In the News – Fashion Designer Styles to Complement Alopecia Totalis

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

Snippet from the article:

A fashion-lover who lost her hair when she was just 18 months old due to alopecia has told how she’s learned to pick clothes that complement her baldness.

Rachel Fleit, a creative director for the hip New York-based womenswear brand Honor NYC, told Refinery 29: ‘After 30 years of being bald, I know what works and what doesn’t work.’

She says that she steers clear of structured blazers and dresses because they make her look like a ‘Svedka vodka fembot’ and prefers softer, more floaty shapes.

In a bid to create softness around her head she uses accessories such as big scarves or dangly earrings, while plunging necklines add a touch of femininity.

Read the rest — Fashion designer on how she learned to accept her alopecia and win over the style set

Tags: alopecia totalis, alopecia areata, hair loss, hairloss, female hair loss, fashion

Not Hair Loss News – Over 96 Percent of Testicular Cancer Patients Recover

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Snippet from the article:

Survival rates for the disease have risen by almost a third since the 1970s and more than 96 per cent of men who contract the cancer today are now cured. Fewer than 70 per cent of patients survived the disease 40 years ago.

Each year around 2,300 new cases of testicular cancer are diagnosed in the UK. Unlike many other cancers, the disease strikes at a relatively young age. It is the most common cancer in men aged 15 to 49.

The improvement in survival rates is in large part down to the use of the drug cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug also used to treat bladder, lung and ovarian cancers.

Read the rest — Almost all testicular cancer patients now recover

Tags: cancer, testicular cancer, medical, cisplatin

In the News – Cold Cap Trials To Begin This Summer for Breast Cancer Patients

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

Snippet from the article:

Hair loss can be one of chemotherapy’s most despised side effects. Now US researchers are about to put an experimental hair-preserving treatment to a rigorous test. The goal is to see if strapping on a cap so cold it numbs the scalp during chemotherapy works well enough to be used widely in this country, as it is in Europe and Canada.

The first time Miriam Lipton had breast cancer, her thick locks fell out two weeks after starting chemotherapy. But when the disease struck again, she used a cold cap during treatment and kept much of her hair, making her fight for survival seem a bit easier. ‘‘I didn’t necessarily want to walk around the grocery store answering questions about my cancer,” recalled Lipton, 45, of San Francisco. ‘‘If you look OK on the outside, it can help you feel, ‘OK, this is manageable, I can get through this.’ ”

Near-freezing temperatures are supposed to reduce blood flow in the scalp, making it harder for cancer-fighting drugs to reach and harm hair follicles. But while several types of cold caps are sold around the world, the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved their use in the United States.

Read the rest — Cold caps tested to prevent hair loss in cancer patients

For years now, we’ve written about cold caps to help retain much of the hair for those undergoing chemotherapy, so I’m glad it is getting more attention. This latest study of early stage breast cancer patients is set to begin this summer.

Tags: dignicap, cold cap, study, chemo, cancer, chemotherapy, hairloss, hair loss

Not Hair Loss News – Study Suggests Soy Doesn’t Help Fight Prostate Cancer Recurrence

/by William Rassman, M.D./2 /

Snippet from the article:

Soy supplements don’t prevent a recurrence of prostate cancer after surgical removal of the prostate, a new small study finds. Many men with prostate cancer try soy products, but there is no hard evidence that they thwart a return of the disease, the researchers said.

“If one eats soy every day after surgery for prostate cancer, one does not reduce the risk of recurrence,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Maarten Bosland, a professor of pathology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“A lot of men think that soy might be beneficial, but this study shows that it’s not,” he said. On the other hand, soy posed no adverse side effects. “It’s safe to take soy, but you won’t benefit from it for your prostate cancer,” Bosland added. All of the men studied had an increased risk of having cancer recur because the surgery — called a radical prostatectomy — hadn’t removed all the cancerous cells, Bosland noted.

Read the rest — Soy Won’t Prevent Prostate Cancer’s Return: Study

The study was published in the July 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and was the first human study that tested soy supplementation’s effect on prostate cancer recurrence.

Tags: prostate cancer, cancer, soy, disease

Propecia and Dialysis?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

I am a dialysis patient and I have genetic hair loss, could I take propecia spite of my medical condition?

I am not your doctor, so I can not advise you about which prescription drugs you can take with your condition, but I can tell you what the literature says about this, via Drugs.com:

“No dosage adjustment is necessary in patients with renal insufficiency. In patients with chronic renal impairment, with creatinine clearances ranging from 9.0 to 55 mL/min, AUC, maximum plasma concentration, half-life, and protein binding after a single dose of 14C-Finasteride were similar to values obtained in healthy volunteers. Urinary excretion of metabolites was decreased in patients with renal impairment.”

Finasteride is metabolized by the liver and excreted in the feces normally. Nevertheless, your doctor is the best one to ask.

Tags: dialysis, finasteride, propecia, hairloss, hair loss, renal, kidney

Press Release – Haptenex, a New Alopecia Areata Treatment?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

Snippet from the press announcement:


A66, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, has introduced a compound named Haptenex. This compound is expected to revolutionize treatment for Alopecia Areata. The complex array of patented dermatological and systemically reactant compounds have the ability to cause the skin and other cells to react and distract the problem immune responses from damaging vulnerable follicular and other cells afflicted by immune system diseases.

Read the rest — A66, Inc. Introduces Alopecia Areata Immune Response Treatment

What I read in this news release does not impress me. The language is unclear and the press release doesn’t say anything in particular, so that is an alert for me. Be suspicious.

Tags: haptenex, alopecia areata, hair loss, hairloss

Not Hair Loss News – Colon Cancer Screening Reduces Risk of Death

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Snippet from the article:


People who are diagnosed with colon cancer after routine colonoscopies tend to have better outcomes and less advanced cancers than people diagnosed based on symptoms, says a new study. Those who were diagnosed with colon cancer as a result of symptoms were three times more likely to die during the study than the patients diagnosed after colonoscopy screenings, researchers found.

“It’s in line with its current use. It shows that colonoscopy appears to be beneficial in reducing deaths in those diagnosed with colorectal cancer,” said Dr. Chyke Doubeni, who studies colonoscopy use but wasn’t involved in the new research.

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., according to the government-backed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which recommends that people between ages 50 and 75 get screened by colonoscopy every ten years.

Read the rest — Colon cancer screening tied to better outcomes

The good news is that colonoscopy screenings need to be only done every ten years, as these cancers grow very slowly. The bad news is that if the cancer has spread beyond the colon, it is potentially much more difficult to treat.

The study points out that in addition to being more likely to die, 75% of patients that were diagnosed based on symptoms had advanced disease, versus 38% of patients that were diagnosed after colonoscopies. The study’s limitations are also mentioned, in that the data came from a hospital that has more cases of severe colon cancer than other hospitals, which possibly exaggerated the differences found between the two groups.

Tags: colon cancer, colonoscopy, disease, cancer

Not Hair Loss News – Melanoma Tumors of the Skin Are More Lethal in Young Men Than Women

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Snippet from the article:

The rates of mortality from melanoma are higher in males in their teenage and young adult years than in females of similar ages, according to a study published online today in JAMA Dermatology.

This difference in mortality between the sexes could mean that there is a fundamental biologic difference in male and female melanoma, the authors of an accompanying editorial suggest.

In a population-based cohort study that analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) network of cancer registries for melanomas diagnosed from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 2009, researchers found that young men were 55% more likely to die of melanoma than age-matched women.

Read the rest — Melanoma More Deadly in Young Males Than Females

Young men comprise only 40% of all melanoma cases, but more than 60% of all melanoma-related deaths. Awareness about melanoma and early diagnosis should be promoted in young men.

If you have dark or black moles on your body, particularly if they change in size, shape or color, you should see your doctor to be sure it is not one of the deadly tumors.

Tags: cancer, melanoma, skin cancer, mortality, health

In the News – Alopecia Totalis Sufferer Called Names By Coward on the Street

/by William Rassman, M.D./2 /,

Snippet from the article:

TV presenter Gail Porter has tweeted her shock after a man accosted her on a London street, calling her “baldy.”

The Scottish personality has alopecia which has left her suffering from severe hair loss and she has spent years campaigning to increase awareness of the condition.

Porter tweeted to describe the incident which she said left her in tears near her London home

Read the rest — Man calls Gail Porter ‘baldy’ in alopecia abuse incident

Most of us in the US are probably not familiar with Ms. Porter, but she is a former pin-up model and currently a television presenter in the UK that has campaigned for alopecia awareness since her hair began falling out after discovering she had alopecia totalis in 2005. I suppose the silver lining of this incident is that it brought her story back into the news, thus hopefully raising further awareness.

Tags: gail porter, alopecia totalis, areata, hairloss, hair loss

In the News – Aloepecia Areata Associated with Comorbid Conditions

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Snippet from the article:

Many individuals with alopecia areata (AA) have comorbid conditions, according to a retrospective cross-sectional study. The authors compared the prevalence of comorbid conditions in patients with AA with the prevalence of comorbid conditions in patients in the Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Follow-up Study. The association between AA and comorbid conditions was consistent with findings from previous studies.

Kathie P. Huang, MD, from the Clinical Research Program, Department of Dermatology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues report their results in an article published online May 22 in JAMA Dermatology.

Read the rest — Alopecia Areata Associated With Autoimmune Comorbidity

Those with alopecia areata were found to have a high incidence of atopy, contact dermatitis, and acid reflux.

Tags: alopecia areata, study, dermatitis, acid reflux, hairloss, hair loss

Not Hair Loss News – Doctor Claims to Cure Cancer, Is Possibly a Quack

/by William Rassman, M.D./4 /

Snippet from the article:

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been raised to send British patients to a doctor in America who claims he can “cure cancer”. But Dr Stanislaw Burzynski’s treatment has been dismissed by practitioners of mainstream medicine.

It looked like something out of Willy Wonka’s factory. A room full of pipes and noise; a production process that flowed through steel tubes, steaming boilers and glass tanks of bubbling liquid. But there was one striking difference from a chocolate factory – the whole room smelled of urine. This is an industrial facility in Texas which produces the drug at the heart of Dr Stanislaw Burzynski’s treatment. He thinks the cure to cancer can be found inside our bodies, substances in blood and urine that switch off cancer cells.

Dr Burzynski calls them antineoplastons. He used to extract them from human urine, but he now uses chemicals. Up to 300 litres of the drug, which has never been licensed, are produced in this factory every day.

Read the rest — Curing cancer or ‘selling hope’ to the vulnerable?

We look for heroes who break the rules imposed by traditional medicine, working with diseases impossible to cure. Hope is a strong drive and many times regular channels in medicine do not give the hope to those who feel abandoned.

I have seen reports on this doctor and although there is little evidence that what treatments he offers has value, he offers optimism for people with terminal diseases who do not otherwise have much to hope for.

Tags: cancer, urine, quack

Not Hair Loss News – New Gene Test to Quickly Scan for Cancer Markers

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Snippet from the article:

Cancer patients will routinely be offered genetic tests to help determine the best treatment, under plans being developed at an NHS hospital.

The technique looks for dangerous mutations on 100 genes covering many types of cancer, meaning one simple test could be suitable for most patients. Women with cancers of the breast and ovaries will be the first to benefit at the Royal Marsden Hospital, before the test is expanded to other cancers.

Within three years doctors aim to have a system in place that could be used by almost anyone with cancer anywhere in the country, at a cost of a few hundred pounds.

Read the rest — Fast gene test for cancer patients

Tags: cancer, genetic test, cancer screening

In the News – Interview with a Young Woman Battling Trichotillomania

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /, ,

Snippet from the article:

Trichotillomania, an impulse control disorder that causes sufferers to compulsively pull out their own hair and can often lead to both noticeable hair loss and social anxiety, affects between two to five percent of Americans. One sufferer, Valerie Vanone, joined HuffPost Live recently to share her story of battling trichotillomania, which began at age 12 and eventually forced her to leave school in order to seek treatment.

Vanone, who began pulling out her eyelashes as a pre-teen before escalating to pulling hair directly from her scalp, didn’t seek help until she was 24 years old, she told host Nancy Redd.

Read the rest — Trichotillomania, Hair-Pulling Disorder, Caused Me To Leave School

I’ve embedded the video interview below:


Tags: trichotillomania, trich, hair loss, hairloss, hair pulling, ocd

Study – Isolated Crown Balding and the Risk of Prostate Cancer

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

Snippet from the abstract:


Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a genetically determined skin condition strongly age dependent and androgens are assumed to play an important role in its development. A link between AGA and prostate cancer has been hypothesized because of their similar risk factors.

We sought to systematically review the evidence available on the association between AGA and risk of prostate cancer.

We searched the electronic databases MEDLINE and Cochrane for studies examining the association between AGA and risk of prostate cancer. We estimated pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals. We also analyzed the OR for individual hair loss patterns, as defined by the Hamilton scale.

Read the rest — Androgenetic alopecia and risk of prostate cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Although many authors have investigated a possible association between androgenetic alopecia (AGA) and prostate cancer, there is not yet a definitive answer. Patients with any pattern genetic balding did not have an increased risk of prostate cancer, but patients with just vertex pattern AGA (crown balding without balding in other areas) had a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer versus control subjects. Vertex pattern AGA may be associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.

In another publication, there was a higher risk of heart disease in patients with pure crown balding.

Tags: crown balding, vertex, prostate cancer, hairloss, hair loss

In the News – Photographer’s Images of Alopecia

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

Snippet from the article:

It’s a hair loss condition that often robs sufferers of their self-esteem and confidence. Now a photographer has taken this stunning gallery of images of people with alopecia (many with alopecia areata) to raise awareness about the condition.

Daniel Regan, 28, said he wanted to tackle an issue that is often ignored by the public.

See the gallery — Photographer’s stunning images of alopecia sufferers as part of project to create awareness about the condition

The photographer said, “I hope that my images illustrated the drastic change that sufferers experience in their body image and place pressure on those in the right positions to pay further attention to this devastating condition.”

Tags: alopecia, photographs, hairloss, hair loss, photos