Posts Tagged ‘Medication’
Hair Loss Medication A New Ray of Hope for Hair Loss Treatment
Modern hair loss medication really works. That is the message being put out by top level hair clinics like the Harley Street Hair Clinic – which, as Britain’s most respected institution for hair loss research and treatment, packs a pretty hefty weight behind its opinions. The general consensus is this: modern research into the causes of hair loss has led to enough of an understanding of the underlying structures of balding ailments that medications designed to treat them really do work.
The most common cause of hair loss is an over production of a male androgen called DHT. DHT is basically a mutant product of testosterone – and it is the inhibition of DHT that is the goal of a lot of modern hair loss medication.
DHT stands for Dihydrotestosterone, a substance that cause the natural life cycles of hair follicles to collapse. Once a human scalp starts an over production of DHT, its hairs fall out without re-growth – and so baldness starts to appear on the head. Modern hair medication acts directly on the production of DHT in an attempt to halt, slow or even reverse the balding process. By suppressing the production of DHT, the hair loss medicine allows the natural life cycle of the hair time to regroup and restart. In the best case scenarios, modern hair loss medication has actually reclaimed balding areas by kicking the scalp’s production of follicles back into high gear. In most scenarios, the balding process is halted though not necessarily reversed.
Hair Loss Medication or Hair Loss Treatment
There are two main courses of action open to anyone who suffers from hair loss and wishes to do something about it. Broadly speaking: hair loss medication, or hair loss treatment. Medication, as the name implies, seeks to halt, redress or even completely reverse hair loss through the application and (usually) long term use of unguents, creams and other preparations. Hair loss treatment seeks to replace lost hair with donor hair from other parts of the scalp.
These days, hair replacement is actually a pretty good bet. It involves removing individual follicles and implanting them in the receipt area: the follicles take root and then fall out, leaving the root behind. That root grows as a natural hair. On the other hand, hair loss medication seeks to offer an alternative to mild cases of hair thinning and loss.
There are three basic classes of hair medication that can be considered. Two are man made, to a greater or lesser degree – they both contain artificially synthesised compounds that inhibit the production of DHT – a testosterone related hormone that causes progressive baldness. Both of these men made varieties of hair loss medication have experienced a pretty satisfactory degree of achievement in patients experiencing thinning of the hair. The compounds they contain (in one case, a compound called finasteride) slow down the production of DHT, which can dramatically reduce or even stop the thinning. In some cases, uses of these compounds (usually presented as a cream or medicated shampoo) have even shown re-growth of hair after the DHT production has been halted.
The third and less ‘artificial’ form of hair loss medication is simple diet. Vitamins, minerals and so on. These play a major role in maintaining the health and strength of hair as researches have proved that often malnutrition can be a cause for hair loss.
Choosing Hair Loss Treatment and Medication
With hair loss becoming a common cause of concern amongst millions of people across the world, every year a large number of medications, herbs, spices, nutritional supplements, oils, shampoos etc comes up in the market each claiming itself to be the panacea for hair loss
But before you decide for any expensive treatment plan or hair loss treatment medication, it is advisable to understand what hair loss is and the types and benefits of medication available for hair loss treatment to ensure effective and desirable results.
Hair loss in woman can generally be seen evenly across the scalp, without definite bald patches. Diffuse hair loss is a gradual thinning of the hair as opposed to a straightforward bald patch and is the most common type of hair loss in women. The replacement of old hairs by new hairs is slowed down so that the hair becomes sparse and the scalp can be seen clearly through the hair.
Androgenetic alopecia (female pattern baldness) in women is often linked to hormonal changes with the hair loss following events such as the menopause, childbirth or as a result of stopping or starting oral contraceptive pills. Pregnancy will also affect hair production. Hormone levels increase as the pregnancy begins and slows down the hair growth cycle. Hairs that should stop growing continue to grow beyond their usual life cycle. Often this means that the hair appears to grow thicker as more hairs are present than normal.
The hair loss is generally more uniform over the scalp than in the male counterpart, but also results from a complex chemical reaction when the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase converts the testosterone in the system into DHT or dihydro-testosterone
The hair follicles are genetically predisposed to be over sensitive to the DHT and become smaller and smaller with time, leading to the eventual hair loss.
New Hair Loss Medication for Improved Results
It always used to be the case that hair loss medication was pretty much of an anathema – a palliative prescribed to sufferers from various hair loss conditions in the hope that some of it might take. This is no longer true. Significant advances in the science of hair loss therapy by means other than transplant have identified a couple of areas where man made chemical application can either stimulate the growth of new hair or significantly retard the loss of original hair.
Much of this science has to do with male hormones, which are usually the causes of hair loss in the first place. Testosterone, the male growth hormone, converts naturally to a substance known as DHT (dihydrotestosterone) – the major culprit for all types of hereditary balding. Once the scalp starts to produce DHT the hair falls out – so modern hair loss medication concentrates on inhibiting the conversion of normal testosterone to DHT on the understanding that this should slow down the balding process. It should be noted that in most cases DHT inhibitors cannot promote hair re-growth (though if the process is arrested early enough, they can): but they do stop the march of balding for a significant period of time. Medication containing DHT inhibitors is ideal for people who find themselves going bald at an early age and wish to arrest the process without recourse to the more drastic solution of hair replacement surgery.
Hair loss medication works best on the crown of the head and has little or no success in restoring hair growth at the forehead area of the hair line. There’s no clear evidence to support theories trying to explain this phenomenon, not that it matters over much: the effect is known and there seems to be nothing that medication can do to halt hair loss in this area. Patients experiencing severely receding hair lines are advised to try hair replacement surgery treatments rather than medications.
Hair Loss Medication or Hair Loss Treatment
There are two main courses of action open to anyone who suffers from hair loss and wishes to do something about it. Broadly speaking: hair loss medication, or hair loss treatment. Medication, as the name implies, seeks to halt, redress or even completely reverse hair loss through the application and (usually) long term use of unguents, creams and other preparations. Hair loss treatment seeks to replace lost hair with donor hair from other parts of the scalp.
These days, hair replacement is actually a pretty good bet. It involves removing individual follicles and implanting them in the receipt area: the follicles take root and then fall out, leaving the root behind. That root grows as a natural hair. On the other hand, hair loss medication seeks to offer an alternative to mild cases of hair thinning and loss.
There are three basic classes of hair medication that can be considered. Two are man made, to a greater or lesser degree – they both contain artificially synthesised compounds that inhibit the production of DHT – a testosterone related hormone that causes progressive baldness. Both of these men made varieties of hair loss medication have experienced a pretty satisfactory degree of achievement in patients experiencing thinning of the hair. The compounds they contain (in one case, a compound called finasteride) slow down the production of DHT, which can dramatically reduce or even stop the thinning. In some cases, uses of these compounds (usually presented as a cream or medicated shampoo) have even shown re-growth of hair after the DHT production has been halted.
The third and less “artificial” form of hair loss medication is simple diet. Vitamins, minerals and so on. These play a major role in maintaining the health and strength of hair as researches have proved that often malnutrition can be a cause for hair loss.
