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Excessive Hair Growth and Pigmentation

by Dashika
(Johannesburg, South Africa)

Hi Wray,

Please can you advise me if Natpro will help reduce excessive facial hair? Also, if used on the face can it prevent/reduce pigmentation on the face.

Comments for Excessive Hair Growth and Pigmentation

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Feb 23, 2013
 Excessive Hair Growth and Pigmentation
by: Wray

Hi Dashika Facial hair is due to high testosterone levels. Often scalp Hair Loss is experienced too. If bound to SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) testosterone becomes inactive, progesterone raises levels of SHBG, see here, so preventing the rise of free testosterone and severe PMS. SHBG drops if sugars are eaten, even those found in all grains, legumes, processed milk and sweet starchy fruits and vegetables. Fructose, sucrose and glucose, reduce SHBG by 80, 50 and 40% respectively, see here. Thereby allowing testosterone to rise. It's best to avoid all the foods and sugars mentioned. Wine and beers contain carbs, so it's best to avoid those too. Plus alcohol affects hormone levels in women, see here and here. It decreases progesterone levels and increases androgen levels, both the total testosterone and free testosterone become higher. Testosterone is notorious at increasing visceral fat, which causes abdominal fat gain, see here and here. The lowered progesterone, higher testosterone probably accounts for the increased risk in breast cancer risk among women, see here and here. Higher testosterone is also associated with an increased risk for Insulin Resistance and heart disease, see here. Sugars and large meals also drop progesterone levels, see here. Plus insulin drops levels too, see here. This means SHBG also drops, testosterone rises, another vicious cycle. I generally recommend 100-200mg/day, more if symptoms are severe. Continued below
Feb 23, 2013
 Excessive Hair Growth and Pigmentation Part 2
by: Wray

Hi Dashika The dark patches are melasma. Excess oestrogen stimulates melanocytes, these make melanin, the pigmentation in all skin types, see here, here, here and here. I haven't come across any papers suggesting testosterone causes melasma, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did. Contraceptives can cause it, and it's often a sign of adrenal stress too. Progesterone can help resolve the problem, as it suppresses the excess oestrogen and it takes the strain off the adrenals. These make progesterone before they can convert it into cortisol, one of our stress hormones. Stress drops progesterone levels, thereby allowing oestrogen to dominate. There seems a possibility that vitamin D might help, see this rather obscure paper here. It wouldn't surprise me if further work was carried out, to find it's caused by a deficiency of it, as it seems most of our problems are. Maybe you could have a test done to find your level. A lack of it reduces the benefits of progesterone anyway. I found this fascinating paper, on the ability of diosgenin to inhibit melanogenesis, see here. As you probably know diosgenin is one of the precursor plant sterols for progesterone. If you'd like to chat to someone, please contact our distributor in South Africa via her website here. Take care Wray

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