Here’s Why Your Friends Oppose Your Fitness Goals: Understanding Social Sabotage
One of the biggest barriers to improving your health/fitness is social pressure. In fact, for many people, it’s the biggest thorn.
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Anyone that knows me, knows I hate false quick fixes and over exaggerated magic health pills. This is the exact vibe I got when reading recent headlines about a new study showing a kimchi drink reversing hair loss. My first thoughts were this is just toxic mainstream clickbait.
So I did what should be done when faced with skepticism, I looked up the study myself to see if it was legit.
Surprisingly, the study was promising. So if you or someone you know is tired of excessive hair loss, listen closely as this breakthrough kimchi drink study might help (1).
A recent study took 46 men and women who showed patterns of hair loss after filtering a sample of participants for conflicting factors. Keep in mind, it’s completely normal to lose about 50-100 strands of hair daily. These participants however were all in deeper stages of actual alopecia meaning their hair loss was excessive, not just a few strands sprinkling off a teenager’s hairbrush.
The study participants were then administered 80 mL of a Korean probiotic yogurt drink made from kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) and fermented soybean paste among other ingredients. The labeler for the drink is called COENBIO CO. After some searching around, I noticed every website selling it was in Korean with no translation, so that was a bummer for my basic American eyes.
Anyways, the study participants chugged down this drink twice a day, before breakfast and before bed.
Hair growth was measured using a triple scope system in 5 different sections. To ensure accuracy, the researchers even tattooed shapes around each section measure. So on top of contributing to science, these participants also got 5 free scalp tattoos of whatever shape the researchers used. I guess that’s a win, win situation?
After 1 month, about 90% of participants saw either improved hair volume, thickness, or both. After 4 months, this number went up to about 94%.
As for how significant the results were, they’re pretty respectable. After 4 months, the average hair volume went from 85 strands per square centimeter to 91 strands per square centimeter.
Hair thickness also increased on average by about 0.004 millimeters. To some people, this might sound small, but I’m sure anybody with thinning hair wouldn’t complain about a few extra millimeters.
The researchers concluded the drink had caused initiation of the hair growth phase of your scalp as well as increased blood flow to the scalp which also enhances nutrient delivery. Which exact ingredients that are most responsible is still a bit of a mystery.
They speculate that both the probiotic and prebiotic components of the kimchi and the fermented soybean paste within the drink are likely most responsible for reversing hair loss (2).
Does this mean probiotics from other foods will also help reverse hair loss? Maybe or maybe not. We’ll find out with more research in the future.
Look, I’ll be blunt, I’m not a fan of kimchi or Korean cuisine. When I hear kimchi and fermented soybean paste in a drink, I’d rather barf in a treadmill cupholder and drink that instead. Fortunately, my hair growth is flourishing, so I’m not losing sleep over these breakthrough benefits.
That said, here’s a few points of application for the less fortunate when it comes to scalp genetics assuming lifestyle is already healthy.
For starters, you can try finding the exact drink they used and simply start drinking it twice a day just like the study. Just have a Korean friend nearby to help you checkout of the Korean websites.
If buying foreign fermented drinks over the internet creeps you out, you can stock up on similar ingredients. Kimchi and Chungkookjang (the fermented soybean paste used) are easy to find at any local Korean/Asian supermarket. Eat them, cook with them, and if you’re feeling wild, toss some in your protein shake.
At best you’ll be like the 94% in the study who saw benefits. At worse, you’ll still reap the many health benefits of Korean soybean paste like improved blood health and disease prevention (3,4).
I wish you the best my friend.
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One of the biggest barriers to improving your health/fitness is social pressure. In fact, for many people, it’s the biggest thorn.
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