Cold stress in cows causes them to grow thicker and longer fur

"Within a range of environmental temperatures called the “thermoneutral zone,” animals do not have to expend any extra energy to maintain their body temperature. At the lower end of this range, normal metabolic processes supply enough heat to maintain body core temperature. Within their thermoneutral zone, animals may modify their behaviour, such as seeking shelter from wind, and respond over the long term by growing a thick hair coat for winter, without affecting their nutrient requirements."

*"Acclimation: Cattle do adjust or acclimate to colder weather by growing a longer, thicker coat. This provides additional insulation against cold weather. The coat must be clean and dry to provide maximum protection to the cow. Dirt or moisture on the coat reduces its insulation value dramatically."*

Full article here for anyone interested:

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/beef/facts/07-001.htm

"Normally, animals with fur or hair body coats may develop a thicker and/or longer winter coat in colder times of the year, which will shed out to a shorter, sleeker summer coat as the days lengthen into spring and summer. This process may not occur in a very noticeable fashion in climates that are warm year-round, though animals may nonetheless shed their coats periodically. The process may also be minimized by artificially keeping the animal blanketed, or, in the case of small animals, housed indoors."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_(animal)

Again, we find correlation between temperature and hair growth / loss. So, to put it bluntly: too much heat negates the need for hair as a thermoinsulator.

So, remember guys - instead of sleeping in a bed next to a roaring log fire and a nice cup of hot cocoa, sleep in a bath of ice cubes and the windows open. You'll be as hirsute as a werewolf in a few days.

J/K don't do that.

Some more information:

Baldness Treatments May Mimic Growth of Animals' Winter Coats

Research into treatments that fight male-pattern baldness might take a lesson from animals that beef up their fur coats at certain times of the year.

In animals, hair growth is triggered not only by hormones in the layer of skin called the dermis, but also by signals coming from elsewhere in the body, said study author Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, a professor at the University of Southern California.

These signals vary with the seasons, the research showed, which is why some animals lose and gain coats of hair at different times of the year.

"The hair-follicle stem cell is not only listening to the voice in the stem cell, but also the voice from outside," Chuong explained, in an interview prior to his presentation today at the meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in Denver.

http://www.livescience.com/17353-baldness-treatments-mimic-animals-winter-coats.html

Xenon wrote:So, remember guys - instead of sleeping in a bed next to a roaring log fire and a nice cup of hot cocoa, sleep in a bath of ice cubes and the windows open. You'll be as hirsute as a werewolf in a few days.

J/K don't do that.

Well, don't take this the wrong way but I love sleeping outside now, especially when its cold.

Maybe that is the true link to the fact that homeless people often have full heads of hair.

A Ferrari and a tent. :-)

M

Good stuff. I've been keeping my window open at night, despite it being much cooler at night.

Also when I'm using an infrared sauna...I not only wrapped a cold wet towel around my head, I also have one of those ice-pack things nestled in-between. It works great.

Nice, guys. Just watch you don't develop hypothermia LOL.

I've been exposing myself to colder temps for the past few days, but not too long... about an hour until I start shivering a little, then I'll make myself warm. I felt some mild aches around the foramen of my skull. This is what I predicted would happen, as colder temps are causing the venous blood to become colder. I just want to cause a little cold stress here and there because I think that this will eventually trigger regrowth. It sure makes sense in light of the evidence, but only time will tell if it works.

No hot flashes (obviously) or inflammation have occurred as of yet, so, so far so good.

Prior to this year I was living as a lodger and the bloke I was living with kept the house cold, I mean like 17-18C during the day at winter, and god knows what it was at night.

Suffice to say my scalp had never had so much cold. I'm fairly sure I steadily lost hair during this period.

Maybe too much of a good thing? Or maybe my scalp wasn't overheating in the first place?

I have lost hair before from spraying my temples with a bottle of cold water continuously throughout the day, but I think that I may have went a bit too far and caused too much vasoconstriction (the hair thinned very rapidly). This is why I'm only exposing myself to cold intermittently. If it fails to produce hair, then at least I'll know. I think it's worth a shot at least.

I wish I had something other than anecdotes and my girlfriends opinion on what cool to cold hair rinses have done for me.
Firstly it removed a terrible itch....then excess shedding stopped.. And recently noticed my hair super thick... It felt much thinner (on top) back in the summer. And I'm not sure if there's any studies on cool speeding up growth, but I had my haircut not long back and it's radically grown like it used to when I was younger... to where friends and family have commented. Now I'm not beyond a nw2, and I'm wondering if the keeping scalp cool thing works better in maintenance as opposed to re growth?
Really interested in the subcutaneous fat keeping follicles nice and safe.makes sense.

And also. If we were to accept that mpb is a natural evolutionary process. The heat thing I think does link well. Our brains heating/increasing.
Ideally I don't want to have to accept it...but my intuition painting a picture on a positive reason for why this happens.

Live Forever, everything is always nice in theory - when we connect the dots it all seems to make perfect sense. We have seen how heat can cause human hair / animal fur to thin and become shorter; we have seen how hair / fur thickens in animals and anorexics exposed to cold; but whether this will trigger head hair growth remains to be seen.

It's cool to know that the cold rinses have improved your hair health, though.

very true Xenon.
I think I've grown over zealous of this cold rinse thing as it works so well for me.

Been reading Nietzsche, a philosopher. (quite heavy reading)
Talks about the need of suffering in order to grow stronger, and
especially accepting suffering.

I couldn't help but think of how our convenience lifestyles are detriment
to us in many ways... the religion of comfort and ease blinds us.

In my head, I can't decide if baldness is for the good or bad in the long run?
Is it a compensation for something?
Or is it a kind of genetic disease?
a form of cancer almost?

If it was all about brain expansion, then I'd assume more women would
go bald.

Thoughts on this anyone?

There is also the possibility that hair loss is a huge mix of genetic loci and that hair loss can result from a multitude of combinations of various genes, not just one set. Obviously there's is something more uniquely male contributing, which we know is the androgens, but to what extent and by what mechanism is not known.

Hair loss may have zero purpose. It might just be an accident that's gotten perpetuated through time because it hasn't been sexually selected against hard enough. In fact, in many cases its sexually selected for.

It might be meaningless and have zero directionality. It could be social. It could be part of the ongoing loss of total body hair that's been happening for a long time.

It's all crazy shit. Sources theorize hair protects from UV radiation / sunburn, then we read it helps to retain body heat to keep the brain warm. Then we read that we have hair for aesthetic purposes because it makes us more attractive to the ladies. I can certainly say the latter is true because since my temples receded, so did the interest from the ladies LOL

AS54 wrote:There is also the possibility that hair loss is a huge mix of genetic loci and that hair loss can result from a multitude of combinations of various genes, not just one set. Obviously there's is something more uniquely male contributing, which we know is the androgens, but to what extent and by what mechanism is not known.

It might be meaningless and have zero directionality. It could be social. It could be part of the ongoing loss of total body hair that's been happening for a long time.

Agree, there is simply to many variables to search for the health problem or the gene or the cause. Given it's complexity there is really nothing simple to give it to masses to stop their hair problem with. This make me think of how dedicated people of this boards must have been to find it out or solve for themselves as it seems nearly impossible. It's clearly that for newcomer is now somewhat easier due accumulated knowledge that show multiple directions to look at.

The interesting part to the evolutionary loss of total body hair would be looking to it from the perspective of heat and wearing clothes. We started to wear as it was easier to retain heat and shield the body or what? Like gadget that can make you more efficient at what you do. It seem like body adopted to it with losing hair to be able to regulate heat inflammation more easily. There are parts of the body that never had hair. Skin is pretty much thicker there what also supports heat theory. But than again, many with cold limbs are not particularly hairy, nor have hairy limbs. For every + there is a minus, so the opinion is balanced based on everything...

One thing is sure, feeling you are more healthy when you stop the thing. I wouldnt argue this can be psychological boost, but than again as everything can be look at from every layer, the psychological one is where everything meets and we are the most experienced at judging this layer. Everything is interpreted as psychological as applying identity to the present moment and making thoughts about it, sure is feedback making story. Positive or negative. I don't doubt, many depression is caused by powerlessness due most visible degeneration process matured man is about to experience with losing his hair. And social interactions on such stress can work as big amplifier. I like when you emphasise ''how you play the game'' part as it sure is remarkable how some people make condition look like advantage. Bluffing or ''fake until you make it'' wont take the results back from them... Looking it from the perspective of biochemistry and how i feel about it, i cant see it different than disease that is showing many health problems, many unaware of. The bigger stress is going trough just when you acknowledge there is something wrong with you.

This said, i many times had conversations with cancer patients, my family including. Knowing that cancer is usually growing years before it is diagnosed, i am convinced that diagnosis is what produced far more stress than condition itself. With options that mainstream medicine has to offer, cancer patient in his way to recovery have to firstly beat the crap out about his options and suggested odds, so secondly the healing can take place itself. To me this is looking as enormous amount of psychological stress, induced by nobody else's but the mainstream opinion. As it's reality by balding person to become bald, the reality for cancer patients is ''be dead soon''.  Then again dying is natural process and for me and knowing nobody ever come out of it alive, sure changes perspective a little. For what purpose we are lengthening our lives in the first place? By tackling hairloss, we sure are, i think. I think everybody should have answer on this question for himself...

For this reason almost everything that is happening on this boards exceeds conventional health standards by factor 10 or greater in my opinion.

Back to hair. I do believe the process can be halted, and reversed to a degree. It mostly depends on how much money, trial and error cycles and how many sacrifices one is about to do (living strict until the healing takes place, etc...), to have his hair if he gets all the relevant knowledge available and make a use of it for his case. Don't think full regrowth is what somebody has to have in mind, as for its expectations he might fail big time. Still i highly doubt ''being cured of'' thing applies to hairloss. If you are prone to degeneration on your scalp your ''cure'' is maybe more like ''how to live to prevent it to happen'' knowing what's your hair/health hazards are - the one that can be applied to everybody and the one that are unique to yourself...

I second Xenon on attractiveness and hair-loss. For the majority it is very negative experience regardless of it effects on confidence. And tnx for your contribution. Without it i'd probably stilll overheating my scalp in sauna. Speaking of which, breathing in sauna through a cold watered towel tunnel reduces heat stress levels by another 30% with minor contributions in decreased sweating. I've just found it very useful today, lol.

Xenon, I think you are trying to suggest that human hair shares this same adaptive mechanism with animal fur coats.

You mention that the cattle grew longer coats as well, but human hair grows constantly with no set length, regardless of climate. If this is relevant at all, I'd imagine it only applies to our body hair.

Beebrox, It is a complete labyrinth -- the ultimate rubix cube, if you will. The heat certainly seems to play a role, myself, and many others will attest to this. Yet, I'm not entirely certain as to why excess heat triggers hairloss, even though there are a multitude of possible reasons which we have so far explored. But all of these things can lead us on a wild goose chase because the evidence they provide in terms of hair loss / growth is so alluring.

One thing I have noticed about increased heat is increased sebum. Whenever sebum is overproduced or builds up on my scalp it will cause inflammation like nothing else. As soon as my scalp / hair has been thoroughly cleansed, inflammation completely disappears. But there may still be microinflammation occurring because sebum is constantly being produced. I guess lipid dependent bacteria / fungi grow in larger numbers before inflammation becomes obvious, yet smaller spores may still be triggering microinflammation which may be preventing the papilla from regenerating.

Yes, good scalp hygiene has really helped halt my hairloss, lowering body heat has also helped to lower sebum production (to an extent), but this has not been the magic bullet in regrowing hair, even though a few hairs had regrown since upping the ante in scalp hygiene, i.e., making sure that the scalp was squeaky clean to the touch with every wash and rinse.

When you think about it, the sebaceous gland exists inside the follicle wall -- a little further down is the papilla and the hair producing cells. It has been established that sebum build up inside the follicle can cause shedding of the wall, so if the follicle wall can be inflamed, then also the hair producing cells of the papilla. Why not? The fact is, hair absorbs sebum, but if there is no hair in the follicle (except for the peach fuzz), then there is nothing to absorb sebum. So it makes sense that it would fill up the follicle and create conditions for inflammation within the hair producing cells.

As I said in a previous thread, I noticed that the shiny skin of my temples looked tight, but this was an optical illusion created by the presence of sebum. Sebum makes my bald areas of skin look tight, but when it is wiped off, the skin assumes a normal texture, and I could even see the tiny pore openings. But a couple of minutes later, the skin became shiny again because sebum was secreted onto the surface.

IDK perhaps improper scalp hygiene over the years largely contributed to the steady decline of my hairline. It is interesting that it has halted since cleaning it properly, yet in my teens to mid 20's I had no idea that sebum excess may have been playing a role in my hairloss, so didn't really care about washing my hair all that much.

But is overproduction of sebum / poor scalp hygiene the ultimate cause of hairloss in every case? I doubt it. There are obviously many more underlying factors involved which cause the hair producing cells to become more susceptible to inflammation / catabolism.

Satan, I thought that there may have been a shared similarity because we see that many people who have anorexia develop a hirsute condition called Lanugo, which seems to occur in a desperate attempt to retain body heat and keep the organs warm. This usually occurs after the body has burned up all of it's stores of fat. For that reason, in addition to things I've read about hair, I surmised that it is a thermoinsulating mechanism (in both animals and humans), and would grow thicker and longer if tissue was continuously stressed by cold temperatures.

I read that head hair is required to provide insulation to the brain, but increased metabolism warms up the brain, which may therefore negate the need for hair on the top of the head (as an additional insulator). Also the brain is cooled via emissary veins within the scalp, so the presence of hair may obstruct this cooling process. But it maybe so, that if metabolism alone is insufficient in keeping the brain warm, then head hair might regrow to provide additional warmth.

I might have it completely wrong, and I'm in the process of experimenting with colder temps to the scalp right now to find out if it will eventually lead to regrowth. Maybe, maybe not.

Xenon wrote:I read that head hair is required to provide insulation to the brain, but increased metabolism warms up the brain, which may therefore negate the need for hair on the top of the head (as an additional insulator). Also the brain is cooled via emissary veins within the scalp, so the presence of hair may obstruct this cooling process. But it maybe so, that if metabolism alone is insufficient in keeping the brain warm, then head hair might regrow to provide additional warmth.

Low metabolism (i.e., hypothyroidism) is strongly associated with low body temperature and hair loss.

I'd also like to add; if it does turn out to be true that the hair at the top of our heads exists to provide added insulation to the brain, then hot foods and drinks may well play a role in brain overheating. When they are consumed regularly, they heat up the core, and from what I've read, heated blood enters the brain and raises it's temperature. This may possibly explain why many of us sweat from the scalp after eating hot foods or drinking hot drinks -- because the brain overheats, which then triggers sweating from the scalp in an attempt to cool it.

I'm not suggesting that anyone give up consuming very hot food / beverages, but it might help with brain cooling / reduced scalp sweating by cutting down a little. I've been doing this, along with exposing myself to a little cold stress. naturally there's been no scalp sweating nor any hot flashes, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the coming months.

Also, are we not the only species who has become reliant on hot food and drinks to maintain core temperature? We see no incidences of hairloss in the animal kingdom, at least not as regularly as MPB in humans. This may suggest that animals rely on their coating in order to keep warm, whereas we rely on hot food / drinks, clothing, home heating appliances and sunlight.

Someone raised a point earlier about clothing and the loss of body hair throughout our stages of evolution. There may well be some truth to this, and there may also be truth to the brain overheating theory and hairloss, in being that head hair is not that necessary in this day and age in order to help keep the brain warm. In fact, it may shed because it interferes with brain cooling.

Satan wrote:

Xenon wrote:I read that head hair is required to provide insulation to the brain, but increased metabolism warms up the brain, which may therefore negate the need for hair on the top of the head (as an additional insulator). Also the brain is cooled via emissary veins within the scalp, so the presence of hair may obstruct this cooling process. But it maybe so, that if metabolism alone is insufficient in keeping the brain warm, then head hair might regrow to provide additional warmth.

Low metabolism (i.e., hypothyroidism) is strongly associated with low body temperature and hair loss.

I've heard about this, I've also come across scores of people with hypothyroidism and they never suffered MPB. Also, has there ever been a successful MPB cure by correcting thyroid function in of itself?

I've also read equal amounts of reports about hyperthyroidism and it being a factor in hairloss.

I'm not saying you're wrong BTW, I'd just like to know if treating thyroid disorders has cured MPB, and if so, could you provide any evidence?

P.S. Satan, i forgot to mention, when the brain overheats, it causes fatigue in athletes. It apparently does this to prevent additional metabolic heat being generated, so it has a chance to cool down properly. So, what many presume is an under active thyroid, may simply be the result of the brain overheating.

At one time I also thought that I may have suffered from an under-active thyroid because I was always tired, but it simply turned out, that I wore too much thick clothing, consumed too many hot drinks, which was causing too much brain heat. When i stopped wearing thick heavy clothes all the time I immediately started to become more energetic and found that i could cool down easier.

ETA: as an example, wear a bath robe of made of thick terry towelling and also wear clothes or pajamas underneath. I can guarantee you that you will start to feel very tired after a while. This is because this fabric retains body heat very strongly. Then when you remove the bath robe, you'll find that after you've cooled down, you will immediately become more energetic.

When the brain / body overheats the hypothalamus lowers circulating thyrotropin releasing hormone via the HPT axis, so that metabolism slows down and the body can cool off.

In general, a high metabolism means resistance to disease. Your body can effectively use more energy and nutrients to self-repair, fight off infections, while also maintaining circulation to your extremities, keeping skin moisturized, etc. Our metabolism slowing down is an adaptive response to stress (cold in itself is a stressor). Thyroid hormone decreases while stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol, serotonin, prolactin, estrogen) increase. This shift is associated with feeling cold, poor digestion, fatigue, insomnia, hair loss, and aging in general. It is also a precursor for just about every chronic disease you can come up with. Hypothyroid is very common nowadays even if lab tests don't show it. Ultimately it comes down to thyroid hormone on the cellular level, not in the blood. I think true hyperthyroidism is hard to produce outside of a clinical setting.

A strong metabolism will not cause you to overheat. Wearing thick clothing while you're already warm might, but your own intuition should prevent that. The only time heat has made me feel less energetic is on those horrible 90 degree summer days without air conditioning, but happened even with with low metabolism. Being cold on the other hand, takes away my mental and physical energy much easier. I don't think the brain overheating is what causes fatigue in athletes. I think the brain overheating is part of the athlete becoming fatigued.

I think we lost our ape-like body hair as an adaptation to sweat glands, not clothing. Sweat cools us down, whereas any furry predator/prey will eventually have to stop and pant. This allowed us to outrun them via endurance instead of speed.

Yes, Satan, I completely agree with you about the benefits of increased metabolism *so long as the body and brain can cool down in the process*. If the brain and major organs are overworked and cannot cool down, then the HPT axis slows thyroid function. This may occur in humid environments or if the body is not hydrated enough (or wearing thicker clothing when active). To combat this some endurance athletes wear ice vests so that the core / brain can remain at optimal temperature for longer and prevent fatigue kicking in. I can personally attest that allowing the core to cool also provides me with more energy.

I suppose it depends upon how cold we are talking, also. I mean the more extreme stages of hypothermia can cause you to lose consciousness, but for me personally, I've found that a little cold stress makes me more excitable and speeds up my metabolism. Just jump in a bath of ice cubes and watch how quick you jump back out :p

And I also agree with you that we likely lost lots of our body hair due to the formation of sweat glands, but wearing thick fabric absorbs sweat very strongly and interferes with cooling. So, it's probable that we lost even more body hair when we started wearing clothing and becoming over reliant upon heating appliances, hot food and drinks, etc.

Also heating and sweating, also brings the loss of sodium and chloride.
I wonder if people subject to mpb lose more of these minerals than someone without?

well im not sure if its cos of my weight(100kg) or meds im on which i dont want to disclose(suffice to say, im only on them because they r last resort)

but im always friggin too hot when i try and sleep. im comfortable for about 2 mins then the pillow and mattress get hot from body heat and thats it. i open the window, i point a fan at me, still i flip the pillow every 5 mins until i fall asleep which usually takes 3 hrs

im in australia, so apart from the 3 months of the year when temperature is unbearable and i have to use a air con to get to sleep, most of the time temp at night is 10-20 degrees C, so should be a nice temperature to sleep.

i definately agree the heat theory is a likely contributor to mpb, or perhaps even the evolutionary cause of it. weve evolved to go bald for some reason after all. And temperature is the main reason for mammals fur variations.

the thing I can't figure out (off top of my head) is why is there a loss in a certain pattern?
I know the galea theory /scalp tightness has answers for this.
but if it was evolutionary, surely we would lose hair from back and sides as well.