Category: Uncategorized

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In the News – Busting Counterfeit Drug Rings in the UK

Snippet from the article:

In a sleepy suburban street, police and undercover agents prepare to raid the HQ of a lucrative drugs ring. But this is not a squalid bedsit or dingy warehouse. It is a detached bungalow on a leafy lane in an affluent area. The cops are not after crack or heroin. They are hunting substances that many believe to be potentially even more dangerous – fake prescription medication.

There is big money being made in counterfeit medicines, which are sold mainly on the internet. The market is believed to be worth around £45million a year.

Read the rest at The Sun.

Oh, and finasteride is listed as one of those drugs that they’re hunting. This is just one of the reasons I’ve never recommended ordering prescription medications via the web. I know some people disregard this type of information, so even if you’re adamant about ordering prescription meds online, at least use common sense and be careful.


2009-12-08 10:36:33In the News – Busting Counterfeit Drug Rings in the UK

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20 Year Old Thinning Heavily After Stopping Propecia

Hello Dr Rassman,

I am a 20 year old male and have had some hair thinning in the front for about half a year.. I started propecia and stayed on it for a about a month, my hair thinned out even more and side effects were not worth it. Now 2 months after stopping treatment my hair is shedding like crazy over 200 hairs a day and the hair feels brittle all over my head. I searched through your blog but havn’t seen anything about this issue in my age range. thanks

My blog is full of recommendations to get yourself diagnosed. You need to have your hair mapped out for miniaturization, as I have said 1000 times before (perhaps even more than that). If you do not know what is wrong with you, how can you treat it? The miniaturization map tells what is going on and that comes about before you treat it.


2006-09-07 12:57:0120 Year Old Thinning Heavily After Stopping Propecia

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In the News – Doctors Usually Don’t Report Incompetence

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

A quarter of doctors who know that a colleague is underperforming or incompetent do not sound the alarm, a confidential survey reveals. They fear retribution, believe that no action would be taken, or assume that someone else is dealing with the problem.

Martin Roland of the University of Cambridge and colleagues confidentially surveyed 3000 US and UK doctors in 2009. The results suggested that almost 1 in 5 doctors had direct experience of an incompetent or poorly performing colleague in the previous three years.

Read the rest — Doctors fail to report incompetent colleagues

In the March 12, 2011 issue of New Scientist, the journal quoted a University of Cambridge survey of 3000 US and UK physicians regarding their feelings about the competence of their colleagues. Poor performing colleagues who create errors in patient care reflected an alarming 21% of practitioners in the US and 13% in the UK!

I suspect that these numbers are far worse in fields of medicine like hair restoration, because of the absence of peer review of the activities of these doctors. I could name names, but because of the legal system in the US there is no protection against slander lawsuits lodged against me… so instead I speak loudly about the problem and report to the medical boards those physicians who I know are involved in illegal and immoral acts against patients.

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In the News – Gene Identified for Psoriasis

Snippet from the article:

Scientists in the United States have pointed the finger at seven genes that appear to play a role in psoriasis, a study published on Sunday says.

The work could unlock new drug targets and tailored treatments for this painful, disfiguring skin disease, they said.

Read the full text at Yahoo! Health

We are unlocking more and more of our genetic codes. The balding four most probable genes have been identified. Now we have identified one of the main culprits of psoriasis. Once we know the gene and command it, we will develop appropriate drugs for its cure.

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2011 ISHRS Meeting Review, Part 8 – Minoxidil

ISHRS 2011

Note: The annual meeting of hair surgeons was in held in Alaska this past week. The following review is very selective and is biased by the things that were interesting to me and what I (Dr. Rassman) thought could be interesting to the readers.

This is part 8… and final part. Thanks for sticking with me on this!

***

 
Minoxidil as a systemic medication?

    Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich (award winning doctor from Thailand) experimented with the use of minoxidil as a systemic medication on patients. This medication is used in many Asian countries as a treatment for hair loss. He commented that when spironolactone is added to systemic use of minoxidil, there is an enhancement of the hair benefits and a reversal of hair loss in many people. Although the reported side effects of this approach were small, there are still many side effects with these medications (e.g. significant drops in blood pressure, weight gain, fluid retention, rapid heart rate).

    These systemic medications are not FDA approved in the United States for the treatment of hair loss, as well as many other countries. Minoxidil was originally used in the 1960s as a treatment drug for high blood pressure, but its impact was not consistent with lowering blood pressure. Many of these earlier patients developed a reversal of their hair loss and many women treated with it developed facial and chest hair.

 
Aspirin and hair transplantation?

    A hair transplant surgeon who is also a cardiologist suggested that a person on low dose aspirin can have a hair transplant without stopping the aspirin.
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In the News – High Dose Finasteride for Treating Female Hair Loss?

Snippet from the article:

Off-label use of oral finasteride at 5 mg/day proved safe and effective for the treatment of female pattern hair loss in 43 premenopausal women in an 18-month study.

Treatment effectiveness was assessed in two ways: patient satisfaction scores and two blinded investigators’ evaluation of photographs. As a precondition for study participation, patients needed to have normal serum androgen levels, no clinical signs of hyperandrogenism, and no wish to become pregnant ever again. They also had to go on drospirenone/ethinyl estradiol for oral contraception.

At the 6-month mark, 25 patients (58%) characterized their improvement as “huge” and 14 (33%) as moderate; 4 reported no improvement. These results were stable across time, with the women reporting the same results at 12 and 18 months of follow-up.

Read the rest — High-Dose Finasteride Halts Hair Loss in Women

The study appears to be unpublished and includes only a few dozen patients, but I found it of interest to our readers and worth posting. As the article points out, “an 18-month study is not sufficient to draw solid conclusions about the possible long-term risks of extended therapy“.

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AT 21, am I too young to get a hair transplant?

Yes, 21 is too young for a hair transplant because you will not know what is your eventual balding pattern at 21. If, for example, you transplant a receding hairline at 21, and then should develop significant balding by the time you are 26, you will have hair where the transplant was done and nothing behind it (looking weird). IF for example, you have crown balding at 21, and transplant the bald area in the crown, by the time you are 26, you might have an island of hair surrounded by a ‘bald sea’ and then you would really look weird and everyone would know what you did. Everyone needs a Master Plan for balding created by you with a good doctor who thinks ahead to anticipate what you and he might do as it reflects the progressive nature of your balding that is the consequence of ‘genetic male patterned balding’. I have seen too many freaky looking transplanted men who never created such a Master Plan with their doctors. I have written about this here: https://newhair.com/assessing-hair-loss/

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In the News – Michael Jackson Was Balding and Had Scalp Tattoos

Snippet from the article:

Just after Michael Jackson’s sudden death in June last year, rumors started circulating that the late singer was severely emaciated and bald. Although such allegations were frequently shot down, the coroner’s report released on Monday confirms them, and adds new, graphic information.

Sixty-one photographs of the former pop prince were taken prior to and throughout the procedure. According to the report, Jackson’s hair was “sparse and connected to a wig.”

“There is frontal balding and the hair can be described as short and tightly curled,” the report claimed. Jackson hair line was tattooed on, as were other facial features.

Read the rest — Michael Jackson Balding, Incredibly Thin and Had Tattooed Facial Features

Michael Jackson had 3rd degree and 2nd degree burns to his scalp which, I assume, caused considerable hair loss and scalp loss. It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that he had a quite a bit of plastic surgery, but I’ve also heard that he had transplants, although having not been there when they were done or being able to review the results, I am not in a position to determine their value.

If the coroner’s report states that he wore a wig and had his hairline tattooed, it could be that he had the transplants in an area so that the wig could be attached better — or maybe the transplants weren’t as successful as he’d hoped. This is just more speculation, though. The skin of third degree burns does not support transplanted hair grafts. Without examining him, I can not tell for sure what was done or what benefits he received, if any. And since he’s deceased, I’d imagine an exam isn’t going to be a likely possibility.


2010-02-11 09:04:06In the News – Michael Jackson Was Balding and Had Scalp Tattoos

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23 Days After Surgery, The Hair Never Fell Out!

Dear Sir:
i had FUT 23 days ago and my doctor told me that the transplanted hair will fall out in two weeks, then start to grow again. The transplanted hair didn’t fall out up until now and the hair covers the bald area and i feel that it is slightly longer. is this is a good sign and means complete success of surgery? or does it mean nothing? thanks for your time and patience and hoping to answer me back.

If it continues to grow, you will be like 5% of people who never lose the hair after a transplant. You won’t know for another few weeks and it is not unusual that the hair appears to be growing as it is being pushed out of the skin. The hair length below the skin varies with race, but for a Caucasian, the length is between 5-6 mm, for an Asian it is often longer by a mm or so. I hope that you join the ranks of the 5% who keep on growing. Drop me a line and let me know and I will post your comment here on the blog linked to this post.