Archive for the ‘Health, Safety and Risks’ Category
Excessive Coloring Can Kill Your Hair
Hair isn’t alive, so hair products or hot irons can’t “kill” hair, although they may cause hair damage. As long as the damage caused by hair products is limited to the hair and not the growing hair follicles below the skin, hair above the skin may be lost from breakage or damage, but it will re-grow from the follicles at a rate of 1⁄2 inch per month.
Damaging hair follicles below the skin, however, can cause baldness. When inexperienced people apply chemicals such as unsafe dyes or relaxing agents to the hair and scalp, the caustic chemicals may work their way into the growing part of the hair follicle and damage or kill the hair follicle at its root. The longer powerful chemicals stay on the scalp, the deeper they may penetrate into the pores of the skin where the hair follicles are, resulting in permanent hair loss or hair that may never look “healthy.”
Applying dyes, chemicals, or hot irons (even hair rollers that are too hot) can cause the hair to become fragile and break off. Hair breakage and split ends are most common in people with long hair because the hair is around for a longer amount of time before being cut, so it’s more susceptible to damage from wind, drying, and sunlight as well as chemicals such as relaxers and hair dyes.
What type of hair loss do you have?
The average scalp contains about 100,000 to 150,000 hair. The normal hair life cycle lasts for 2 to 3 years. At any given point of time, about 90% of the hair on your scalp is growing and about 10% of the hair is in a resting phase. After 2-3 months, the resting hair is shed and new hair starts to grow in its place. It is normal to shed some hair every day. You lose roughly 100 hair strands every day. But, some people may experience more than normal hair loss. Partial or complete loss of hair is called alopecia.
If your hair loss is distinctly noticeable, you need to find out what kind of hair loss you are suffering from. The various different kinds of hair losses are:
Natural hair loss
The rate of hair growth slows as you age. Both men and women tend to lose hair thickness and amount as they age. If you notice gradual thinning of hair with age, then you have Involutional alopecia. More and more of your hair follicles go into a telogen (resting) phase. The remaining hair becomes shorter and fewer in number.
Temporary hair Loss
You may experience temporary hair loss over the scalp weeks to months after a stress episode like child birth, fever, severe illness, stress and sudden weight loss. The hair shedding will decrease after few months. Such type of hair loss is called Telogen effluvium. This happens due to changes in the growth cycle of hair. A large numbers of hairs are in the resting phase (telogen) at the same time. After 2-3 months, there is massive shedding and subsequent thinning.
Balding at 20 Linked to Increased Risk of Prostate Cancer, Study Finds
The French study compared 388 men being treated for prostate cancer with a control group of 281 healthy men and found that those with the disease were twice as likely as the healthy men to have started going bald when they were 20. However, if the men only started to lose their hair when they were 30 or 40, there was no difference in their risk of developing prostate cancer compared to the control group. The study found no association between early hair loss and an earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer, and nor was there any link between the pattern of hair loss and the development of cancer.
Until now there has been conflicting evidence about the link between balding and prostate cancer; this is the first study to suggest a link between going bald at the young age of 20 and the development of prostate cancer in later life.
Professor Philippe Giraud (M.D., PhD), Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Paris Descartes University (Paris, France) and at the European Georges Pompidou Hospital (Paris, France), who led the research, said: "At present there is no hard evidence to show any benefit from screening the general population for prostate cancer. We need a way of identifying those men who are at high risk of developing the disease and who could be targeted for screening and also considered for chemo-prevention using anti-androgenic drugs such as finasteride. Balding at the age of 20 may be one of these easily identifiable risk factors and more work needs to be done now to confirm this."
Analysis of Results of Safety and Efficacy of the HairMax LaserComb
Treating hereditary hair loss in men and women requires serious considerations regarding not only efficacy, but safety.
Lexington Int’l has recently completed an analysis of the efficacy and safety of the HairMax LaserComb in 6 double-blind, device clinical trials of androgenetic alopecia with 460 male and female subjects.
The first part of the analysis demonstrated the efficacy of the device. Presently, there are 2 drugs with FDA approval, and 1 non-drug product with FDA Clearance, the HairMax LaserComb® laser phototherapy medical device for treating the condition. In each and every study, conclusive proof that the HairMax is effective in treating androgenetic alopecia (hereditary hair loss) was found, and that these results are predictable, consistent, and comparable to the drugs approved for treating this condition.
The second part of the analysis was to assess the safety of the subjects in the clinical studies. The results of the analysis of all 6 studies showed that no serious side effects occurred and that any side effects reported were similar to those reported with the control (placebo) device.
Since hair loss is an aesthetic condition, the risk to benefit profile has to be considered before using a product for treatment. The HairMax has been marketed since 2001 and has been used successfully by hundreds of thousands of individuals to treat their hair loss. Since that time, there has never been any reports of serious side effects occurring. This combined with the analysis of the safety and efficacy results from the 6 clinical trials yields an excellent risk to benefit equation for the HairMax, making the device the obvious choice of treatment for men and women suffering from hair loss.
Hair transplants a risk for men under 30
If you are losing your hair before you expect, you are advised by one of the leading UK doctors to avoid hair transplant surgery.
Newsbeat, a flagship radio programming service of the BBC, warns against hair transplants for young men who have recently started losing their hair. Male pattern baldness, the most common type of male hair loss, is known to affect about 30% of men by the time they turn 30.
According to Dr. Bessam Farjo, one of the top-rated hair transplant surgeons in the country, young men who are experiencing a thinning of hair at the crown should first consider non-surgical procedures, such as oral hair loss treatment, before giving surgery a thought.
It can be mistake on the part of young men to follow celebrities like Wayne Rooney, who has recently undergone a hair transplant surgery, much to the enthusiasm of the media and the public. Surgery at an early stage of life may still leave a man bald, in which case it becomes difficult to regrow hair, explains Dr. Farjo.
Baldness Calculator – first easy to use hair loss Predictor
Hair loss is men’s number one cosmetic problem. Many men ignore the onset of baldness until it is too late. If you love your hair, you might want to add ‘Baldness calculator’ in your hair care list besides creams, lotions and medicines. As the name suggests, baldness calculator estimates the exact age at which a person will go bald or have lost most of their hair.
Dr Adolf Klenk, head of research and development at hair care company called “Dr Kurt Wolff”, said: more and more men value full hair, especially younger men, as they are looking for a partner and are at the peak of their social lives. Baldness calculator may provide a relief for them as it can predict the age at which a man will go bald or if they will have a full head of hair in the old age.
Calculating Your Risks of Baldness
A calculator has been launched on the internet aimed at giving men an idea of when, if ever, they will lose their hair.
The dating device comes courtesy of Dr Adolf Klenk, a hair loss specialist associated with the Alpecin research institute in Germany.
His calculator asks the reader a series of questions and then, based on the answers given, predicts the likelihood of possible balding and the approximate age at which it may happen.
If you are feeling brave, you can even upload a picture to see what you would look like with no hair.
Drug fixes baldness, prostate cancer
MEN who start to go bald at the age of 20 may be able to take a pill to prevent hair loss and prostate cancer, according to preliminary research.
The study, published in the journal Annals of Oncology, found men who lose their hair early may have twice the chance of developing prostate cancer later in life as men who do not.
If the link between baldness and prostate cancer was confirmed, the study suggests, it might lead to men being tested for prostate cancer years earlier, and let them access preventative treatment.
Proscar & Avodart may cause permanent Sexual Dysfunction, study finds
The latest men's health scare comes from products prescribed to treat hair loss or an enlarged prostate.
New research finds they may contribute to irreversible sexual dysfunction.
Use of dutasteride (Avodart) and finasteride (Proscar and Propecia) were linked to erectile dysfunction, depression and loss of libido in a review of existing studies.
In a small percentage of cases, symptoms persisted even after the medication was stopped.
Dr. Harold Fuselier, a urologist with the LSU Health Sciences Center, was involved in a study of the drugs in the early 90's, when they first came out.
Going Bald Early? Better Check Your Prostate
A New Medical Study Suggests Link Between Early Baldness And Prostate Problems In Men
Men already weary over losing the fight against going bald early may have a bigger problem on their hands: the health of their prostate gland, a new study reveals.
New research from French doctors seems to link early male pattern baldness with a higher likelihood of prostate cancer later in life.
New test helps determine best treatment for hair loss in women
A new test can help doctors determine whether a woman experiencing hair loss is likely to benefit from antiandrogen therapies, Business Wire reports.
According to dermatology research and development company DermaGenoma, the HairDX Genetic Test for Female Androgen Sensitivity offers a new genetic screening for women suffering from or at risk of androgenetic alopecia (AGA). The test was unveiled to physicians at the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery’s 18th Annual Scientific Meeting, held in Boston in October.
The test examines genetic and epigenetic variations in a woman’s androgen receptor gene, then assesses her androgen sensitivity to determine if her hair loss has an androgenic origin.
Patients with high androgen sensitivity could benefit from antiandrogen therapies. Understanding the origin of the hair loss will help physicians select the most effective treatment, the company says.
Drug for baldness works, experts say, but may lead to sexual problems
The widely used baldness drug finasteride (Propecia) indeed boosts hair growth in men, but some may develop sexual problems, according to a new analysis.
[pullquote]Finasteride has a tendency to maintain and improve hair count over time while being on treatment. The longer you treat, the bigger the effect.[/pullquote]
A review of recent research found that men with the most common form of baldness who took finasteride are more likely to experience an increase in hair count, and say they believe their hair is thicker. But approximately one in 80 also experience erectile dysfunction, according to the analysis published in the Archives of Dermatology.
However, men with sexual side effects were not more likely to stop taking the drug. "It seems that most men taking this drug really prefer to have hair," study author Dr. José Manuel Mella of the Hospital Alemán in Buenos Aires told Reuters Health.
Up to half of men will experience pattern hair loss -- known clinically as androgenetic alopecia -- by the age of 50. Finasteride works by blocking an enzyme that converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, the hormone responsible for hair loss.
Several studies have investigated the effectiveness of finasteride, which costs about $50 per month for a brand-name pill but less for a generic version. However, questions have remained over its potential side effects.
To help answer these questions, Mella and his team scanned the medical literature and analyzed the findings of 12 studies that included 3,927 men.
They found that men taking finasteride notice a 30% improvement after two years. "Finasteride has a tendency to maintain and improve hair count over time while being on treatment," Mella said in an email. "The longer you treat, the bigger the effect."
However, finasteride did appear to increase the risk of sexual side effects, affecting 1 in 80 men taking the drug. "Patients must discuss their preferences with their doctors," the researcher advised.
Mella and his team rated most of the data included in the current study as "moderate quality," meaning the results may have been affected by factors such as bias (if funded by the sellers of finasteride, perhaps). However, any impact would be relatively minor, and the data are reliable overall, noted Mella, who did not receive any funding from the makers of finasteride to produce his paper. "Our results are probably accurate."
Dr. Matt Leavitt, who co-authored one of the studies included in the new analysis, said he wasn't surprised by the findings, and prescribes finasteride "pretty much daily" to his patients.
Indeed, "there is an occasional patient that does describe a sexual side effect," noted Leavitt, medical director of the Advanced Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery Clinic based in Florida and president of the Hair Foundation. But most are willing to try the drug knowing they can just stop taking it if any problems arise. "We know that it works on most patients."
