Hair Loss: An Aftermath of Stress
11:31 PM - Posted by michelle -
Stress is a part of our life. It is in fact an integral part of our existence. Stress can affect our physical efforts and mental framework. All of us feel stress, but have different ways to express or react to it.

Stress can be termed as the unseen ailment which disturbs our equilibrium. It is something which shouldn’t be taken lightly because it is an established and well-proven cause of mental and physical pathos.

Talking about the impact of stress on hair and scalp condition, it is important to mention that this type of stress-induced hair loss is called telogen effluvium. Telogen effluvium is a temporary condition characterized by shedding of hair from the scalp triggered by acute or chronic stressful situations. The hair may re-grow within 6–9 months.

The only lasting treatment apart from a symptomatic one is proper management of stress. Stress becomes highly injurious to our health if not managed effectively.

Learning to relax, exercises and meditation, spending a quiet time in introspection, organizing oneself, avoiding unnecessary competition, talking to friends, developing a positive attitude and taking things lightly, are the techniques of dealing with stressed conditions.

Managing stress properly will make your life beautiful. You will feel positive, better, charged, active and relaxed. Stress can be positive or negative depending on how you perceive it. On one hand, it might bring the best out of you, by instilling a sense of heightened concentration while encountering a challenging situation. And on the other hand, it can be so consuming that it might end up being highly stressing, ultimately making you unable to relax. So a balance is needed, to be in complete control of life and decide the path you want to tread and not forcefully follow, out of stress, jeopardizing your health, mind, and peace.

Apart from these useful methods, excessive use of synthetic hair care products—which leads to damaging hair, causing baldness and rapid hair loss—should also be avoided. The use of natural herbal products should be promoted which will be mild on your precious priceless possession—your hair, the crowning glory!


Hair Loss Treatments: Medication vs. Natural Supplements
10:42 PM - Posted by michelle -
If you are anything like a lot of men with thinning hair, then it probably feels like you’ve tried every hair loss medication in the world. If you are still looking, it is most likely because nothing you’ve tried so far has actually worked. Sometimes, these medications cause side effects that are too problematic to ignore; other times, there is no noticeable benefit in taking a particular medication, and you end up throwing it out. Frustrating, isn’t it? One of the biggest problems with a lot of products today is that they are geared for use by both men and women—and a man, your problem is probably androgenic alopecia.

Natural Treatments and Androgenic Alopecia

You are most likely more familiar with the common term for androgenic alopecia—male pattern baldness. This is the most common type of hair loss in men, by far. Yet so many kinds of medication completely disregard the science behind what causes male pattern baldness, hoping to cash in on and appeal to as many customers as possible. Today’s natural products are the few kinds of medication available that are specifically designed to deal with the underlying causes of male pattern baldness.

Nip Thinning Hair in the Bud

Now this is a very important part of this topic. DHT blockers are an exciting type of hair loss medication that works in two very distinct ways. Their oral supplements work to block the hormone known as DHT—or dihydrotestosterone—preventing it from being produced in the first place. Some DHT blockers also contain a topical serum to gently massage into the scalp to help create a fertile environment for fresh, new hair to regrow. Men who have tried virtually every medication under the sun swear by DHT blockers because they actually work—and keep on working. Since they’re all natural, they can be safely used every single day.


How to Avoid Hair Loss from Chemotherapy
12:48 AM - Posted by michelle -
For many women facing the emotional and physical whirlwind of breast cancer treatment, the possibility of losing their hair is one more trauma to go through.

“It’s typically two of the first questions I get: ‘Will I lose it, and when will I lose it?’” said Dr. Susan Melin, who specializes in treating breast cancer as an associate professor of internal medicine—hematology and oncology—at Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center.

“They feel like it is a declaration to the world of their condition and the chemotherapy that they’re about to go through.”

Melin is hopeful that a feasibility study of a scalp-cooling device—just under way at Wake Forest Baptist—will enable her to eventually answer “no” more often to those questions.

“Preventing chemotherapy-induced hair loss by using the scalp-cooling cap may relieve severe psychological and emotional stress and improve the patient’s quality of life,” Melin said.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Wake Forest Baptist and the University of California at San Francisco for an investigational device exemption for DigniCap, which is made by Dignitana of Lund, Sweden. The study is the first step required to gain FDA approval. Melin is the principal investigator for the Wake Forest Baptist study.

The device, aimed at patients with stage 1 breast cancer, is already in clinical use in Canada, Europe, and Japan. According to the Dignitana website, more than 80 percent of the patients have kept their hair during chemotherapy.

Both US medical centers will enroll 10 patients. The first patient at Wake Forest Baptist is set to undergo chemo treatment while wearing the cap. UCSF has at least five patients enrolled.

The device is a tight-fitting silicone cap placed directly on the head, and an outer neoprene cap that insulates and secures the inner one. The cap is connected to a cooling and control unit with touch-screen controls. The design leaves the ears uncovered.

A coolant circulates throughout the inner silicone layer. The cap is designed to deliver consistent cooling to all areas of the scalp. The device features safety sensors that monitor and optimize the treatment temperature, typically around 42 degrees. A lower temperature is recommended for patients with thick hair.

When a cap is applied to the head, the temperature of the scalp is lowered over a 20- to 30-minute period. Blood vessels surrounding the hair roots contract, resulting in a significant reduction of cytotoxins to the follicle.

Reduced blood flow leaves a smaller amount of chemotherapy available for uptake in the cells. The decreased temperature results in less absorption of—and reduced effects from—the chemotherapy.
The treatment cycle, depending on the patient, would range from four times over a two-month period to eight times over a four-month period, Melin shares.
Melin said there have been few side effects with the cap, primarily headaches. Melin said that one of the goals with the study is to determine if it is safe and will cause no side effects.

Patients will have follow-up visits of three, six, nine and twelve months to determine whether hair has grown back.

Melin said that a larger efficacy study would include patients with stage 1 and stage 2 breast cancer. “Basically, the DigniCap would be used for certain patients who have a moderate chance of their cancer recurring,” she said.


Hair Growth Treatment Stumbled upon by Researchers
11:45 PM - Posted by michelle -
Researchers have stumbled across what may turn out to be a “miracle” treatment for hair loss in humans. The scientists were investigating how stress affects the digestive system when they made the discovery.

The team at the University of California-Los Angeles and US Veterans Administration were working with mice which were genetically engineered to overproduce a stress hormone called corticotrophin-releasing factor or CRF.

As they aged, these chronically-stressed rodents lost the hair down their backs, much the same way that extreme stress can cause baldness in humans.

Investigators studying irritable bowel syndrome injected the mice for five consecutive days with a chemical compound, or antagonist, called astressin-B, which blocks the effects of CRF, the stress hormone.

Lead researcher Million Mulugeta says they wanted to see if the treatment eased the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, a disorder that causes severe pain and cramping.

“And we left these mice back to their home cage and came back three months, and all these mice that received this antagonist had their hair grown back fully,” says Mulugeta.

Four months later, the rodents’ fur showed no signs of thinning. Mulugeta isn't sure if astressin-B only reverses stress-related hair loss, or whether it would correct hair loss due to aging or chemotherapy.

Corticotrophin-releasing factor orchestrates the stress response and the cascade of stress hormones that follows. Mulugeta says scientists are now trying to figure out which stress hormones are most closely tied to hair loss so they can develop a treatment that does not disrupt the endocrine system.

While the hair loss treatment has not been tried in humans yet, Mulugeta is optimistic that it will work.

“These hormones and their receptors are present in the skin both in mice and humans, and they are very similar,” he says. “So all this gives us hope that the antagonist may work in human(s).”


Hair Loss – Truth behind Myths
6:21 AM - Posted by michelle -
Hair LossFictitious popular conceptions that determine possible causes of baldness may have some underlying truth behind, nevertheless remain myths due to lack of scientific validation.

• Wearing Hats Can Cause Hair Loss
Prolonged use of hats especially during hot and humid climate can contribute to the excretion and accumulation of sebum on your hair. Sebum is a waxy substance that is secreted by the sebaceous glands of your skin. Overtime, sebum can react with cholesterol to create a hardened sebum plug that cuts off oxygen circulation to the hair follicles and cause it to fall out.
While this may be a myth, hats do cause hair breakage and, to a lesser degree, split ends. Since hats are not washed as frequently as other clothing, they can also lead to scalp uncleanliness and possible Pityrosporum ovale contamination in men with naturally oily scalps. Some scalp infections, if left untreated, can cause hair loss.leimo hair loss

• Hair Loss is Inherited From the Mother’s SideMajority of hair loss in both men and women is hereditary and can be inherited from either the mother’s or father’s side.

• “Bald men are more sexually active than others”
Levels of free testosterone are strongly linked to libido and also DHT levels, but unless free testosterone is virtually non-existent, levels have not been shown to affect virility. Men with androgenic alopecia are more likely to have a higher baseline of free androgens. However, sexual activity is multifactorial, and androgenic profile is also not the only determining factor in baldness.

• DHT is The Only Culprit in Hair Loss
While it is true that overproduction of the male hormone or androgen called DHT is an important cause of hair loss in men and women, it is not the only cause.
DHT is a natural form of testosterone produced by an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase. Binding of this metabolite to its receptors in the hair follicle is thought to lead to hair loss. Many chemical drugs and natural supplements either inhibit the production of DHT or prevent it from binding to its follicular receptors.
DHT, however, is required for normal sexual functions. Indiscriminate inhibition of this metabolite has led to sexual performance problems, such as impotence or erectile dysfunction.
In addition to preventing the overproduction of DHT, your hair loss treatment regimen should also include providing nutrients and vitamins to strengthen existing hair, prevent hair fall out due to damage, and promote new hair growth. Improving blood circulation via photobiostimulation to the follicles using Leimo Personal Hair Laser can also be used to treat hair loss.

• Blow Drying and Frequent Washing Causes Hair Loss
Unless they are done excessively, blow drying and washing your hair frequently will not cause hair loss. However, heat damaged hair is often brittle and prone to shedding. Too much heat can also permanently damage hair follicles, leading to hair loss. Similarly, physical damage to hair due to aggressive shampooing or toweling can lead to a hair loss condition called traction alopecia.

• Losing 100 Strands of Hair per Day is Normal
Your hair grows and falls out according to its normal growth cycle. In this cycle, a hair follicle would grow for about four to five years. In its fifth year, the follicle would stop growing and enter its rest cycle. By the beginning of the sixth year, the hair strand would fall out and the growth cycle starts again.
The average number of follicles in your scalp is between 100,000 to 150,000, 90% of which is in the growth cycle at any given time. It has been said that we shed about 100 strands of hair per day – however, this number has turned out to be a gross overestimate. Although the exact number of hair shed varies from person to person, new studies have indicated that only about 20 to 50 strands are shed normally in a day.
Thus, losing 100 hair strands per day may be indicative of early stages of hair loss.

• There is Nothing You Can Do to Prevent or Treat Hair Loss
In the past, this was true – there was nothing they could do about hair loss. But now, with advances in the science of trichology about the nutritional needs of hair, men and women no longer have to live with hair loss.
A breakthrough in hair care, Leimo Personal Hair Laser is the first cordless laser phototherapy device specifically designed for hair regrowth using Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) and Light Emitting Diode Therapy (LEDT). Equipped with precision components, it is designed for the general public to use at home. It is the next generation in hair and scalp restoration with no medication, no drugs and no reported side effects.

Empirical data revealed that both men and women of all ages are satisfied with its positive benefits.
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about hair loss. Recognizing them and the truth behind can help you make an informed decision in treating hair loss.