ZMA Side-Effects? Balding?

The main one I’m worried about is the premature balding thing… anecdotally, has you hair loss begun or accelerated when you started taking ZMA? Supposedly, the increased testosterone ZMA brings about might possibly cause hair loss, but not sure if it’s been proven, or if it even raises testosterone to a significant degree…

Also, are the weird dream stories true? And does it actually make you wake up feeling fresher? The two should actually contradict, as vivid dreams usually mean more time in REM sleep as opposed to deep sleep (which is dreamless)…

Cheers in advance guys.

ZMA doesn’t raise testosterone, and it definitely won’t cause hair loss, lol.

The weird dreams are definitely real though. To be honest I’ve never been sure that my sleep is any deeper or whatever but dreams are definitely weirder.

[quote]alternate wrote:
The main one I’m worried about is the premature balding thing… anecdotally, has you hair loss begun or accelerated when you started taking ZMA? Supposedly, the increased testosterone ZMA brings about might possibly cause hair loss, but not sure if it’s been proven, or if it even raises testosterone to a significant degree…

Also, are the weird dream stories true? And does it actually make you wake up feeling fresher? The two should actually contradict, as vivid dreams usually mean more time in REM sleep as opposed to deep sleep (which is dreamless)…

Cheers in advance guys.[/quote]

Zinc isn’t going to have an effect like a steroid or even a typical test booster for one. Secondly, its not as cut and dry as high testosterone causes baldness, if that were true anyone with high testosterone would be bald! Testosterone itself does not cause hair loss. Hair loss is influenced by the transformation of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Testosterone converts into DHT due to an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. Add to this a hereditary predisposition to hair loss, and chances are that over time, the hair will thin and lead to baldness.

I believe having high levels of 5-alpha reductase will no doubt lead to a greater risk of loosing your hair. But yes, it does promote a deeper sleep which can lead to having more vivid dreams, i’ve definitely experienced it myself. However, i see this as proof that i’m getting quality sleep in regards to the dreams.

My dreams are too sketchy just when I take my normal calcium, zinc, and magnesium supplement.

I just take zinc as can’t handle the crazy dreams from magnesium

If anything, my -very small degree- hair loss got better, but I attribute that to Resveratrol and Curcumin, which I began taking at the same time as ZMA. Been doing it for a month now and I think I am actually regrowing lost hair.
The dreams are indeed quite interesting, and I’ve had nothing but good ones. I think having weird/bad dream trips is more of a self suggestion thing.

As far as testosterone and hair loss, I would rather look into making sure your estrogen levels are in check and low. It seems the problem is more about testosterone not being able to bind due to excess estrogen, and thus turning into DHT, which may cause hair loss. Blaming testosterone for baldness is a last decade notion.

ZMA will never cause baldness

On me it causes nothing good. Just weird dreams, not nightmares but hardcore dreams that I can’t handle. It also causes a weird effect feeling that I am still awake and lucid dreaming while asleep.

I stopped this very fast…

If you are worried about baldness, you can add finasteride and/or rogaine to the mix.

Zinc makes me feel a whole lot better.

Since I’m already bald (mostly due to wifey loving the clean look), this wouldn’t concern me. The only effects I get from ZMA is a very good and deep nights sleep and feeling well rested in the mornings. Of course these are the opposite effects of low/unbalanced T-levels.

The only thing i can say i experienced from ZMA was disturbing dreams. Very vivid, almost never good, usually either straight up traumatizing or disturbing. Woke up many times in the middle of the night thinking “what the fuck was that about?”

I definitely got deeper sleep but i found that i felt especially drowsy in the morning if i couldnt get at least 8 hours of sleep after taking it.

Not worth it IMO

yall have some psychological stuff going on if your dreams are that traumatic, my dreams get vivid for sure, but I am usually doing something awesome uplifting or if they are super weird still entertaining and positive

[quote]Defekt wrote:
yall have some psychological stuff going on if your dreams are that traumatic, my dreams get vivid for sure, but I am usually doing something awesome uplifting or if they are super weird still entertaining and positive [/quote]

There probably is something weird going on, but the dreams alone were definitely enough to make me stop taking it.

They were messed up enough that it would often put me in weird moods for the rest of the day.