Supplements and Early Hair Loss

Hi everyone,

I’ve used the search function and read similar threads but just wanted to gauge on personal experiences from other members in this forum.

I’m 23yrs old. Male.
5 ft. 8 inches
160 lbs

Supplement List:
Centrum Multi-Vitamin - 1x Daily
Flameout - 4x Daily
Superfood - 1x Daily
Creatine - 5-10mg Daily 1 Month/ 1 Month off cycle
HOT-ROX - First day today (July 25th, 2009) taking it. Also first time ever trying out thermogetics
Some Nutrition House brand Protein - 1-2 servings daily (approx. 60g)

Now my concerns are the hair on head. For the past say… year, the hair right on the top crown of head has been thinning. And my family has been noticing.

Yes, there are male pattern baldness that runs in both my father’s and mother’s side. However, my dad, being one of the exceptions still has 3/4 of his hair…he’s in his 50s. And usually, male pattern baldness in my family runs from the temple (front) and reseeds backwards.

I have no doubt that there are many factors (many of them prob genetics)…but here’s the story:

My 30 yr old cousin (female) had been experiencing crazy hair loss and was due to Stress from work. It was pretty spotty. Being from an asian family, my uncle started to prepare chinese herbal medicine for her to ingest. She started growing it back. And plus, she’s been going to her doctor to get NEEDLE injections (dont know what) into her scalp in order for her to maintain these results.

Thing is, I’ve complained to my mom that PERHAPS (not due to stress), that the herbal medicine would work for me as well. She promptly asked my uncle (who is now overseas) about the ingredients. Check this: the first thing he said was TO STOP TAKING ALL THOSE SUPPLEMENTS. WTF? He told my mom that had friends that used to train and would all these “vitamins” (not quite sure what specifically) and they were bald by 30. Given that my uncle knows jack shit about bodybuilding/ supplementation and such, I can only assume that the “supplements” he was referring to were related to anything like AAS, anabolics, etc.

My mom is freaking out and making see my family doctor and to tell me to bring ALL my supplements for his to see. Then he’ll provide a professional opinion as to if I need to see a specialist.

I’m pretty sure NONE of the supplements i’m taking above has ANY correlation with Advance Hair Loss…

My question is: Has anyone experienced hair thinning, loss from using supplements? and which one specifically. I would like to know your experiences…and if they are related to any that I am currently taking. And your stories are also much appreciated in this thread.

Thanks for taking to read my long ass post…

I didn’t read anything past what your taking, and the prognosis is negative. They are not cuaseing or exasperating your hair loss.

Shave your head?

[quote]johnson575 wrote:
Shave your head?[/quote]

Was hoping to wait until i’m 30 to sport the Vin Diesel look.

Get a finasteride perscription (what propecia is).

My dad uses it and it really thickened his hair up.
I started using it too about 2 months ago, my hair has been thinning on top too.

Centrum isn’t a very good multivitamin, they use cheap binding agents so it had poor bioavailability. I’d suggest checking out GNC’s multi, it’s supposedly a lot better, albeit more expensive.

At 160, why are you taking HOT-ROX?

Genetic male pattern baldness comes from your mothers side not your fathers, look at your mom’s dad and your uncles, if they are bald you are fucked.

My dad at 62 has more hair on his head then I did at 23, my hair was falling out like crazy till 27 then it just stopped and has remained thin for the last two years. I now just buzz my hair to 1/8" long with clippers.

You can try propecia but it only works for about half the population, I am not in that half and had adverse reactions to it and ended up getting a rather nasty rash on my head.

No matter how many times I see it, I’m still amazed how many people think that creatine is an anabolic steriod, which might be the case in regards to your uncle’s advice.

There is a very tiny chance that the stimulants in the HOT-ROX are enhancing a pre-existing stressful state, but generally stress hair loss is reversible and rogaine would be something to aim for before you get a finasteride script. However, if you’re demonstrating early stages of genetic male pattern baldness, you might want to talk to a doctor about your options. A brief search on Lexis-Nexis (gotta love still having a university ID just from using the gym and taking a jewelry making class) on the individual ingredients on all of the above didn’t pop up with any studies indicating that there were hair-loss associations, but admittedly it was a brief search and I might have missed a study because I worded the search improperly.

In short…whatever is going on on your head, the probability that it relates to any of the products mentioned is so low as to not be a serious consideration.

Brief add-on – I’d like to reiterate the statement above that you should consider changing your multi-vitamin. In fact, if you’re taking superfood and eating a reasonably complex diet on top of it, I’d say drop a multi-vitamin altogether. Multi-vitamins don’t get digested properly, and there are cases of people getting absorbing too much of one vitamin or mineral and little of any of another even when both vitamins were supposedly in the same tablet. Or, as my father would say, multi-vitamins are a great way to turn money into colorful urine, and not much more. (and to qualify the statement, he’s a physician who is addicted to reading just about every english-language health, medicine, and nutrition newsletter/journal that exists)

[quote]Papa Nick wrote:
Get a finasteride perscription (what propecia is).

My dad uses it and it really thickened his hair up.
I started using it too about 2 months ago, my hair has been thinning on top too.
[/quote]

hey man, is that your DP? you have the Lex Luthor look (Michael Rosenbaum, which is sick.

How old are you?

[quote]Xab wrote:
Centrum isn’t a very good multivitamin, they use cheap binding agents so it had poor bioavailability. I’d suggest checking out GNC’s multi, it’s supposedly a lot better, albeit more expensive. [/quote]

Thanks for advice Xab. I just started with whatever was/ is available @ Wal-Mart.

Anyone take Animal Pak? GNC prices are marked way way up…clever marketing ploys.

[quote]Vash wrote:
At 160, why are you taking HOT-ROX?[/quote]

hey Vash, knew i would get flamed sooner or later based on my stats.

Given the progress i’ve encountered over the last 3 years, 160 is a decent weight for me.
I started @ 110lbs and after 3.5 years = 160lbs (given i probably look 17-20% BF = not lean)

The purpose of this is to shed some stubborn fat and really just to test my body and it reacts to diff supps. Definitely NOT my end Goal to stay at 160lbs.

[quote]Nanan wrote:
Genetic male pattern baldness comes from your mothers side not your fathers, look at your mom’s dad and your uncles, if they are bald you are fucked.

My dad at 62 has more hair on his head then I did at 23, my hair was falling out like crazy till 27 then it just stopped and has remained thin for the last two years. I now just buzz my hair to 1/8" long with clippers.

You can try propecia but it only works for about half the population, I am not in that half and had adverse reactions to it and ended up getting a rather nasty rash on my head.[/quote]

Hey Nanan,

thanks for the feedback.
Given that ALL the uncles on my mom’s side were/ are experiencing hair loss, the odds are definitely NOT in my favour.

I guess my only concern that it may be external factors is that i’m experiencing it at the crown of my head. ALL the hairloss and baldness that runs in my family (mom’s side as well), started from the temple (M shape) and reseeds from the front to back, not from the top crown (which IMO is the WORST way to lose your hair).

I guess this can be saved for another topic (or perhaps searched…) but Propecia/ Rogain and all those DHT inhibitors fuck with your test levels as well right? Don’t really want to fuck with natural body order.

I guess it would depend on how desperate i get/ want to keep my hair…

[quote]LHT wrote:
No matter how many times I see it, I’m still amazed how many people think that creatine is an anabolic steriod, which might be the case in regards to your uncle’s advice.

There is a very tiny chance that the stimulants in the HOT-ROX are enhancing a pre-existing stressful state, but generally stress hair loss is reversible and rogaine would be something to aim for before you get a finasteride script. However, if you’re demonstrating early stages of genetic male pattern baldness, you might want to talk to a doctor about your options. A brief search on Lexis-Nexis (gotta love still having a university ID just from using the gym and taking a jewelry making class) on the individual ingredients on all of the above didn’t pop up with any studies indicating that there were hair-loss associations, but admittedly it was a brief search and I might have missed a study because I worded the search improperly.

In short…whatever is going on on your head, the probability that it relates to any of the products mentioned is so low as to not be a serious consideration.

Brief add-on – I’d like to reiterate the statement above that you should consider changing your multi-vitamin. In fact, if you’re taking superfood and eating a reasonably complex diet on top of it, I’d say drop a multi-vitamin altogether. Multi-vitamins don’t get digested properly, and there are cases of people getting absorbing too much of one vitamin or mineral and little of any of another even when both vitamins were supposedly in the same tablet. Or, as my father would say, multi-vitamins are a great way to turn money into colorful urine, and not much more. (and to qualify the statement, he’s a physician who is addicted to reading just about every english-language health, medicine, and nutrition newsletter/journal that exists)[/quote]

LHT, first I would like to thank you for doing a brief search based on the supps above. And thanks for taking the time to reply. I honestly don’t really mind quitting the Multi-Vitamin all together…not really hot about taking pills anyhow.

And the statement about Creatine…so true. But thing is, he doesn’t even know what the hell I was/ am taking at this point. As SOON as he heard supps. he was like “STOP”. WtF>?

I will definitely take your statements into deep consideration.

One possibility, and an interesting coincidence, today I just watched a program on the Discovery channel about medicine in China, and how modern western and traditional Chinese medicines are combined for various therapies. Apparently, in some schools of Chinese traditional medicine, there is a belief that ALL medicines or supplements that aren’t part of the Chinese pharmacopoeia will interfere with Chinese medicine.

The theory as I understood from the show is that they work on entirely different systems of physiology and methodology and thus should not be mixed in any capacity. That’s the theory at least, I have no opinion on the matter because I’ve never studied or been treated by traditional Chinese medicine (other than rubbing on some dit da jow for sore joints in kung fu class). But if your uncle was trained under that sort of theory, it might be the reason he rejected your supps altogether.

[quote]LHT wrote:
One possibility, and an interesting coincidence, today I just watched a program on the Discovery channel about medicine in China, and how modern western and traditional Chinese medicines are combined for various therapies. Apparently, in some schools of Chinese traditional medicine, there is a belief that ALL medicines or supplements that aren’t part of the Chinese pharmacopoeia will interfere with Chinese medicine.

The theory as I understood from the show is that they work on entirely different systems of physiology and methodology and thus should not be mixed in any capacity. That’s the theory at least, I have no opinion on the matter because I’ve never studied or been treated by traditional Chinese medicine (other than rubbing on some dit da jow for sore joints in kung fu class). But if your uncle was trained under that sort of theory, it might be the reason he rejected your supps altogether. [/quote]

Most likely as he’s old school. That dit da jow is crazy shit, i always drop weights on myself at the gym.

I think his initial reactions were based on his friend’s experience. My uncle lives in Hong Kong right now.

Not to bash my own country of birth…but we will know where “FAKE” food/ drinks/ drugs and shit stem from…CHINA. Any way to make $$$.

Probably bought some shit supps that were fake?

I started loosing my hair when i barely turned 16 years old and shaved it completely when I was 19 years old. I spent A LOT of money on worthless products, IMO if your balding already there wont be much you can do. I notice when my stressed increased my hair tended to fall out even more.

Just shave it…thats what I did and I never been so confident. Plus you shouldn’t be stressing about loosing your hair, its just hair. I been in your situation and i know it sucks, but remember there are much worse things in life.

OP, I have notice the same thing-- thinning on the crown, then I did some mad research and found out some things that may help. My interpretation may be a bit off, but here’s what I think: If you are genetically predisposed to MPB then this will affect you.

Testosterone in your blood gets converted to androgens, which like to latch on to hair follicles on your head (don’t know why). Your immune system attacks your own hair follicles, kills them, and you go bald. WTF. Increases in blood testosterone will increase angrogen levels, which suck for us.

To help with hair loss due to this, you need to reduce blood androgen levels OR stop them from binding to your follicles. If you androgen levels are marginally high, then something like saw palmetto can help, but likely you will be like me where I have to use a few things to get it under control.

Here is what I use:
Saw Palmetto
Nizoral Shampoo 2x/week
Rogain or other minoxidil 1x/day

It sucks, but thats the price you have to pay for hair, especially since it seems like you are genetically predisposed to it.