Hair loss and exercise
Dr Rogers was asked to comment about five years ago, for a newspaper article regarding hair loss and exercise. At the time. there was a limited amount of information but further studies have been done since and there is now increased clarity about how exercise affects hair loss.
The take home message is that relatively short bursts of high intensity exercise, such as HIIT and weightlifting, bodybuilding etc, can significantly increase levels of natural anabolic and androgenic hormones in men and women. The principal one of course, is testosterone which is metabolised to DHT (dihydrotestosterone) well proven to cause hair loss.
Low intensity but prolonged aerobic cardio exercise, such as long distance running, reduces the levels of testosterone. It makes sense when looking at the physiques of marathon runners vs 100m sprinters.
Finally, as an aside, couch potatoes who become obese, may experience less hair loss. Fat cells metabolise testosterone into estrogen, so reducing the amount of DHT.