Category: Other

Dr, how much is too much vitamin a. I take supplements and a few of them have large amounts of vitamin a like 5000 iu of vit. a.

For most people, up to 25,000 IU (7,500 mcg) of vitamin A per day is considered by some authorities to be safe, but the Food and Drug Administration has established a daily recommended allowance (RDA) of 5,000 IU for vitamin A. Toxicity in the fetus of pregnant women may occur in doses above 10,000 IU. A complete analysis of vitamin A is presented in Solgar Healthnotes.

The dose should be adjusted for pregnant women and children and a doctor should be involved in that. If vitamin A is being used for treatment of vitamin A deficiency, higher doses are required and it should be done under a doctor’s supervision. Complications (overdose) include liver damage, hair loss, blurred vision, and headaches. Sound like you are in the normal dose range.

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Dr. Rassman,
I am 19 years old and still cannot grow a beard. I grow a little hair on my chin and a little on my upper lip. I cannot have side burns or a beard, both of which i would love to have. Is there anything at all that i can do to promote facial hair growth? Vitamins, certain foods?

I had a weak beard when I was 19 and freaked out on it. My father had a full, fast growing beard that I envied. Now I am like my father was and wished I had my 19 year old beard. It seems that we never really get what we want and if we do finally get what we want, we may no longer want it. Show patience and it will probably grow out as you get older.

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Dr. Rassman,

Do any animals go bald? If not, why don’t they?

Thanks.

Yes, there are animals that do go bald. I know of some mice with alopecia that is similar to some human family lines (alopecia totalis). Also some mice lose their hair as they get older and some have complex polygenic diseases that produce hair loss such as alopecia areata. There has been much written about mice, because they have been the human experimental models, but I am certain that similar problems must exist in other mammals. Guinea pigs are known to lose hair when they are pregnant (like some human females).

More links of interest:

• Google search – animal hair loss
• Causes of Hair Loss (Alopecia) in Dogs
• Alopecia mice derived from albino ddY mice: breeding, histological and ultrastructural studies
• Alopecia areata in aging C3H/HeJ mice.
• Alopecia Areata Induced in C3H/HeJ Mice by Interferon-Gamma: Evidence for Loss of Immune Privilege
• Alopecia in Guinea Pigs
• Age-related diffuse chronic telogen effluvium- type alopecia in female squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis boliviensis)

Hey Doc,

I broke my arm 2 years ago and had a cast for 4 months. After removing the cast, I noticed that the hair on my arms were REALLY thick and sprouted all over the place. It was kind of scary, but after about 2 months all the hair returned to normal.

Can you explain what caused this? I have always been curious.

Many people that are required to wear a cast see what you’ve reported. This occurs because the arm hair which sheds frequently as the short hair cycle pushes out old hair (a half to one inch in length) is protected in the cast so that it does not fall out day be day. Most people with normal bathing and showers will get these old hairs to fall out by a simple scrub.

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Happy Turkey Day! It’s time for family and a feast. The long holiday weekend is upon us, so there won’t be any new posts here until Monday. So fill up on that turkey and stuffing and take some time with family to enjoy the holiday! We’ll see you here early next week.

Hello Doctor,
For a while now I’ve wondered: does miniaturized hair have a conical shape when viewed under a microscope?

What prompts my question is the larger consideration of whether hair miniaturizes while a cycle is in process, or whether it miniaturizes from one anagen phase to the next.

I suspect that both factors are in play here. The increased hair count seen in 12 months clearly indicates a change from one cycle to another, but as I see changes in patients in an 8 month time frame when I examined the hair and observed less miniaturization, I would suspect that some increasing girth probably occurs as the hair grows out from the scalp.