Does Whey Protein intake cause or accelerate hair loss?

[Sunset Dune]

Is is true whey protein can aggravate male pattern baldness? 

[gillenator]

There really are no clinical studies that verify this however some guys believe and/or claim that it does…for me, I seemed to have several periods of sheds, nothing acute but I definitely noticed more hair shafts in my fingers when I would shampoo…I quit using it because whey protein supplements really were not making that much of a difference when I lifted weights.

[Shadman]

I don't agree but overdosing any supplements can cause certain side effects

[Bucky O Hair]

Whey protein isn't a supplement.  It is a food.

It's essentially powdered cottage cheese (with the whey separated from the casein protein) and then dehydrated (like evaporated milk).

It's just a powdered dairy product that should include nothing other than whey in it, though I'm sure several different brands will add other things in there like sweeteners, flavoring, etc....but consuming whey is no different than consuming other high-protein dairy foods like greek yogurt, milk, etc.

So, to answer your question...consuming whey would have the same effect as consuming more milk or yogurt (which is zero).

 

A "supplement" would be something like Creatine...and I've heard that Creatine usage may cause some hairloss, but again, it seems to be a very negligible amount based off of what's out there.  

 

[gillenator]

I was also using Creatine at the same time and it was probably that, not the Whey that could have induced some shedding, but who knows?

I was recently divorced back then and living under a lot of stress and that also may have caused some shedding.

[Gatsby]

I’m not an authority at all. But I would imagine that whey protein on its own doesn’t affect hair (DHT). When coupled with body building I think yes it might cause DHT levels to rise affecting genetic MPB. Maybe. The same with creatine. However this is a theory and I am yet to see any conclusive studies to prove this. The 2009 rugby study with a hand full of players over a few weeks has been debunked for a serious lack of good research design methodology. 

[gillenator]

I agree Gats, I never saw or heard of any “clinical” studies that were done on either one.

[Bucky O Hair]

8 hours ago, Gatsby said:

I’m not an authority at all. But I would imagine that whey protein on its own doesn’t affect hair (DHT). When coupled with body building I think yes it might cause DHT levels to rise affecting genetic MPB. Maybe. The same with creatine. However this is a theory and I am yet to see any conclusive studies to prove this. The 2009 rugby study with a hand full of players over a few weeks has been debunked for a serious lack of good research design methodology. 

What's funny is that there is an NIH study that showed that people who suffer from hairloss work out more often than people who don't, ha ha.  So it's not really a cause and effect thing when you see a bunch of jacked bald dudes out there.  They were likely bald or balding well before they were working out (or it was the main motivator for them to work out in the first place).

I don't believe there is anything conclusive out there that shows that working out causes hair loss.  Same goes for masturbation or sexual activity.  It's easy to assume this would be true due to temporary boosts in testosterone levels with any of these activities.

What's strange is that in that same NIH study, it suggests that high-intensity exercise (which is assumed to increase dihydrotestosterone the most) actually also produces a protective effect against this by elevating endogenous antioxidant defense mechanisms.  Yet the low-intensity exercise group didn't produce the protective effect, and may result in more hair loss. 

So...in short.  Dump the treadmill and hit the weights! 

 

 

 

[Beauty101]

Whey protein is good for muscle building and it does not attribute to hairloss at all. One thing I know for sure is that the common reason for hair loss on both men and women is influenced by genetic and hormonal factors. There are many solutions to having a bald hair, one of them is called wig https://www.perfectlocks.com/collections/mens-hairpieces.

Edited April 10 by Beauty101