I'm A Doctor ― Here's The Truth About Whether This Common Supplement Causes Hair Loss

Supplements are a funny thing, aren’t they?

Though the NHS recommends all adults consider taking vitamin D daily until March to replace the stores the sun would otherwise provide, they also say that some common vitamins don’t actually do squat to prevent colds. 

And though a copper deficiency has been linked to increased hair loss, taking copper supplements when you don’t need it is bad for us too (have a blood test if you’re unsure). 

Now, Dr Karan Rajan, a surgeon, author and lecturer, tackled another supplement/hair loss link on TikTok.

He Stitched a video of a man who claimed that his receding hairline was due to his creatine (a supplement that supplies energy to your body, especially muscles; it’s sometimes used by devout gym goers) consumption. 

So does creatine actually lead to hair loss?

Dr Rajan pointed to a “very small” study that found an association between consumption of the supplement and hair loss. 

The research found that rugby players who took creatine had elevated levels of something called dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a hormone which can indeed lead to hair loss if levels are too high or low.

That’s because it binds to the base of hair follicles and makes them snap off, the doctor said. 

So the theory went that if creatine increases DHT, and DHT is associated with hair loss, the authors of the 2009 paper suggested creatine consumption may be linked to balding. 

However, Dr Rajan stressed: “the study isn’t even worthy of being written on toilet paper to wipe your hair bum with, and the results haven’t been replicated in any of the creatine research that’s available.” 

He pointed out that even in the 2009 study, no participants reported hair loss, their DHT levels were in the normal range, and the researchers looked at serum (blood) DHT levels, and not local (in the hair follicles, in this case) DHT levels. 

The latter is the kind associated with hair loss.

What if I’ve noticed hair loss since taking creatine?

This may be a classic case of ‘correlation does not equal causation,’ the doctor explained.

“Just because event A and event B happen at the same time, like taking creatine and experiencing hair loss, doesn’t mean they have a cause and effect relationship,” he said. 

These false explanations, called spurious correlations, can be compelling and even fun ― you can link endless data points to one another that very likely aren’t related at all, like the air pollution in San Diego, California with the popularity of the name Kirk. 

But they’re still not proof one thing causes another.

“The more likely scenario is that a percentage of men start taking creatine, and we know that up to 50% of men experience male-pattern baldness by the age of 50,” the doctor shared. 

“So it becomes very easy to blame some external factors like a supplement.”