STOP HAIR LOSS BLOG

The bald facts about losing your hair

August 24, 2006

It is important to understand how hair growth and hair loss work. Each scalp hair grows for four to seven years, then rests, and finally falls out. For every hair that falls out, a new hair will grow from the same follicle, normally within three months.

As people age, the rate of growth slows. Hair loss occurs when there is a progressive shrinkage of the hair follicle, resulting in shorter and finer hair. The end result is a miniature follicle . . . with no hair.

Male pattern hair loss

Research found that men with androgenetic alopecia, or male pattern hair loss, have increased levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the balding scalp. It led to the development of a breakthrough prescription medication for the treatment of balding in men.

The treatment inhibits the formation of DHT. It has been shown to stop hair loss in about 90 percent of men. Re-growth of hair was observed in 65 percent of men treated with this medication, while all men on placebo experienced a decrease in hair counts.

Living proof of this good news was provided at a media workshop in Seville, Spain earlier this year, when results of a Twins Hair-Loss Study, published in The European Journal of Dermatology, were made public. Nine pairs of identical twin brothers, or 18 men, participated in the study.

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“Because twins are mirror images, the study participants could compare where they were - one year after taking the prescription medication to address their hair loss - to where they would be if they had done nothing,” says Dr Dow Stough, executive director of the Stough Dermatology Clinic in Hot Springs, Arkansas, US.

All the men with male pattern hair loss who took the prescription medication for one year had no further visible hair loss and many even grew new hair. More than half of their identical twin brothers, who took placebo during the same time period, continued to visibly lose hair, according to the Twins Hair-Loss Study results.

“Identical twins share identical genes and offer a unique, highly efficient control for studies into genetically determined conditions such as male pattern hair loss,” says Stough.

“By the seventh month of the study, I knew my hair was getting thicker than my brother’s hair,” said Josh Hurst, a 26-year-old law student and study participant, who only learned at the study’s conclusion that he had received the treatment. “I was happy and relieved when I realized that it was working, and that I could take control of my hair loss. I just didn’t want to lose any more hair.”

Where to get help

“This study is unlike other clinical trials, because we not only have data affirming the safety profile and efficacy of this treatment, but we have actual living proof that it works,” says Senior Medical Director Dr Naveen Rao. “We can see the difference in the twin brothers’ appearance in real-time.”

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National Hair Loss Awareness Month:Five new treatments to restore hair

August 20, 2006

This August marks the 6th Annual National Hair Loss Awareness Month, and millions of Americans will be interested to know about five new treatments to protect and regrow hair.

Did you know that between 60 and 100 million Americans suffer from hair loss? This August marks the 6th Annual National Hair Loss Awareness Month of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), and millions of Americans may be interested to know that new advanced treatments – in addition to FDA-approved medications like Rogaine and Propecia – are available that can help them to both protect and regrow hair.

Alan J. Bauman, M.D., an internationally renowned hair restoration surgeon practicing in Boca Raton, FL, is encouraging all concerned patients to check with their doctors about five new treatments and procedures that may help them regain natural-looking hair:

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Five New Hair Loss Treatments (Source: Alan J. Bauman, M.D.):
1) Laser Combs: Low level laser therapy is believed to stimulate hair follicles at the cellular level, thus helping to regrow hair. Hand-held laser devices, or “laser combs,� are one way men – and women – can treat themselves in the privacy of their own homes.
2) Microscopic Detection: By the time hair loss is visible to the naked eye, it’s too late for fast and easy treatments. But now PC-based video microscopes, like the new Folliscope from South Korea, enable doctors to spot areas of thinning follicles before they become difficult to treat.
3) Follicular-Unit Extractions: A highly advanced microsurgery, follicular-unit extraction (FOX/FUE) is a new type of hair transplant that is helping thousands of men and women achieve natural looking hairlines.
4) Trichophytic Donor Closure: In order to restore hair to one part of the head, you have to take it from somewhere else. In the “old days� of hair restoration that usually meant patients were left with a sizable scar. But today a new technique called trichophytic donor closure prevents noticeable scarring, and enables easy hair regrowth.
5) Nutritional Supplements: A few supplements have shown some evidence they can improve the quality of hair growth, including a European product called Viviscal, which is comprised of marine extracts and a silica compound.

National Hair Loss Awareness Month was begun in 2000 by the AAD to help raise public awareness about the signs and symptoms of hereditary hair loss and the effective treatments and procedures available.

About Alan J. Bauman, M.D.
Dr. Alan Bauma is one of only a handful of U.S. surgeons who practice exclusively in hair restoration. A leading lecturer and advocate in the field, he is a regular speaker at the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), and the founder/medical director of the Bauman Medical Group, based in Boca Raton, FL. He’s also a member of the American Hair Loss Council and a regular medical contributor to The National Hair Journal. Dr. Bauman’s work has been featured on Dateline NBC (”Follicle Five”), CNN, FOX News, USA Today and The New York Times. Dr. Bauman is a member of the American Medical Association (AMA) and received his M.D. degree from New York Medical College. He had extensive residency training in general surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

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Stress Causes Hair Loss in Women

August 18, 2006

MORE than four million Brits are suffering from such intense stress it is making their hair fall out, according to a new study.

One in ten adults across the UK is enduring hair loss or pre-mature baldness due to stress problems.

Women are suffering more than men, with 74 per cent saying they are stressed compared to 59 per cent of men, according to a survey of 3,000 people by Hairhelmet.co.uk.

The generation of mums who have been trying to do it all - work, maintain a home and relationship and raise children - are the worst hit, paying the price for long hours at work and home with stress-related illnesses.

The survey found that females between the age of 35 and 45 are the most likely to suffer from stress-related conditions such as eczema, migraines and high blood pressure.

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And 12 per cent of women say stress makes their hair fall out compared to just eight per cent of men.

Alopecia areata, where random bald patches on the head occur, is often a result of stress.

It can lead to alopecia totalis, complete baldness, like that suffered by television presenter Gail Porter.

Gail, 35, lost all her hair due to stress after the breakdown of her marriage last year.

Anne McCracken, stress expert for the International Stress Management Association, said: ‘’Stress puts the whole body out of balance and weakens the immune system.

‘’People who are stressed can have symptoms like insomnia or hair loss that go on for years and never get better because they never stop being stressed.'’

The survey found that the most common cause of stress is work, with one third of respondents naming that as the most stressful aspect of their life.

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Explaining multiple myeloma

August 14, 2006

MULTIPLE myeloma (MM) is cancer of plasma cells. It should not be confused with bone cancer, where the cancer cells arise from the cortical (outer, hard part) part of bone while MM arises from the bone marrow (the spongy inner part of bone).

Generally MM occurs in older patients (50-70 years) and only a small number of (<5%) patients are below 40 years of age. In MM, there is uncontrolled multiplication (proliferation) of abnormal plasma cells. The MM cells produce a large amount of a single type of abnormal antibody called paraprotein or M band protein.

These proteins cannot fight infections effectively and tend to cause serious problems such as kidney failure, hypervicosity syndrome leading to shortness of breath, palpitations and so on.

The myeloma-related organ dysfunctions include:

[C] Calcium elevation in the blood

[R] Renal insufficiency

[A] Anaemia

[B] Lytic bone lesions causing backache and bone pain.

Treatment effective, but many patients relapse and there’s no long-term cure

For the past three decades, treatment strategies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy attempt to help reduce symptoms and improve quality of life. Bone marrow transplants have gone some way in improving survival; but this treatment option is not open to many patients.

Despite the availability of effective treatments and the fact that the median survival of patients with MM has improved from seven months (in the pre-chemotherapy era), to five years, MM remains incurable.

Although multiple myeloma doesn’t have the same recognition as other cancers, it is the second most common cancer of the blood and, although it only represents 1% of all cancers, it represents 2% of all cancer deaths. Treatment of MM includes the following:

Radiation therapy utilises targeted, high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and stop them from growing.
Conventional chemotherapy

These are drugs that kill cancer cells and relieve symptoms including anaemia, and bone destruction. Conventional chemotherapy often includes combination treatment with several drugs.

Although chemotherapy kills the cancer cells, it also kills other rapidly dividing cells and is associated with side-effects including mouth ulcers, hair loss, nausea and vomiting.

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Radiation therapy

These are targeted, high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and stop them from growing. Radiation is often given for localised areas of bone damage that may not have responded to chemotherapy and are causing pain.

Stem cell transplantation with high dose chemotherapy

This involves giving high dose chemotherapy that destroys the myeloma cells as well as the patient’s healthy bone marrow and then replacing this with a transfusion of stem cells from the patient’s own blood or from a donor.

Although autologous (where a patient’s own stem cells are transfused) stem cell transplantation has been shown to improve response rates and survival, there is a risk of severe side-effects due to the high doses of chemotherapy involved. Also, this type of treatment may not be suitable for elderly patients (above 65years) and those with concurrent medical problems.

In recent few years, encouraging results with new novel agents have changed the landscape of MM treatment. Thalidomide is the first to make an impact. Thalidomide is infamous for causing severe birth defects when it was used as sedatives in pregnancy. It is now known that it has anti-angiogenesis action and strong immuno-modulating activity.

It is able to block important cellular activities crucial for myeloma cells survival. Side-effects of thalidomide include constipation, numbness due to nerve problems and risks of thromboembolism. Newer analogues of thalidomide include lenalidomide, which is more potent with less side-effects.

Another much talked about drug is bortezomib, where the promising response rates seen in clinical trials, were good enough for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track its approval in 2002.

Bortezomib is the first in a new class of drugs called proteasome inhibitors, and it is the first treatment to be approved for multiple myeloma by the FDA in more than a decade.

Proteasome inhibitors have a role in the disposal of proteins and are important in controlling cell division. Every cell in our body has this proteasome, which acts like a garbage disposal. Once the cell is of no use or defective, it will degrade a certain protein.

When this protein is degraded, it will activate five different pathways which stimulate cell growth.

If the cell that is activated is a cancer cell, then the tumour will grow and spread.

However, bortezomib inhibits the proteasome, resulting in the “garbage disposal� being blocked. When it is blocked, the five different pathways that stimulate tumour cell growth will not be activated.

This may induce programmed cell death (automatically “kills� itself) and may sensitise cancer cells to traditional tumouricidal agents. The usual side effects associated with chemotherapy such as hair loss, vomiting and mouth ulcers are not seen

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Quit Blaming Grandpa for Your Bald Spot

August 10, 2006

Memphis, TN (FV Newswire) - The belief that baldness is determined by your mother’s father is nothing more than a myth, Robert Weiss, M.D. told ABC30 in a recent interview.

Dr. Weiss, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine cosmetic dermatologist, said, “You’re probably in trouble though if both your mother’s side and your father’s side are bald.â€?

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Relax, guys. It doesn’t matter which side of the family your bald spot is traced down from, there’s a new product on the market to help fight your hair loss. Heradone is a specially developed product to help men to achieve hair re-growth and stop hair loss.

Selmedica Healthcare Corporation says that their new product Heradone works to help the body to increase blood circulation and stimulate hair growth by restoring hair follicles.

A spokesman for the company said, “The only way to effectively treat and restore your thinning hair is to get underneath your scalp’s surface and work from the root of your hair follicles. Heradone is the only product of its kind specifically designed to get underneath your scalp’s surface to help you achieve full, healthy-looking hair.�

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“I Won’t Give Up� – One Lung Cancer Patient’s Story

August 7, 2006

With a sunny personality and youthful voice, Angie Lee-Ow is a 55-year-old pharmacist who rarely got sick. In May, 2005, Lee-Ow had taken a few days to clean her house in preparation for a friend who was visiting her from Germany. A few days later, she could hardly make her way up the stairs in her house because of exhaustion and shoulder pain.

Upon her friends’ urging, Lee-Ow saw a doctor the next day. X-rays showed ominous shadows in her lungs, where water had accumulated. A few days later, after more testing, doctors found that she had Non-Small Cell Stage lung cancer – the last stage of lung cancer. The cancer had spread to her bones, which explained why her shoulders were in pain.
lungs
Lung cancer is the number one killer of Asian Pacific Americans, men or women. Lee-Ow is among the 25,000 new lung cancer patients who are non-smokers. The majority of these non-smokers are women.

Lee-Ow is a Chinese American who grew up in the Bay area and eventually settled in Sacramento in the 1970s with her husband and their two daughters. She had been a pharmacist at the University of California, Davis for 25 years. Her husband, Ray Ow, works as an engineer for the state government. They are celebrating their 28th anniversary this September.

It’s been a little more than a year since Lee found out about her cancer, but her voice breaks when she talks about that day at the doctor’s office.

“It’s hard to describe how I felt. I can’t even think back on that day…it was a shock, like a nightmare,� she said, her voice interrupted by tears.

At the hospital, Lee called her husband, who was working in southern California at the time.

“You feel as if life has reached its end point and that there is no future. My whole person went numb,� said Ray Ow.

“She told me that she was going to see the doctor that day, but I never thought it would be like this. I took the first flight home, but the hardest part was to wait the two hours at the airport. It was torture. Our lives dramatically changed from there.�

Sitting next to his wife and gazing at her lovingly while she recounted her story, Ray Ow is a gentle-mannered, quiet man. But his love for his wife is clear when he reached over to lightly to rub Lee-Ow’s back, comforting her when she was too sad to speak.

It has been 13 months since her diagnosis. Lee-Ow has already tried three different types of treatment plans. Initially, she underwent chemotherapy and suffered the side effects common to most cancer patients: hair loss, exhaustion, and nausea. But the chemotherapy did not eradicate the cancer cells in her body. Three months later, Lee-Ow received a call from Carol Sill, another patient who had been struggling with lung cancer for six months. Sill told Lee-Ow about a clinical trial at the UC Davis Cancer Center.

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“Carol is an angel sent from God,� said Lee-Ow.

“I will forever thank her for that phone call.�

Lee-Ow began participating in a clinical trial for a drug that would control the growth of the cancer cells. But seven months later, the drug stopped working and the cancer spread. In April, Lee-Ow started taking part in another clinical trial for Tarceva, a drug that doctors believe may be especially effective for patients like Lee-Ow, Asian American women who are non-smokers. Tarceva has yet to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration. It is still too early to tell what kind of effect Tarceva has on Lee-Ow.

“To tell you the truth, I feel that the pain is always getting worse – on my shoulder and my spine. But since some of the pain come and go, it’s hard to say which pain was from cancer,� she said.

“When you have cancer, you feel that everything that hurts in your body is because of it.�

It’s difficult to say why women like Lee-Ow fall victim to lung cancer. Lee-Ow’s father was a smoker, but she had not lived with him for 35 years. Neither her mother nor father had lung cancer.

“We have to stop thinking that lung cancer only happens to smokers,� she said. “Many lung cancer patients are non-smokers so there must be another cause.�

Even though Lee-Ow was born and raised in the United States, she is familiar with why many Chinese Americans still hesitate to talk about cancer, especially lung cancer because of its low survival rate. But Lee-Ow’s family has been by her side through her illness. Ray Ow took early retirement to take care of his wife. He arranges her schedule, cooks, cleans, and is by her side at her doctor’s appointments.

“I just do what I can – I like to cook,� he said. Lee-Ow finished his sentence, “I even gained weight after I got sick. Normally cancer patients will lose weight, but he is always feeding me food,� she said, laughing.

When a family member falls sick, everyone suffers, Lee-Ow said. But she is insistent that she will not live her life by a number like life expectancy.

“No one can deny that when your spouse has cancer, both of you will suffer,� she said. “I’ve always wanted to see my grandchildren graduate from high school, but now, I might not live to see my grandchildren at all,� she said.

“I don’t want to live by numbers. I want to rely on faith and optimism.�

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Restoring Self-confidence in Children Facing Hair Loss

August 3, 2006

Our society makes a big issue of people who lose their hair for a variety of reasons. Just count the number of TV commercials related to this topic. Unfortunately, hair loss is usually associated with a loss of self-esteem – for both adults and children. Debbie Mancuso understands the emotional pain people experience when they lose their hair.

“My adolescent clients are especially self-conscious about hair loss because adolescence is such a tough time when kids just want to look like all the other kids,” says Mancuso, owner of Hair Enhancements in Pittsburgh. For Mancuso, client trust and long-term relationships are built on her dedication to privacy and confidentiality. Most of Mancuso’s young clients need wigs as a result of cancer and alopecia. She also works with burn victims.

Earning Trust

Mancuso offers non-surgical hair replacements for men, women and children who suffer hair loss as a result of chemotherapy, thyroid problems, alopecia, burns or other medical and genetic reasons. All clients are guaranteed 100-percent satisfaction with their prosthetic. “Their hair is such an important part of who they are,” Mancuso says. She has owned Hair Enhancements for six years and has worked in the hair industry for over 30 years, many of those years as an independent salon owner.

The process of finding hair replacement that kids can feel comfortable with begins with a consultation including Mancuso, the young client and the parents or mother. Mancuso has a private consultation room for this purpose. “I talk with them to find out how they want to look. The most important thing is to get them to feel comfortable working with me because they have to trust me to do what’s right for them,” she says. Some relationships extend over years as the child or adolescent grows, needing replacement wigs or hair enhancements to keep pace with growth.

Young clients – as well as older ones – sometimes get very nervous about their first consultation, so Mancuso does everything possible to create a friendly and comfortable atmosphere. “We offer beverages and we even have a TV for them to watch and help them relax before their consultation,” she says.

Doctors of young clients undergoing chemotherapy treatments usually advise parents to set a date for a consultation well in advance of the time their children will begin to start losing hair. “They suggest an early date for the consultation so we can match the hair color and style as best as possible,” says Mancuso.

For clients who have not begun the process early on, parents bring in photos of the child so Mancuso can suggest the best prosthetic that best presents the child’s former appearance.

Mancuso is very sensitive to clients – whether young or older – who feel uncomfortable entering her salon because of its sign advertising hair replacement services. “I have a private consultation room and we have two entrances – the front entrance and a back entrance,” she says. “This is a very private thing for a person to have to do and we realize many people don’t want to be seen walking into a hair replacement salon – so we offer a back entrance for the sake our clients’ privacy and confidentiality.”

Restoring Self-Confidence

Mancuso offers both stock units and custom units. “Stock units are available immediately – usually clients can get them overnight,” she says. “Custom units are customized to the individual; we take head measurements and make of mold of their head so the prosthetic fits exactly to their scalp.” A client’s hair color, density and curl pattern is matched precisely so the prosthetic looks just like the individual’s natural hair.

Clients can choose between two methods of wig attachment – a skin-tight wig base or bonding. The latest technology is available for clients not wanting to use bonding as an attachment method. The base of the wig is made with a skin-like material that reacts to the body’s heat, creating suction which keeps the wig securely in place. Mancuso says most young chemo clients choose this method, which allows them to put on and take off their wigs daily – especially when they are not feeling well.

Clients choosing the bonding technique can wear their prosthetic for as long as a month. For this method, Mancuso usually performs a patch test on the scalp to make sure the client is not allergic to the medically approved bond. “The bonding material is a medical adhesive, safe for the skin, which bonds the hairpiece to the scalp,” she says.

As health reasons are not an issue for alopecia clients, they are more likely to have their hairpieces bonded so they can continue to resume their normal lifestyles, Mancuso says. “This allows them to do everyday things – like swim, shower and play sports – while they are wearing their wigs,” she says.

Some, like alopecia clients, will see Mancuso over a period of years as they require new hairpieces. Sometimes things can get quite emotional, especially when a young client has to give up his or her old hairpiece and be fitted for another. Youngsters can get out of sorts when they know they have to get a new wig to replace their familiar and comfortable wig. “A change like this can be quite traumatic and sometimes the parent, the young client and I go through a rough time,” Mancuso says. “I have to keep reminding the kids that I am here to help them the best I can to suggest a replacement wig they will like just as much as their old one.”

Ask her about the young clients who have made a particularly strong impact on her and Mancuso will tell you they all do. “I have hugged and embraced my clients – and we’ve even cried together,” she says. “My job, first of all, is to gain their confidence in me to help them choose the best prosthetic possible in helping them restore their self-esteem. Many of my customers – young and old – sit in the chair and cry once they see how great they look when the wig is applied. I know when they walk out my door, they feel good about themselves and they won’t be afraid to walk into a roomful of people fearing they will be stared at. That (restored self-esteem) to me, is the most rewarding part of my job.”

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