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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“.

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In the News – Claims of Severe Side Effects from Propecia

Snippet from the article:

Young men could be risking their sexual health by taking a commonly used anti-baldness drug, claim some doctors. They say finasteride, sold in the UK as Propecia, can cause serious side effects and isn’t adequately labelled.

A quarter of men in their 20s show signs of male pattern baldness, with six and a half million males in the UK affected. Propecia manufacturer Merck says it continually monitors the drug’s safety and has updated the label.

Read the full story at BBC — Baldness drug Propecia ‘risking men’s sexual health’

PropeciaI always worry when a single case is put forth as a typical example of a problem. I do not doubt this young man could’ve seen some side effects, but I would think that this is a very rare example if it is true. I do doubt the long term impotence reported, however. Propecia has a half life of 4-5 hours, which means it is out of the blood stream in a day. Tissue fixation of the drug may last for up to a week, but by then, all of the effects of the drug should be gone. Unfortunately, the report gives us little insights into objective evidence for the ED that doctors would explore, such as nocturnal penile tumescence studies, to substantiate if the problem is real or psychological.

I’ve received a lot of emails about this article already, so I know it’s making the rounds. The problem for all those interested in finasteride is that these stories become viral on the internet, resulting in waves of panic for those considering the decision to take it. We each have choices in our lives, and the risks vs the value of such a drug is a decision each of us should make.

For what it’s worth, the young man in the article did say that the drug reduced his hair loss. I am not suggesting that it is worth losing your sexuality to keep your hair, but there may be more to this story than the article seems to want to point out. As I’ve mentioned before, one of my sons is on Propecia and his hair loss stopped (and even reversed a little) since he started to take it.


2010-12-21 13:20:34In the News – Claims of Severe Side Effects from Propecia

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In the News – Child With Alopecia Sent Home from School

Snippet from the article:

A Philadelphia boy with a chronic balding illness was sent home by his school for having too much hair.

Eight-year-old Zion Williams has been receiving medical treatment for the illness called alopecia at Drexel University which includes painful injections to the scalp. Doctors at the Philadelphia university’s medical program told Williams’ mother Talia Mann to let his hair grow for at least ten weeks.

Last Wednesday, Williams was turned away from the Shiloh Christian Academy in Philadelphia for violating the school’s mandatory short hair policy. Mann said she even filed a doctor’s note with the school to allow her son to attend with slightly lengthened hair.

Read the rest — Eight-Year-Old With Alopecia, Hair Loss Disease, Asked To Leave School For ‘Long Hair’

I suspect that this young boy has alopecia areata (an inherited autoimmune disease). The simplest solution to me would be to waive their short hair requirement for a few months so that it would not impact his treatment, but it seems that the school was inflexible in its policies and victimized this boy.

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In the News – CEOs Would Rather Be Bald than Short!

I was recently interviewed by USA Today reporter Del Jones for an article about balding CEOs, and I’m pleased to see that it was printed on the cover of the Money section of today’s issue!

From the article:

CEOs say being bald doesn’t impede success and, given a choice, it’s better to be bald than short. So widely held is this conventional wisdom among top executives that when asked to choose, most CEOs say they’d take 2 more inches of height over a full head of Robert Redford hair.

Even most bald CEOs, including many who are both tall and bald, would choose to be taller. “Lack of hair can only mean the brain is busy with more important functions,” says Murray Martin, the 5-foot-8 CEO of $5.7 billion Pitney Bowes, who is being generous when he describes his hair as “thinning.”

Full text — USA Today – The bald truth about CEOs


2008-03-14 09:01:31In the News – CEOs Would Rather Be Bald than Short!

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In the News – Celebrities with Hairline Corner Loss

Snippet from the article:

Sure, two of the most badass actors of recent American cinema — Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson — opted to shave their heads before they went bald naturally.

But there are still plenty of successful men out there who resist the pressure to mask their hair loss, and the best among them are proudly rocking power alleys.

What the heck are power alleys, you ask? Just check out Jackson and Willis’s matching hairlines in “Die Hard With a Vengeance”. In 1995, they could have been the power-alley poster boys.

Jude LawRead the full article: Power Alleys — How Powerful Men Go Bald

There’s nothing groundbreaking mentioned in the article, but it does provide a short list of celebrities with hairline issues. The term “power alleys” is a fun way to describe hair loss in the corners of the hairline, otherwise known as a Norwood Class 3 pattern. Plus, my colleague Dr. Robert Bernstein is quoted briefly in it.

Actors Jude Law (pictured at right) and Danny Glover are counted as those with “power alleys”, along with sports figures and politicians. See the list and photos at Asylum.com.

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In the News – Can Hair Loss Drugs Cause Injuries to Athletes?

Snippet from the article:

Arsene Wenger has warned that professional footballers looking to cure baldness with hair loss products could be putting their careers at risk.

The Arsenal manager made the shocking claim when discussing the nature of injuries in his weekly press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against Everton.

Wenger, who revolutionised the English game when importing new fitness and preparatory methods following his arrival at Arsenal in 1996, says some players are leaving themselves open to problems if they use products to reverse the process of balding.

And according to the Gunners boss, vanity could lead to injury.

Read the rest — Wenger warns stars over hair loss products

He says hair loss medications can lead to liver problems, though he doesn’t specifically say which medications he’s concerned about. As far as I’m aware, finasteride (Propecia) does not have any adverse effects on the liver.

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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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In the News – British PhD Working on Top Secret New Hair Loss Cure

Snippet from the article:

So keep an eye on Thomas Whitfield. The 27-year-old Oxford biochemistry PhD is working on a venture called TRX2 (derived from the Greek word for hair, Trichos. “The two for second – your second generation of hair,” he tells me). It promises to make “hair loss a thing of the past”.

Still in stealth mode as the intellectual property is in the process of being protected, Whitfield plans to have his “product and service” on the market within 12 months. His only guidance is that it is not based on “gene therapy” – an area being explored by several other British start-ups.

Full article at Telegraph UK

It is easy to make claims, but the proof will be in the product and the research that is released. The good news is that European patent filings are published 6 months after receipt of the application so we will all not have to wait 12 months find out what the secret is.

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In the News – Blood Type Can Make Men More Prone to Baldness?

Snippet from the article:

Going by the recent study on Alopecia by Chandigarh-based Plastic Surgeon Dr Tejinder Bhatti, it’s not just the “G” factor but the “A” factor that plays a major role in baldness. Dr. Bhatti has explained that the “G” factor – genes – do play an important role, but the “A” factor – A+ blood group, especially in males – makes one more prone to baldness. Dr Bhatti initiated the study in 2007 and completed it in December 2012.

Dr Bhatti opined that although patients blame water content or quality of their shampoo for baldness, but blood groups play an equally important role. A+ blood group people are unable to optimally absorb B vitamins, including Biotin, in their blood and therefore the thickness of the hair is quite low.

Read the rest — ‘A’ factor leading to baldness?

I’m not sure that I agree with this. It would be interesting to read it on a medical journal.

They kind of lost me once I read, “Dr Bhatti says that In male pattern baldness (MPB), in 80% cases the gene causing baldness comes from the mother’s side. So if your nana or mama are bald, there are 80% chances you too will be bald.” That actually just a myth and has never been proven.

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In the News – Bimatoprost Scalp Failed to Provide Sufficient Efficacy

Snippet from the article:

A mid-stage trial of Allergan’s hair loss treatment Bimatoprost Scalp also failed to provide sufficient efficacy to proceed to a late-stage study, and the company said it will be extending the mid-stage development program.

Link: Allergan delays eye drug, shares fall

I found the above tidbit buried within an article about Allergan’s delay of their eye drug to treat age-related macular degeneration. Many folks were hoping bimatoprost (the eyelash treatment also known as Latisse) used on the scalp would be the next FDA approved hair loss treatment, but it seems that will be delayed for some time.