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Hair changes direction in the back of your head. If your hair is fine, this might explain the see-through area. If it is early balding, minoxidil is a good medication to apply to the area it it bothers you.

QUESTION FROM THE PAST Please help me – I’ve been suffering from hair shedding since Aug 2007. I was on the pill for 12 years and came off in august just after my wedding to conceive. I concieved straight away and am now 7 months pregnant. In Dec 2006, I was in hospital for a day with an infection which caused a hemorrhage. The shedding does seem to have slowed down now so losing about 25 after washes and I feel spiky bits all over my head. This has lasted about 7 months now and just wanted to know how long it usually last for and if it will stop? Will I ever get the thickness back in my hair?

I’m so depressed about this and would be grateful if you could help me. Thanks

You have many potential causes for hair loss, including:

• Pregnancy, which can cause hair loss that should reverse after about a year
• Changes in your hormones from the withdrawal of birth control pills
• Illness from the infection that put you into the hospital

It is likely that this process will reverse. You are not alone and the experience of others with this problem have been far from hopeless.

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.

 

QUESTION FROM THE PAST
I have been taking Propecia for just under a year with really no ill effects, and some good results. But in early November 2006 about 5 weeks ago I noticed discomfort and some swelling in my right nipple. I had a sonogram and was put on two different antibiotics for one week, each to no avail. The doctor thought it was mastitis or a staph infection. I had blood work done and all appears normal. I spoke with a surgeon today and he said I had Gynomastia and needed surgery next week. I want another opinion.

Can I simply stop using propecia and substitute with another treatment? Must I have the surgery? Please help thanks

It is very difficult for me to judge your nipple problem over the internet. My answer therefore will be in the general view, not specifically targeted to give you a medical opinion. If I were to examine you directly, my opinion would be based upon having all of the facts, which is simply not the case right now.

There is usually no rush to tackling even a small nipple mass in a young male when there is pain present. Stopping Propecia is a reasonable thing to do first and if the nipple pain is induced by the drug, then the pain might go away in a week or so. Ask your doctor why he feels that there is some urgency to the problem. Some men with breast pain from finasteride (Propecia) may not see it go away by just stopping the medication, but stopping it is a reasonable first step.

I am on finasteride for 6 months and all of my miniaturized hairs turned in to thicker terminal hairs except temple hairs.,Why is that? Will topical finasteride or minoxidil helps in this situation?

Finasteride does not work on all miniaturized hairs. Sometimes the genes are too strong for the drug and the drug doesn’t impact it. Maybe, Topical Finasteride with minoxidil will help.

You should know that Egpytians were a mix of Bantu, Arabs and even a bit of Caucasian so its not surprising that their would have hairloss. Even African Americans suffer hair-loss due to mixtures with the European gene pool even if they are not Bantu of San

The San bushmen are an isolated and relatively pure ethnic group, and they are of special interest because they share the direct lineage from the direct descendants of all humans. They give us a window to what humans might have originally looked like 60000 years ago

The history for genetic hair loss and its causes has perplexed doctors and other scientists for generations; however, one doctor did come up with a solution which I outlined in a post some years ago after reading his book. Here is the post: https://baldingblog.com/2008/01/23/evolutionary-reason-for-hair-loss/