/fit/ - Fitness, Health, and Feels★

No. Baldness is usually caused by prostaglandins derived from linoleic acid. Inhibiting COX-2 can put the brakes on the hair loss. Niacinamide, vitamin D, vitamin E, and aspirin can help, and applying directly to the bald spot may be useful. Vitamin D is necessary for hair growth. Red light may speed up recovery. There is no long term cure other than avoidance of linoleic acid.

>>133247

>There is no long term cure other than avoidance of linoleic acid.

And avoidance of its derivatives. Caffeine may also inhibit COX-2 and has been known to regrow hair where directly applied. Anything that inhibits nitric oxide may lower levels of COX enzymes, so methylene blues can also help.

>>133249

*methylene blue

>>133247

>>133249

>>133250

why is this such a complicated issue, how is there not an effective drug out yet?

>>133246 (OP)

I read somewhere that peppermint oil applied topically helps a lot, trying it since two weeks, mixed with jojoba oil as the base, 3% peppermint oil.

Just shave.

I was balding, now I'm bald. Snakeoil isn't cheap, and depending on you, you may look good bald. You only find out post shave, so either get a hair transplant, or shave and hope your head isn't weird looking.

The worst part about being bald is it's not low maintenance, shaving is regular or even daily if you hate stubble.

The best part is you don't have to worry about losing your hair.

>>133254

It's not a complicated issue scientifically. There are effective drugs (aspirin, caffeine, etc), but you won't find anyone marketing them for these purposes, as the drug and medicine industries are basically convinced that a substance must be patentable to make money. These remedies are not patentable, and there is no drug that causes one to eat a diet without more linoleic acid and its derivatives than one can safely dispose of (probably in hungry muscle tissue)---the only long term cure to classical male pattern baldness. Depending on level of activity, metabolic rate, amount of body fat, and muscle mass, it can take anywhere from 90 days to 3 years to dispose of the polyunsaturated fats that cause problems such as these.

>>133257

>it can take anywhere from 90 days to 3 years to dispose of the polyunsaturated fats that cause problems such as these.

And meanwhile hair can be regrown by using substances that inhibit the chronic release of free fatty acids into the blood stream---such as aspirin and niacinamide—and directly applying healing, metabolic boosters—such as niacinamide, aspirin, caffeine, and red light—to the affected area. Inhibiting prolactin and cortisol may be essential as well. There is no substitute for a diet that does the least damage and the least aging, but certain substances and techniques can stimulate recovery while putting the brakes on the chronic issues that contribute to problems.

Try using generic minoxidil. It's basically Rogaine (same exact chemical). You can get a years supply for 30 bucks.

>>133259

>>133257

So, please spell this out for me, what do I have to avoid in food, just polyunsaturated fats? What contains linoleum acid? How would you use caffeine and aspirin, just take it all the time? Somehow apply it to the head? Are there studies on these corellations?

>>133246 (OP)

idk but my advice is that if you can't manage to fix the bald spot to just shave your head perfectly bald (or even laser it) and use head shrine so has to hide the fact that you're balding, I can't help but judge people that are balding, it looks so awful

definitely do nofap, excessive fapping can exacerbate male pattern baldness

Ayy I've seen some pretty depressing threads lately so I'm taking a shot at a feelsgoodman post.

Post a goal or fitness-related event that makes you feel good…..man

For me, it's when I crank out some pullups and realize that they've gotten much easier and my form is tighter. Putting down a couple dozen goes from a feat to a casual occurrence and motivates me further.

>>133265

lmao fug me I can't post

>>133262

>So, please spell this out for me, what do I have to avoid in food, just polyunsaturated fats?

As linoleic acid is one particular polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), that is a reasonable course of action.

>What contains linoleum acid?

Linoleic acid or some form of PUFA is present in most foods, but the key distinction I want to make is that some foods only contain trace amounts, which are manageable, and other foods contain so much that to regularly eat them means to accumulate them more quickly than they can be safely disposed of.

Increasing the amount of PUFA in the diet always calls for increasing the amount of vitamin E, and because of the way PUFA accumulates in tissues, a modern Western diet ensures that eventually no amount of vitamin E can completely protect against the problems that will occur. But if care is taken to always moderate PUFA intake, vitamin E becomes highly effective and the benefits are realized. The only safe way to get vitamin E is through supplementation---not whole foods—as all vitamin E food sources come with the exact amount of PUFA that is balanced by that amount of vitamin E—which is useless if you are trying to increase your ratio of vitamin E—whereas supplements can contain isolated vitamin E. To make matters worse, the half-life of α-tocopherol is only about 20 hours, but PUFA may stay in tissues for years either as part of cell membranes or stuck dormant in fat cells. This strange situation can be explained by the fact that plants can probably just make vitamin E when and where they need it most.

Wikipedia has a decent chart of linoleic acid content:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleic_acid#Dietary_sources

Fats normally termed as vegetable oils (corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, etc) have the highest linoleic acid ratios, whereas tropical oils (coconut oil, cocoa butter, etc) and milk fat have the lowest. Seeds and nuts in general tend to be high in linoleic acid, and anything that endures cold temperatures from inability to generate much body heat (such as cold or deep water fish) generally has a high ratio of PUFA. Paying attention to ratios of PUFA to saturated fat helps, but over the long term total fat intake should ideally be guarded, as even something as pure as coconut oil has a tiny bit of linoleic acid.

>How would you use caffeine and aspirin, just take it all the time? Somehow apply it to the head?

Taking all the time by mouth ensures a substance distributes fairly equally over the body, but some tissues may be greedy. So anytime someone is in a hurry or finds it difficult to reach a high concentration in a particular area, they could administer the substance directly to the target area. Ethanol can work as the solvent to carry a substance through the skin. There are products on the market, but I'm not a salesman. And it's easy enough to make your own with a little clear vodka and supplement powders.

>>133273

>Are there studies

Yes, I'll leave you a few at the bottom, and feel free to ask for a citation on any specific claim I made. For now I will elaborate on this part:

Prostaglandin D₂ inhibits hair growth and is a derivative of prostaglandin H₂.

Garza, Luis A., et al. Prostaglandin D2 inhibits hair growth and is elevated in bald scalp of men with androgenetic alopecia. Science translational medicine 4.126 (2012): 126ra34-126ra34.

URL: http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/126/126ra34.short

Aspirin inhibits cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), the enzyme which converts arachidonic acid (the derivative of linoleic acid) to prostaglandin H₂---the immediate precursor to prostaglandin D₂.

Flower, Rod. What are all the things that aspirin does?: This fascinating but simple and cheap drug has an assured future. BMJ: British Medical Journal 327.7415 (2003): 572.

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2Fbmj.327.7415.572

> A defining point in the history of aspirin was the discovery that it inhibited the prostaglandin forming cyclooxygenase.1

Not only does vitamin E also inhibit COX-2,

O’Leary, Karen A., et al. Effect of flavonoids and vitamin E on cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) transcription. Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis 551.1 (2004): 245-254.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2004.01.015

> …the tocopherols inhibited COX-2 activity…

but it does so synergistically with aspirin.

Abate, Aida, et al. Synergistic inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 expression by vitamin E and aspirin. Free Radical Biology and Medicine 29.11 (2000): 1135-1142.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0891-5849(00)00425-1

Getting sunlight at high noon every now and then is also important, as vitamin D also inhibits COX-2.

Wang, Qingsong, et al. Vitamin D inhibits COX-2 expression and inflammatory response by targeting thioesterase superfamily member 4. Journal of Biological Chemistry 289.17 (2014): 11681-11694.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.517581

So either consuming less substrate for prostaglandin D₂ formation (linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, etc) or inhibiting an enzyme crucial to its synthesis are both valid ways to reduce a certain kind of hair loss, and my opinion is that this kind is specifically the classical male pattern baldness. (Ultimately, consuming less substrate is the only valid long term strategy though.)

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26291567

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2956867/

• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-4632.2007.03119.x/full

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18489298

• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjd.13114/abstract

>>133273

>What contains linoleum acid?

I probably should have also mentioned that modern farm animals are often fed diets full of linoleic acid---especially pigs and chickens. The general rule is that whatever the animal is fed determines the fatty acid composition of its flesh. An exception is the category of ruminants, as they have the rare ability to saturate the fats in their diet. If the animal can maintain very lean meat, it may not matter. Industry practices may make the existence of lean meat rarer if they whimsically decide to feed their livestock high fat diets. Seafood varies a lot, and there are many very low fat choices such as shrimp, but seafood doesn't really have linoleic acid. (Although the other PUFAs have their own reasons for avoiding.) The bottom line is no animal or plant is undeserving of inspection if PUFA is an area of concern. Always check nutrition facts.

>>133246 (OP)

Just embrace the baldness instead of deluding yourself that the balding part looks thick with hair in the correct light and angle of the head.

>>133246 (OP)

Do not take endocrine disruptors. You need your DHT. Shave you head and own it. Get yourself a headblade and never look back.

If you don't look good bald, lift more.

>>133354

Most likely some, but the outer third of the eyebrows is said to be a function of thyroid hormones. Be careful with the dosage as caffeine pills are usually 200 mg and aspirin 325 mg per pill which is probably way above an beyond what is needed for topical application. I may have read somewhere overly doses even do the opposite---inhibit hair growth. It's different when you swallow the pill; it gets distributed over the whole body. I suggest copying the dosage from transdermal caffeine products already on the market.

>>133356

>overly doses

overly high doses

>>133356

I see. I've done a bit of googling on the matter, and found a paper from late 2012 that says the following:

>The commercially available topical formulations of caffeine normally contain 3% caffeine.

>Moreover, caffeine contained in cosmetics increases the microcirculation of blood in the skin and also stimulates the growth of hair through inhibition of the 5-α-reductase activity.

>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23075568

Seeing as I don't have access to the paper, I've no idea what they're basing the 3% figure on. On the other hand, this page which was last edited in September of 2014 claims the following:

>The cosmetic industry is surprisingly unregulated. Only two of the above products include how much caffeine actually is in their product and even then it is a bit ambiguous. We would guess that, in most cases, there is just a small amount of caffeine in most of the other cosmetics listed, but in some of the products coffee beans are one of the primary ingredients.

>h t t p s://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-and-skin-care-products

I'm thinking I could make caffeine patches by soaking bandages in supersaturated solution, but I don't particularly fancy having adhesives on my eyebrows. Another thing I could do is infuse a cheap moisturising ointment with caffeine somehow, but I'm not sure how effective of a vehicle that'd be. What would you recommend in my situation?

>>133358

Buy an empty spray bottle where 5 sprays = 1 ml. Fill with 200 mg caffeine pills by pulling them apart until each spray = 2 mg caffeine or 10 mg per 1 ml/drop. Use 20% ethanol as solvent. (You may find caffeine powder, but it's more tightly regulated.) You will probably find a spray bottle to hold exactly 3 caffeine pills while maintaining that serving size. You can use a product called Solban as a reference. There is a picture of the dosage, serving size, and ingredients on its website. I doubt the bottle was custom made for that product. Sorry I don't just say "Buy product X." Caffeine pills can be found anywhere cheaply though.

>>133360

That's the one. I guess that's true. A dropper would be simpler. I use droppers daily with ethanol solutions (not for hair loss). The drop will fall into your eye pretty fast if not guarded. Do whatever works for you. I just wanted to clarify what a reasonable dosage looks like (about 10 mg caffeine per serving) and allude to how you might divide those huge dosages from pills or measuring spoons. I have a 1/64 tsp measuring spoon, and it's still not appropriate for using caffeine like this.

>>133362

>>133364

I should clarify: I did see that you said 10mg per serving, but I'm confused as to whether that's for each eyebrow or in total.

>>133364

>>133365

There is no choice but to play with the dosage and hope what you choose works unless you find a study that says they used a very specific amount and you want to replicate that study. The whole point of this exchange was to keep you from dumping 200 mg of caffeine onto a single spot.

>>133378

Alright, I got my hands on some ethanol solution, some soluble aspirin, and a plastic 5mL syringe. Surprisingly, neither the local supermarket nor petrol station had any caffeine pills in stock, which sucks. While I could just use the aspirin, I think I'll try and find some caffeine pills either later today or tomorrow. Thanks again for the help.

>>133428

Yeah, I know of NoDoz, I just couldn't find any. The local Woolies has been undergoing renovation, the local chemist was out of stock, and the local servo didn't have them at all.