In the News – Bill Gates on Capitalism, Baldness Research, and Malaria

/by William Rassman, M.D./5 /

Snippet from the article:

Bill GatesCapitalism means that there is much more research into male baldness than there is into diseases such as malaria, which mostly affect poor people, said Bill Gates, speaking at the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Global Grand Challenges Summit.

“Our priorities are tilted by marketplace imperatives,” he said. “The malaria vaccine in humanist terms is the biggest need. But it gets virtually no funding. But if you are working on male baldness or other things you get an order of magnitude more research funding because of the voice in the marketplace than something like malaria.”

Read the rest at Wired — Bill Gates: capitalism means male baldness research gets more funding than malaria

Mr. Gates has said basically the same thing in years past… and it remains true. You can find the previous times he’s said it in 2012 and in 2009.

Tags: bill gates, malaria, hairloss, hair loss, baldness

Not Hair Loss News – Energy Drinks Increase Blood Pressure and Produce Changes in EKG

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

Snippet from the article:

The group aimed to see how energy drinks affect heart health, given that these drinks, along with dietary supplements, are not regulated as stringently as new drugs that must meet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety requirements, Shah said.

In a literature search, they identified seven observational and interventional trials that evaluated the impact of energy drinks on QT interval, blood pressure, and heart rate.

Three studies with a pooled sample of 93 subjects had QT/QTc data. Six studies with a pooled sample of 132 subjects had blood-pressure data, and seven studies investigated heart rate.

The patients, who were all young (aged 18 to 45) and healthy, underwent ECG and blood-pressure testing before and just after drinking one to three cans of energy drink—most commonly Red Bull, but also others such as Full Throttle and Meltdown RTD. An 8.4-oz can of Red Bull contains 80 mg of caffeine, compared with 35 mg of caffeine in a 12-oz Coke or about 100 mg of caffeine in an average cup of coffee, Shah said.

Read the rest — Energy drinks may prolong QT interval, raise BP

It’s not hair loss related, but it’s worth a post…

This is a study by Dr Sachin Shah, presented at the American Heart Association Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism / Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention (AHA EPI-NPAM) 2013 Scientific Sessions.

According to the report, the increase buzz may be the result of caffeine alone, but the changes in the EKG has not been explained and the relevance of it is not clear.

Tags: energy drinks, health, blood pressure

Would Using Stem Cells for Hair Growth Need FDA Approval?

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

Hi,

Have you seen this article on Stem Cells for hair growth? Wouldn’t the FDA of had to approve this kind of treatment?

Link: Doctor has high hopes for new hair-loss treatment

Doctors have been doing this for a number of years. In fact, we tried the use of ACell with plucked hairs that were supposed to supply stem cells to grow new hair. We did this according to a protocol, had it approved by an institutional review board (IRB) and then took human volunteers to see if it worked. There was no growth with this technique despite it being promoted by other doctors who claimed success. Although we did not add platelet rich plasma (PRP) to the mix, the stem cells could be seen on the plucked hair. No response.

Using ACell and PRP is not something that the FDA must rule on. This falls within the confines of the practice of medicine. If something other than ACell was sold for this purpose and claims were made that could not be proven, then doctors who made unproven claims can be prosecuted by various state and federal agencies. The FDA uses terms like “safe and effective” and this has become impeded in the law of the land.

I would love to see this work, so I will keep a keen eye on those who are doing this and wait to see results. Seeing is believing, and so far, no evidence has been presented that this approach really works.

Tags: hair loss, hairloss, stem cells

Would You Let a Man With Long Hair Work in a Professional Setting?

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

Dr. Rassman!

Thought I’d ask an off topic question.

How do you feel about men with long hair in a professional setting? Would you allow someone to work in your office with long hair if it were neatly kept and groomed?

The reason I ask is I am a 21 year old male with long, well shoulder length hair. And I have been told to get a professional job or career, the common consensus is that i will have to cut it off. I was just wondering as to what your feelings were on the matter considering you are in the hair restoration business it would seem hypocritical in some ways to not let someone capable of growing long hair actually have it in your office, then again you are a professional in a very professional setting I presume so maybe you would have reservations against it? Any thoughts?

By the way I obviously don’t want to cut my hair off, and am a huge fan of your blog and professional opinion. Thanks :)

Prejudice comes in many ways. I am not a bigot. You would be welcome in our office as an employee if we were looking for a hire. Long hair is not a problem for me.

Tags: long hair, professional

In the News – What Makes Hair Curly?

/by William Rassman, M.D./1 /

Snippet from the article:

Curly hairWhy a strand of hair bends or falls the way it does may sound like a simple question, but the answer is rather convoluted. On one level, the texture of a person’s hair derives from his or her genes. A 2009 study looked at the genetics of waves and curls and reported a heritability of between 85 and 95 percent. (That means about nine tenths of the variation in hair texture within the sample could be ascribed to DNA.) How does this play out at the level of a single hair? Research shows that the curvature of a strand depends on the nature of its follicle. When a follicle is asymmetrical, the hair that it produces is oval in shape and tends to curl. When it’s symmetrical, the strand that emerges grows round and straight.

Read the rest — FYI: What Makes Hair Curly? (via Neatorama)

Tags: curly hair, hair character

My Hair Looks Weird After My Bout of Dermatillomania

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

I recently suffered from an OCD scalp-picking condition (dermatillomania) from high levels of stress, for about a year. Now, there are no scales on my scalp and it is really sensitive. All the hair is still there, it just sits really strangely on my head (without direction). I wanted to take steps to returning it to its original condition, but I’m not sure where to start. Thank you!

I’m not sure how you would be able to correct the direction of the hairs. You might try topical conditioners and test many of them. You may have caused permanent damage to the skin and thus seeing the directional issues with the hair.

Tags: dermatillomania, hair direction

Not Hair Loss News – Duration of Prostate Cancer Hormone Therapy Questioned

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

Snippet from the article:

For some men with prostate cancer, hormonal therapy to beat the disease could be safely cut from three years to half that time, a new clinical trial suggests.

When men have cancer that is confined to the prostate gland but at high risk of worsening, one treatment option is radiation therapy plus drugs that cut testosterone levels, because this male hormone feeds the cancer.

Right now, doctors routinely give that hormonal therapy for two to three years, during which time men may suffer unpleasant side effects.

But that routine is based on a clinical trial from the 1990s that found that adding three years of hormonal therapy to radiation could cure certain prostate cancers. That doesn’t necessarily mean three years is ideal.

Read the rest — Could Duration of Prostate Cancer Hormone Therapy Be Halved?

Tags: prostate, cancer, health, treatment

A Memoir of a Courageous Young Woman

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

When I was an intern with the cardiac service of CW Lillehei at the University of Minnesota. Dr Lillehei had just performed a surgery on a 16 year old girl with a Tetralogy of Fallot (a congenital heart defect). Being 16, Maria was unusually old for this type of surgery as most children with this condition who are left untreated typically would die from the disease before reaching adolescence.

Maria had severe heart failure when she came to us for treatment. It was a very risky surgery for her, which at 16 and extremely ill, had very low chances of survival. I was the intern on the case and followed her into the coronary care unit after the surgery. She suffered 260 cardiac arrests over the first week (I believe a record). For this reason, I stayed with her day and night, addressing each and every cardiac arrest episode as quickly and as efficiently as possible. She was fearful if I ever left her room, even for a bathroom break. I ate my meals beside her and slept in the adjacent bed next to her if it was not occupied, or on the floor, or in a chair.

After the multiple cardiac arrests, her chest wound incision (the mediastinum incision from the base of her neck to the bottom of her breast bone), could not tolerate the repeated cardiac compression episodes and electric shocks for defibrillation, and the chest wound eventually opened up, exposing her heart. When she would sit up, her heart came out of her chest. Eventually, the heart became infected and I was assigned the job of washing out the chest cavity, putting my gloved hand into the chest and breaking up pockets of pus that formed around the heart and great vessels. The process of clearing up the infection went on for many months and eventually another intern took over that responsibility.

Read more

In the News – UCLA Alumni Donated Hair for Children’s Wigs

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

Snippet from the article:

Around 200 Bruins and members of the UCLA community dropped by campus for free haircuts Thursday to donate more than 2,300 inches of their tresses to make children’s wigs.

The UCLA Alumni Scholars Club sponsored the fundraiser, partnering for the sixth year in a row with the nonprofit Locks of Love, which turns the hair into wigs for children who have lost their hair due to illness. Long-locked Bruins with 10 or more inches to spare donated their hair with the help of supervised student stylists from the Vidal Sassoon Academy and the Aveda Institute.

Read the rest — Bruins make a difference for children with hair loss

Tags: bruins, ucla, hairloss, hair loss, wigs

Any Word on a Dandruff Cure?

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

In this video they talk about advances made in dandruff research in relation to studies made on malazzia yeast by P & G researchers and say that their looking for a cure. I know hair is your specialty not skin but do you know if P & G is likely to find a cure or better treatments for dandruff any time soon? I’m not complaining about the current treatments but I would love it if I could cure the dandruff aspect of my seborrhoeic dermatitis someday.

Link to video – YouTube

 

I’ve embedded the video above for those curious. It appears to be from 2008, but I’m not sure what has come of their research since then. I generally do not treat dandruff issues and I don’t really follow dandruff cure related news bits too closely, as I spend too much time already following up on supposed hair loss cures.

I realize you said you’re fine with the current treatments, but for everyone else — There are a variety of shampoos that are formulated to address dandruff, and it is worth trying a few of them to see what works best for you. Of course, the best thing to do is to see a good dermatologist.

Tags: dandruff, cure, treatment

Protein Shakes and Hair Loss

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

With all of the questions being asked about protein shakes, are there any that you would recommend? Is there any kind of “regular” whey out there. I try to take protein shakes everyday, but I don’t want them is they have steroids in them. I don’t want them if they are similar to steroids. Regular protein is supposed to by good for the hair not hell on the hair.

While I don’t endorse any particular protein shake, I don’t know that they’ve been proven to make hair fall out. Your genetic predisposition makes your hair fall out. Protein shakes are not anabolic steroids.

Tags: protein shakes, hairloss, hair loss

Not Hair Loss News – Science Working to Build Body Organs

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

Snippet from the article:

Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die.

Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despite surgery and radiation, it kept growing. In the spring of 2011, when Mr. Beyene came to Sweden to see another doctor, he was practically out of options. “I was almost dead,” he said. “There was suffering. A lot of suffering.”

But the doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, at the Karolinska Institute here, had a radical idea. He wanted to make Mr. Beyene a new windpipe, out of plastic and his own cells.

Read the rest — A First: Organs Tailor-Made With Body’s Own Cells

I found this article and was blown away with excitement, so my first instinct was to share this with our readers. Imagine building organs with the help of the body’s own tools. That was done here and saved a life. One day, this will become common, for this I have little doubt.

Tags: cells, science, organs

Not Hair Loss News – High Fiber Diet Prevents Prostate Cancer Progression

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

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

Eating food high in fiber may help control the progress of prostate cancer in people who are diagnosed with early stages of the disease, according to a new study.

The study was based on the observation that although prostate cancer incidence in Asian countries is same as in the West, the cancer rarely progress in Asian men. Researchers argue that the high-fiber diet may play a role in keeping the cancer from progressing.

The study was conducted on a set of mice that were either fed with inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), that’s found in high fiber diet or a diet without this component. Then, researchers used MRI to check the progress of the cancer in these mice.

Read the rest — High-Fiber Diet Prevents Prostate Cancer Progression

Tags: high fiber, fiber, prostate cancer, cancer

Study Says Alcohol in Teens Damages the Brain, But Marijuana Use Doesn’t

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

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

The researchers, from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, performed the study on 92 16- to 20-year-olds. The scientists scanned their brains both before and after an 18-month period. Over the course of the 18 months, half of the teens, who already had an extensive track record with alcohol and marijuana, continued their vices as they had before. The other half continued to abstain or drink a minimal amount, like they too had done before the study.

In addition to the brain scans, the study also required a detailed toxicology report and substance use assessment. The teens also were interviewed every six months. Researchers did not check the teens’ cognitive ability, but simply took brain scans.

The researchers found that, after the year and a half was over, kids who had drank five or more alcoholic beverages twice a week had lost white brain matter. That means that they could have impaired memory, attention, and decision-making into adulthood. The teens that smoked marijuana on a regular basis had no such reduction.

Read the rest — No, Teen Marijuana Use Doesn’t Cause Brain Damage, But Alcohol Does

I’m not advocating marijuana or alcohol, but I thought it was interesting research in light of the pot legalization in Washington state and Colorado. The study will be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Tags: marijuana, pot, alcohol, booze, liquor