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Hair Restoration Science

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Medicine has been trying to find answers to the cause of hair loss for centuries. Finally, however, science has solved the mystery of balding. As it turns out, factors such as diet, stress, the environment and genetics have all been implicated. The real culprit, the most important factor, by far, however is that of hormones – specifically hormonal shifts and imbalances. This conclusion is supported by some very convincing statistics

Studies have shown that over 90% of all hair loss in men (that dreaded Male Pattern Baldness) can be directly blamed on hormones. In women (and let us not forget that this is a huge problem as well) 80% of female hair loss or what we call Female Pattern Baldness is also directly linked to hormones. Both of these conditions are caused by a condition referred to as Androgenic Alopcea or “male hormone related hair loss.”

What causes thinning and balding?
Here is what we have learned about male and female hormonal related hair loss. Our bodies produce an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. This enzyme has the ability of taking the hormone Testosterone (which is naturally occurring in men and also produced in women-although in a slightly different form) and transforming it into Dihydrotestosterone or DHT and often referred to as “the bad Testosterone.” DHT, which has also been implicated in prostate problems as well as hair loss, attacks the scalp's hair follicles producing a withering or drying up of the hair by blocking a healthy blood supply and the important flow of nutrients. This DHT attack causes the hair root to become sickly. The hair looses its health and vitality and eventually begins to fall as the follicle no longer is able to maintain healthy hair growth.

Some hair loss is quite natural

First of all, some hair loss is normal and incredibly common, according to dermatologists. Typically, each person sheds about 50 to 100 hairs a day, an amount that most people don't even notice. As people age their rate of hair growth decreases. A hair disorder is evident when hair loss is out of proportion to the normal amounts of loss on the scalp, or elsewhere on the body.

DHT: The major cause of male and female hair loss

Men start developing DHT as early as 13 years old. DHT is the conversion of testosterone to a derivative of Testosterone that is commonly known as DHT and its presence in men works to break down a hair follicle by attaching itself to genetically predetermined hair follicles. It can cause the blood supply that feeds a hair to become damaged. DHT slowly thins a hair over time for most men and women. Men have genetically predisposed hairs located on the crown and at the hairline and temples. The final result for some men is the loss of hair on the top of the head in the shape of a horseshoe. It is important to note the pattern of thinning cannot determine the exact cause of hair loss.

Women have a different pattern, the have receptors located over the entire head. This is why women have general thinning rather than receding hair, for example. It is impossible to diagnose DHT hair loss based on the pattern of hair loss because mineral deficiency as well as iron deficiency, deep dirt and sebum plug and many others gives the same appearance in women.

Analysis in laboratories can see the effects of DHT on the root and stem of the hair. DHT can also compromise the blood supply; therefore hair nutrition must be assessed and treated as well in those wanting any type of "re-growth effect better blood supply and ultimately thicker hair.

The Effects of DHT

Male pattern hair loss
The most common forms of hair loss are androgenetic alopecia, or pattern baldness, which is largely hereditary. A baldness gene can come from either your mother or father's side of the family. Pattern hair loss affects an estimated 40 million men and 20 million women. What differs is the pattern of hair loss.
With men, pattern baldness usually begins in the early 20s, explains Amy McMichael, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina. It starts in the front, crown and sides of the hairline. Males are more strongly affected than females and often get completely bald. With women, hair thinning usually occurs later in life and affects the crown and front of the head, but the hairline does not recede.
"Some estimates indicate that about 50 percent of all people over the age of 45 have androgenetic alopecia to some degree," Dr. McMichael says. So where does that leave you and your dermatologist when considering treatments for hair loss?

Female Pattern hair loss

The most common type of hair loss seen in women is androgenetic alopecia, also known as female pattern alopecia or baldness. This is seen as hair thinning predominantly over the top and sides of the head. It affects approximately one-third of all susceptible women, but is most commonly seen after menopause, although it may begin as early as puberty. Normal hair fall is approximately 100-125 hairs per day. Fortunately, these hairs are replaced. True hair loss occurs when lost hairs are not re-grown or when the daily hair shed exceeds 125 hairs. Genetically, hair loss can come from either parent’s side of the family.

Androgenic Hormones

All normal men and women produce "male" hormones. The Androgens which play a role in hair loss (due to over or under expression) include: testosterone, androsteinedione, and dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Androgens are produced by the testicles and adrenals in men, and by the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. These hormones are quite important in both sexes, but occur in different concentrations, being much more predominant in males than in females. This, in part, is responsible for the typical differences between the genders.

It is the exposure of the hair follicles to DHT, in a genetically susceptible person, over a period of time, which leads to androgenetic alopecia, or male and female pattern baldness. How does this exposure to DHT occur?

In certain cells of the hair follicle, and in the sebaceous glands, there are high levels of an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase. What this enzyme does is to convert testosterone, which is delivered to these areas by the blood, into DHT.