Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

In a live chat with many young girls, they said they though with men who are balding because they have some disease

This type of comment is unfortunately very common from immature girls and from some members of society who are ignorant. As 50 percent of men have balding at sometime in their lives, clearly the concept that a disease goes hand-in-hand with balding is ridiculous. History has shown us that these prejudices were common in the past.

Prior to the 20th century, tuberculous ran rampant in city dwellers and men and women with tuberculous lost their hair because of the disease and malnutrition. In those days, women would stay away from balding men because they thought they would not live long enough to support a family. Now that tuberculous is not a problem in Western cities, this prejudice is no longer the basis of a persistent prejudice. We also clearly know from polls taken in presidential elections since Eisenhower was president, no balding president has been elected since the 1950s (except for Donald Trump who almost certainly wears a wig). So this prejudice is unfortunately innate to our culture.

Posted on

In the News – Avodart and Heart Failure Risks

A recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that Avodart (dutasteride) reduces the risk of prostate cancer along the same lines as finasteride did in earlier studies. The study also shows that in those men on Avodart, there was an increased incidence of heart failure.

Here’s a snippet from the Associated Press article:

Full results of a big study testing a drug for preventing prostate cancer show a higher risk of heart failure, a surprise finding that could dampen enthusiasm for expanding its use.

On Monday, GlaxoSmithKline PLC asked the federal Food and Drug Administration to approve its drug Avodart as a cancer preventive for men at higher-than-normal risk of the disease. The drug is already sold for urinary problems, and no heart failure risks have been seen with that use, doctors say.

Results of a study testing it as a cancer preventive were given at a medical conference last year, but the heart risk information had not been analyzed at that time so only the main results of the study were presented, a Glaxo spokeswoman said. Full results are being published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved 6,700 men with high scores from PSA blood tests but no sign of cancer on biopsy. They were given Avodart or dummy pills and new biopsies four years later. Prostate cancer was found in 25 percent of those on dummy pills and 20 percent of those on Avodart.

Read the full article — Study finds possible heart risk with prostate drug

As the article does mention, the heart risk could be a fluke, but it is important to study this further. Just another reason why I can’t endorse dutasteride for users that wish to take it for treating hair loss.


2010-04-01 11:29:25In the News – Avodart and Heart Failure Risks

Posted on

2 years on finasteride (photo)

The photos show that you have nicely filled in the hairline and regrew some of the frontal hairs as well


2020-07-22 10:11:182 years on finasteride (photo)

Posted on

In the News – Cold Caps to Help Cancer Patients Keep Their Hair?

Snippet from the article:

A handful of San Francisco breast cancer patients are donning frigid skullcaps to test a device designed to keep hair tightly rooted during chemotherapy. Researchers hope the study, run by UC San Francisco and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., will eventually lead to Food and Drug Administration approval for the chilly caps.

There is now no way to hang on to one’s tresses during chemo for any kind of cancer, says study leader Hope Rugo, an oncologist at UCSF. The prospect of baldness is distressing to many patients, particularly women. Some choose a less-drastic drug regimen more likely to leave hair follicles alone, potentially at the cost of getting the best possible treatment. It’s a fact that women frequently make treatment decisions based on risk to their locks, says Rugo’s colleague Michelle Melisko, another oncologist investigating scalp-cooling systems.

The caps’ low temperature, 41 degrees Fahrenheit, keeps poisonous chemotherapy drugs out of the hair follicles. But some doctors worry that in so doing, it makes it more likely that cancer will take root in the scalp.

Read the full story at the LA Times — Cooling caps tested to help cancer patients keep hair

Freezing the scalp to prevent chemo-related hair loss has been around for 30 or more years, though it doesn’t work for everyone and most people will still see some loss.

On the bright side, the article points out that “the results from 53 studies using various devices and methods were mostly positive“.

Posted on

In the News – FDA Being Pressured to Speed Up Device Approval

It sounds like the FDA is in a no win situation. First they are under fire by the Government Accountability Office for how it handles device recalls.

Snippet from the article:

The FDA is falling short in how it handles recalls of risky medical devices, a new report from the Government Accountability Office concluded, adding to the ever-mounting criticisms of the agency’s fast-track, 510(k) approval process.

Read the rest — FDA’s Fast-Track Medical Device Approval Process Under Fire

—

And then at the same time, the medical device industry is pressuring the FDA to hurry up.

Snippet from the article:

Despite recalls of defective medical devices that have caused devastating injuries and millions of dollars in medical costs, the Food and Drug Administration is under industry pressure to speed up its approval process.

Read the rest — Despite recalls, medical device industry presses FDA to speed up approval process

Posted on

Balding Blog – 2007 – Hair Loss Information

Happy New Year
We’re taking a couple days off for the New Year celebration, but will be back on Wednesday, January 2nd with more hair loss questions and answers!

2007 was a very good year for BaldingBlog, as the site saw substantial growth in visitor traffic and number of questions answered. I’m pleased that I was able to help so many this year. I believe we published somewhere around 1700-1800 posts in the past 12 months! It’ll be hard to top 2007, but here’s to a great 2008!

Happy New Year!

 

Posted on

In the News – Gray Hair Could Be Reversible?

Snippet from the press release —

In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal people who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out, and most importantly, the report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase).

Read the rest — Gray hair and vitiligo reversed at the root

This is a interesting discovery, that gray hair is caused by peroxide bleaching the hair at the root. If it is true, anything that can remove the peroxide will reverse gray hair. The author showed that catalase (a known enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of peroxide) can reverse the gray hair.

Posted on

21 and shaved my head, what to do?

You are a great candidate for medications and microneedling. Your age means that the hair loss is recent and your chances of reversal of the hair loss are good.


2021-06-01 06:49:1521 and shaved my head, what to do?