Hello Dr. Rassman,

I am writing to you from Turkey. As you know, in the eastern traditions and to a certain degree in the western traditions, homemade hair loss remedies such as oils, onion juice, vinegars etc. are used. Although it is clear that all these are not based on scientific grounds, is there any beneficent aspect of these?

Thank you

Short answer — no. If these home “remedies” had any truth to them, you wouldn’t see too many balding men. Smearing your scalp with onions, vinegar, oils, lotions and potions are not going to regrow your hair.

Snippet from the article:

The prostate cancer drug Xtandi prolonged lives and delayed tumor progression when used before chemotherapy in a study of men with advanced cases of the disease, researchers said on Tuesday. The study results are expected to open up a broader market for Xtandi, which was developed by Medivation and Astellas Pharma, and open a new front in its competition with Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster drug Zytiga.

Xtandi, also known as enzalutamide, was approved in 2012 as a treatment for men with metastatic prostate cancer who have already tried the chemotherapy drug docetaxel. The new study showed it was also effective when used before chemotherapy.

Doctors said that could be a welcome option for the tens of thousands of men each year who have advanced prostate cancer but little or no pain or other symptoms. Many of them would rather take a pill like Xtandi or Zytiga than go for periodic infusions of chemotherapy, with its harsh side effects.

Read the rest — Drug Shows Promise in Advanced Prostate Cancer When Used Before Chemotherapy

Snippet from the article:

Researchers in the US found of two groups of mice given the same cancer-inducing treatment, the group whose sleep was disrupted developed larger, more aggressive tumors than the well-rested mice.

In the journal Cancer Research, the team also reports how they found the immune system of the sleep-disrupted mice was less effective at fighting the early stages of cancer than the immune system of the well-rested mice.

Study director Prof. David Gozal says: “It’s not the tumor, it’s the immune system. Fragmented sleep changes how the immune system deals with cancer in ways that make the disease more aggressive.”

Read the rest — Disrupted sleep speeds up cancer

There was also a study published last year that linked sleep troubles with men’s prostate cancer risk. You can learn about that here.

Snippet from the article:

The president of Brazil’s senate, Renan Calheiros, will repay the cost of using an air force jet for a trip during which he reportedly had a hair transplant, his spokesman said Tuesday.

“The president is to repay the costs of this flight. He is waiting for the air force to calculate the bill before doing so,” he said. “I don’t know if the president has had a hair transplant.”

The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper had reported that Calheiros had flown 1,980 kilometers (1,230 miles) from Brasilia to Recife to have 10,000 hairs implanted while purportedly on a business trip.

Read the rest — Brazil senate chief to repay ‘hair transplant’ flight

Corruption in politics? Unheard of!

Snippet from the article:

Cancer death rates in the U.S. have dropped 20 percent in the past two decades, thanks largely to less smoking, increased prevention and better detection, a new report finds.

The rates have fallen dramatically in some areas — plunging 50 percent for middle-aged black men, for instance — while barely budging for elderly white women. And disease experts say there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“Contained within this data are areas of remarkable progress and areas that remain frustrating,” said Dr. Clifford A. Hudis, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a chief expert in breast cancer at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

An estimated 1.7 million new cancer cases are projected for 2014, including some 586,000 deaths, according to the new report from the American Cancer Society. And cancer remains the second-most common cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease.

Read the rest — Slow but steady: Cancer death rates drop 20 percent in two decades

Snippet from the article:

There’s more disappointing news about multivitamins: Two major studies found popping the pills didn’t protect aging men’s brains or help heart attack survivors.

Millions of Americans spend billions of dollars on vitamin combinations, presumably to boost their health and fill gaps in their diets. But while people who don’t eat enough of certain nutrients may be urged to get them in pill form, the government doesn’t recommend routine vitamin supplementation as a way to prevent chronic diseases.

The studies released Monday are the latest to test if multivitamins might go that extra step and concluded they don’t.

Read the rest — Multivitamin study: No benefits for heart disease, cancer or heart attack

What the article reflects is the benefits directly to a multi-billion dollar industry (vitamins), with what is apparently little value received in return.