Male pattern hair loss greatly linked with sugar sweetened beverages

Male pattern hair loss (MPHL), has become a global public health problem as its progressive and non-scarring form of hair loss, The incidence of MPHL continues to increase while the age of onset for MPHL continues to decrease.

Researchers performed this study to investigate the association between sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and male pattern hair loss (MPHL) in young men. The study found that SSB consumption was greatly associated with hair loss. The study is published in Nutrients Journal.

The study was a cross-sectional study from January to April 2022 in mainland China. Young people aged 18–45 years (n = 1951) were recruited from 31 provinces in China.

They used a self-reported online survey for data collection and explored the associations between the amount/frequency of SSB consumption and MPHL by using a binary logistic regression model, with adjustments for sociodemographic, hair status, dietary intake, lifestyle, and psychological factors.

The key findings of the study are

• In China, where this was conducted, reported individuals aged 13 to 29 years represent the largest population of SSB consumers at 22.38%.

• Among the 1028 participants (27.8 ± 7.2 years) found 42.4% without male pattern hair loss and 57.6% with male pattern hair loss in the final analysis.

• The questionnaire showed that those with male pattern hair loss consumed an average of 4,293 mL of sugary drinks — nearly twice the 2,513 mL consumed by those without male pattern hair loss (P < .001).

• The male pattern hair loss group also reported drinking SSBs at a much higher frequency of more than seven times a week compared with the group without male pattern hair loss (68.8% vs. 31.2%; P < .001).

• Compared with those that never drank SSBs, frequent SSBs drinkers were 3.36 times more likely to have male pattern hair loss (95% CI, 2.22-5.09).

Researchers concluded that the high SSB consumption is associated with a higher risk of MPHL and recommended more support to decrease SSB consumption among young people to minimize negative health outcomes.

Reference: Shi, X.; Tuan, H.; Na, X.; Yang, H.; Yang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Xi, M.; Tan, Y.; Yang, C.; Zhang, J.; et al. The Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Male Pattern Hair Loss in Young Men. Nutrients 2023, 15, 214. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15010214