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MALE HAIR LOSS RESULTS

10.01.2009 in HAIR LOSS [ PHOTOS ] TREATED, MALE HAIR LOSS

I think I have Male Pattern Hair Loss. What shall I do?

BEFORE

AFTER

We prescribed the following treatments:

Minoxidil 5%+ Hair Growth Stimulant: Minoxidil is a vasodilator and dilates the blood capillaries responsible for blood supply to the hair follicles, thus allowing more blood to reach the hair follicles and encourage hair growth.

Biostim 15% Hair Regrowth Stimulant and Hair Loss Stabiliser:
This stimulant contains a very effective natural 5-alpha reductase inhibitor. It reduces the amount of 5-alpha reductase in the scalp and thereby reduces the formation of DHT, stabilising hair loss and encouraging a healthy growth cycle.

THIS COULD BE YOU

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Does LaserComb stop hair loss? The evidence is thin

10.01.2009 in Uncategorized

Popular hand-held laser device LaserComb might revive follicles for some men. Maybe.

Americans spend billions on hair-care products each year, a remarkable investment for a part of the body with no real function. We clean it, nourish it and style it — and we definitely mourn its loss.

Lots of products and procedures promise to restore thinning or disappearing hair. One especially intriguing option is the HairMax LaserComb, a hand-held laser device that supposedly revives hair follicles. Hailed on TV news programs as a potential “cure for baldness,” the device received FDA clearance for men in 2007. Unlike drugs, most medical devices can be approved without rigorous testing. A company must merely persuade the Food and Drug Administration that the new device is “substantially equivalent” to other products already on the market. In this case, the makers of the LaserComb told the agency that their product was roughly as safe and effective as a wide range of other laser devices, including a gadget intended to kill lice. They also claimed to be in the same league as the Evans Vacuum Cap, an early 20th century hair-growth contraption that’s pretty much what it sounds like.

The LaserComb is sold online and through the SkyMall catalog for about $500.

Users are instructed to slowly move the comb back and forth through their remaining hair for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, three days a week.

The claims

According to the HairMax website, “90% of HairMax users notice positive benefits starting in as little as 8 weeks. These results include: increased hair growth, cessation of hair loss, faster growing hair, more manageability and more vibrant color.”

David Michaels, the managing director of Lexington International, the company behind the LaserComb, says it works by “transferring light energy to cellular energy” in the follicles. The device can’t restore hair to a bald spot, he says, but it can make any remaining hair grow “faster, thicker, heavier and stronger.”

The bottom line

Lasers can undoubtedly encourage hair growth, says Dr. Marc Avram, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

In fact, a small percentage of people who undergo laser hair removal end up with more hair than they had to start with. As Avram and colleagues noted in a 2007 issue of the Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy, many hair-loss centers offer treatment with low-level laser devices, and some patients really do seem to benefit. Nobody knows why hair responds to lasers, he explains, although it’s possible that the beams somehow encourage blood flow to the follicles.

Still, according to Avram, there’s no good evidence that the LaserComb works any better than more-established treatments such as the prescription medications Rogaine or Propecia. For his patients who are unwilling or unable to use the medications, he says that the device could be worth a try. The LaserComb is safe, he says, and it just might help. “But I set low expectations for it.”

Avram recently tested the HairMax LaserComb on a handful of patients in his office over six months. (Contrary to claims made for the LaserComb, Avram says, it takes at least six months to see real results from any hair-loss treatment.)

“In 20% of the subjects, it seemed to maybe have an effect” on the appearance of hair, Avram says. The study hasn’t been published yet, and it didn’t include a control group for the sake of comparison. Avram readily admits his study “isn’t definitive,” but he hopes it might encourage more research in the future.

By contrast, Rogaine and Propecia have already been tested in multiple high-quality studies and have been shown to stop hair loss in 80% to 90% of patients, Avram says.

Uncertainty aside, the LaserComb has clearly captured the public’s imagination. Patients ask about it “all the time,” says Dr. Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist with the Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center and a member of the North American Hair Research Society. Mirmirani says the device could potentially stimulate hair growth. “But I don’t have any evidence. If patients want to spend $500 on this device, it’s their choice. But I wouldn’t recommend it. They should save it for something that we know actually works.”

Last May, the FDA issued a warning letter against Lexington International for illegally marketing the device to women when it had been officially cleared only for men. The HairMax website now says that the device is intended for men only, but recorded messages for callers on hold to customer service still say that it “works equally well on both men and women” and that “anyone of any age, male or female, can benefit.”

Michaels says the company has asked the FDA for approval to market the device to women and expects a decision soon.

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FDA APPROVES FINASTERIDE TO TREAT MALE PATTERN HAIR LOSS IN MEN

09.01.2009 in Uncategorized

FDA has approved Propecia for hair loss, making it the first such treatment for men in pill form. The following can be used to answer questions:

The active ingredient in Propecia is finasteride. Finasteride was approved initially in 1992 as Proscar, a treatment for prostate enlargement. There is 1 mg of finasteride in Propecia and 5 mg in Proscar. It was observed that some patients being treated for prostate enlargement had some regrowth of hair in areas of male pattern hair loss.

The sponsor studied 1 mg of finasteride and demonstrated hair growth in male pattern hair loss. The number of hairs increased in the anterior midscalp and vertex. Patient self-assessment of hair growth was also superior to placebo. Side effects were infrequent and were related to sexual function.

The drug will not be marketed for women because it causes birth defects, and the safety and efficacy have not been established in women.

Recently, FDA’s Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee discussed Propecia. The committee offered labeling suggestions in the context of an overall generally favorable discussion. Merck & Co. of West Point, Pa.,manufactures both Proscar and Propecia.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00842.html

FDA Talk Papers are prepared by the Press Office to guide FDA personnel in responding with consistency and accuracy to questions from the public on subjects of current interest. Talk Papers are subject to change as more information becomes available.

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Different Hair Loss Needs Different Treatment

09.01.2009 in HAIR LOSS [ PHOTOS ] TREATED, HAIR LOSS PRODUCTS AND TREATMENTS

         

People must understand the difference between Male Pattern Baldness and other types of hair loss that can be aggravated by stress (Alopecia). Male Pattern Baldness is a hereditary genetic condition and isn’t made any worse by stress. On the other hand some hair loss conditions like alopecia areata can be initiated by stress and anxiety.

People who have extremely stressful lives can sometimes trigger off alopecia areata where their hair starts to fall out in big clumps which in turn increases their stress and aggravates the hair loss condition even more. Alopecia areata is a pretty rare condition which is initiated when psychological or physical stress completely disrupts the body’s immune system which makes it attack hair follicles at the root and destroy them.

Alopecia areata is brought on by completely different things to Male Pattern Baldness and thus must be treated differently. Many people assume that hair loss is all the same and thus can be treated in the same way but this is not the case. You should always get professional advice from a Westminster Trichologist  before getting treatment for any type of hair loss.

Male Pattern Baldness can be treated by using the drug Propecia but it will have no affect whatsoever on men and women who suffer from alopecia areata. In the same way treatments for alopecia areata which include the use of anti anxiety drugs and counselling on learning how to deal with stress, will not have any effect on men who are suffering from Male Pattern Baldness.

There are quite a few different types of hair loss which affect men and women and statistics show that those people who go and get a Westminster Trichologist’s consultation are far more likely to reverse hair loss than those who don’t.

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New Genetic Hair Loss Breakthrough

09.01.2009 in HAIR LOSS SCIENCE

The big thing in the world of hair loss research at the moment is genes. Scientists have the located a number of genetic structures which appear in men and women who suffer from hair loss of many different types. Specific genes have been seen to cause male pattern baldness and scientists are working on drugs which could prevent the activation of these genes and thus completely eradicate hereditary hair loss and men in the future.

Recently scientists made another breakthrough which could target men and women who suffer from a very rare form of hereditary hair loss called Maria Unna Hereditary Hypotrichosis (MUHH) which occurs in people who suffer from congenital atrichia. This rare condition produces complete hair loss all over the body when still an infant and the hair never grows back.

Recently scientists working at the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing observed that mutations in a particular compound caused this very rare type of hair loss, and they said that by understanding the mechanisms of this complicated chemical process they were getting a step closer to finding a remedy for all types of genetic hair loss.

Dr Xue Zhang explained that by preventing the production of a gene called HR the hair loss was activated and thus they have began to understand that the HR levels had to be maintained at a certain level to stop the hair loss occuring. Dr Zhang’s Research has been published in the medical journal Nature Genetics.

Men and women who are suffering from genetic hair loss however should not start to rejoice too early because it is unlikely that any serious medication to treat genetic hair loss will be on the market within a decade. The processes and mechanisms of male pattern baldness are extremely complex and scientists say that they have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

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