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Baldness and DHT
It is another crucial point in the study of baldness, although I wonder if this is widely accepted, that Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the one that miniaturizes the hair follicle and later causes the hair loss. This theory had much more sense around 50’s when Hamilton was studying baldness and eunuchs, and it was believed that it was the man the one who produced androgens and not the woman, therefore the phenomenon of why the woman did not become bald was solved. Latter investigations pointed out than man and woman have the same hormones (androgens and estrogens).
This theory, sadly, has not been completely established, and the excellent developed drugs have not obtained the expected results. Nowadays is a theory that doesn’t hold water at all, and the big laboratories have left a bit aside the investigations on this focus. A clear example is dutasteride, dual inhibitor of the 5-alpha-reductase, which controls the transformation of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), although most probably the protocol of approbation by the FDA for its medical use against baldness will not be finished.
Regardless of the paradoxical effects that T (testosterone) and DHT (dihydrotestosterone) produce on hair, depending whether it is corporal or it is on the scalp, there are big questions without solution. For instance:
1.Why one usually loses more hair when the levels of androgens are lower? With the increase of age, there are less androgens circulating.
2.Why only certain hairs on the head are affected? A genetic explanation is not suitable for me, since there are no differences in the genes of the scalp that regulate the enzyme (1).
In my opinion, it is the excess of DHT, which worsens the problem, but I think that reducing the problem of Alopecia to this unique point is not the perfect solution, particularly with the side effects that it can cause in the organism.
What do you think?
(1) Ellis JA, Stebbing M, Harrap SB. Genetic analysis of male pattern baldness and the 5alpha-reductase genes. J Invest Dermatol. 1998 Jun; 110(6): 849-53
Armando J. Yañez
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