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A high consumption of sugary drinks could leave you bald: study

A high consumption of sugary drinks could leave you bald: study

Photo: DAVID THOMSON/AFP/Getty Images

The opinion

For: The opinion Updated 07 Jan 2023, 18:18 pm EST

The baldness has become a health problem worldwide and all the factors that cause it have not yet been well identified, but a recent study suggests that the high consumption of sugary drinks could be one of them.

According to the study carried out by scientists from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, the male pattern hair loss (HPM) is a non-scarring and progressive form of hair loss.

The age of onset of this disease has decreased, while its incidence has increased. Several studies have established the relationship between the Western type food intake and hair loss male pattern.

Research published in the journal Nutrients explored the relationship between the consumption of sugary drinks and baldness in young men in China and found that the increased amounts of added sugar in diets Westerners is related to baldness.

This cross-sectional study was conducted from January to April 2022 in mainland China. A total of 1,951 men were recruited between 18 and 45 years old from 31 provinces. A self-reported online survey was used for data collection.

The association between sugary drinks and baldness

The scientists observed a significant association between high consumption of sugary drinks and baldness. This finding could be rationalized by many potential direct and indirect mechanisms. The sbiochemical symptoms of androgenetic alopecia on the scalp point to an overactive pathway of polyols.

The high sugar content of drinks causes a increased serum glucose concentration, which in turn activates the polyol pathway. This reduces the amount of glucose available to the keratinocytes in the outer root sheath of hair follicles, leading to baldness.

High sugar intake is often accompanied by high lipid intake, and it has been observed that baldness is caused by a high-fat diet. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in animal studies in mice. Nevertheless, the association between sugary drinks and baldness remained significant even after adjusting the frequency of intake of oils, fats and fried foods.

This suggested that sugary drinks were an independent factor related to baldness. According to the study, chronic diseases and emotional factors also mediate the association between the intake of sugary drinks and baldness.

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