Low SHBG/low Testosterone in Young Male with Early MBP!

I'm a young male and very interested in the SHBG-hairloss link. I'm hoping that misterE or CausticSymmetry can chime in and suggest some natural (or medicinal) remedies.

I started losing hair when I was 17. I also lost my sex drive, and it still has not returned to this day. I am now 29.

Blood tests revealed that I had clinically low testosterone at age 17. Even so, I started losing hair. Years later, further testing revealed that I also had low SHBG. In addition, I had elevated DHEA-S (above normal range.)

My TSH has been anywhere from 2-5. Some say that this means I am hypothyroid, and being hypothyroid might cause low SHBG. However, T3 and T4 seem normal. Reverse T3, however, is near the top of the range.

I still have low testosterone and low shbg. I had to resort to Propecia for a few years to arrest the balding process. I regret it, but there was no other way to increase testosterone without shooting DHT into the stratosphere since my low SHBG causes free T to go off the charts during testosterone therapy.

So, here I am, off Propecia, off TRT, but still with no sex drive and likely continuing to go bald like I did while "natural" at age 17.

I've been taking beta-sisterol per misterE's posts. I take a single capsule, which is 400mg of "plant sterols" (181mg of beta-sisterol, 200mg campesterol and 144mg stigmasterol.) This is the only beta-sisterol supplement that I could find. Since using it, my erectile function has completely vanished. Can someone explain this?

I've also started taking T3 to reverse the RT3. I've been doing it for approximately two weeks and I have not noticed any benefits.

I do hope that misterE will chime in here, because I'm the perfect ginuea pig for low SHBG. I've had low SHBG and low testoserone since my teens, and therefore I am the perfect example of what low SHBG can do to a male body over time.

I suppose my original question was too complicated, so I'll boil it down to this:

What is a natural way to increase SHBG? Mine is clinically low.

Is my 140mg of beta-sisterol per day considered too much? (I saw CS recommend 80mg per day.)

Elevated levels of insulin and IGF-1 significantly inhibit the synthesis of SHBG in the liver. So improving glucose metabolism (restoring insulin sensitivity) should increase SHBG levels.

misterE was banned

Thank you for the response. I'm currently investigating that possibility, but I have a feeling it isn't true for me...

Fasting insulin is normal (very low.) Glucose levels are normal. IGF-1 was at the bottom of the range the last I tested, but I realize that it can fluctuate.

I have a fasting glucose tolerance test coming up so I can see how insulin responds. I think it will come back normal, though, ruling out insulin as the culprit.

I'd like to reiterate after searching the board and noting some controversy.

I'm a rare case. I've had clinically low SHBG and clinically low testosterone all of my life. Even with extremely low testosterone, I started going bald.

The low testosterone makes a normal body composition impossible and also makes sex impossible. I can't raise it via normal replacement therapy, because it all becomes free testosterone and converts to DHT, which exacerbates the balding problem.

Therefore, I need a way to boost SHBG because it is actually clincally low and causing a DHT excesss -- not because of a "theory." It is very much real.

Any tips other than beta-sisterol? If anyone can help with this issue, you'll be seen as a god on a number of boards that I frequent. I'm not the only one with this condition. None of us have been able to figure out how to get our SHBG out of the dumps.

My idea is that the DHT production in men is the counterpart to what is called estrogen dominance in women. When women suffer low progesterone(and various other things such as thyroid problems) they start to produce excessive estrogen(ergo the dominance). Men on the other hand who have a problem with progesterone, thyroid(and other issues) levels and testosterone issues will produce excessive DHT. DHT is the stuff that makes you a man through puberty so it is a very potent androgen in its own right. Young transgirls in their teens are often given finasteride to arrest puberty(prevent it and all the excessive bone growth that follows).

Green tea rises SHBG, proven fact.

Soy isoflavones do the same...

Sensoril (ashwagandas), will boost T levels. Vitamin D too (more fundamental). Magnesium, Zinc, B6 combo...

Fructoborate (probably an underestimated wonder) rises T, but probably also reduces SHBG.

I private messaged misterE a lot while he was here, as I found his beliefs interesting and well-researched. In my opinion, if he were here he probably would of given you about eight different studies listing how fat intake inversely correlates to SHBH levels. The more fats you intake, the lower your SHBG is going to be. However, some of these studies also note that this could just be because the people who intake higher fat diets are going to be more overweight, and weight plays a strong role in your SHBH level as well.

So the question is what does that mean for people like myself, who are thin and cannot gain weight, yet still have low SHBG?

Although I don't agree with many of Mister E's conclusions, I agree that his opinions were thoughtfully formulated and he actually backed them with studies. He was an extremist, though, but he wasn't the only one on this forum. I think he was banned only because his opinions contrasted with the general consensus on this forum, and most people were unable/unwilling to respond to his posts in an intelligent way (eg., citing studies from scientific journals). Nobody was willing to look through the studies and defend their opinions in an intelligent, thoughtful manner. Nobody wants to hear that they are wrong...

I think there's really only a problem when people act like they've got it all figured out. Mister E fell into this category, as well as many other participants in this forum (including the people who disagreed with him).

The fact is that biology is super complex, and it varies on an individual basis...generalizations and simplistic reasoning are useless.

in my opinion, saying something like "high fat diets are healthy" is just as simplistic as saying something like "balding is hereditary." Similarly statements like "all carbohydrates are deadly" is equivalently stupid.

I currently get about 40-50% of my calories from fats (mostly saturated). Mostly because I've been trying to follow the paleo diet with a few modifications (ie., including foods like dark chocolate and coffee). Each one of us has to keep thinking critically...and that means reading carefully through studies, and constantly revising your opinions and strategies. The goal is to find out what works for you.

This stuff is complicated.

For example, here's a study which refutes Mister E's conclusions:

Effects of dietary fat and fiber on plasma and urine androgens and estrogens in men: a controlled feeding study

JF Dorgan, JT Judd, C Longcope, C Brown, A Schatzkin, BA Clevidence, WS Campbell, PP Nair, C Franz, L Kahle and PR Taylor
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-7326, USA. dorganj@dcpcepn.nci.nih.gov

We conducted a controlled feeding study to evaluate the effects of fat and fiber consumption on plasma and urine sex hormones in men. The study had a crossover design and included 43 healthy men aged 19-56 y. Men were initially randomly assigned to either a low-fat, high-fiber or high-fat, low-fiber diet for 10 wk and after a 2-wk washout period crossed over to the other diet. The energy content of diets was varied to maintain constant body weight but averaged approximately 13.3 MJ (3170 kcal)/d on both diets. The low-fat diet provided 18.8% of energy from fat with a ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat (P:S) of 1.3, whereas the high-fat diet provided 41.0% of energy from fat with a P:S of 0.6. Total dietary fiber consumption from the low- and high-fat diets averaged 4.6 and 2.0 g.MJ-1.d-1, respectively. Mean plasma concentrations of total and sex-hormone-binding-globulin (SHBG)-bound testosterone were 13% and 15% higher, respectively, on the high-fat, low-fiber diet and the difference from the low-fat, high-fiber diet was significant for the SHBG-bound fraction (P = 0.04). Men's daily urinary excretion of testosterone also was 13% higher with the high-fat, low- fiber diet than with the low-fat, high-fiber diet (P = 0.01). Conversely, their urinary excretion of estradiol and estrone and their 2-hydroxy metabolites were 12-28% lower with the high-fat, low-fiber diet (P < or = 0.01). Results of this study suggest that diet may alter endogenous sex hormone metabolism in men.

mphatesmpb wrote:
The fact is that biology is super complex, and it varies on an individual basis...generalizations and simplistic reasoning are useless.

So true. What a lot of people tend to forget is that our genes come from varying groups of cultures which each evolved to handle different types of foods and environmental factors. One culture might have survived by the sea while another one was agricultural. Both groups, after a long time period, will in the end have different gene expressions. I think that an important step for medical and dietary purposes would be to find what environmental culture your DNA comes from which in turn would tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are.

mphatesmpb-
Nobody was willing to look through the studies and defend their opinions in an intelligent, thoughtful manner. Nobody wants to hear that they are wrong..."

There where people here, including me who looked at every one of those studies. At one point, we even asked Mister E to provide a link of the individual studies and received no reply and we came to the conclusion that Mister E had not read many those studies he used for his conclusion or was unaware of what was in those studies he posted. Also, many of those studies appeared to be dated, not that this lowered the significance of the studies contribution to healthy and nutrition field, but is was clear that any discussion of new or contradicting studies was not within his sphere of debate. At first, I read a lot of his postings until I realized he was just reiterating a lot of the talking points posted by vegan or Dr. John McDougal activist sites or just quoting a lot of Wells Farnsworth abstracts without acknowledging him. Although I couldn't care less if Mr. E was still here, I didn't feel he needed to be booted out, but then those strange postings. The 1 2 3 4 numbers he posted for CausticSymmetry I suppose it was his attempt to goad CausticSymmetry into some form of debate or answer a question but it was strange.

Espio wrote:I private messaged misterE a lot while he was here, as I found his beliefs interesting and well-researched. In my opinion, if he were here he probably would of given you about eight different studies listing how fat intake inversely correlates to SHBH levels. The more fats you intake, the lower your SHBG is going to be. However, some of these studies also note that this could just be because the people who intake higher fat diets are going to be more overweight, and weight plays a strong role in your SHBH level as well.

So the question is what does that mean for people like myself, who are thin and cannot gain weight, yet still have low SHBG?

The problem is you think eating fat equals being fat. That's a big mistake.

I fall into the same category, I'm thin.

Probably it makes sense to say eating seed oils (processed ones) make you fat due to the multitude of metabolic changes and stress they cause.

Bad sugar metabolism does mess up SHBG levels... Insulin resistance is correlated with MPB, so that may be the real reason for having low levels. There may be many other factors like thyroid function, nutrient deficiencies, gut flora (for sure) and others.

I second LittleFighter

SHBG issue is related to two factors mainly. Blood sugar metabolism and thyroid function. These two factors are also related.

A low SHBG is due to low thyroid function.

In my opinion, thyroid function is a major factor in MPB.

https://immortalhair.forumotion.com/t1129-hypothesis-of-male-pattern-hair-loss

http://healthyfixx.com/plan/6/fixxing-your-thyroid

The reason "E" was banned was after repeated private warnings. The 'scientific' references that
were supplied often were not only outdated, they often supported the opposite conclusions.
Most disturbing was that he rarely ever answered our responses to his questions, instead would
present new ones or the same ones already presented, which were debunked.

One thing to add, the gut flora in insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

Too wiped out to go back and get the quotes atm but I've also posted some good stuff on endotoxins and inflammation in relation to the thyroid, they significantly slow down the process.

Diabetes and insulin resistance were linked to gut flora in a rather unusual study recently reported on at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. In the study, insulin sensitivity in obese patients with a set of symptoms known as metabolic syndrome (prediabetes) was improved with a fecal transplant from thin donors.

Yes, you read that correctly… I said a fecal transplant from thin donors!

According to Anne Vrieze MD and colleagues of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, after six weeks, peripheral insulin sensitivity significantly improved in 18 patients who received feces from lean donors compared with those who received an autologous (self-provided) transplant (P

“This confirms the potential role of gut microbiota in the disturbance of glucose and lipid metabolism in obesity,” Vrieze said during the presentation. “The challenge is to use this knowledge to develop therapies.”

Umm, May I make a suggestion? PROBIOTICS… especially broad spectrum, high potency probiotics like Essential Flora. This is not the first study to link diabetes, insulin resistance and obesity to inadequate levels of beneficial bacteria in the GI tract.

Digestive health and immune system integrity depend in large measure on the balance of power in the gut. We know that the gut plays a major role in immunity (it is said that 80% of our immune cells are found in the gut) and in regulating hormones that impact both obesity and diabetes that is linked to obesity.

While fecal transplantation programs are certainly not common, the idea is being investigated in the U.S. based upon reports of successful treatments with chronic GI tract infections involving the bacteria Clostridium difficile.

Studies in animals have also demonstrated a link between gut flora and obesity, “…as animals given bacteria from the feces of obese mice had a significantly greater increase in total body fat than those colonized with a “lean” microbiota”, Vrieze said.

The researchers saw increased inflammation in both groups following transplant, and cytokines are currently being analyzed. Bacteria from the jejunum are also in the process of being assessed to determine specific changes to the gut flora.

From this research, it appears that there is a significant difference in the gut flora of thin and obese individuals. It is not yet clearly understood how certain bacteria seem to be able to trigger genes that influence insulin metabolism and obesity, but there is certainly a growing mountain of evidence for the importance of probiotics in the diet and as a foundational natural health supplement.

Naturopathic physicians who are presented with a patient with diabetes or metabolic syndrome will always start with probiotics because they are so fundamental to digestive and immune health. Enhancing insulin sensitivity and controlling inflammation are helpful to all of us, but especially to those who are predisposed to diabetes.