DavidRodgersMSNutrition

If you don't believe there is point to using anything natural, I don't know why you're wasting your time on a forum relating solely to natural products. I, on the other hand, do believe the therapies work, and with my full natural-only protocol continue to get solid results like you can see in the picture next to my name.

Some of the most powerful DHT blockers are dietary fatty acids - Inhibition of steroid 5 alpha-reductase by specific aliphatic unsat... - PubMed - NCBI - for example omega 3 and GLA (gamma linolenic acid). You can get omega 3 by eating fish such as salmon or sardines, or taking fish oil supplements. You can get GLA by taking borage oil supplements. I've definitely found borage oil softgels with 240mg of GLA to have a modest positive effect on my own hair growth.

You're right in that vitamin D is definitely not a cure-all for baldness. Nothing that you can take that is a natural herb or vitamin will do this. However, if you do a full regimen of things - perhaps 10 different natural items, then all of them working together can do as much for you as drugs, and in many cases will be better - without the side effects of the drugs. The body can create vitamin D on its own using cholesterol as a precursor, but only with enough exposure to sunlight without sunscreen applied.

Vitamin D may be showing progress as a hair loss aid for a few reasons. 1. Women were studied for their iron (ferritin) and vitamin D levels (unfortunately, the study focused on D2 rather than D3). Serum ferritin and vitamin d in female hair loss: do they play a role? - PubMed - NCBI They found that both low iron and low vitamin D were correlated with hair loss. It seems like more men are on this site than women, so keep reading. 2. Mice were fed Vitamin D3 and they started to grow hair in places where they were bald to begin with. Researchers concluded that D3 initiated "hair follicle cycling" which would mean that new hair can replace thinning hair or missing older hair roots Vitamin D3 analogs stimulate hair growth in nude mice. - PubMed - NCBI 3. A review of several studies also concluded that vitamin D may be successful in treating hair disorders - however they said that current human studies are lacking. Does D matter? The role of vitamin D in hair disorders and hair fol... - PubMed - NCBI In the meantime, I would definitely advise 1000 to 2000 IU of vitamin D3 for everyone, and more if you test low on vitamin D blood testing.

I checked out the ingredients. Mostly they look safe, EXCEPT for jaborandi leaves. According to WebMD, this is unsafe and can be deadly at 5-10 grams (jaborandi: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings - WebMD). While the amount of jaborandi leaves given is only 100mg, 50x smaller than the deadly dose, I wouldn't play around with it when there are many other safe supplements that can help especially when taken together. In order to get the same benefits, probably at less cost, and without the danger of jaborandi, I would simply buy a multivitamin, plus 300mg beta sitosterol or saw palmetto with 85-95% fatty acids and sterols (listed on the supplement facts label), and 500mg of Taurine, which may be showing promise as a new hair loss aid amino acid.

Yes, I have personally used Borage Oil and definitely found it to have at least a small, and more likely a moderate effect in stopping hair loss and potentially regrowing hair. I still continue to use it every day. The reason I believe it is helpful is because one of the important fatty acids in borage (gamma-linolenic acid) is known to be a potent 5-alpha reductase inhibitor. This means that it normalizes, or slows, the conversion of testosterone into DHT which can be one of the primary factors in hair loss.. Inhibition of steroid 5 alpha-reductase by specifi... [biochem J. 1992] - PubMed - NCBI My recommendation is 240mg of Borage oil per day for men (and up to 480mg per day for women). Certain borage products (I won't name any names, but there are at least a couple) contain this amount in each pill. You said tabs, but it should definitely be softgels, and stored in a refrigerator as soon as you get it to prolong shelf life.

Biotin usage is a little misleading. It can help, but only if you are significantly deficient. The reason it got a lot of hair loss press several years ago was that people with significant biotin deficiency lost a lot of hair and had the rest of their hair thin out. When re-supplemented with biotin, the hair grew back to normal. This all said, it is quite rare to have a biotin deficiency if you eat any type of standard diet, healthy or not. The only way this might happen (aside from starving yourself) is if you have raw egg whites without the yolk. This is because a compound called avidin in the raw egg white binds with your body's biotin and excretes it. If you have the yolk as well, there is generally enough biotin in it to counter this effect. Cooked eggs of any type don't cause this effect. So, you can try biotin just to see, but in general, this is not a primary cause of male baldness and probably it will show no effect.

I realize this post was a while ago, but I'm wondering if you ever got results from the topical vitamin C serum. I ask this because I recently came across two studies that explains how a specific form of vitamin C (l-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate) may work to counter the action of DHT on the scalp. Apparently, it is able to elongate the entire hair shaft. The study was in-vitro (in a test tube) rather than in-vivo (in humans or animals), but sometimes for topical hair studies this doesn't matter, because the topical action is replicated as it would have been in-vivo. It's possible that the 2-phosphate form is needed, and that standard ascorbic acid wouldn't do the trick - but I always try to seek out people's experiences, because sometimes they are more worthwhile than the studies. Here are the studies: l-Ascorbic acid 2-phosphate promotes elongatio... [br J Dermatol. 2009] - PubMed - NCBI and L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate represses the dihyd... [Exp Dermatol. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI (As I re-read your original post - I found that I read it wrong and you originally dropped the vitamin C, rather than starting it up - In that case, does anyone else have experience with topical vitamin C?)

I would agree that if you line up a single natural therapy against a single drug therapy, most often the drug will have far more noticeable benefits. However, if you combine several natural therapies (not necessarily all supplements), often you find results that rival or surpass the drugs without the side effects. I personally have never used a hair loss drug or topical drug. Using only a collection of natural therapies (diet changes, supplements, and natural topicals), I continue to get great results - see my before and after pictures above this post, next to my name.

MichaelJames - You are correct that they green tea and black tea haven't been studied directly on hair loss. However, many people extrapolate that if a compound lowers DHT, it is likely (although not certainly) able to help with hair loss. The study that examines black tea, green tea, and soy in this regard (for mice) is Soy Phytochemicals and Tea Bioactive Components Synergistically Inhibit Androgen-Sensitive Human Prostate Tumors in Mice In that study, you can see that DHT levels lowered 72% and testosterone raised 34% in mice treated with black tea alone. If this were to translate to humans (which it very well might, but not for sure), than it could possibly be a help for hair. Green tea was not as positive because it very significantly raised both testosterone and DHT. However, soy was able to completely counter green tea's DHT raising ability when both were given together. So this is still on the theoretical side, but black tea is cheap and safe, so I'd say it's worth a try. It would be nice to have a few people test their own DHT before and after trying various amounts of black tea.

Regarding black tea and green tea - the studies look very interesting and promising, but so far they have only been done on mice and test tubes. These may or may not translate to humans. Theoretically, based on the mice studies, DHT levels could go down while general testosterone could go up by taking black tea, meaning that yes, it could be a solo therapy. There have been some soy studies on humans, and it does look pretty clear that they affect hormone levels in a way that is likely to help hair loss. However, some (but not all) studies indicate that soy could have negative health effects such as lowered sperm counts, etc. My recommendation would be to try the black tea and let us know its effects for you. Additionally, you could take pills standardized to have theaflavin (which is black tea's known active ingredient). If this doesn't work, move on to a different therapy, because some work only for certain people.

Fo-ti is also known as Poligonum Multiflorum. Yes, traditionally it is supposed to be helpful with restoring lost hair or graying hair. Unfortunately, it is not yet well scientifically studied. The one study I've seen only examined its topical effect on mice. The compound did improve hair growth in that study. Topical application of Polygonum multifloru... [J Ethnopharmacol. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI - Fo-ti has also been shown to act as a phytoestrogen, which may be one of the reasons that it helps hair Estrogen bioactivity in fo-ti and ot... [J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003] - PubMed - NCBI - it could potentially compete against DHT and unhealthy xenoestrogens for receptors, and not allow those hormones to exert their negative effects. However, although fo-ti is estrogenic in nature, it doesn't seem to have negative effects on male hormones like other phytoestrogens like soy .Many men report libido, for example, to be enhanced rather than suppressed. If you take a look at the reviews on fo-ti products, for example from iherb or other sellers, you find that the reviews are often positive. Of course this doesn't rule out placebo effects, because the look of your hair is subjective and may appear to be better when it actually is getting worse. For this reason, I would definitely appreciate double blind studies being done on humans. Until then, the herb appears relatively safe to try for yourself.

Yes, I agree that studies are mixed, and no one should be drawing firm conclusions yet. This being said, if some studies are indicative of negative effects, than I stay on the side of caution and avoid the potential for harm. I believe that this is the safer thing to do. There are definitely no studies saying that it is dangerous to avoid soy, nor should any ever be expected. You are correct that it wouldn't be safe to infer conclusions from girls to men if the study were in regards to a treatment protocol, because a treatment protocol could have safety concerns. However, this is in regards to an avoidance situation, and therefore it is definitely safer to err on the side of caution. Additionally, most soy products are highly processed, and are "pseudo" health food in my opinion. I would have less objection to fermented and/or unprocessed soy. This is just my opinion, and I would definitely be curious to see how your experimentation works out.

Biotin deficiency has been shown to cause hair loss, and restoring biotin with supplements has been shown to reverse this hair loss. (Possible biotin deficiency in adults receivin... [Am J Clin Nutr. 1983] - PubMed - NCBI) However, for most men, biotin won't do anything, because biotin deficiency is pretty rare. This was found out because people were on intravenous nutrition that didn't contain any biotin. If you take a multi-vitamin or a B-Complex vitamin, you should get plenty, and more biotin won't grow more hair.

Soy may be a significant help for hair loss because it reduces DHT, but I wouldn't recommend that any men eat it due to its other negative hormonal effects. For example a study at the Harvard School of Public Health found that those in the highest category of soy consumption on average had 41 million less sperm per milliliter than men who avoided soy altogether. (Soy food and isoflavone intake in relation to sem... [Hum Reprod. 2008] - PubMed - NCBI) Additionally, girls who were fed soy as infants had a significantly higher risk of early puberty (Early-life soy exposure and age a... [Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI). While they didn't study boys, I think it can be reasonably inferred that there would be some negative effect in relationship to the feminizing aspects of soy - this would go for men as well (especially when considering sperm count). After hearing these two studies, I find the risks of soy definitely outweigh the positives, especially when there are other options that don't have the side effects.

That is definitely not too many vitamins (although you didn't post dosages, so it could be too much if there are very high doses). You can probably combine a number of those into a B-complex vitamin. Folate, Biotin, and B6 will all be in a B-Complex, so just take a look at the doses and match them up. This might save you money and allow you to take less pills. None of those supplements have particularly amazing records when it comes to hair loss. Biotin could possibly help, but only for those who are biotin deficient in the first place. Omega 3 might have a small but significant effect, because nearly all healthy unsaturated fats have been shown to reduce DHT.

1. Yes it would be a lifelong commitment because you do continually need to be sufficient in iodine - however in contrast to drugs, it is very inexpensive - 3 drops a day would cost around $12.00 for 200 days - 1 drop a day would last 600 days. Plus, correcting a deficiency is actually correcting an imbalance, whereas drugs allow imbalances to continue your whole life and artificially change body processes to "mask" your deficiencies. 2. Side effects are very rare, especially in the doses I was saying. Theoretically someone could become hyperthyroid (too much thyroid hormones) and become restless and stressed. I haven't ever heard of this happening and if it did, it would go away quickly by lowering the dose. 3. See my answer #2. You can have iodine sufficiency checked by a doctor (acam.org) if you want to be completely sure. However, I believe Iosol is safe enough that you can try using it and see how it works. Start with a drop and slowly move up to 3. If there are any negative effects, stop it for a bit and then start back at the lowest dose, and eventually stay at the dose that works without negative effects. However, like I said, I have never heard of anyone having negative effects at a dose of 1 to 3 drops.

One of the big reasons both men and women lose their hair is thyroid hormone imbalance. Thyroid hormones are made of a combination of iodine, selenium, and the amino acid tyrosine. Not too many people are deficient in selenium or tyrosine, but many health professionals argue that a lot of people are deficient in iodine. So if it is the case that you have low or low-normal thyroid hormones, or if you are experiencing other thyroid imbalance symptoms like dry skin, cold hands and feet, fatigue, weight gain, and/or depression, than it probably would help your hair growth to take some iodine. Iodine tinctures are usually used externally as an antiseptic - not to provide iodine to protect against deficiency. I haven't heard of the Atomic Iodine brand. The kind I recommend is Iosol iodine, which is meant to be taken internally in drop form. You can safely take a drop per day in water or juice. You can move up to 2 or 3 drops if you still feel various thyroid symptoms. If three drops per day doesn't help, I would recommend contacting a doctor affiliated with ACAM (acam.org) to see what they recommend. In my own case (I'm a 29 year old male), I take 3 drops of Iosol per day and yes, it has helped significantly with my hair growth. For several weeks I stopped taking it and my hair started falling out again, and it quickly stopped falling out as much when I resumed the iodine. Hope this helps. David

I will agree with omega 3, however it is important to know the correct amount. The Daily Recommended Intake (United States) for ALA, which is the plant version of omega 3, is 1,600mg for men and 1,100mg for women. Most experts agree that the active form of omega 3 is actually EPA/DHA which is found in fish oil. To be truly optimal, which will definitely help your hair become silky, get the full Daily Recommended Intake in the fish oil form. See the Daily Recommended Intake levels here: http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Nutrition/SummaryDRIs/~/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Nutrition/DRIs/5_Summary%20Table%20Tables%201-4.pdf Therefore, taking a single pill of fish oil will not usually be enough. To find out, look at the nutrition facts on the label. Add up the mg total for DHA and EPA and divide by the number of pills in a serving size. So for example, if it says that 2 pills gives you 360mg of EPA and 220mg of DHA, than two pills gives you 580mg total and one pill gives you 290mg. If you are a man and your Daily Recommended Intake is 1,600mg of omega 3, than you would need to take 5-6 pills to be fully sufficient in omega 3. Some brands like Jarrow or Natural Factors have products that give more mg per pill so you need to take less pills to get the full dose. I've found that omega 3 not only helps my hair but made my hands softer and smoother. They were starting to look "older" like my dad's hands (I'm 29), and now they look the same that they did when I was in high school which indicates to me that my body is being adequately nourished.

Tribulus is an interesting case, because many men swear by it being useful for better athletic performance, better bedroom performance, and more muscle strength - you can check that out by looking through all of the reviews at iherb.com. This positive effect seems to be backed up by animal studies - for example one from the National University of Singapore showed that both T and DHT increased in primates, DHT increased in rabbits, and T increased in rats with usage of Tribulus extract. That study is at The hormonal effects of Tribulus terrestris an... [Phytomedicine. 2008] - PubMed - NCBI However, when they study humans, for some reason the effects don't seem to play out. In a study from the University of Nebraska on resistance-trained men, there was no positive effect on strength or body composition - The effects of Tribulus terrest... [int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2000] - PubMed - NCBI and a Bulgarian study on young men found no effect on hormone levels - The aphrodisiac herb Tribulus terrestris do... [J Ethnopharmacol. 2005] - PubMed - NCBI. All this being said, I personally tried tribulus and definitely noticed fuller seeming muscles and drier hair that fell out faster in subsequent days. If testosterone is not directly effected in humans, as the studies are saying, there must be another avenue in which it is altering the hormonal cascade, based on my experience and all of those people reviewing at iherb.com and elsewhere.