Phytoestrogens and Early Onset Androgenic Alopecia: A Study in Ndola, Zambia
January 2018
TLDR Eating a lot of soy might lower the chance of early hair loss in men likely to get it.
The study from Ndola, Zambia, involving 194 male participants, found that a high intake of soy foods was significantly linked to a lower risk of early onset androgenic alopecia (hair loss before age 30), with an Odds Ratio of 3.5 and a 95% Confidence Interval of [1.862-6.546]. The 97 cases with visible hair loss and 97 controls without it indicated that while soy intake had a protective effect, other phytoestrogen-containing foods did not show a significant association with the condition. The conclusion was that high soy consumption could reduce the likelihood of early onset androgenic alopecia in genetically predisposed individuals.