The Hidden Cost of Hair Loss Treatments: What Every Man Should Know About DHT Blockers & Cancer Risk

WELCOME TO EPISODE 228

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

0:03
Welcome to the Beautifully Broken podcast.
I'm your host Freddie Kimmel, and on the show we explore the survivor's journey, practitioners making a difference, and the therapeutic treatments and transformational technology that allow the body to heal itself.
0:18
Witness the inspiration we gain by navigating the human experience with grace, humility, and a healthy dose of mistakes.
Because part of being human is being beautifully broken.
0:51
As I'm sitting here, I'm looking at an ad that says complete a free online hair consult faster than you can drive to the doctor's office.
Man, did this bring up some memories for me.
This is just a little tagline that I just read from a online company marketing products, drugs to claim to slow, stop or reverse hair loss.
1:14
And believe me, it's very alluring.
And I bet they're making billions of dollars because who doesn't want a head of hair like Brad Pitt?
Honestly, I'm going to tell you, for years, hair loss was one of the most painful experiences of my youth, and I would have done anything to stop it.
1:32
I hated it.
I hated the way I looked, the societal impact, the toll it took on my psyche.
It was massive.
And if I'm being really honest with you, the only thing that allowed me to let go of that obsession, that looping behavior was going through cancer chemotherapy and discovering how amazing I look bald.
1:55
That's the honest to goodness truth.
That's how I let it go.
We live in this incredible era with access to technology our grandparents never dreamed of.
I've got a supercomputer in my pocket.
We have self driving cars rolling around Austin, TX.
2:12
I could go on.
I just went to the airport and there was robots doing people's nails.
I'm telling you, it's changing so fast.
And in the field of anti aging and longevity medicine, we can alter our hormones, we can manipulate the substrates of our fecal matter to heal our guts.
2:29
We can erase all the lines in our face.
It's incredible.
I'm not saying any of this is good or bad, but I, I am going to remind everybody about what happens when the pendulum swings too far and there are shades of Gray.
Right?
Like all things.
But back to the hair and the prostate cancer.
2:45
I've been targeted more and more because I'm bald.
Hair transplant companies, regrowth companies, and I have to reflect.
It's amazing how much it's changed since 1996 because back in the day, I had to go see a doctor.
I had to get get a prescription, I had to do blood tests.
3:02
I had to assess risk.
I had to make that very, very vulnerable trip to the pharmacist, which I vividly remember the woman leaning over the counter and saying, who is this for, sweetie?
Do kids really lose their hair?
Lady still killing me with that comment.
3:19
Anyways, Fast forward today, we're like 25 years later and the market, the market must have experienced what I did 'cause that is a it's a yucky situation.
Nobody wants to talk about hair loss.
I know that's a deeper issue, but the industry has solved for that, right?
3:38
The industry has solved for that with video consults and very discreet mail to your door subscription services comes in a little box.
It's got a word on it that has nothing to do with hair loss.
You know, it's kind of kind of cute packaging and you don't have to talk to anybody really.
3:54
But let's talk about what's in that box that comes to your home that men are getting all over the United States.
So this component with it's in my body already is called DHD, that's dihydrotestosterone and and that basically like blocking that it slows hair loss by addressing a hormonal imbalance that contributes to androgenic alopecia.
4:16
It's contributing to pattern hair loss.
So DHTI just said that word.
Let me go back again and just say it make sure I'm dihydrotestosterone.
DHT.
It's a derivative of testosterone, but it binds, it can bind to receptors and hair follicles and it can cause them to shrink just like Honey I shrunk the kids.
4:35
And anybody see that movie?
I went to Disney with a family.
We actually got on the honey I shrunk your kids, right?
Holy shit, I'm in a rabbit hole.
Let's get back.
But the DHT binds to the hair follicle.
It shrinks it down.
It literally is that process of miniaturization.
So over time it reduces the size of the follicle and then there's more room in the where the follicle sitting in your scalp and it gets like wax and build up around there.
5:00
It changes the lifespan of a hair follicle.
It becomes thinner and like more light and then it'll be really blonde and mini and then it's fuzz and then it's not there.
That's literally what happens.
And so by blocking the enzyme 5A reductase, which converts testosterone to DHTDHT blockers reduce DHT levels in the scalp.
5:23
I hope that's clear.
And it prevents that shrinkage in the hair, not your penis.
But sometimes it can actually promote growth.
Now, I never knew this, but DHT blockers, they work more effectively in the back of the scalp.
So that's the vertex of the crown, not the front of the hairline in the temples where I was experiencing more of my hair loss, albeit it was everywhere.
5:43
And I think it was more on the downturn of some toxic exposures and really bad mono and a viral infection.
But that's another podcast.
The point is, is that, you know, I really didn't know what I was getting into and nobody, nobody talked to me about a risk.
5:59
Nobody's like, oh, yeah, we could probably fix that.
We can do something for you.
You know, DHT blockers, they can cause side effects in a very small percentage of users.
They're not awful, but it could be a reduced level of sexual drive or libido, erectile dysfunction or gyneclomasia.
6:16
That's, you know, we get some breasts.
So they're very rare.
They're occurring in approximately 2 to 5% of users, and they're typically mild to moderate.
And most times when you stop the medication, the side effects go away.
There are outliers that their side effects hang out forever.
6:33
And there are support groups for people like that.
And I've actually talked to some of them online, but it's very, very minimal.
Who knows?
The body's amazing.
I don't know why it responds that way.
Another consideration though, is that in the big one, This is why we're doing the podcast finally we got here, is that there is a potential impact on your PSA, that your prostate specific antigen level.
6:53
So men, we have prostates.
The PSA is a protein produced by your prostate gland.
Your prostate makes a protein and it goes out into the blood.
And this is a blood test that many men will do a specifically later in life to screen for prostate cancer and prostate health.
7:10
So DHT blockers like minoxidil, like finasteride are known to suppress PSA levels.
They're known to suppress them a lot.
So the suppression can lead to a false negative result when we're looking at prostate cancer.
7:29
It could delay treatment.
It could delay diagnosis of a cancer that is very treatable.
Nobody talks about this.
This is not in the commercials online.
I'd listen to the little nuance.
So before I go into like the doom and gloom, I want to put it in perspective and who is listening?
7:45
Who are you?
What's your age?
What's your partner's age?
Are they using this?
Where does this fit in for them?
It's great questions to ask.
Glad you said so.
Let's put this into perspective.
So there's good news.
Prostate cancer is uncommon in men under 40.
The risk rises significantly after age 50 and most cases are in men over 65.
8:06
The biggest prevalence for men having prostate cancer is 70 to 74, although this number is sliding down with better screening and better detection.
Now that's a small set of the population, but if we look at cancer deaths from prostate cancer, it's estimated in 2024, thirty, 5250 deaths will occur from prostate cancer in the United States.
8:30
And I know it's easy to look at this number and we can compare to other types of cancers and other ways people die like heart disease, which is still massive.
However, it's still heart wrenching.
It's not a number, it's not a statistic.
This is an uncle, this is a parent, this is a husband, this is a dad.
8:48
So I want to have this conversation and really before we go any further, I want you to share this with a man in your life because a lot of times the conversations around aesthetics and longevity and cancer, we don't overlap.
And we're going to talk about best practices.
9:03
If you're going to be on the DHT blocker, really short, really sweet, really actionable #1 we are going to establish APSA baseline.
We want to get tested before we start an over the counter or prescription DHT blocker.
We want to ensure that we have a baseline comparison so we can identify any changes.
9:23
That's all.
So that's number one.
PSA baseline #2 we also want to look at testosterone levels and we want to look at DHT levels.
That's going to give us a more comprehensive picture.
So we again have something to compare to over time as we move into a different age bracket, right?
9:40
Here's the thing about the DHD blockers.
The minute you stop them, you're probably going to lose and accelerate all the gains you had in taking that medication.
So it's a forever thing lots of times as it being a new medication with the last 1020 years that we're going to move into a different age group.
9:57
So there's an unknowns happening as the first wave of human beings using this.
So I think it's better to be informed #3 and this was the one that kind of set off the red light in the room for me or whatever.
The big flashing red light that's indicating we should do something right now and deepen our level of awareness is you want to inform your healthcare provider about DHT blockers.
10:17
You want to have a conversation.
Most of these things we can just get online now, or you can get them at the grocery store, or you can get an over the counter.
But if you're on a DHT blocker, we are going to be adjusting your PSA level.
For example, APSA reading on finasteride or minoxidil or hims.
10:38
These are just different types of this DHT blocker medication branded and marketed as such.
The PSA readings, we're going to double them if you're on one of those medications, right?
So we need to understand that the levels could be suppressed by 50% while taking a DHT blocker.
10:56
This has been from my research that I'm seeing online.
And the reason why it's concerning is because the adjustment is it's not really established across all practices in medicine and we can have different responses within the train to all these things.
11:14
Let me be more clear.
So what I really want to be aware of is like, we want an ongoing monitoring of the PSA, right, every three to six months after starting a DHT blocker.
And we really want to listen to the body because everybody's body is going to respond to this differently.
11:30
We want to report signs of urinary difficulty, pelvic floor discomfort, sexual dysfunction.
You go right to your doctor with that.
And then we want to monitor our general health and look for unusual symptoms like fatigue, malaise, bone pain.
11:46
These can indicate an underlying issue.
And obviously if you're a high risk candidate, if you've got a history of prostate cancer or cancers in your family, you definitely want to do an annual check.
And that friends, it's really that simple.
That's it.
This is a great show to to share with the men in your life.
12:03
Now, I had initially like written this up and I thought a lot about it, like doing all the looking at all the research online.
And the one thing that's new for this generation, because it's always new, right, is the role of glyphosate.
And I think I would be remiss if I didn't mention the role of glyphosate specifically with battles around cancer, hormonal disruption and prostate cancer.
12:24
So in the recent years, glyphosate, which is a herbicide that you used to be able to buy at Home Depot, it's the active ingredient Roundup.
And that's been under scrutiny for its role in various cancers, specifically sometimes prostate cancer.
You got to really dig.
12:40
So scientific studies have linked glyphosate to endocrine disruption that can interfere with your hormone balance and that could potentially Dr. development of different cancers.
There are thousands of lawsuits out there that have filed against manufacturers with plaintiffs claiming that long term exposure to glyphosate 'cause their cancers.
12:59
In some high profile cases, courts have been awarded billions in damages.
So their companies are paying out to individual suffering on Hodgkin's lymphoma, other cancers, while prostate cancer has not been primarily indicated or featured in the lawsuits.
13:16
There's a growing body of research that glyphosate is a hormonal disruptor.
And because of that, I think it's an underappreciated risk factor.
So for me and my two cents, your role as a participant in your own improvement is to understand the disease States and cancers that impacted the generation before us will be different than our parents and our grandparents, dramatically different.
13:38
If we just want to count into an environmental factory like glyphosate.
That's one team.
That's just one that surged 15,000% since 1974 to 2014.
It's in our soil, it's in our water, it's part of life.
It's in the receipts you touched from the grocery store.
13:54
Yes, that's true.
I know it's wild.
It's literally everywhere.
The scope, if we're going to look at scope, you know, between 1974 and 2014, the US, just the US has applied 1.6 billion kilograms of glyphosate to our land and our soil.
14:11
That is a per capita pesticide usage of 1.34 kilograms for every person in the US.
It's not a data point to scare you.
It's an open conversation and an invitation to the reality of the country's food supply and how the risks of cancer are going to be changed and impacted by environmental toxicants.
14:31
I say this all the time.
This is why conversations, you know, and we have people like Doctor Chris Shade and we talk about liposomal delivery method of nutraceuticals.
We talk about binders from Quicksilver Scientific when we have the conversation around zeolite or using Zeocharge as a nanoparticle to help bind environmental toxicants.
14:50
It used to be a conversation I had with people that were sick with Lyme disease, sick with fibromyalgia, sick with chronic Epstein Barr chronic fatigue syndrome.
Ms. will say, well, there's something severe going on in the train to cause the degeneration of the tissues.
And I think sometimes I think people with some of these earlier diseases are the lucky ones because you have the instance early on in life, you know, body isn't feeling good.
15:15
You make a bunch of changes.
Lots of times people they wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Then we're hit with something really big when we're 50 or 60.
We don't have the time to make these lifestyle adjustments.
So I don't think these things are for the chronically I'll, I think this isn't everybody conversation.
If you're listening to this and you're, you're raising your fists in the air and you're saying, yes, Freddie, yes, I'm right there with you.
15:36
We should be in the sauna.
We should be sweating.
We should be binding.
We should be looking at the quality of food, trying to eat as clean as we can.
We should be outside in sunshine.
We should be working on how to breathe and let go of the toxic emotions have built up.
All of it.
We got to do all of it.
Anyway, that's my soapbox.
15:51
I'm going to get off.
I love you guys.
I hope you find value in this.
Please send it to a man in your life, a grandpa, a dad, a young dude, because it's important to know.
And if I could give you one gift, if I could wave a magic wand.
Don't hold shame about hair loss.
It's cool to be bald and I've saved so much money on shampoo and razors it's ridiculous.
16:11
Probably could have bought a car.
I'm going to close there.
I love you guys.
Bye team.
18:51
Ladies and gentlemen, here we are with Season 9 of the podcast.
We're about to Crest into year 6.
Can you believe it?
I'm so glad you're still here.
And I just wanted to remind you, if you like the show, please head over to Apple or Spotify and give us a five star review.
19:08
It really expands the listenership.
Now, there's one big way you can continue to learn and deepen the relationship that we started in this very episode.
You can go to Beautifully Broken World and you can check out our brand new website and store.
19:25
Listed are all the technologies, the supplements, the self quantification, the products, everything that I love, I personally use and I've curated for this audience.
Most of the items have a significant discount just by using the link or our code.
19:41
Beautifully Broken all one word and they do support the podcast through affiliations.
Now if you want to see the faces of our guest and you want to watch me unbox products and see reviews, you can go over to YouTube at Beautifully Broken World.
19:57
Now this next message is from my vast team of Internet lawyers.
The information on this podcast is for education.
By listening, you agree not to use the information found here as medical advice to treat, diagnose or cure any medical condition in yourself or others.
20:14
Always consult your guiding position for actual medical issues you may be having.
Now in my closing, we are truly in a paradigm shift.
We need you at your very best.
So use these conversations as a jumping off point for further exploration.
20:34
Always listen to your own body and remember, while life may be painful, how we put the pieces back together is a beautiful, beautiful process.
I love you so much.
I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel.