🦍10 Reasons To NEVER Block DHT 👇
DHT (Dihydrotestosterone) is the most powerful masculinizing hormone in the entire body, yet you’ve been LIED to your whole life about the benefits of this grossly misunderstood hormone.
The lies, fearmongering, and misinformation keeps on piling up, so let’s address some of the common myths people tell me all the time.
👴“DHT causes balding”…
No, DHT combined with genetics, lifestyle, hormonal, and dietary factors cause hair loss.
👱♂️“DHT is the only hormone responsible for hair loss”…
No, Testosterone (T) alone can also cause hair loss, if in high enough doses and if you have the genetics for it. Yet no fool in his right mind will want to crush his testosterone levels. The reason why DHT is often called the main culprit is simply because androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness) is an androgen receptor (A.R) dependent phenomenon, and DHT is simply more potent at activating the A.R than any other natural androgen, including testosterone. In some settings, DHT is up to 5-10 times more powerful at activating the A.R than testosterone.
🧔“DHT has no relevant effect past puberty” …
No, there are SEVERAL studies showing DHT’s effects in the health, erectile function, muscle metabolism, glucose metabolism, sex drive, cardiovascular function, and anxiety levels etc. of adult humans and animals.
💪“DHT has no effect on muscle”…
No, DHT in theory is actually more anabolic (supports muscle protein synthesis) and anti-catabolic (lowers muscle protein breakdown) than testosterone alone, partially because it binds to the A.R more strongly than T AND stays on it longer (dissociates from it at a slower rate). It just gets broken down too rapidly by DHT-metabolizing enzymes (such as 3-α-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and others), which is why the myth of “DHT iS nOt aNaBoLiC” is so prevalent. DHT is so powerful that the evolution meta had to find a way to nerf it intracellularly to prevent excess androgen and anabolic signaling.
🤮“DHT alone causes prostate cancer”
No, once again, DHT combined with genetics, lifestyle, hormonal, and dietary factors causes prostate cancer.
🧠“DHT has no effect on mood, fear, depression, or anxiety. It’s all testosterone”
No, DHT not only has direct effects on the brain, but also produces indirect effects by its conversion to neurosteroids such as 3α-Androstanediol and 3β-Androstanediol, and its agonist effects on the estrogen receptor beta.
🐀“Most positive effects on DHT are only in rodents and animal studies”
For one, although that may sound “smart”, that means absolutely nothing because although not all animal studies directly translate to human outcomes, animal studies as a whole are much, MUCH better and of higher quality than human studies on average. Why? Because animal studies (especially on rodents) control for an avalanche of confounding factors that are impossible to control for in human studies (such as lifestyle, diet, genetics, environmental exposure, placebo effect, and more). Animal studies also give the researchers more “ethical wiggle room” when experimenting, which allows them to find mechanisms of action MUCH faster. And two, as I already stated above, there are plenty of human studies (which I will cover soon) that show the beneficial effects of DHT on adults.
😕“but.. what about studies that show that DHT is useless”..
The term “cherry-picking” exists for a reason. For every study that tells you that DHT is “uSeLeSs”, I can also show you studies that state the complete opposite.
Also, people who are bent on demonizing DHT are NOTORIOUS for cherry-picking studies and spamming their confirmation bias. They tend to ignore or dismiss EVERY single study that shows the beneficial effects of DHT, while magnifying the studies that confirm their already pre-existing beliefs.
For instance, if a study shows beneficial effects of DHT, or negative effects of Finasteride or Dutasteride (5-alpha reductase blockers used to treat hair loss and prostate cancer), DHT demonizers automatically blame it on the study’s small sample size, non-human subjects, design flaws, or founding source. Yet if a study shows that DHT is “bad”, they’ll use that study to backup their claims EVEN if that study ALSO has a small sample size, uses non-human subjects, has the same design flaws as the study they previously dismissed, or has a suspicious funding source. So in the end, you can’t win with these guys. They are as dogmatic and biased as it comes.
💊”But.. what about people who take finasteride or dutasteride to block DHT and end up just fine”
Well for one, those drugs do not block ALL of the DHT in the body; They block a substantial amount (especially dutasteride, which blocks all three 5-alpha reductase isoenzymes, especially 1 and 2), but you’re still left with some bioavailable DHT in the body. And although that amount of remaining DHT is small, remember that DHT is up to 5-10 times more potent than testosterone. So it doesn’t take a lot of DHT to produce significant effects.
Two, there is large genetic variation in response to ANY drugs, so some may take finasteride or dutasteride and be just fine, while others may experience side effects or get post-finasteride syndrome.
Three, DHT is synthesized by multiple pathways, including the “backdoor pathway” independent of 5-alpha reduction of testosterone (ie: via allopregnanolone, androsterone, androstanediol etc.). So blocking DHT via the classical pathway doesn’t guarantee that some extra DHT isn’t locally produced in cells elsewhere via alternative mechanisms.
Fourth, many people who take finasteride or dutasteride are also on TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) or other PEDs such as clomid, which (in the case of TRT) keeps their total and free testosterone levels perpetually elevated (until the next injection) even if they’re in the “normal” testosterone range. This creates a situation where the constantly elevated testosterone more than makes up for the decline in DHT, since testosterone obviously also activates the androgen receptor (in this case using a “quantity” instead of “quality” approach relative to DHT).
Lastly, when people take finasteride or dutasteride, it is serum DHT that is usually measured (in many but not all cases), and serum DHT is a HORRIBLE correlate of intracellular DHT (you can have low serum DHT but high intracellular DHT). In fact, many people who experience male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia) tend to have NORMAL circulating DHT levels in the blood, but very high DHT levels in the scalp. So as you can see, it’s not that simple; but one wouldn’t expect a hormone that’s been around for hundreds of millions of years and is conserved across many species of on the evolutionary tree (such as birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals) to NOT be complex.
😡“but Migan, aren’t you biased towards testosterone and DHT as well?”
Nope. I spend a ridiculous amount of hours daily on research, experimentation, and practice, and have been doing so consistently for the last 20+ years. Why? Because all I care about is the TRUTH. I approach everything with an objective mindset, because my goal is to HELP people… to help MEN. So all I care about is results.
That’s why even though I’m known by many as the “testosterone guy”, I’m also known as the “inverted U-curve guy”, because I ALSO constantly warn people of the dangers of excessive or chronically elevated testosterone, DHT, or any other “positive” hormone or method. In short, I have ZERO bias. All I care about is helping men improve.
💃”but Migan, what if I end up losing my hair anyway. Won’t my dating life be over?”
First off, as I stated many times, if one of the main pillars holding your life together is your goddamn hair, then you have more serious things to worry about. Women care significantly more about your ability to provide security (financial and physical) and your social status than they do about your hair. There are literally millions of bald, badass alpha males walking around, and their masculinity hasn’t budged a bit since going bald. So stop obsessing about losing your hair and just focus on boosting your “SSS score” as I call it. Trust me, I love my hair more than anyone (I have epic dreadlocs that took me over a decade to grow), and I am insanely proud of them, but I will NOT block my DHT in fear of losing them EVEN if I start balding eventually (in fact, the corners of my hairline have already receded years ago, and may continue to do so as I age). Blocking DHT to slow down prostate cancer is one thing, and understandable in many cases, since that’s a life and death scenario, but blowing DHT to stop hair loss is like depriving your house of oxygen to put out a house fire; The reward to risk ratio is trash.
I will make several more posts going over each and every one of the relevant studies on DHT (both the good and bad), because there are just too many to unpack here, but until then, here are 10 reasons why you shouldn’t be so quick to block DHT 👇:
💪 DHT Lowers Muscle Weakness
🤱DHT Lowers Gyno risk
😰DHT Lowers Anxiety, Fear, & Depression
😩DHT Lowers Chronic Fatigue
🍆DHT Lowers Erectile dysfunction
🍤 DHT Lowers Micropenis risk (during fetal development & puberty)
🩸DHT Lowers Insulin Resistance & T2 Diabetes
💘DHT Lowers Blood Pressure & Heart Disease
🤰 DHT Lowers Excess Estrogen
🧠DHT Lowers Cognitive Decline
and much more.
In short, DHT is the Super Saiyan/Sage Mode version of Testosterone. It’s THE most masculine hormone in the entire body. You wouldn’t even have a penis and descended testicles at birth if it wasn’t for it (it’s locally produced DHT that masculinizes your genitalia during fetal development, not Testosterone). That’s why full blown XY chromosome MALES born with 5-alpha reductase mutations (can’t produce enough DHT) are born with FEMALE genitalia (or somewhere in between), despite having normal testosterone levels. It’s not until puberty, when testosterone production rises enough to compensate for the low DHT, that some of them finally develop normal male genitalia.
Even though you’re well past that stage if you’re reading this, and your genitalia is already formed, you still owe your d*ck to DHT (and many other things). STOP blocking it!
To increase DHT, remember that anything that boosts total testosterone, free testosterone, IGF-1, and thyroid (T3) will boost DHT, so focus on the SAME basics I always preach (micronutrient rich diet, balanced macro ratio of protein, fats, carbs and fiber, body-fat reduction, balanced caloric intake, sunlight, stress management, training, avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, competing, being sexually active etc.).
Avoid supplements that claim to boost DHT since you already know that I’m not a big fan of most supplements (for a myriad of reasons), and the few that do work have weak evidence of boosting DHT long term at best (although I will make posts going over the research on the few that have some effects in theory).
As far as creatine and DHT goes, all of the hype comes from just ONE study that is over a decade old and was never replicated since (not a good sign). That doesn’t mean that creatine doesn’t boost DHT, it just means that we NEED more evidence/studies to confirm it (I know the mechanism by which creatine can boost DHT in THEORY, and I surely hope it does, but as a scientist at heart and someone who takes his educational content very seriously, I must prioritize overwhelming evidence over my own opinions or hypothesizes to avoid misleading people.) Same goes for Sorghum and Butea Superba; we need more studies.
Now sadly, Big Pharma and the corrupt healthcare industry has our politicians by the balls, so I must add a disclaimer reminding you that this is not medical advice. But I will NOT tell you to blindly listen to doctors. Most of them are corrupt and CLUELESS about hormones. Do your own research & only listen to GOOD doctors that treat root causes instead of just symptoms.
Remember, the goal of Big pharma is not to keep u healthy, it is to keep you MEDICATED. The former is ethical, the latter is profitable. Be vigilant.
Also keep in mind that at the end of the day, I’m still a big proponent of “do what works for you”. So if you’re currently blocking DHT and have experienced no severe side effects, I will be a fool to tell you to change course. Keep doing what works for you, until it stops working.
As stated above, I will go over the hundreds of studies that show the importance of DHT (even in adult life) in the coming posts. If you can’t wait for the upcoming research breakdown posts and want to read up on the endless studies on DHT’s beneficial effects, simply plug the keywords I provided above into any reputable journal or scientific database (like Pubmed) and read away.
Follow the Instagram and YouTube channel to stay up to date.
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