Hair Growing Science

August 4, 2007

Hair Growing Science http://www.mercola.com/2003/apr/9/hair_science.htm

Up to 80 percent of the population has some degree of hair loss, and each year more than $7 billion is spent on treatments and cures for the problem.

The hair growth cycle is influenced by a number of factors, including genetics, age and lifestyle, though genetics is responsible for 95 percent of hair loss cases.

There are many different types and causes of baldness, also called alopecia. For example, patchy hair loss (alopecia areata), loss of all hair on the head (alopecia totalis), and loss of all hair on the body (alopecia universalis) are autoimmune disorders in which the hair follicles are mistakenly attacked by the body’s immune system.

Other factors can also cause hair loss including:

Nutritional deficiencies such as too little protein, iron or zinc in the diet

Emotional stress

Pregnancy or other hormonal shifts

Medications such as chemotherapy drugs

Tying hair too tightly, such as in corn rows

While drugs such as Propecia, which was originally used for prostate cancer and helps prevent thinning hair, and Minoxidil (Rogaine), which stimulates hair growth, can aid in hair loss problems, researchers have discovered a "hairless" gene that may lead to a more thorough understanding of the hair growth cycle and the development of more effective treatments.

Androgenetic alopecia, a genetic condition known as male pattern baldness, affects more than 50 percent of men over 50 years of age, along with about 20 percent of women in the same age group. In this condition, hair is often lost from the crown of the skull and the temples.

According to researchers, pattern baldness appears to be more complicated than one gene, and is thought to be influenced by the male hormone, dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. Individuals with this type of hair loss have a higher number of DHT receptors in the areas where they are losing their hair. Researchers are uncertain how DHT works to damage hair follicles. Gene therapy may also be used to treat hair loss, along with graying hair, in the future. Researchers have been able to modify the genes in mouse hair follicles to grow hair and have been able to graft the modified skin onto hairless mice.

The technology would first be used to treat hair loss caused by chemotherapy but later could be applied to androgenic alopecia and other conditions.

Boston Globe March 25, 2003

Dr. Mercola's Comment

A common solution for many people with hair loss is to get a hair transplant. This sounds like an appealing solution, and if you use Google to search for hair transplants you will find many centers with glowing reports.

However, beware. You will need to use one of the other major features of Google that many people are not aware of--Google Groups. Over two years ago, Google purchased Deja's entire Usenet postings dating back to 1995. The archive is approaching 1 billion postings and is a major collection of knowledge that is wise to review when you are researching any topic.

When you type hair transplants into Google Groups you will get a completely different story.

You will find the many disaster stories that are prominently posted, which gives a different, and perhaps more realistic, view of hair transplants. If you are considering a transplant, you may want to hold off for the technology discussed in the article, which seems a far more elegant solution.

Conventional wisdom is that male pattern baldness is a genetic condition and there is not much you can do to alter it--I don’t believe that for a moment. While it is clear genetics are involved, the expression of the genetic predisposition is largely environmentally induced. So what does that mean for male pattern baldness? Since this has affected me I am certainly allowed to speculate. I have strived for optimal health since I was a small child. I started a running program in the 60s, far before it was popular. I did the best I could with what I knew at the time.

Unfortunately, I did not have the advantage of the Internet or mentoring by nutritionally wise parents. I was exposed to plenty of refined sugar in my childhood and when I took over responsibility for my own foods, I continued the disaster because I was completely sucked into the low-fat myth.

While a low-fat diet is clearly highly beneficial for about one-third of the population, what is not beneficial is a high-grain diet.

Like most people who consumed low-fat diets, I regularly consumed large amounts of whole grains. Sugars and grains will increase insulin levels, which has been associated with hair loss.

This choice alone would have accelerated my hair loss, but it was compounded by the fact that I was designed to have a high-fat diet. I never got the clue that my cholesterol level of 100 was far too low and a strong indicator that I should increase my fat intake. Why would I do that when fat was so evil? Or so I believed at the time.

Interestingly, I only relatively recently understood these connections and have been able to normalize my cholesterol to 200.

Additionally, many of the foods I ate were cooked. I am absolutely convinced that this was another major factor in my own personal hair loss. To add insult to injury, for over 20 years I competitively trained in running events without the benefit of antioxidant protection. Most likely this was another contributing factor. If I had the chance to turn back the clock and repeat the experiment in hair loss, I am strongly convinced that the application of these basic principles would have preserved my head of hair.

I would encourage individuals experiencing hair loss to consider applying the program of eating right, which includes eating the foods for your unique Metabolic Type, as described in detail in my new book, and also to exercise with appropriate antioxidant protection.

If it is already too late for you, then you can wait for the promising technology discussed above.