Everyone has gripes about their image pants are too snug around the waist, skin a few shades too pale, or nose a little too wide. For many men, its an issue of hair loss. Were you one of those men that started losing his hair a little bit earlier than he would have liked?
Well, a new study indicates that you may have more than your vanity to worry about. According to French researchers at Paris Descartes University, men who lose their hair in their 20s have a doubled risk of getting prostate cancer.
Lead researcher Professor Philippe Giraud (MD, PhD), Professor of Radiation and Oncology and doctor at the European Georges Pompidou Hospital, said in a news release from the European Society for Medical Oncology, At present there is no hard evidence to show any benefit from screening the general population for prostate cancer.
We need a way of identifying those men who are at high risk of developing the disease and who could be targeted for screening and also considered for chemo-prevention using anti-androgenic drugs such as finasteride. Balding at the age of 20 may be one of these easily identifiable risk factors and more work needs to be done now to confirm this.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the scientists
...studied 388 men being treated for prostate cancer and 281 healthy men, questioning them about their history of hair loss 37 of the men with prostate cancer had some balding at the age of 20, but only 14 of the healthy men had had balding at that age.
