Why do white people go bald more than other races?

I was thinking, maybe it's because white people are genetically adapted to live on less carb diets, since they are from cold environments where plant food and fruit is rarely found.

Wheras people like native americans, who are from from a warmer climate are hardly ever bald.

Espio - That's an interesting theory. My own theory, which is really not a serious one, but just a random thought is that perhaps losing hair is a "protective" mechanism to buffer other areas of the body from free radicals. The basis for this theory is that advanced balding is strongly correlated with heart disease and insulin resistance which are free radical diseases.

I'm taking a wild guess that it may be the fact that hair is less needed in parts of the world where the intensity of the sun is not that great. I'm guessing that maybe it was related to the fact that we lost pigmentation in our skin (which also serves to protect from sun exposure). Whoever migrated into the cloudy colder areas with a lower UV index did not need as much sun protection as say Africans, who have the thickest hair. Just one hypothesis I came up with. Hair in nature is usually for warmth, but without full body coverage than the small amount on the head is not that effective. I could be way off.

What I would be intersted to know is why the Irish have read hair? That is an interesting one to me.

Some Africans have very big foreheads, woman included.

Eskimos has, as far as I know, really good hair and they live in very cold environments.

Scottish people are more "red" then Irish believe it or not.

Red Hair Genetics: http://www.derm.med.ed.ac.uk/06_teaching/redhairgen.htm

I don't entirely agree with what I've seen thus far in the thread. White people DIDN'T go bald nearly as much as they do nowadays when they were doing outdoor work and not living off of the western diet. I've seen plenty of pictures of my Grandpa's friends when he was younger, and NOBODY had anything but a full head of hair. We're talking within the last 100 years.

The idea that we wouldn't have hair because it's not needed in regions with less sun can be flipped around to say that we would in fact have more hair to keep us warm in a region that lacks warmth.

Well, primitive europeans on a primitive diet would of had much lower sugar levels before the invention of farming and bread. So they might of had thick hair to keep them warm.

Espio - It's an interesting theory, seems to make sense. American Indians don't seem to get any hair loss, and if I think about it, I don't believe they grow any facial hair (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Even the diabetic variety who drink don't get hair loss, so perhaps their receptors are not as DHT sensitive as Caucasians. Beard growth is DHT dependent.

Rosacea is another dis-ease that is more common in Caucasians. I wonder if the differences in rates and races has to do with the profile of bacteria strains within the gastrointestinal tract. For example, various strains of lactic acid bacteria exist and some contain Lactoferrin, which is an iron-binding glycoprotein. Lactoferrin can substantially reduce acne and it's iron binding effect reduces oxidative stress. Both Lactoferrin and Lactic acid bacteria, inhibit fungi.

nidhogge wrote:I don't entirely agree with what I've seen thus far in the thread. White people DIDN'T go bald nearly as much as they do nowadays when they were doing outdoor work and not living off of the western diet. I've seen plenty of pictures of my Grandpa's friends when he was younger, and NOBODY had anything but a full head of hair. We're talking within the last 100 years.

The idea that we wouldn't have hair because it's not needed in regions with less sun can be flipped around to say that we would in fact have more hair to keep us warm in a region that lacks warmth.

That's true and I pointed out that head hair wouldn't be nearly as effective as body hair (in which white people among other races) have more of than African's for example. I cannot think of one example of an African American or pictures of actual native Africans that have body hair.

As far as the last 100 years go, we don't have nearly the photographic volume of individuals that we have today- especially with the internet. People had to pay lots of money to get a photo taken and as far as I know- it was primarily upper-class that could afford this. Also, many people wore hair pieces back then which would be hard to identify in an old low resolution black and white picture of that caliber. One more thing is that there have been generations of breeding (gene mixing) since then. Back then....races were not by any means completely pure blooded, but much more so than the average american today is. many people were just migrating from other countries at that time as well. Who knows, it's all a guess. One thing is for sure- genetics play the key role, no matter how badly one takes care of themselves or what they eat, they will never lose their hair if they aren't genetically predisposed. Diet is only a help or a hindrance to those that have the gene/genes. Why some people (not talking about Nidhogge) refuse to accept this reality is beyond me. I used to work at a natural whole foods type store where they sell almost every supplement and special food that is mentioned here. There are bald men who eat there 2 or 3 times a day! You cannot win against genetics, but you can slow them down.

that should be immigrating not migrating- sorry. Also maybe because of the colder weather and lower UV index, protection at the top of the head was less necessary for UV defense and warmth became of primary importance. Maybe a shift from less head hair to more body hair occurred to help with the cold temperatures. Also as far as know regarding eskimos- they migrated from other asian people not too long in the distant past, so enough time has not really taken place to see much of an evolutionary change in their situation. They also keep their blood line pretty pure (don not intermix with other races too much). Back to the body hair thing. I know that not all balding men have a lot of body hair, but i know that I have a good amount, and that is a stereotype with some truth to it.