Male Baldness Might Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk

By Margarita Nahapetyan

Losing hair before the age of 30 years is associated with a reduced risk of developing prostate cancer in men, U.S. scientists have reported this week.

According to the researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who studied more than 2,000 men with the ages between 40 and 47 years, men who become bald by the time they turn 30, are at nearly 50 per cent less risk of developing the disease.

Loss of hair appears to be a big problem for many men of any age, with about half thinking that being bald makes them look old and less attractive, while 3 out of 4 were found to have problems with self-esteem. According to the statistical data, male pattern baldness affects about 25 per cent of men by the time they turn 30 years, 50 per cent by age 50, and about 80 per cent by the time they are 70 years old.

Most baldness occurs when hair follicles are exposed to too much dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a chemical that is produced by the male hormone testosterone. Too much of this chemical circulating in the blood causes the follicles to shrink, therefore resulting in thinner hair that grows for less time than normal.

In the new study, half of the participants were suffering from prostate cancer. The experts wanted to compare the cancer rate in those who lost hair at the age of 30 years and in those who did not experience hair loss at all. All men were asked to provide information about their lifestyles, family history, medical history, and whether they had undergone screenings for prostate cancer in the previous 5 years. Analyses took into consideration the participants' ages, race, and body mass index (BMI). The men were also asked if they had used medication that could interfere with their testosterone metabolism, such as finasteride (a drug that is used for the treatment of male pattern baldness and some prostate problems).

The experts assessed hair loss by showing participants pictures of heads with different extents of hair loss and asking them which one best represented their own case at the two ages of interest. In particular, the pictures featured men with minimal or no hair loss, loss just at at the forehead, or loss at the top of the head and the forehead. At a later time researchers made comparisons between cases and those in the control group in the odds of experiencing loss of hair at either time point.

The results revealed that the men with the least risk of developing prostate cancer were the ones who had started having balding patches on the top of their heads along with thinning hairlines. The analysis showed that 25.2 per cent of men who did not have prostate cancer had developed balding patches by the age of 30 years, in contrast to 19.8 per cent of prostate cancer patients. Therefore, the study established that men who suffered hair loss at the age of 30 had 29 per cent lesser tendency of having prostate cancer when compared to those who did not lose their hair. There was no difference in the proportion of men in the case and control groups who only started getting bald after turning 30, suggesting that hair loss after thirty was not associated with the risk of prostate cancer.

The findings are reported online in Cancer Epidemiology journal.