Month: January 2023

A little over a five years ago, I agreed to work with a company that supplied Laser Hats to us at no charge (valued at $3,000 each). I got 12 volunteers and sold them a Laser Hat for $500 with the caveat that they would come into our office every three months for photos. At the time we did this, we did not have the HAIRCHECK instrument. It would have been the perfect tool to measure if any value was achieved with the once-a-day use of the Laser Hat. There were clearly problems in the quality of the photos and the way the patients combed their hair. I for one will admit that I was less than fastidious about standardizing the quality of the photos. None of the dozen patient reported any significant benefit. Four of the 12 did not come back for photos but I did speak to each of them a year later. They were incentivized to get their $500 back and to keep the Laser Hat if they came in four times in a year.

The patient below had pictures 18 months apart which are shown. These photos were less important than what the man told me, essentially he was disappointed that he did not see results to the experimental Laser Hat. The upper row of photos are 18 months earlier than the lower row of photos. You judge for yourself. Is is worth $3,000 to purchase a Laser Hat?

 

In my general surgery practice, I met a man who had burns on his chest during an examination for an elective surgery. I asked him about it. He said that he got fainting spells with heart palpitations and one day he fell against the electric fence and it reversed the fainting spells and the heart palpitations. That was in the 1940s, so he put electric fence wires around his property and through his house and every time to had a ‘spell’ he would shock himself. I believe that this man actually discovered cardio-conversion before the medical profession did. The burns were from the electric shocks and his entire chest was covered with old and fresh scars. Don’t laugh at the value of electricity, it might save you life and your hair.

This patient had a hair transplant many years before. The surgeon clearly didn’t understand the hairline or the balding potential for this poor man. He is now stuck with a terrible frontal hairline presentation and an isolated hair transplant in the front and top surrounded by his balding scalp. He needs to have a real expert manage his problem today and it will not be inexpensive.

This is taken from this most recent issue of the Scientific American, October 2015

Author Robert Stickgold discussed what happens if you do or don’t get enough sleep. I will outline some important points that stood out from the article:

1- The immune system: works better with a good night of sleep. When individuals were vaccinated and sleep deprived, they produced significantly less antibodies to vaccine virus than those who had a good night sleep. This suggests that the immune system does not work efficiently in a sleep deprived individual.

2- Appetite is stimulated when a person has less sleep because (a) an appetite stimulating hormone (ghrelin) increases in the blood and (b) the production of leptin which normally inhibits hunger, is decreased. The results are that adults who do not have a good nights sleep have a greater risk of obesity by 50% and children from 6-9 years old who sleep less than 10 hours a night, are 2 1/2 times more likely to be obese.

3- Diabetes: There is an association between sleep restriction and the development of type 2 diabetes. The management of sugar is impaired in sleep deprived adults as well.

4- The brain’s ability to recognize words in various situation is impaired with less sleep. We also need sleep to integrate what we learn every day into our memory.

5- Many psychiatric disorders including depression are more likely to occur in individuals who do not have a good night sleep.

6- Sleep promotes selective stabilization, strengthening, integration and analysis of new memories.

7- Important focused learning is improved with a good nights sleep. Things that you need to remember to take a test, for example, apply here.

8- The brain cleans house when you sleep, is more efficient in removing toxins during sleep than when you are awake.

9- A good nights sleep enhances the integration of past experiences with future performance.

10- The more complex our lives are, the more we need a good night’s sleep to manage these complexities.

Comment: Many people snore and their airways are obstructed, disallowing them to sleep uninterrupted through the night. These people will have many of the above stated problems with overall health. I have a smart watch, which I have worn at night to find out how much I move around restless while I sleep. I found that I lay still more 85% of the night while I slept. A nice function to test for sleep disturbance for those of you with a smart watch. Evaluate how long and how well you sleep.

Conclusion: If you are deprived of sleep, you are more than just being very tired when you wake – you may wind up sick more often, overweight, forgetful and depressed.

A good nights sleep varies between people, but it is plausible that a minimum of 7 hours of restful sleep for an adult is important for good body and brain health.

 

Hello Dr. Rassman

I have a question about a condition I’ve had since the age of 17. During school i first noticed that the hair on the sides of my head started to thin, i then noticed general thinning of my entire scalp hair, i noticed the thinnest hair coming from the crown. as a few years pasted i noticed slight recession on both sides of my hairline.

What i find bizarre is that I’m now approaching 26 and still have pretty good coverage, the only thing I’ve noticed in the last 3 years is 2-3 tiny bald spots in random locations across the scalp (no conventional pattern) my crown thinning has not to my knowledge progressed

What i can tell you is that i am a male, my mother also has entire scalp thinning, but even thinner than mine but no slight recession. i always remember my mother having hair like this.

My father who’s 69 has still got quite a lot of hair, in fact he only started losing a bit of hair around his early 60’s.

If i do in fact have DUPA what does the future hold for me in terms of further hairloss?

I do not know what you have, but if you have diffuse unpatterned alopecia (DUPA), then in the future you will have diffuse thinning in no particular pattern. I have no way to know how much more you will lose hair though, as everyone is different.

There is a cosmetic treatment for DUPA patients, called Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP). It is not a cure by any means, but it can make you look fuller. In any event, you should see a doctor and get a diagnosis.