WIL Weekly Review #28

Hair regrowth, red light for Human Growth Hormone and more...

This is my free weekly newsletter covering 5 interesting points from the week. Subscribe (if you haven’t already) if you’d like to get it in your inbox each week!

1. Lard is better for hair growth than Minoxidil?

A 2013 case report out of the obscure Journal of Rational Pharmacotherapeutics & Research found that a man had success in regrowing his hair with 5 grams of lard rubbed into his scalp before bed. This was more effective than minoxidil for him. They don’t comment whether the lard made his scalp intolerably greasy.

In the paper, they cite another rat study finding that pig oil (lard) was more effective than minoxidil on hair regrowth in Wister rats.

They don’t speculate what compound in lard could have been beneficial.

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2. Red light therapy to the head increases Growth Hormone?

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3. Whole body workouts require more protein?

A 2016 study suggests that if you’re training more than one muscle group, you need to increase your protein intake. They tested the effects of 20g vs 40g of whey protein after whole-body resistance exercise in trained males. Muscle protein synthesis was greater if they ate 40g.

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4. Pregnant women in wealthy countries are missing vital nutrients. Plant-based diets are making the situation worse

Pregnant women are not getting the essential nutrients they and their babies need from modern diets say scientists, who have warned that the situation will likely worsen as more people turn to plant-based foods. (southampton.ac.uk)

A study looking at 1,700 expecting mothers from high-income countries found that 90% cent were lacking key vitamins necessary for the health of babies in the womb. These vitamins are abundant in meat and dairy products: These included vitamins B12, B6 and D, folic acid and riboflavin. Lead author and Professor of Epidemiology Keith Godfrey says this is a serious concern.

“The push to reduce our dependence on meat and dairy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions is likely to further deplete expecting mothers of vital nutrients, which could have lasting effects on unborn children.

…Our study shows that almost every woman trying to conceive had insufficient levels of one or more vitamin, and this figure is only going to get worse as the world moves towards plant-based diets.”

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5. Sports cars raise testosterone. Sedans don’t.

According to The effect of conspicuous consumption on men’s testosterone levels, people driving a new Porsche experience a significant raise in testosterone. Fixing your diet is likely a more cost-effective way of increasing testosterone, though.

To summarize, men’s T levels were more responsive when driving the new Porsche than when driving the decrepit Toyota sedan. Specifically, T levels increased significantly when driving the new Porsche irrespective of the driving environment whereas T levels decreased (directionally) only when driving the old sedan in a downtown setting. One possibility for the minimal endocrinological response when driving the old sedan is that university students did not perceive driving such a car as a social defeat. In other words, although driving a brand new Porsche is drastically different from their daily realities, an old sedan is likely congruent with their reality (e.g., borrowing their parents’ old sedan). Whereas study 1 explored the hormonal responses of men engaging in high-status vs. low-status signaling, study 2 investigates men’s T responses when in the presence of a high-status man who is signaling various forms of conspicuous consumption.