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Bald? It’s your family’s fault

23.04.2010 in HAIR LOSS [ PHOTOS ] TREATED

Researchers have discovered a new gene related to hair loss that might facilitate therapy for many concerned.

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As reported by the science journal Nature and quoted by Science Daily, they found out that the gene APCDD1 is often responsible for so-called male pattern baldness and other forms of hair loss, a hereditary process beginning during childhood. Officially termed hair follicle miniaturisation, this process causes thick, dark hair to be replaced by much finer hair.

The good news? In the same study, the teams from Stanford and Columbia University found a connection between mice and men, or more specifically in their hair growth: APCDD1 apparently inhibits something called the Wnt signaling pathway, which has been addressed by researchers before to influence hair growth in mice but was believed to be unrelated to humans.

“These findings suggest that manipulating the Wnt pathway may have an effect on hair follicle growth – for the first time, in humans,” Angela M. Christiano, Ph.D., professor of dermatology and genetics & development at the Columbia University Medical Center, said. “And unlike commonly available treatments for hair loss that involve blocking hormonal pathways, treatments involving the Wnt pathway would be non-hormonal, which may enable many more people suffering from hair loss to receive such therapies.”

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Ask the Doctor: Could statins be making my hair fall out?

23.04.2010 in HAIR LOSS HEALTH NEWS

Dr Martin Scurr has been treating patients for more than 30 years and is one of the country’s leading GPs. Here he offers advice to a patient suffering from a heart condition.

Three months ago, I realised that the simvastatin I’d been taking was probably causing my hair loss. I have stopped taking this drug (my hair is now in much better health), but as my family has had heart problems in the past, I feel I am in danger without it.

My last blood test, a few weeks ago, showed that my cholesterol level had risen from 5.2 to 6.4 in the three months since I had stopped taking simvastatin.

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Could you suggest an alternative cholesterol drug, and why would this have happened?

Mrs Sylvia Turner, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.
What are the alternatives to cholesterol drug simvastatin, which often causes hair loss?

Hair loss in a woman, at any stage in life, is a particularly distressing symptom; and once you realise it’s happening, it’s easy to panic and assume that it will progressively worsen until you’re bald.

Fortunately, you realised the pills you were taking were probably the cause, and the hair loss has now stopped. But, understandably, you’d like to know why it occurred in the first place.

Simvastatin is one of the five members of a family of medicines that treats high cholesterol.

They are remarkably effective and generally trouble-free – indeed, when these became available in 1992, our ability to lower cholesterol levels safely was revolutionised.

Any side-effects are extremely rare and tend to revolve around muscle pain and stiffness – not hair loss. And despite there being anecdotes all over the internet linking the two, no major study can confirm this.

Indeed, I checked with one of the leading experts on the science of the hair follicle, Dr Hugh Rushton, and he, like myself, has not heard of statins having that effect.

What’s more likely is that you are simply one of the unlucky few for whom it has occurred. Almost any drug – from acne medication to antidepressants – might, quite possibly, cause hair loss in some people and we have no idea why.

If it was going to happen, it would tend to occur about four or five weeks after starting the incriminating drug. Essentially, it triggers what’s known as ‘exogen’, the fourth phase of the growth and life cycle of a hair, and you start to shed.

But while simvastatin had this rare effect on you, this certainly doesn’t mean you cannot try another statin.

For although they all suppress the manufacture of cholesterol in the liver, there are differences in the way the body deals with them. And, therefore, there may well be differences in the way your body reacts.
What’s most important is that these drugs are the most effective and best tolerated medicines for treating high cholesterol levels, and you need to do all you can to reduce your risk factors for coronary heart disease, given your family history.

So my advice is as follows. Buy a supplement called Florisene from a chemist – no prescription is needed and it is not expensive.

This supplies nutrients such as iron for growing hairs and will give your scalp the best conditions for hair growth. Take it daily for the next few months, and at the same time ask your GP to let you to try a different statin, such as atorvastatin, for three or four months.

Your cholesterol levels will drop again, which is essential – but you’ll also be able to assess what happens in terms of the hair. If you suffer great loss again, continue the Florisene while your scalp recovers and then we have to accept that, in your case, it is likely that all statins will affect you in this way.

If this happens, you could try a non-statin alternative – medicines called the fibrates. Another option is high dose niacin, one of the B group of vitamins – but be aware of the unpleasant side-effect of hot flushing (though that often wears off after a few weeks).

Meanwhile, please make sure you eat a diet as low as possible in animal fats. Even though only about 10 per cent of people with high cholesterol can improve the picture by dietary restriction, that is not a reason not to try – your GP or practice nurse may be able to help you with a suitable sheet of recommendations.

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Female Hair Loss Treated

16.04.2010 in FEMALE HAIR LOSS, HAIR LOSS [ PHOTOS ] TREATED

Kat started treatment with us at The Hair Centre in February 2009. She has been using a combination of 15% Vitastim and 15% Biostim treatments both morning and evening, in conjunction with a booster treatment three times a week for the whole 12 months. Here are her results so far:  

17th Feb 2009 (2)

FEBRUARY 2009

6th April 09 (4)Oct 09 (10)

APRIL 2009                      OCTOBER 2009

April 2010

Feb 2010 (5)

APRIL 2010 [ 12 MONTHS LATER ]

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Scientists see gene trigger for rare childhood baldness

15.04.2010 in HAIR LOSS HEALTH NEWS

Scientists said on Wednesday they had uncovered a gene that causes a rare but distressing form of childhood baldness, a finding that could help the quest to treat hair loss.

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Scientists see gene trigger for rare childhood baldness

Mutation in a gene called APCDD1 plays a key role in a disease called hereditary hypotrichosis simplex (HHS), which causes progressive hair loss starting in childhood.

Hair follicles start to shrink or narrow, causing the thick hair on the scalp to be replaced by “peach fuzz” of thin, fine hair.

APCDD1, which is located on Chromosome 18, was found thanks to a trawl through the genome of several families from Pakistan and Italy where HHS goes back generations.

Lead author Angela Christiano, a professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, dampened expectations for bald men hoping that a drug for hair regrowth now lies in sight.

Male pattern baldness also entails follicular shrinkage, but the process is more complex and not directly comparable to HHS, she said.

Even so, the new finding is “highly significant” in terms of fundamental research, said Christiano.

Among people with HSS, a flawed version of APCDD1 disrupts a signalling pathway in which genes instruct proteins to turn hair growth on or off.

This so-called Wnt pathway has been extensively explored in lab mice, so finding that it also exists among humans is an important step forward in figuring out the causes of baldness.

“Furthermore, these findings suggest that manipulating the Wnt pathway may have an effect on hair follicle growth — for the first time, in humans,” said Christiano.

“And unlike commonly available treatments for hair loss that involve blocking hormonal pathways, treatments involving the Wnt pathway would be non-hormonal.”

The paper appears in the British science journal Nature.

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