Take a couple seconds out of your day and google the phrase, "Hair loss and DHT". I'll hang here while you navigate through the thousands of studies and articles that link the two together. To summarize, elevated levels of the male androgen dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the prime evil that must be defeated in order to arrest hair loss.

Those who are balding presumably have high DHT, which in excessive amounts is known to cause hair loss in those susceptible to balding. DHT is manufactured from free testosterone. The more free testosterone in the blood, the more DHT can be made by the enzyme 5-alpha reductase.

Free Testosterone > 5-Alpha Reductase > Excess DHT > Hair Loss

The million dollar question is, "Why is free testosterone elevated?". Asking this question quickly illustrates how silly the pharmaceutical industries approach to treating hair loss is. Drugs like Propecia waste little time asking, "Why?", and instead opt to wage a full fledged attack against 5-AR, pile-driving the enzyme into submission. 

To fully explore this question we have to talk about the gate-keeper of free testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin or SHBG. Every hormone in the body is either "bound" to a carrier protein or "free" to circulate in the blood. SHBG is the master controller of how much free testosterone is available to be manufactured into DHT. In those with premature hair loss SHBG is found to be decreased, meaning that a large amount of their free testosterone is being converted into DHT by the 5-AR enzyme.

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Here is the first in a long series of posts describing what The Healthy Hair Diet looks like. This was breakfast a while ago.

I boiled the potatoes for  20 minutes, just before frying them in 2 tbsp of grass-fed beef tallow. The salmon is wild sockeye from Costco, although I think Trader Joe's may have it for cheaper. After the potatoes were done, I added a tbsp of coconut oil and fried the salmon skin-side down for about 5 minutes. Salt to taste and you're good!

For nearly a year I have put my heart and soul into my debut eBook, The Healthy Hair Diet. I believe it to be the most complete guide to halting hair loss ever written. If you or someone you know is prematurely balding please read on.

This guide is a safe, food-based alternative to conventional treatment which in my opinion is risky or down right dangerous. 

Here are a couple of reasons to skip conventional treatments:

Propecia - Also known as Finasteride, Propecia is known to cause long-term sexual side effects in a small percentage of those who take it. Visit propeciasideeffects.com for more info. 

Rogaine - Besides the ironic side-effect of hair loss, who wants to wake up and spread gunk in their hair every morning? 

Out-Of-Control Supplement Regimes - I've done it, it was super annoying and all those pills really didn't help. Plus, I was always "the weird one" when we went to eat.

The Healthy Hair Diet is based on food, not pills, and not medication. Being a whole foods diet, it is not a quick-fix. It is however the most complete, all encompassing solution to fighting a systemic problem like hair loss. 

I attempted to leave my opinion at the door when writing this book. Sporting nearly 250 references, I tried to back up all the content with science-based evidence.

The eBook comes in a DRM free PDF format which is compatible with Macs, PCs, the iPhone, Android, the Kindle and many other devices. 

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If given the full court press, I would say that body temperature is a big deal. Bringing my body temperature up from the 95°F to my current 97°F by simply stuffing my face with wholesome foods has increased my ability to tolerate my cold-as-hell workplace. For me, this alone is a huge win.

If you recall my earlier post, I explained how my two year experience on the carnivorous diet didn't exactly warm me up. What did the trick was sticking to whole foods, consuming a lot of calories (especially carbohydrates), and sleeping in whenever possible.

It's hard to talk about body temperature and not talk about hypothyroidism. The most prevalent symptom that those with low thyroid face is a decrease in body temperature.

Dr. Mark Starr, author of Hypothyroidism Type II explains:

"An extremely prevalent symptom of hypothyroidism is a lowering of body temperature. The low temperature is a direct reflection of the decreased metabolism. Hypothyroidism is not the only problem that may lower the patient's temperature, but it is definitely the most common." 

180 Degree Health author, Matt Stone, to whom I owe gratitude for encouraging his readers to experiment, is currently the sole weblogger trumpeting this body temperature hypothesis.

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Updated on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 11:20PM by Danny Roddy

Hair loss is pretty pedestrian if you ask the pharmaceutical industry. You see, they have it all figured out. Inhibit the manhood-promoting hormone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and you stop hair loss. 

The pharmaceutical drug Propecia is based on this very concept. Also called finsasteride, Propecia cripples the 5-alpha reductase enzyme that produces DHT from testosterone. 

So, how effective is this approach? Let's trek over to propeciasideeffects.com and ask the gentlemen suffering lifelong erectile dysfunction about it. They have some interesting things to say.

Like all diseases of civilization, hair loss pathylogy is rooted in the dysregulation of the hormones within our bodies. High DHT, which is public enemy number one to the pharmaceutical industry, is a symptom of the body going metabolically awry and not the sole problem. So what do we do? Do we take a drug to fix the problem? Do we rub goop in our hair every morning? Do we take fifty designer supplements with each meal?

All of these questions can be answered with a resounding no.

Hair loss, if not too far advanced, can be halted with a little know-how and determination. Let's go over the key players in what some have dubbed "the hairpocalypse"... Okay, only I have dubbed it the hairpocalypse.

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July marks the two year anniversary of my carnivorous diet. For the last two years of my life I have eaten nothing but meat and water. For the second year I ventured into the pemmican arena and decided to give that a shot for a year.

So the question is, what do I have to show for it? Well, to be honest, not much more than last year. My hair is still on my head, which still amazes me, but I can't help but think that there is more ground to cover in terms of obtaining better health. As Dr. Harris pointed out, a zero carb diet is beneficial, not because it restricts all carbohydrates, but because it restricts refined carbohydrates, gluten containing grains, and vegetable oils.

Those of you who have followed this blog know that I'm not about weight. I originally set out to stop my hair loss in a drug-free, natural way. Well, I have succeeded. Yet I have had one persistent symptom that hasn't gone away no matter what I've done. 

Bare with me while I explain my morning ritual of getting ready for work:

I wake up and turn on the mini-heater next to my bed. When I muster up enough courage, I leap from my sheets and sprint towards the shower. I set the dial to scalding and procrastinate as long as possible before exiting in a flash to be next to my heater. Before I put on my clothes for the day, I add a thermal top and bottom. 

COLD INTOLERANCE. Not just some cold hands and feet, but purple hands and blue feet. I swear I was experiencing some kind of hypothermia.

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