Estrogen: Friend or Foe?
By Sam A.
Right off the bat, most of you will say, "friend." Hell, why not. We’d all like our women to have more estrogen (female hormone) than testosterone (male hormone), that’s what gives them those beautiful curves, soft skin and great breasts. As far as the whole "hair" thing is concerned, most are familiar with the fact that giving estrogen to a balding man will in most cases, stop the reseeding hair line. So, it seems that estrogen is a good guy, or should I say, "gal".
Well, I’m sorry to break the bad news to you, but estrogen is our enemy. On the outside it looks deceivingly pretty, the kind of hormone you bring home to mom. But underneath the disguise is a cheap hooker who carries the "virus" (not HIV, but the "balding" virus). OK, so I’m getting a bit dramatic, but sit up straight and pay attention, because I’m going to tell you how you can not only stop your receding hair line and actually grow hair, but how you can decrease fat, put on muscle and increase your sex drive all at the same time!!!
Before we get to the good stuff, I’m going to have to get a bit technical. It may get boring, but I’ll try to keep you awake. What ever you do, DON’T SKIP THIS SECTION!
Estrogen is the so called "female" hormone. Technically speaking, "estrogen" is a general term: there are two distinct types (in both women and men). The primary and most potent type in women is estradiol which is produced mostly in the ovaries from progesterone. The other weaker estrogen is estrone, converted from an adrenal androgen called androstenedione. Are you still awake......because here comes the important stuff. In the male body, all the estrogen (specifically, estradiol) is made from an enzyme called "aromatase". The more aromatase you have the more estrogen you have. In fact, as the male body ages, his estrogen levels keep rising because the aromatase enzyme increases.
As estrogen rises, the hypothalamus senses this and stops the production of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). (NO, FSH has nothing to do with "hair" follicle stimulation. It has to do with sperm production). A decrease production of the above three hormones, indirectly decreases the production of testosterone by signaling your testes to close down shop {2,3,} (in some instances, your testicle will actually shrink in size due to lack of use!). As estrogen increases and testosterone decreases, many men become prone to gynocomastia. Gynocomastia (or "bitch tits" to the bodybuilding community) is the swelling of breast tissue in the male body. In fact, up to 50% of all adolescent boys experience transitory swelling of the breast area (right underneath the nipple) from the sudden spurt of testosterone (and subsequent conversion to estrogen). In most boys, their nipples return back to normal after a year or so. Many years later, after your mid-life crisis, gynocomastia once again pops up (or out). That’s why you see lots of old guys with droopy chests, it has nothing to do with gravity, it has to do with the increase in estrogen due to aromatase. One last thing, estrogen closes the growing ends of the long bones{8}, signaling these bones to stop growing longer. That’s why women are shorter than men!
Ok, so what the hell does all this mean!?!? Well, what is one of the typical stereo types with "bald guys"? They are usually "short, fat, hairy and bald"! We just saw that the "shortness" is caused by estrogen and so is the fat accumulation. (Yes, I know, there are exceptions to everything, but these are generalities, so bare with me.) And, I’ve also noticed that most of these "short, fat, hairy, bald guys" also have some form of gynocomastia. Are you still with me.....? Also, as we get older, we become fatter, hairier and balder---even though the aging man’s testosterone decreases year after year (but remember, the estrogen keeps RISING year after year!). I have also observed that the less hairy you are, the more muscular you are. This is because of a few factors. Balding guys usually have higher levels of Dihydortestosterone (DHT is not anabolic to muscle tissue) and estrogen (which is very anabolic to FAT tissue). And don’t forget, higher levels of DHT and estrogen, equal lower levels of muscle building testosterone! Lastly, even though women only have a fraction of the total androgen levels of men ("androgens" are all the male hormones), a "hair raising" 50% of it is DHT. That’s why female athletes (and even some super models, believe it or not!) who take even the smallest amount of anabolic hormones, will instantly become hairy and start the balding process.
Lets summarize my thoughts: I think that estrogen potentiates all the negative effects of testosterone’s evil twin, DHT, while decreasing all the positive effects of testosterone!! My solution—reduce the estrogen. This will not only grow hair back, but by decreasing the estrogen, testosterone increases (remember?). This will in turn increase your muscle mass, decrease your body fat and shoot up your sex drive! Did my hypothesis work? You bet it did!!!!
About six months ago, I proposed this idea to one of my doctor friends. Even though he is also balding, he said that I was crazy. He said that if anything happens, I’d probably speed up the whole balding process! I said fine, but asked him to write me a script for an aromatase inhibitor anyways. Both our theories sounded great, but I thought my sounded better so I gave it a try. I took a drug called Cytadren. With out getting into the whole pharmacology of the drug, a dose of 250 mg. will reduce the estrogen in the body. Great, so I took one tablet at bed time. I kid you not, but a month later I was getting so much head hair growth I was shocked. Granted, I was no "Chia Pet", but I was growing hair where I forgot I ever even had any. It wasn’t baby fine either, it was pretty thick (yet still not as thick as the sides of my hair). As expected, my sex drive did increase (only a little) and my body hair decreased (by about 30%). I stayed on it for another month before reporting back to my doctor friend. At the end of two months, it looked like I would have a full head of hair within a year—it was growing that fast!!!
So, I phoned the doctor, told him of my amazing discoveries and he decide to also give it a go. By the third month though, the hair growth slowed down tremendously. Don’t get me wrong, I was still growing better than any other drug I had ever taken; but it had slowed down. About a month later, the doctor called me and said that it was working so well, that he’s thinking of opening up a clinic for hair growth just using this one simple drug. But I had to break the bad news to him and told him that the growth does slow down (but it never stopped—even now, after six months of use). To test out my theory even more, he got off the Cytadren and began taking a very new and much more powerful aromatase inhibitor, Arimidex. He took a super high dose, and after a week he said that his facial hair almost stopped growing and his head hair began growing really well.
But, he couldn’t think clearly and his sex drive was non-existing! So he got off and everything returned to normal a couple days later. You see, everything has to be in moderation. Estrogen occurs naturally in men, and it’s there for some very good reasons. Many areas in the brain have estrogen receptors which regulate intelligence and mood. Estrogen also effects the sex drive{1,} (in good and bad ways) and maintains desirable levels of the high-density lipoprotein{2,} (HDL—the "good" cholesterol). So our male balancing act is this: we’d like to minimize estrogen, just enough to increase testosterone and avoid gynocomastia, all the while maintaining our libidos and HDL levels.
So our male balancing act is this: we’d like to minimize estrogen, just enough to increase testosterone and avoid gynocomastia, all the while maintaining our libidos and HDL levels. The solution is easy and simple, but yet very complicated in some ways. If you don’t do it right, you’ll actually have a lot more problems on your hands (and head)! I’ll reveal the SECRET combo in the next newsletter, but I won’t leave you empty handed (that would be much too crass, even for me). In the mean time, take 320-640 mgs. of saw palmetto extract. Make sure that it is the extract kind and not the dry powder. The label should say "85-95% standardized extract". Take it with food and split the dose—one in the morning and the other half at night. Never take below 320 mgs., it’ll just be a waste. Some come with "pygeum extract" which potentiates the effects of the saw palmetto. If you can afford it take it (it couldn’t hurt), but if it becomes too costly, just take the saw palmetto by it self. Basically, the saw palmetto "blocks" (but does not inhibit) BOTH estrogen and DHT. It’s cheap and easy to get, so don’t forget to take it. Be optimistic cause there is hope, lots of it!
Estrogen: Friend or Foe? Part II
HAIR: THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER
It’s 3:23 A.M. here in Los Angeles (don’t ask why the hell I’m up so damn early) as I’m beginning to write the second part of my "Estrogen: Friend or Foe" article and I don’t know where to begin writing. Do I begin by doing a quick summary of my last article for those people who haven’t read it yet......or do I just jump right in with the cliff hanger "secret combo" for hair growth......or should I begin with my "new" revelation for hair growth......or how about I start off with a real funny joke to get things going?
Well, here it goes. There is nothing to joke about when it comes to hair loss, if you didn’t read my last article—then screw you, and my "secret combo" or new "hair revelation" can wait. I want to talk about me! I’m really upset because this month I lost a lot of hair!!! I haven’t been losing this much hair for a very long time. In fact, I was losing so much hair that I was panic stricken for a while.
But one good thing came out of my misery....I found out what was causing the hair loss—and I fixed it! Do you want to know what it is? Well, I think I’ll save it for later, but I’ll give you a hint: it’s something any one can buy, it’s found in any drug store, super market, Wal-Mart, Target or Price Club type of store and it’ll probably cost you less than $5 a month to use!
A QUICK SUMMARY
OK, so where did I leave off in my last article? Oh yeah, basically I said that estrogen sucks! I told you that you needed to take an aromatase inhibitor (a drug that decreases estrogen production in the body), but if you took it by itself or at a wrong dose, you’d actually lose more hair and also lose your sex drive (life just can’t get any worse than that, a bald guy who can’t get it "up"). In the mean time, I suggested for you to take an herb called Saw Palmetto extract until I revealed my "secret combo" to you.
Have you been taking your Saw Palmetto? Are you ready to grow hair? Are you ready to lose some body fat and grow some muscle? Here comes what you’ve been waiting for... actually, I’ve got one last thing to say. Read the rest of the article carefully, because even though I won’t really get too scientific, it’ll still get a bit confusing at times.
BALANCING THE SCALE
I want you to picture a scale. On the right side sits Dihydrotestosterone (DHT)--testosterone’s evil twin brother who’s a "bad boy" with tattoo’s everywhere and smokes a pack of cigarettes every hour (off course, he still gets all the chicks). On the left side sits Estrogen—testosterone’s ex-girl friend who he caught cheating with his twin brother, DHT (as usual, the nice guy loses!).
As a reminder, testosterone can convert to either DHT by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, or to estrogen by an enzyme called aromatase. So, now you have one of the aromatase inhibitor drugs in your hand (either Cytadren or Arimidex) and you’ve decide to take it. What happens?
As you inhibit estrogen, testosterone begins to rise—that’s a good thing. Now you have low estrogen and high testosterone, but don’t forget, testosterone can also convert to DHT. Here is the bad news, you have so much more testosterone now (because of estrogen inhibition) that all the extra testosterone converts to DHT!! Now you have more DHT than ever before—which is bad (unless you’re doing a "Mr. Clean" commercial)!
Did you see what happened to the scale? Estrogen went down and DHT went up—not good. By the way, this "scale" system is why Proscar (or the "new" balding drug, Propecia) can cause impotence or lowered sex drive for some people who take it. If you take Proscar (a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor), your DHT decreases and your testosterone increase—but only temporarily because all the extra new testosterone now converts to estrogen (by aromatase). And don’t forget, as I said in my last article, estrogen will send a message to your testicles to shut down the production of testosterone and hence... lowered sex drive and impotency!!! [On a side note: Proscar also inhibits the production of an amino acid called l-arginine which produces nitric oxide which is needed for erections. If you’re taking Proscar you should also supplement your diet with extra l-arginine).
THE "SECRET" COMBO
Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Drum roll, please... you have to take an aromatase inhibitor (Cytadren or Arimidex) with a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (Proscar)! By taking both drugs together, you’ll keep testosterone up at all times (not to mention other body parts also) because it can’t convert to estrogen or DHT. Don’t forget to also take the Saw Palmetto because it "blocks" estrogen and DHT at the receptor sites. Now you have a lethal combo: inhibitors with blockers (good triumphs over evil once again!).
How much should you take? If you’ve got some big balls (and you will after this stack) take 250mgs of Cytadren every 12 hours (basically it’s one tablet twice daily) and take 5mgs (one tablet) of Proscar once a day. If you want to save your money, just take one (1) tablet of Cytadren at night with half (1/2) tablet of Proscar daily. For those of you wanting to take the Arimidex instead of the Cytadren, take only half (1/2) tablet, every-other-day. The Arimidex is very strong, so taking quarter (1/4) tablet every-other-day may also work just fine. This is a very new drug, so I don’t have as much feedback on it yet. Remember, you don’t want to completely shut off your estrogen levels, just lower them!
There you have it. I’m not going to promise you a "Chia head" scalp in time for the new year, but this will definitely reduce and probably stop hair loss, and even grow hair for most people. You must be patient though because you are reversing hormonal damage that began when you hit puberty. It’s going to take time (especially for those who have been losing their hair for a while), but it will happen!
Do me a favor please. Pay attention to your body while using these medications and take some notes for me. Your head hair should increase, body hair decrease, sex drive increase, and fat decrease. Maybe we can do a quick survey later and see what happened and how long it took to happen and we’ll give you the feedback on it. I think you’ll be very excited with the results because I already have been receiving positive feedback from others.
THE "MYSTERY" PRODUCT
Oh, yeah—I almost forgot about the mystery "$5 hair growing product"..... Actually, it’s no mystery, it’s good old generic 2% Minoxidil. But the reason I mention it is because it needs more credit than it’s been getting lately. The way I use it 2ml, 2-3 times a day! It may be sound like a lot, but for only $5 a bottle (at Price Club or Costco) you just can’t beat it.
One thing you have to understand about Minoxidil is that the drug is "dose dependent." This means that the more you take it, the better the results (and side-effects too). Ok, so how can we up the "dose"? Well, some of you may just buy the 5% solution.....some of you may just take the 2% solution more often.....and some of you may actually combine both methods! Of course, I always like to take the easiest, most productive and least inexpensive route to success: oral Minoxidil!!!!
Oral Minoxidil will grow more hair than any topical Minoxidil in the world! But you’ll grow it all over your body too (not cool!)!! Granted, if your already a hairy dude, then don’t worry about. Just go to your doctor and request an Rx for it. Oral Minoxidil is used for high blood pressure—so it’s not a weird Rx for a doctor to fill out. When your asking for your Proscar-Cytadren cocktail at the doctors office, just ask him to throw in a few drops of Minoxidil for good measure—but make sure your cocktail is shaken, not stirred (all right...that one sucked, but it’s been a long day so cut me some slack).
Sam A.
1) C.J. Bagatel, J.R. Heiman, J.E. Rivier, and W.J. Bremner, "Effects of Endogenous Testoserone and Estradiol on Sexual Behavior in Normal Young Men," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 78.3 (1994):
711-716.
2) C.J. Bagatel, J.R. Heiman, J.E. Rivier, and W.J. Bremner, "Physiological
Levels of Estradiol Stimulate Plasma High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels in Normal Men," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 78.4 (1994) 855-861.
3) A. Morishima, M.M. Grumbach, E.R. Simpson, C. Fisher, and K. Oin,
"Aromatase Deficiency in Male and Female Siblings Caused by a Novel Mutation and the Physiological Role of Estrogen," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 80.12 (1995): 3689-3698.