[00:00] Does creatine cause hair loss? A new 12-week randomized control trial refutes the common myth that creatine accelerates hair loss. The study looked at numerous quantitative and qualitative assessments that are very objective in terms of hair follicular health,
[00:15] and they randomized individuals to either have five grams of creatine monohydrate per day or five grams of placebo. And before and after the start of the study and the end of the study, they looked at testosterone levels, dihydrotestosterone, and the following eight
[00:29] parameters of hair follicular health, which you can see on the screen here. And as you can see, there were no between group statistical differences. And I think that's really important to acknowledge because many people like to cite this study that I think was done
[00:41] in the mid 2000s in rugby players where these individuals, and this was just a three week long study, rugby players were dosed with a loading phase of 20 grams of creatine per day. And at
[00:53] the end of the study, compared to the beginning of the study, there was an increase in testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. So I think a lot of people read that study and said, C, creatine causes hair loss, but they don't consider the fact that creatine is well known to increase
[01:05] strength and exercise performance, particularly in the context of resistant training and anaerobic exercises like weightlifting. When you do those and you go to failure or you're doing this intensely,
[01:17] you're naturally going to increase anabolic signaling in the post-exercise window and beyond. So it would make sense that there would be an increase in total testosterone and dihydrotestosterone And particularly I think it important to acknowledge that a lot of people have this perception that creatine is anabolic like anabolic steroids but it not Creatine helps with cellular energy production
[01:37] in the astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, neuronal tissue, the heart tissue, placenta, and muscle tissue. And so by increasing cellular energy production, you can have better workouts. And again, as a side benefit of that, you can have better hormonal signaling and function.
[01:51] Now, if you're predisposed to male pattern baldness and are worried about dihydrotestosterone affecting the hair follicular health, well, you could mitigate that by other means. If you want to take super physiologic amounts of creatine, you could take a topical ketoconazole shampoo that has known 5-alpha reductase inhibitory effects, or you can take an oral 5-alpha reductase inhibitor like Propecia, although there's a lot of black box warnings on those, so I don't recommend that.
[02:18] I personally take ketoconazole shampoo. This is an antifungal shampoo that has localized five-alpha reductase inhibitory effects. And so that can be a way to sort of prevent any
[02:30] genetically predisposed male pattern baldness and hair follicular changes. The bottom line is creatine increases strength. The concern that it exacerbates male pattern baldness or hair loss is unfounded. And now we have this 12-week randomized controlled trial to really find
[02:47] that there are no statistically significant differences in the health of the hair follicle in people who take five grams of creatine versus a placebo.