Transcript
I've always wondered how much of my hair loss I could irrationally blame my parents for, just based on genetics. So I set out to research it and found some surprises. Studies show that around 80% of European men will experience hair loss by the time they're 50, which tracks based on what we're used to seeing. But I bet most of those men don't realize that up to 50% of women will also experience noticeable hair loss. It's just that men tend to lose from front to back or bald spot, whereas with women it's a lot more evenly distributed. But it's way harder for them to pull off the old moon landing look. Back in 1916, Dorothy Osborne published a paper about why hair loss was not caused by wearing overly tight hats, and instead was due to a single gene that affected women less, which we believed all the way up to 1984, when a delightfully titled paper argued, still just based on observations, that it had to be at least a collection of genes, not just one. Since then, large-scale genetic sequencing studies have led us to identify 389 distinct locations within our genetic code that influence hair loss. that around 80% of hair loss is due entirely to genetics. But not all hair loss is the same, and studying these varying genetic pathways is slowly helping us understand and even predict which hair loss treatments like monoxidil will work for which people, and even develop new treatments. Which is why I'm excited to be partnering with Illumina for this video. They're the ones that develop the technology and build the sequencing machines that are used by many of the researchers in this space. Hopefully one day I'll thank them for looking like this.
Additional notes
@Illumina #partner I’ve gone over my genomic data and found that I’m LESS likely than the average person to experience significant hair loss! Which might seem like useless info… but it points to the possibility of an external, lifestyle / environmental contributor which I can start looking for. Whereas if I was 95% likely just based on genetics, I’d immediately move to searching for which treatments would have the greatest potential impact. Our knowledge there is still in its infancy, but I do have at least one genetic SNP associated with better response to minoxidil! #science #sciencetok #Genomics
References
- Original source notes.
- Male-pattern hair loss prevalence source. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1951.tb31971.x.
- Female-pattern hair loss source. PMID: 35357365.
- Female pattern hair loss review.
- Dorothy Osborn inheritance paper.
- Hair loss polygenic inheritance source. PMID: 6512048.
- Genetics of male-pattern hair loss review. DOI: 10.1515/medgen-2023-2003.