate note, people will use an aromatase inhibitor to block estrogen because they think they have a high estrogen. Well, eventually that estrogen will or the estrogen being low will cause more problems in the long run.

22:48 So whenever we're blocking God-given hormones or blocking the enzyme function, Um, it's going to have a deleterious effect on the health of the scalp. So, uh, we also have epigenetic factors. Basically this is how the genes express the environment. Like I talked about, so a 2013 study looked at this and it found that epi-genetic changes affect hair follicle function and health. What this means without getting too complex is that basically changes in the environment triggered an up regulation or down regulation of certain genes

23:22 to either cause or not cause hair loss. So when we again, look at these different factors, how our body is responding to the around it. And that environment could be the physical environment or the mental or emotional or psychological environment again is going to affect the expression of the hair follicle, much like it will anything else in the body. So that's definitely a play. And again, you know, not to go into a different topic, but epigenetics are huge because it's how the bodies are responding.

23:53 Let's look at SHBG. Everyone wants to attack DHT, But does SHPG have anything to do with this? So 2010 study looked at shbg found that SH BG levels influence the availability of active androgens affecting hair loss. So long story short, to make it as simple as possible, the higher our levels of SHBG are in the body, typically the lower levels have free testosterone. So basically SHPG is what binds to testosterone, preventing our free-testosterone from being higher.

24:24 Typically there's an inverse relationship between SH-B-G and free testosteron in body. If our level are different, That means it can affect the expression of active androgens, i.e. free testosterone in the body, which could potentially impact hair loss. So you could take two people with the same amounts of total testosterone, in their body or even DHT in our body. And then if one has higher levels of SHPG, that could, potentially mean that there's less free, testosterone and the, body which can potentially express

24:57 two more hair loss. So it's very complex and it is not always there, but again, it s one of those things that SHBG has a relatively significant impact on hair-loss as opposed to DHT. Let's move to 21, the role of estrogen. A 2014 study looked at the protective role estrogen in androgen and alpecia. Estrogens have protective effects against hair follicle miniaturization. So as we get closer to the end, I wanted to bring it home with this.

25:29 Estrogen are unfortunately very maligned and inappropriately so in our culture, especially among men. Men immediately associate estrogen with something negative. Now, I'm not saying that's always bad, but when we look at blocking estrogen in the body, estrogen is a God-given hormone. If our estrogen levels are too high, we need to look why that may be instead of looking at taking a medication to block it. Here's what oftentimes happens is, a man gets put on testosterone therapy and he gets prescribed a DHT inhibitor and a aromatase inhibitors.

26:08 which will eventually cause him to have lower levels of DHT and lower level of estrogen. Estrogen actually protects our follicles, meaning that if we suppress estrogen, we are going to basically put ourselves in an uphill battle against hair loss. So again, this goes back to what I referenced earlier about estrogen being protective. We don't want to again inhibit God given hormones because of what happens with this. You have a lot of men out there. And again, I want to put this in the context.

26:40 Estrogen is very complex. So a lotta fat people, especially fat men, there's like, oh, i have high estrogen. It's, like that may be true, but it's more likely like one high SHBG and two high inflammation in body and insulin resistance to the body. But a gotta guys want bring down their estrogen and the estrogen helps protect against the mineralization of the hair follicle. And I'll just give you a personal experience from my life. Um, when I've gotten really, really lean before, you know, down to like four or 5% body fat, obviously all the hormones in the body start to shut down

27:14 and you eventually will suppress your estrogen. If you're lean enough for long enough. And, uh, I noticed my hair starts to become more thin, starts become less, lush and healthy, Uh, When my estrogen is lower and I, You know. Obviously through what I do, manipulate my hormones and noticed that when my higher in the presence of a healthy body fat, I have the fullest and thickest hair ever. So again, don't blame DHT, look at estrogen, are we doing something to potentially block estrogen that could have negative consequences to our hair follicle size?

27:49 So very important with estrogen. Then the last one I just have put on a boat on it is the impact of medication. So 2012 study looked at this and certain medications can induce hair loss independent of DHT levels. Obviously, medications, environment, stress factors, all of those things are very important as it relates. Just summing up, Um, the simplistic view that DHT by itself causes hair loss, um, is looking like it's going to be challenged by a lot of the stuff coming in the future. Um. And I think, you know, again, whether DHC causes her loss or not, You know.

28:23 I can't sit here and promise you 100%. It doesn't. But I. Think when we look at solving the problem of hair, loss. are we doing everything we can possible to give ourselves a chance at keeping our hair as men before we explore inhibiting a God-given hormone that's going to have a terrible cascade of negative side effects? And then again, maybe it doesn't even work to begin with. So addressing hair loss should involve considering our genetic predisposition, autoimmune factors, lifestyle, overall health,

28:55 and eventually blood flow to the scalp. Because like I said, this can be very important. And what's amazing, and this could be a follow up video if I get enough feedback on this, is there are peptides and even bioregulators and things coming down in the future that is going to massively help with this red light can help this. So future research, more comprehensive studies need to be done to fully understand the complex mechanisms behind hair loss and the role of DHT. And I think ultimately too, I always say it like this like, I say, I always say it, but like, it's similar to the idea.

29:27 People oftentimes will ask me like could I try BPC 157 and TB 500 instead of getting surgery on my, you know, torn knee or torn shoulder or elbow or whatever it ends up being. And I'll always tell people, okay, so the doctor wants you to get surgery. You understand that surgery could be potentially a life altering procedure that will never leave you the same. And if you look at BPC and TB 500, there's been a lot of instances, and I personally can attest to this in my own life and then thousands of people that

29:59 have reported back to me, that a lotta times using those peptides spares someone from having to have surgery. So I always tell people, if your option is surgery or use peptide, What is the harm in trying the peptides for a few months at first, and then if they don't work, going to surgery? And the answer is nothing. And I think if we look at hair loss, it's very similar to that. So if you are in the early stages of hair, loss or even the later stages have hair lost and you're trying to do something to fix it, one, hopefully you haven't gone down the DHT inhibition pathway yet.

30:30 But even so, if try all of these other things, The worst consequences of it is that one, you get smarter because you learn all this stuff. And then two, your health improves because your doing all these things to improve your help to begin with. Three, don't inhibit DHT, which is the male hormone that is going to make you feel like a man. So I think at the end of the day, at least give yourself a chance and explore all these other options before you go down the rabbit hole of DHT inhibition. So that's it for the slides.

31:00 And that will wrap up our argument for why DHP doesn't inhibit hair loss. Before you get angry about me or anything like that, again, this video was just a counter argument to the prevailing wisdom. I can't conclusively tell you one way or the other. This is just my philosophy and opinion on what I've seen and what i've just like I can't conclusively tell you that the sky is blue. The blue that I see might not be the blue you see and so we're all saying the skies blue but it might be not the same thing. So at the end of the day everything is probably a philosophical debate but ultimately I think hopefully this video will help spare someone from going down

31:35 that pathway of looking to inhibit DHT at least before they kind of consider all options. So if you know someone like that or this is you, you obviously share this video with them and help get them informed. And I think informed consent is always better to have than not. Right. As always, check out the links down below. Again, if this videos gets 500 likes, I'll post the slides in the comments so you can get those and download them. You have links to all the resources and everything so can go look up those studies yourself and Anyway, without going on too much longer,

32:07 I appreciate you guys much love and I will see you in the next one. Peace.