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Vitamin D3 Deficiency and Androgenetic Alopecia: Is there a connection?

Amna Saeed*, Hajra Saeed, Ghazala Butt, Mahgul Butt, Nadia Sultan.

Background: Multiple studies have evaluated the role of Vitmain D deficiency in the pathogenesis of hair loss in disorders such as Alopecia Areata, Telogen effluvium, male and female pattern hair loss. Studies conducted to evaluate the role of Vitamin D deficiency in androgenetic alopecia have shown contrasting results and none have established a clear causal relationship.
Methods: We conducted a case control study over a time period of four months in a public sector, tertiary care hospital. 50 cases, both male and female, of androgenetic alopecia and 50 controls, matched for age, skin phototype, sun exposure, and socioeconomic status were recruited for the study. In all the participants, we measured Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 levels using radioimmunoassay technique. The results were compared between the two groups and analyzed.
Results: A total of 50 cases and 50 controls were enrolled for the study. The mean age of cases and controls was 31.12 ± 9.82 years and 30 ± 10.19 years respectively. In cases there were 38(56.7%) male and 12(17.9%) females while in controls there were 36(53.7%) male and 14(20.9%) female. The vitamin D levels were significantly decreased in cases i.e. 40(59.7%) as compared to controls i.e. 18(26.9%). Our results showed a positive correlation between serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 deficiency and androgenetic alopecia. This correlation was statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). The odds ratio was calculated to be 7.111 (2.885, 17.526), indicating that Vitamin D deficient participants had a 7 times higher risk of having androgenetic alopecia than the recruits with normal vitamin D levels.
Conclusion: Our study supports a correlation between Androgenic Alopecia and Vitamin D deficiency. Further larger scale studies are required to validate this finding and the question of whether vitamin D supplementation prevents the onset or delays the progression of androgenetic alopecia in susceptible individuals still remains.