Until recently, most purveyors of naturally based hair treatments offered their products for sale largely without attempting to substantiate their claims.  This rendered it relatively easy to discern objectively proven treatment products from those less well-supported. 

In last week's article, we discussed the challenges we face in trying to cure pattern hair loss.  In this article, we'll explore a number of tools available as we seek to surmount this disease, one of the most common affecting humanity. 

Today, modern molecular medicine encompasses the utilization of molecular biological techniques in the analysis of genes and  gene dysfunction, each contributing to the onset and progression of disease. The study of genes and their healthy function in an unaffected individual has been rendered possible by the development of recombinant DNA and a related technique called cloning.

The most common form of hair loss in women, as well as men, is called pattern hair loss AKA androgenetic alopecia (AGA).  AGA is known as pattern hair loss because hair outside of the pattern is remains essentially unchanged, while hair inside the pattern thins and ultimately weakens and dies.  There are three key factors that influence the disorder.

In the current issue of the premier science journal Nature (www.nature.com) investigators report the discovery and identification of a genetic mutation involved in hypotrichosis simplex, a hereditary hair loss disorder that affects less than 200,000 Americans. The disorder causes hair follicle miniaturization, a process in which hair follicles shrink and narrow, and thick hair is replaced by fine, downy "peach fuzz" hair.

In a newly published study, a team of Columbia University-based hair loss research scientists report the discovery of a gene causing a rare but distressing form of childhood baldness, a finding that could help the quest to treat common forms of hair loss.  Mutation in a gene called APCDD1 plays a key role in a disease called hereditary hypotrichosis simplex (HHS), which triggers progressive hair loss starting in childhood.