The Bald and Short Of It

You may not have paid much attention to this (then again, you may have lost countless nights' sleep because of it...) but short men are likely to have an increased risk of becoming prematurely bald.

That's not all. The genetic material of more than 20,000 men has been examined, and premature hair loss is shown to be linked to a range of various physical characteristics and illnesses.

Science has known for a while that men suffering from premature hair loss are also likely in line for heart disease and prostate cancer. These new data, off of a study from the University of Bonn, indicate the bad news links don't stop there.

The research looked at 11,000 prematurely bald men, and drew upon a group of 12,000 men for the control. The men hailed from seven different countries.

"We were thus able to identify 63 alterations in the human genome that increase the risk of premature hair loss," explains Dr. Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, one of the lead authors of the study. "Some of these alterations were also found in connection with other characteristics and illnesses, such as reduced body size, earlier occurrence of puberty and various cancers."

The scientists also found links to light skin color and increased bone density. They are theorizing that men with hair loss are better able to use sunlight to synthesize vitamin D. That could also explain why white men, particularly, lose their hair prematurely.

The researchers were able to go so far as to identify the genes involved in the connections. What they were no able to do – yet – was figure out which molecular mechanisms underlie the links between premature hair loss and other illnesses. Their goal is to analyze thelinks and the signal paths involved in detail.

"However, men with premature hair loss do not need to be concerned," reassured Prof. Markus Nöthen, Director of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Bonn. "The risks of illness are only increased slightly. It is, however, exciting to see that hair loss is by no means an isolated characteristic, but instead displays various relationships with other characteristics."

The research was published in Nature Communications.