Eating chicken causes baldness, Bolivia’s President declares

The Bolivian President has caused controversy by putting forward the theory, at an environmental conference this week, that “eating hormone-injected chicken causes baldness”, and suggesting that eating these chickens turns men gay, too.

Scientists have dismissed his claim as nonsense, while gay rights groups have filed complaints with the authorities.

As you may have guessed already, eating chickens will not actually put your valued hair follicles at risk. The major cause of baldness in men is male-pattern baldness – a hereditary condition, that generally takes effect after the age of 30.

Other reasons why you might go bald include testosterone deficiency, and alopecia, which is believed to be brought on by a combination of stress and hereditary factors. Alopecia affects one in every 100 people, and hit the news headlines last decade when TV presenter Gail Porter began to suffer from the condition. Her hair consequently dropped out, not only on her head, but all across her body.

Needless to say, chickens weren’t involved in Gail’s baldness, and they aren’t likely to be involved in any hair loss cases ever. Evo Morales also said that in 50 years, half the world will be bald because of chemically-affected chickens. The President might want to check his facts before he next speaks out about these kinds of topics.