World Largest Hair Congress Convene In Vancouver For The Fifth International Congress On Hair Research.

The fifth International Congress on Hair Research will be convened in Vancouver this week. It is the largest gathering of hair experts, with clinicians and scientists examining many aspects of hair disease and medically recognised and approved trichogical regrowth treatments.

Whether long or short, thin or thick, loosing hair can weaken a person emotionally. Hair loss is not simply a matter of aesthetics but can also influence career advancement and emotional well being, adds Shapiro, who is a member of Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) and clinical research director at the Hair Research Laboratory at the Skin Care Centre at VGH.

Along with workshops and symposiums, experts will be trying to help patients from the University of B.C.’s hair clinic suffering from a range of hair problems.

They vary from cicatricial alopecia, a rare disorder that destroys the hair follicle and replaces it with scar tissue, and alopecia areata, an autoimmune skin disease resulting in hair loss, to more common disorders such as male pattern hair loss and women who have too much hair. Session topics include chemotherapy-induced hair loss, tissue engineering of hair follicles, nutrition and hair growth, pigment biology and hair-related surgery.

One of the main topic of discussion here, will the stem cell therapy. Stem cells found in hair follicles could one day heal people with paralysis or neurological diseases. Stem cells can be grown into different types of tissue. The ones thought to have the most potential to heal are embryonic stem cells.

We think that hair-follicle stem cells may be an alternative for many of the applications,” said Dr. Robert Hoffman, a San Diego researcher. They’re very readily accessible and it’s not an invasive procedure.” 

Hoffman’s research team found that hair-follicle stem cells could form the cells that build neurons, blood vessels, muscle cells and brain tissue.

The UBC lab, one of only a few that deal with hair research, is investigating the connection between the immune system and hair growth, as well as between hormones, aging and hair growth. People looking for a new baldness treatment can take comfort in the researchers’ compassion for them.

Hair loss has sprung a $7-billion-a-year industry in North America as people pay for hair transplants and clinically tested drugs that work to restore their locks.

Many of the drugs available are not completely effective. Many have side effects like sexual impotency.

Many scientists believe that environmental conditions are responsible for the growing number of baldness along with genetic from either side of the family.

Scientists are also researching whether implanting the cells into bald heads can generate hair growth.

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Treatment Found To Reverse Hair Loss.

Science Daily — Male pattern hair loss (MPHL) is a condition that affects as many as 50 percent of men by the age of fifty, but according to a new study, baldness may soon be a treatable condition.

Using pairs of identical twins, the study assessed the efficacy of dutasteride, a particular enzyme inhibitor, as a means of reducing hair loss and encouraging new growth, finding it to be an effective means of combating baldness.

In the study, one of each pair of twins was given 0.5 mg/day of the medication, the other receiving a placebo, with the results monitored over the course of a year. After both 6 and 12-month intervals, hair loss was found to not only have been halted in twins using dutasteride, but hair growth was actively improved. The rate of growth increased between the 6 and 12-month evaluations, while hair loss continued steadily in the placebo group.

MPHL is thought to be genetically controlled. As identical twins share the same genetic code, the study provides particularly convincing evidence of the efficacy of dutasteride.

Please note that this story has been adapted from a news release issued by Blackwell Publishing.

For the full story please go to: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/

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