Androgenetic alopecia and cardiovascular risk factors in men and women: A comparative study.

J Am Acad Dermatol. 2010 Jul 7.

Androgenetic alopecia and cardiovascular risk factors in men and women: A comparative study.
Arias-Santiago S, Gutiérrez-Salmerón MT, Castellote-Caballero L, Buendía-Eisman A, Naranjo-Sintes R.

Dermatology Units, San Cecilio University Hospital, Granada, Spain.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies in recent decades have associated male androgenetic alopecia (AGA) with the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, only 3 studies have addressed this association in female patients. Most studies considered the risk of myocardial infarction or mortality as a result of heart disease, without analyzing cardiovascular risk factors. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to analyze the presence of cardiovascular risk factors included in the Adult Treatment Panel-III criteria for metabolic syndrome, the prevalence of carotid atheromatosis, hormonal (aldosterone, insulin, testosterone, and sex hormone-binding globulin) factors, and acute phase reactant (C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, D-dimers, erythrocyte sedimentation rate) variables in male and female patients with AGA and in a control group, and to analyze differences among the groups. METHODS: This case-control study included 154 participants, 77 with early-onset AGA (40 male and 37 female) and 77 healthy control subjects (40 male and 37 female) from the dermatology department at a university hospital in Granada, Spain. RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 60% of male patients with AGA (odds ratio [OR] = 10.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.3-32.5), 48.6% of female patients with AGA (OR = 10.73, 95% CI 2.7-41.2), 12.5% of male control subjects, and 8.1% of female control subjects (P < .0001). Atheromatous plaques were observed in 32.5% of male patients with AGA (OR = 5.93, 95% CI 1.5-22.9) versus 7.5% of male control subjects (P = .005) and 27% of female patients with AGA (OR = 4.19, 95% CI 1.05-16.7) versus 8.1% of female control subjects (P = .032). Aldosterone and insulin levels were significantly higher in the male and female patients with AGA versus their respective control subjects. Mean values of fibrinogen were significantly higher in male patients with AGA, whereas values of fibrogen, C-reactive protein, and D-dimers were significantly higher in female patients with AGA versus their respective control subjects. LIMITATIONS: The study of a wider sample of patients with AGA would confirm these findings and allow a detailed analysis of the above factors as a function of the degree of alopecia or between menopausal and premenopausal women. CONCLUSION: The determination of metabolic syndrome and ultrasound study of the carotid arteries may be useful screening methods to detect risk of developing cardiovascular disease in male and female patients with early-onset AGA and signal a potential opportunity for early preventive treatment.

Heart disease is America's number one killer, taking as many lives as almost everything else combined. Every day, 3,000 Americans suffer from heart attacks, and more than 1,200 of them die. Those who don't die often suffer another heart attack later. Because we now know what causes heart attacks, we can prevent them.

Since the early 1970s, study after study after study has implicated cow's milk and other dairy products as a cause of heart disease and clogged arteries. One researcher, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn from the Cleveland Clinic (the top-rated heart clinic in the U.S.), makes people "heart attack-proof" by putting them on a vegan diet (check out his groundbreaking paper in the American Journal of Cardiology, August 99).

It's not just the fat and cholesterol in dairy products, but also the animal protein and milk carbohydrates that are linked to heart disease, as the following studies show:

"International statistics indicate that there is a close correlation between the consumption of saturated fats (dairy fats and meat fats) and the mortality from coronary heart disease, and this conception has been confirmed by many epidemiological studies," concluded a study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association. "Practically total replacement of dairy fats by vegetable oils in the diets … was followed by a substantial reduction in the mortality of men from coronary heart disease. Total mortality also appeared to be reduced." (1)

In a study published in the International Journal of Cardiology, researchers studied seven countries with a high consumption of dairy products and found that heart disease mortality rose as milk supply rose. (2)

In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers wrote, "Much evidence suggests that high consumption of full-fat dairy products is likely to increase coronary heart disease risk" and noted that "there are strong reasons to believe that a causal association does exist." (3)

Researchers who studied dietary links to heart disease in 32 countries found that, of all dietary factors studied, milk carbohydrates played the biggest role in the development of heart disease in men over 35, and nonfat milk played the biggest role in the development of coronary heart disease in men over 45. (4)

Researchers studying 19 Western countries concluded that heart disease mortality rises as consumption of milk protein rises. The researchers noted, "Multiple regression analysis confirmed the importance of the milk factor … as a determinant of variation in ischemic heart disease mortality rates." (5)

"Milk consumption is related to arteriosclerosis," confirmed yet another group of researchers. "Recent landmark studies confirm a previously suspected close correlation between milk intake and arteriosclerotic heart disease."(6)

A study of food consumption and heart disease in 24 countries concluded, "Direct, linear, and reasonably accurate correlation has been found between coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality rates and the consumption of unfermented milk proteins-namely the protein content of all dairy products with the only important exception of cheese." (7)

"It is clear that saturated fats, mainly dairy fats, are closely associated with the mortality rate from ischaemic heart disease," wrote researchers in the Journal of Internal Medicine. (8 )

In a study published in Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Disease, researchers wrote, "a reduction in meat and dairy products … will decrease other cardiovascular risk factors, particularly cholesterol and glucose intolerance. This healthier diet will reduce cardiovascular disease and is similar to the diet now being advocated for the prevention of some forms of cancer." They also noted, "Diet is by far the most important environmental factor determining our longevity, and for those who wish to live longer, a change in diet as early in life as possible will have substantial effects." (9)

In a study published in The Lancet, researchers comparing heart disease death rates with food intake found that the highest correlation was with milk. "Changes in milk-protein consumption, up or down, accurately predicted changes in coronary deaths four to seven years later." The researchers noted that their analysis "strongly supports" previous conclusions that milk is the principle dietary culprit in hardened, narrowed arteries and that the problematic portion of milk is its protein, not its fat. (10)

A study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology found that butter and milk consumption had a positive correlation with heart disease. (11)

A study that compared coronary death rates with food intakes in 21 countries found that the food most highly correlated with coronary deaths was milk. (12)

"Both cholesterol and saturated fat in your diet may increase blood levels of cholesterol and increase the formation of plaque (blockages) in your arteries," says Dr. Dean Ornish of the University of California at San Francisco, who has demonstrated that artery blockages can be reversed with a low-fat vegan diet instead of expensive and invasive surgeries. "[One] might consider switching from nonfat milk to nonfat soy milk, as I have done. This will give you a double benefit: Soy milk has no cholesterol, and soy products may actually lower your blood cholesterol levels."

The world-renowned health advisor to President Clinton, Dr. John McDougall concurs: "The wisest way to prevent tragedies from a defective blood vessel system is to deal with the cause: Your first-line therapy should be a low-fat, no-cholesterol diet."



1 Osmo Turpeinen, "Effect of Cholesterol-Lowering Diet on Mortality From Coronary Heart Disease and Other Causes," Circulation, 59, No. 1 (1979), 1-7.

2 J. Segall, "Dietary Lactose as a Possible Risk Factor for Ischaemic Heart Disease: Review of Epidemiology," International Journal of Cardiology, 46, No. 3 (1994), 197-207.

3 Lawrence Kushi, Elizabeth Lenary, and Walter Willette, "Health Implications of Mediterranean Diets in Light of Contemporary Knowledge: Plant foods and Dairy Products." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (suppl.), 61 (1995), 1407S-1415S.

4 William Grant, "Milk and Other Dietary Influences on Coronary Heart Disease," Alternative Medicine Review, 3, No. 4 (1998), 281-294.

5 R. Popham, W. Schmidt, and Y. Israel, "Variation in Mortality From Ischemic Heart Disease in Relation to Alcohol and Milk Consumption," Medical Hypotheses, 12, No. 4 (1983), 321-329.

6 P. Rank, "Milk and Arteriosclerosis," Medical Hypotheses, 20, No. 3 (1986), 317-338.

7 S. Seely, "Diet and Coronary Disease: A Survey of Mortality Rates and Food Consumption Statistics of 24 Countries," Medical Hypotheses, 7, No. 7 (1981), 907-918.

8 S. Renaud and M. de Lorgeril, "Dietary Lipids and Their Relation to Ischaemic Heart Disease: From Epidemoiology to Prevention," Journal of Internal Medicine (suppl.), 225, No. 731 (1989), 39-46.

9 G. MacGregor, "Nutrition and Blood Pressure," Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Disease, 9, No. 4 (1999), 6-15.

10 M. Moss and D.L.J. Freed, “Survival Trends, Coronary Event Rates, and the MONICA Project,” The Lancet 354 (1999): 862.

11 A. Menotti, D. Kromhout, H. Blackburn, F. Fidanza, R. Buzina, and A. Nissinen, "Food Intake Patterns and 25-Year Mortality from Coronary Heart Disease: Cross-Cultural Correlations in the Seven Countries Study," European Journal of Epidemiology, 15, No. 6 (1999), 507-515.

12 S. Seely, "Diet and Coronary Heart Disease: A Survey of Female Mortality Rates and Food Consumption Statistics of 21 Countries," Medical Hypotheses, 7, No. 9 (1981), 1133-1137.

None of those studies are relevant to heart disease.

I wrote ten successive articles on heart disease, starting from here:

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2137710-heart-disease-is-a-conventional-quagmire

Saturated fat is inversely correlated with heart disease if one looks at studies published within the last ten years.

While agree that pasteurized milk is poison, unpasteurized milk from cows fed on grass is not.

Saturated fat reduces lipoprotein(a).

Adulterated polyunsaturated fatty acids are implicated in heart disease.

As far as the #1 cause of heart disease, it's from focal infections in the jawbone.

Prior to 1900, when people ate virtually no processed foods and plenty of real food like butter, cream, and grass-fed animals heart disease was very rare.

There he goes again(MisterE) from fantasy-land, using the Vegan toxic dairy-processed food-meat generalization tactics to try and brainwash people.

Just so people don't get the wrong idea and to echo what Immortal said,

DAIRY IS OKAY if it is:

UNPASTEURIZED and comes from GRASSFED(same with meat) cows.

SATURATED FAT reduces Lipoprotein and DOES NOT CAUSE HEART DISEASE.