|
Let’s Talk About Alopecia – Hair Loss
By Hope Mitchell, MD
The Truth Contributor
The word "alopecia" is the medical term for hair loss.
Alopecia does not refer to one specific hair loss disease --
any form of hair loss is alopecia. Mistakenly thought to be
a strictly male disease, women actually make up 40 percent
of American hair loss sufferers.
Hair Loss Happens and is a common concern at any age. Most
hair shedding is due to the normal hair cycle, and losing
50-100 hairs per day is no cause for alarm. People who
notice their hair shedding in large amounts after combing or
brushing, or whose hair becomes thinner or falls out, should
consult a dermatologist.
At Mitchell Dermatology, we have been treating patients with
alopecia for 20 years and it can be caused by many factors
from genetics to the environment. While androgenetic
alopecia (male or female pattern baldness) is by far the
most common form of hair loss, dermatologists also see many
people with other forms of alopecia such as alopecia areata,
ringworm, scarring alopecia, and hair loss due to cosmetic
over-processing.
Did you know that you are born with all the hair follicles
you will ever make in your lifetime? Interestingly, by week
22, a developing fetus has all of its hair follicles formed
and we do not generate new hair follicles anytime during the
course of our lives. There are a total of one million
follicles on the head, with one hundred thousand of those
follicles residing on the scalp. We are naturally going to
lose follicles as we age; therefore, we need to protect them
by avoiding over processing and tightly pulled hairstyles.
Did you know that at any given time, a random number of
hairs are in one of three stages of growth and shedding? At
any point, 90 percent of our hairs are in the growth phase,
which can last three to six years. The other 10 percent are
in the shedding phase. Some people have difficulty growing
their hair beyond a certain length because they have a short
active phase of growth – likely three years or less. On the
other hand, people with very long hair have a long active
phase of growth – likely three years or longer.
When evaluating your hair loss, some of the questions we may
ask you about include your diet, medications and family
history of hair loss, recent illness, and hair care habits.
In some cases blood tests or a scalp biopsy may be required
for an accurate diagnosis. It’s important to find the cause
of hair thinning as soon as possible for early and effective
intervention. We might recommend nutritional supplements,
prescription creams and/or pills, injections or the newest
technology-Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections-to help
stimulate hair growth and counteract hair loss.
After having the procedure myself and seeing great results
in terms of increasing my hair density and length, I
believed it offered an advanced treatment option for my
patients that are experiencing hair loss. PRP is a
promising new hair loss treatment for women and men to
regrow and thicken hair without surgery. PRP works by
injecting platelets from my patient’s own blood directly
into the scalp. These platelets contain growth factors that
stimulate regrowth and thickening of hair follicles.
If there is no scarring of the hair follicles, patients can
see results as early as a few weeks after the treatment.
This procedure is safe and ideal for patients who are
experiencing any hair loss from localized thinning in the
temples to diffuse or generalized hair loss.
Visit our website
www.mitchellderm.com for more information
about PRP injections. Call Mitchell Dermatology
today 419-872-HOPE (4673) to schedule your consultation.
The following two treatments have been clinically proven to
successfully treat hair loss in men to varying degrees.
Finasteride is the generic name for the brand name drugs
Proscar and Propecia. Finasteride was originally developed
by Merck as a drug to treat enlarged prostate glands (Proscar).
During the trials on men with prostate problems an
intriguing side effect of hair growth was observed.
At this point, the only truly effective medically proven way
to arrest the hair loss process is to lower DHT levels. The
American Hair Loss Association recommends finasteride as the
first line of attack for all men interested in treating
their male pattern baldness.
Minoxidil (loniten) was the first drug approved by the FDA
for the treatment of male pattern baldness. For many years,
minoxidill, in pill form, was widely used to treat high
blood pressure. Just like finasteride researchers discovered
a very interesting side effect of the drug. People taking
the medication were growing hair in unexpected places like
on their cheeks and the back of their hands, some even grew
hair on their foreheads.
The American Hair Loss Association still recommends the drug
for those who have not responded favorably to finasteride
treatment or for those who would like to add another product
to their regimen.
Currently there is only one FDA approved treatment for
female pattern hair loss.
Below you will find a list of treatments currently being
used to treat hair loss in women. Some of these drugs have
not been approved by the FDA for this particular
application, however they have all been approved for other
applications and are used “off label” to treat hair loss.
Many dermatologists do prescribe minoxidil five percent for
women with androgenetic alopecia if used under their
supervision.
Spironolactone is an antiandrogen that works in two ways.
Primarily it slows down the production of androgens in the
adrenal glands and ovaries. Secondly it blocks the action of
androgens in part by preventing dihydrotestosterone from
binding to its androgenetic receptor.
Estrogen/Progesterone
Also known as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and commonly
prescribed at menopause, estrogen and progesterone pills and
creams are probably the most common systemic form of
treatment for androgenetic alopecia for women in menopause
or whose estrogen and/or progesterone are lacking for other
reasons.
Finasteride works quite well for most men in both preventing
hair loss and triggering regrowth, and it may work for some
women, although women must not take it if they are pregnant
and must not get pregnant while on the drug because of the
risk of birth defects in a male fetus.
|
