PARIS: Add enhanced risk of premature balding to the list of illnesses and indignities faced by diminutive men of European descent, according to a new study.
"It seems that men with a relatively shorter body height have a higher chance of losing their hair," University of Bonn professor Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, lead author of the study published Wednesday, told AFP.
"Our data indicates that some of the genes involved in baldness are associated, on average, with shorter stature."
Earlier research has shown that men with so-called male pattern baldness are also statistically more likely to suffer from heart disease and prostate cancer, though the added risk is slight.
Reduced body size and early onset of puberty are also linked with loss of hair for men.
Some of the same genes that regulate human height, it seems, also play a role in the emergence of these conditions and diseases.
The study, published in Nature Communications, identified 63 genetic variations "that increase the risk of premature hair loss," Heilmann-Heimbach said.
The researchers did not set out to find a link with height, she added.
Nor did they quantify the relative risk of baldness associated with different statures.
"Future studies that assess both hair loss and body height may be able to answer that question," she said by email.
But the statistical link was clear.
In men of European origin, balding usually starts in one's 30s. Up to 80 percent of European men are affected to some extent.
Hair loss in Asians comes about a decade later, and the overall frequence is much lower, impacting 50 to 60 percent men.
There is relatively little data on baldness in Africa, but male hair loss there seems even less frequent.
Some of the gene variants uncovered in the study "may constitute promising targets for therapeutic interventions," Heilmann-Heimbach said.
Short, white men more likely to go bald: study
Short, white men more likely to go bald: study
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
