Hair Foundation Blog

In the Fall 2012 issue of Viva Internationale, Hair Foundation Chairman and President Dr. Matt Leavitt has a story on page 19 called, “Women and Hair Loss Solutions.”

Leavitt discusses hair loss for women and said for them as well as men, the most common cause is “androgenetic alopecia.” For women, hormonal imbalances are largely attributable for hair loss, including menopause.

There are different hair loss treatments and many people using ones that can be done at home. There are two FDA-approved ones and this includes the Hair Max Laser Comb and the over-the-counter topical drug which contains Minoxidil, such as Rogaine 2%.

Leavitt is proponent of the Laser Comb and explains some of its benefits in this article.

For additional information about the Hair Max Laser Comb, please see the website, www.hairmax.com or the www.hairfoundation.org for general questions about hair loss.

Berg Pharma, a Boston-based pharmaceutical company focused on discovery and development of new treatments in cancer and metabolic diseases, has announced the start of its new clinical trial, “Phase I Dose-Escalation Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of a Topical Compound 31543 in Adult Patients Receiving Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Breast Cancer.”

The trial will be conducted at New York City’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Here’s more details about the news.

This article was written by Dr. Paul Rose, MD, JD, FAAD. He is a member of the Hair Foundation’s Board of Trustees. 

A cocktail may provide the means for treating male and female hair loss as well as some diseases that cause hair loss. While it’s not a traditional cocktail made with the usual spirits and a twist of lime or an olive, it can contain a bit of alcohol and various ingredients to put hairs in the mood to grow.

The treatment is based on a very popular therapy in Europe termed mesotherapy. The basis of mesotherapy is to inject into superficial tissue small amounts of pharmaceutical medications as well as natural compounds into an area of injury or disease. Mesotherapy has been used to treat numerous athletic injuries, decrease fat, and other disorders.

Most recently some physicians have incorporated mesotherapy into the treatment of hair loss. These formulas, often referred to as “cocktails,” can contain medications such as minoxidil (Rogaine), finasteride (Propecia), latanaprost (Latisse), biotin, panthenol, vitamin B12, caffeine, melatonin, plant extracts such as chrysanthemum and hormones such as progesterone and estrogen.

The injections are placed at the level of the hair follicles in the fat and/or the level of the sebaceous glands in the dermis to try to deliver the medications more directly to the hair follicle bulbs and the bulge or stem cell area. The physician can inject the area manually or use a specially designed automated injection gun. The needles are often less than 5mm in length and very small in caliber.

The procedure involves minimal discomfort and patients can place a topical anesthetic in the area to limit any pain.

As this is a new modality for the treatment of hair loss, multi-center controlled studies are not available. The limited studies that have been done have shown positive results in maintaining hair, improving hair diameter and in some cases, promoting regrowth.

In a new report in the The Archives of Dermatology it discusses a new procedure to restore receding hairlines: transplanting leg hair. Yes, in what may be the first documented case study, it disclosed that hair follicles had been taken from the legs of male patients and grafted to the back of their heads to restore their hairlines, according to The New York Times.

The treatment is for androngenic alopecia (male-pattern hair loss) and it could help millions of men who struggle with this self-conscious ailment. This hair loss usually starts at the hairline and subsequently makes a horseshoe-shaped pattern around men’s ears.

It is seen largely as a genetic condition.

So how did the idea to use leg hair begin? According to Dr. Sanusi Umar, associate instructor of dermatology at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical  School and author of the new report, he saw a few problems with the usual methods to combat hair loss, including his own experience.

He explained, “If you look at a natural hairline, it’s very soft, like baby hair. The back of the head is where you find the thickest hair on the head. If you take that hair and use it in the hairline, it can end up looking harsh and pluggy, because the hair is too thick.”

Dr. Umar should know; he has suffered from his own hair loss. In 1996, while working as an internist, he underwent a “traditional” hair transplant but wasn’t happy with how things turned out. Umar commented, “That inspired me to go into dermatology.”

He began seeking a solution and looked at “advanced body hair transplantation” or the “U-graft method.” This included searching for hair on the body but not all patients have the same amount.

Umar also read a 2008 report that showed transplanted leg hair can survive and then naturally grow on the back of a man’s head, according to The New York Times. He also discovered the hair could make a softer, more realistic hairlines. Umar said, “If you transplant leg hair on the head, it’s not going to start acting like head hair. It will still grow shorter and slower than scalp hair.”

Case Results

Dr. Umar tried the technique on two patients in his California-based office who had been unhappy with traditional transplants. One patient, a 35-year-old man, “was self-conscious about the problem and resorted to styling his hair forward to obscure the hairline.”

The second patient, a 29-year-old man, thought his hairline after the transplant appeared “harsh and straight” which led him to cut his hair to hide the problem.

By placing patients under local anesthesia, Dr. Umar utilized an instrument that made microscopic wounds around the hair follicles in the back of the leg; they were removed and subsequently transplanted to one’s hairline. He took about 1,000 leg hair follicles and implanted them individually onto the patient’s head.

The removed hairs didn’t leave spots on the legs from the removal and there was minimal scarring.

According to Dr. Umar, approximately 75 to 80 percent of the transplanted leg hair successfully grew on the  heads. He said both patients were happy with the results and in his report, he wrote about the 35-year-old patient, “The hairline was fully grown and soft-looking by nine months at which time the patient started combing his hair backward and sporting a ponytail, exposing his hairline comfortably.”

Dr. Umar has conducted eight additional procedures, including one on a female patient. The procedure includes 1,500 to 1,800 follicles and takes place over two visits (three to five days each) through a year’s time. But it comes at a high cost: $7 to $10 per hair follicle graft. The bill could cost thousands of dollars.

Would you be willing to try it?

Recently, Aderans Research has been in the news a lot for its work in cell-based solutions. In January, the company discussed its Ji Gami™ family of cell products at the 2012 Winter Clinical Dermatology Conference in Maui and its expansion  to four new cities for its ongoing trials.

The Hair Foundation’s Vice Chair, Ken Washenik, M.D., Ph. D. is involved in the trials through his role as Aderan’s Chief Executive Officer.

Aderans is a subsidiary of Aderans Co., Ltd, the world’s largest wig manufacturer, and affiliate of Bosley, global leaders in surgical hair restoration, where Washenik is the Medical Director.

In this video from the 4th International Congress Research Against Hair Loss , Washenik discussed the most advances in hair cloning.

Take a look.

Presentation by Dr. Ken Washenik on Hair Cloning

This is a guest post by the Hair Foundation’s contributor, Dr. Alfred Soffer, M.D. Cardiologist, Glenview, IL. He is the former  Editor and Chief of the Archives of Internal Medicine of AMA and Professor of Medicine.  

In this post, Soffer discusses hair loss, false claims and natural alternatives.  

Are you worried about losing your hair? According to claims on a prominent website, this offers no problem. The company’s multicolored, multipage advertisement offers products for concerned individuals struggling with baldness, hair loss, and alopecia.

One of their products is a “hair loss survival kit, travel size.” Don’t leave home without it!

Can we assume that the kit contains either Rogaine (minoxidil) or Propecia (finasteride)? After all, they are currently the only two products in the United States proven to limit hair loss and promote hair growth. They have received FDA  approval as a result of the data obtained in scrupulously controlled clinical trials.

Our assumption is erroneous. The “ hair loss survival kit “ contains only herbal-based shampoos.

For the non-traveler, this distributor of herbal pills recommends saw palmetto and Kava root powder. Their hawking of ineffectual compounds is representative of the staggeringly large number of similar websites. One “doctor  of neuropathy” claims that “my herbal therapy for alopecia is 100% effective.”

Under the heading of “herbal hair loss treatment” another herbalist urges the consumer to “apply red pepper flesh directly to the scalp.”

All of these fanciful claims which appear on the Internet, in magazines, and in the media have one thing in common: they offer compounds which are entirely ineffective for the treatment of hair loss. In a definitive analysis, the National Council Against Health Fraud reported that herbal product vendors benefit from societies with a romanticized view that equates “natural” with “safe.”

Unfortunately the assumption that natural products are safe is false. Herbal remedies are being marketed as “dietary supplements.” As a result, consumers are being denied the most fundamental information and assurances of quality and efficacy.

It is vitally important to determine the reasons for either hair loss or poor hair growth in each individual. The status of health or disease of one’s hair can provide valuable diagnostic clues regarding the presence of pathologic phenomena  elsewhere in the body. Continued  use of  futile remedies as a substitute for clinical evaluation may result in a delay to obtaining the correct  diagnosis and instituting appropriate therapy.

The Hair Foundation’s president and chairman, Dr.Matt Leavitt, D.O. recently emphasized that diabetes can initially appear with the loss of hair. Iron deficiency and a number of other hormonal diseases, along with diabetes, may be manifested initially by hair loss or poor hair growth.

The death of Steve Jobs is a tragic example of the dangers of using futile scientifically-unproven therapy. The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was made at a time when surgical intervention may have resulted in a full cure. Instead, Jobs insisted on first using acupuncture, colonic irrigation, and “natural” compounds for a period of nine months.

Eventually surgery was performed, but by then it was too late to effect a cure.

This is a guest post by the Hair Foundation’s contributor, Dr. Alfred Soffer, M.D. Cardiologist, Glenview, IL. He is the former  Editor and Chief of the Archives of Internal Medicine of AMA and Professor of Medicine.  

In this post, Soffer discusses hair loss and acupuncture. 

“There must be something to acupuncture-you never see any sick porcupines.”

Bob Goddard is the author of these words and obviously considered the needles (quills) of the porcupine to be an indispensable asset.

Does acupuncture play a similarly felicitous role in human health and disease? Does the insertion of needles into the scalp prevent hair loss and encourage hair growth?

The answer is a resounding yes from an increasingly large number of acupuncturists.

In a promotional brochure, a group of acupuncturists’ state, “Acupuncture prevents hair loss by stimulating qi, the life force energy running throughout the body. Chinese medicine teaches us that qi circulates through channels called meridians which are connected to critical body organs.”

Another group boasts their method will regrow hair. They use a special hammer with needles placed in a star shape on the hammer face. The acupuncturist presses the hammer against a number of spots on the scalp.

The results, according to these devotees of Oriental therapy, are “this treatment, combined with traditional Chinese herbal medications will stop hair loss and promote growth of healthy hair.”

There is a common theme in the acupuncturists’ advertisements and websites. They are enamored of the supposed wisdom inherent in traditional Chinese medicine.

Where lies the truth?

The reputation of acupuncture in the West rose and fell within 10 years. There was uncritical acceptance following President Nixon’s visit to China. It’s now highly likely that many of the demonstrations involving surgery had been faked inasmuch as acupuncture had been supplemented by local anesthetics and sedatives.

In 1975, I witnessed a thyroidectomy performed under acupuncture in a Shanghai hospital. We had not been told that many patients received potent opiates before they reached the surgical theater.

A similar deception occurred as recently as 2006. (SING and ERnST).

Fortunately, the medical community outside of China insisted that acupuncture must be evaluated in clinical trials with scrupulous guidelines of objectivity. Beginning in the 1970s, a massive research program was implemented to test the effects of acupuncture upon a variety of diseases.

The results were unequivocal.

The institution, the National Council Against Health Fraud, reported the following:

1.  The theory and practice of acupuncture are based upon primitive and fanciful concepts of health and disease that bear no relationship to present scientific knowledge. There is no evidence to demonstrate the existence of qi or meridians.

2.  Research in the past 20 years has failed to demonstrate that acupuncture is effective against any disease.

3.  Perceived effects of acupuncture are probably due to expectation or suggestion.

4.  Risks exist. Acupuncture has caused fainting, local hematoma, local infection, hepatitis B, bacterial endocarditis and nerve damage.

This is where we stand in 2012.

If the primary clinical effects of acupuncture are manifestations of the power of suggestion, then it is a placebo which carries risks. Acupuncturists contend that their methods alleviate some types of pain and nausea.

We may counter these unproven claims by pointing out that the physician can choose safer, less expensive and scientifically-proven effective medication to treat these same conditions. Similar cautions apply to acupressure, moxibustion (ground herbs burn above the skin and heat acupuncture points) and forms of acupuncture involving laser lights or electricity.

When reading the mystical claims of acupuncturists, we would be wise to observe  Mark Twain who wrote, “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

This disease has numerous symptoms and brings challenges to those affected by it.

Dr. Matt Leavitt, DO, President and Chair of Hair Foundation explained, “Diabetes compromises blood circulation which can promote hair loss by blocking the blood supply to the follicles. If circulation is poor, the natural hair growth cycle may be interrupted; less hair may be in the growth phase (anagen), with more follicles entering the resting (telogen) phase, for example.”

“Current public scrutiny has alerted the population to the most common symptoms. However, one of the more subtle symptoms of diabetes, hair loss, can often be overlooked,” added Leavitt.

If you are either losing hair in larger than normal quantities and the loss does not appear to either be common pattern hair loss or you are experiencing thinning hair, you should be evaluated by a doctor.

It could be diabetes as this hormone-related disease can initially appear with the loss of hair.

Diabetes can affect your hair’s growth process and after time, it will become visible to you as this disease can cause physical stress including hair loss.

In addition, a change in treatment may also affect your body, even your hair.

Why does diabetes affect hair loss?

Diabetics have less than optimal blood circulation and they are sensitive to skin problems, including slow healing, bruises and small wounds. This can contribute to the body taking longer to heal and to grow lost hair.

This results in noticeable hair loss as your body has difficulty keeping up with the growth process.

Also, diabetics are more susceptible to skin conditions, which may cause hair loss if it’s on the scalp. Bacterial and fungal scalp infections may inhibit the normal growth process of hair.

Diabetes also causes poor blood circulation.

This can affect hair follicles’ ability to function normally. During regular times, hair will grow for two to six years before it goes into a dormant phase. Eventually hair will die and new strands will be created in the follicle and then pushed out.

When blood circulation is poor, follicles will not normally produce a new hair strand. The old strand dies and falls out without any replacement hair. Furthermore, strands are more likely to die and fall out more quickly during times of poor blood circulation to the head.

Hair is not replaced and thinner hair is then created.

Diabetes can also cause physiological and psychological stress and anxiety. These are factors in hair loss, along with dehydration. When these are combined, it’s very hard on your hair.

If you have suffered from hair loss, we reiterate that you get tested if you see diabetic symptoms. It is just one of these many symptoms or even a hormonal disease.

Leavitt said, “Once you have been diagnosed with diabetes, patients should see a dermatologist if they begin to see any hair loss to determine the actual cause. If it is determined by the dermatologist that it is diabetes-related, they should treat their diabetes and monitor any hair loss once they begin medication to see if it stabilizes the condition.”

Treating Hair Loss 

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes and you’ve suffered from hair loss, wait to see if the condition corrects itself once you have been taking diabetes medication.

This may take a few months.

Remember to stay hydrated. Eight glasses (8 oz. each) should be consumed daily, in addition to the other liquids that you drink.

Exercise regularly. This increases blood circulation; your head will benefit from it and your hair follicles will appreciate it. In addition, practice yoga or another form of relaxation to minimize stress and anxiety.

Diabetes is a life-altering disease so it’s very important to follow your doctor’s instructions and recommended treatment.

As a result, you will add good, healthy habits and improved hair health.

In a recent Yale study, researchers have found that signals from stem cells within skin’s fatty layer may spur hair growth in mice, promoting a possible new treatment for baldness in men and women.

According to the study’s senior author Valerie Horsley, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University, she noted in a recent press release, “If we can get these fat cells in the skin to talk to the dormant stem cells at the base of the hair follicles, we might be able to get hair to grow again.”

For men battling male pattern baldness, stem cells remain in their hair follicle roots; however, they lose the ability to stimulate hair growth. These stem cells need signals from within the skin for hair to grow but where to find the signals has been a mystery.

According to the Yale study, researchers discovered that after hair dies, the layer of fat in the scalp that comprises most of the skin’s thickness shrinks; however, as hair growth begins, this fat layer will expand.

In this study using mice, researchers found their hair regeneration required a type of stem cell involved in the creation of new skin fat cells and that these cells produced the molecules required to produce hair growth. Once these imperfect mice received injections of stem cells from healthy mice, hair follicles began to grow.

Previously, studies on men have with bald parts of their scalp have disclosed they have the same number of hair stem cells as hairy areas. With these injections, scientists found that an 86 percent kick start in hair growth. However, the question now is whether or not these stem cell injections can work on humans and stimulate hair growth.

Additional studies will need to take place and it could take quite some time to determine its effect on humans but this is good news for those suffering with baldness.

The report was recently disclosed in the September issue of the journal, Cell.

If you are interested in learning more about hair loss, please visit the Hair Foundation’s new physician videos. The series includes a video on hair loss.