MALE PATTERN BALDNESS!!!

Androgenic alopecia may have evolved to protect men from prostate cancer by increasing skin exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

Kabai P.

Abstract

Androgenic alopecia affects populations adapted to colder climate, and individuals at an age and hormonal status susceptible to prostate cancer. Male pattern baldness enhances absorption of UV radiation on the top of the head, an area directly exposed to sunlight during everyday activities. Ultraviolet radiation is reported to reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer. Here I propose that progression of androgenic alopecia rather than being a risk factor is a finely tuned mechanism evolved to protect against prostate cancer.

Med Hypotheses. 2008;70(5):1038-40. Epub 2007 Oct 1.

Why is this cool?

 I am bald. Seriously bald. My head shines in the sun and blinds bikers as they speed by. I have cried myself to sleep many times and it took many years and dating services before I found a woman short enough not to notice my hair loss. Often, I find myself staring into stars, clouds, and assorted celestial bodies cursing and spiting them for letting this happen. Today's paper suggests that I should have been staring my prostate and cursing it for sucking.

 You may not know this, but in science there are normal papers which give data and explanations of that data, but there are also hypothesis papers or theoretical papers that propose an explanation that needs data. Today's paper is one of the latter. It takes two facts in science and says "hey, what if they are connected?" The author thinks that going bald at some late stage in life may be an evolved response to prevent prostate cancer. This is because there was some paper published that showed UV radiation decreases the risks of prostate cancer. I haven't read that paper either.

 I have my own idea about the reason behind androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness). So, it is obvious that baldness is a genetically coded attribute and genes occur in genomes which are under Darwinian selection. Most people go bald in their thirties and late twenties, but I remember hearing somewhere that the life expectancy of a human way back was very low, like late twenties being the norm. Ok, I think that baldness is a byproduct of some other genetic change that manifests earlier in life. What is that earlier manifestation? I don't know. What do you think?