In the previous article, we learned how hair grows and the basic concepts of androgens with hair anatomy. There are hormone receptors (androgens) infused throughout your scalp. Likewise, most 5α-reductase is being created in the sebaceous glands, right next to these androgen receptors.

Testosterone circulates throughout the body in the bloodstream. Quickly, blood circulation carries testosterone to the hair follicle. When testosterone is mixed with 5a-reductase in the sebaceous glands, finally DHT is formed.

As your body has a tendency to store DHT in the skin and specifically in the scalp. In other words, the androgen receptors around the hair follicle are especially sensitive to the collection and storage of potent DHT.

Unfortunately, DHT is forming right next to the receptors, making it very easy for the receptors to collect a maximum volume of the hormone. When there is nothing that prevents the formation of DHT and there is nothing to block the storage of the DHT, the receivers are flooded with it.

If the disease is not treated, inflammation and follicle reduction will continue. Over time, the lack of a consistent anagen phase (resting time of hair growth) will become very evident, because this phase is stretched for a long time before a very thin hair is born and as soon as it completes, and it will fall quickly again. Over time, the hair that was once thick and strong will begin to resemble the small hairs, almost transparent just like your arms hair.

Of course, the androgen receptors around your hair are not shrinking. Therefore, the DHT attack remains as strong as ever. Even new hairs will stop growing, if nothing is done to stop it. The hair follicle will eventually reduce to nothing and die permanently later in life.

Again, this is where genetics matter, you know you have a familial high 5AR tendency, which means elevated DHT. The hair follicle has an allergic reaction to DHT and this is the basis for androgenic alopecia. The reason some people lose their hair more quickly or more severely than others is that their hair follicles are more sensitive or allergic to DHT, which causes a faster and tougher reaction.

This does not mean that you can not overcome your genetics. But you shouldn’t give up for the DHT.
If you can control the amount of DHT formed and the allergic reactions of the hair follicle, you can reduce inflammation, heal the follicle and stop hair loss.

The Reaction Of DHT On Hair Follicles

In the case of a healthy scalp, 5AR and its exposure to DHT will not cause noticeable hair loss. Scientists who observed the phenomenon of 5α-reductase were also forced to study this fact. What they discovered is that the hair follicles of people with elevated 5AR also appear to be allergic to DHT.

DHT sits at the androgen receptors surrounding the follicle. The allergic follicle begins to swell, just as when your nose is inflamed by allergies or inflammation of the skin from a bee sting. This inflammation starts at a microscopic level, but over time it will become more visible as the hair loss accelerates.

As you know, when other parts of the skin remain swollen during any period of time, uncontrolled inflammation causes many secondary problems. Obviously, an inflamed hair follicle is putting unnecessary pressure on hair growth, drowning the new hair. Second, an inflamed hair follicle can not breathe and more oil and bacteria will get trapped inside, strangling the hair growth.

Swelling around the follicle also restricts blood flow to the area. This not only means that the hair growth proteins will not reach the follicle, but also the anti-androgen enzymes and the hormones will not reach the DHT. There is nothing there to metabolize or purge it from your scalp.

As the DHT attack and inflammation continues, the hair follicle will become increasingly sick. Unfortunately, the more sick the follicle becomes the less it will be able to resist the attack. Little by little, the follicle becomes weak and will begin with more severe symptoms.

The diseased follicle will begin to diminish, causing it to grow thinner hair as it does. Even worse, the follicle spends a greater amount of energy to grow weak hair and will need more recovery time. The anagen growth phase will become shorter and the telogen phase will be lengthened. Essentially, there will be very little growth time compared to how often hair falls and how long it takes to grow back.

We saw how DHT causes alopecia and consequent hair loss. Now, we will learn how to regulate DHT to prevent baldness. For this, we first have to learn a little about how the DHT increases, so we can counter it.

What Else Increases DHT?

As we saw in the previous article, a genetic tendency to the overproduction of 5a-reductase is the cause of the creation of DHT and consequently of alopecia. Although this is the beginning of your problem, it is not the only reason your DHT levels are so high. If you want to stop hair loss, you will have to deal with all the factors that raise these hormones.

In short, anything that puts your health at risk increases the production of enzymes and hormone metabolism. These risks can be divided into two categories: what you put into your body (food) and how to keep your body (exercise). Taking the wrong in any of these categories will cause hormonal chaos decisions.

Just as our body can not live without food, neither can it thrive with the wrong food. Food and wrong eating habits can cause your body to generate more DHT. In addition, some foods are already full of hormones, further increasing the risk of developing alopecia.

Exercise & Ideal Food To Treat Hair Loss

To avoid alopecia, right eating habits are not the only thing but your body expects to be healthy. Every function of your body, from sleep to the production of sweat, decides the body's total effort to stay healthy. Sometimes, we frustrate progress through the poor decisions we make despite your best efforts.

Remember one thing: Through the hundreds of thousands of years that humans have walked on this planet, the body has evolved to meet the demands of a hunting and gathering lifestyle. The body needs to be in perfect athletic condition to function properly. However, advances in technology have made life more convenient and do not seem to need to be in shape. Unfortunately, it will still be hundreds of years before the human body receives that evolutionary message.

First, you should know that any testosterone-increasing substance you consume will be counterproductive, however much you feel it improves your appearance or your body's functioning. The problem we have is related to testosterone. Reducing and stopping DHT can not be achieved when you try to raise testosterone levels artificially

It only takes a short time before other bad health decisions begin to have consequences as well. For example, periods of prolonged stress can quickly reduce the body's ability to produce adrenaline. As your adrenal gland begins to fail, your body will increase testosterone, both to heal the gland and to repair the wear and tear that stress puts on the rest of your body. Lack of sleep, the body's ideal time to heal, can also increase the hormonal imbalance in the body, resulting in the development of alopecia.

Of course, having too much body fat is also one of the worst health decisions you can make. (Note, the problem is excess body fat and not overall body fat. In fact, if you must have some body fat to keep you healthy.) Fat has an unusual ability to retain, metabolize, and even produce hormones in an independent way. This is not a problem when there is a normal and healthy amount of body fat. In fact, your body is prepared for it. However, when excess body fat builds up, it's almost as if fat would turn into its own endocrine organ and the body does not know how to react.

Fat Gain And Hair Loss Connection

Having too much fat can cause several problems, but they all translate into increased amounts of androgens and testosterone. For example, enzymes produced in body fat block the liver and kidney function. These organs are responsible for the detoxification of your body and the purification of chemicals like DHT. In fact, the liver produces many of the enzymes that act against 5α-reductase and metabolize DHT.

A decrease in liver function is equivalent to an increase in DHT. In addition, the kidneys and liver help to produce the enzymes that control blood sugar. When these organs fail, your blood sugar will rise, your body will accelerate fat accumulation, and the fat = DHT cycle will continue.

In addition, body fat can also absorb toxins from food and transform them into hormones. Body fat has the ability to create and release a very unusual form of estrogen. Normally, estrogen could stop testosterone, but that is not the case here. This type of estrogen is very strong, but its artificial composition makes it useless for maintaining healthy body function. However, as useless as it is, it is still strong enough that your body does not produce the kind of estrogen that would counteract DHT.

These are just some of the ways in which making poor health decisions can increase DHT on the scalp, which causes hair loss. Stopping alopecia can seem very complex and intimidating. Do not be afraid, with proper guidance you can start making better choices and win this battle against DHT and alopecia.

Counterattack 5AR & DHT

Stop hair loss is a two-pronged approach.

Step one: Stop the consequences
Step two: Growth of new hair

Although you will do both simultaneously, we should prioritize Step 1. Many hair loss programs focus primarily on step 1, which is blocking the 5AR. In theory, that would be a great solution. In fact, many pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money selling drugs that do just that.

However, there are two important problems to follow that line of action. First, the enzyme 5a-reductase has a difference of only a few atoms compared to the chemical composition of other enzymes and vital hormones inside your body.

For this reason, taking products and using techniques specifically aimed at inhibiting 5AR may have serious consequences, since they are also likely to block the enzymes that metabolize similar steroids. Despite advances in modern medicine, scientists are still unable to attack only 5α-reductase. If you suffer from alopecia, you already have a tendency to not produce enough of the other enzymes you need, so it can be very risky to try to block 5a-reductase.

The second problem with trying to block 5a-reductase is that you need a small amount of DHT, especially to being a man. Blocking all 5a-reductase can have an adverse effect and cause serious reproductive problems, such as infertility in men where it can cause sexual malfunction. In women, it is so dangerous that simply using anti-5AR drugs can cause irreversible congenital defects.

This does not mean that 5α-reductase can not be controlled. However, the focus of these articles is to teach you the secrets of blocking, reducing and eventually eliminating the unhealthy amounts of DHT in your body. Once you balance your body, the production of other enzymes will increase and naturally balance your levels of 5AR.

“Step 1 and Step 2 in progress: Alopecia Cured”

The main point is that DHT is really what is causing your hair follicles to become sick. In Man's Handbook, we will teach you how to take care of your scalp and nourish your body to promote hair growth (or step two). All that work would be useless if we can not fight the DHT attack on the hair follicles because it would cause the new hair to fall again, returning to alopecia.

On the other hand, if you start controlling the hormones in the scalp through blocking and inhibiting DHT throughout your body, your work will be rewarded. Without the flood of DHT in the follicle, it will become more resistant to inflammation. As the swelling subsides, the hair follicle will be healthier and larger with each cycle of hair growth. The anagen growth phase will also last longer each time.

When you combine a hair follicle with increased hair care and nutrients from Stage Two, the result will result in that hair will be thicker, stronger and as a result, will not fall off.

So stay tuned for our next Hair loss guide!!