Almost daily, the news channels report substantive breakthroughs in advancing human health.  New drugs, new approaches using molecular tools such as stem cells, and other 21st Century techniques herald an apparently endless stream of medical miracles.  But what about garden variety common pattern hair loss?  It's almost 2012.  So where's the cure?  

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.

In our previous segment we touched on the various forms of hair loss that commonly occur. As we discussed, the most common cause of hair loss is hereditary baldness, or androgenetic alopecia (AGA) also known as male pattern baldness. We also touched upon other less-common causes of hair loss including disorders which may be linked to underlying diseases, medications, medical treatments, normal hormonal changes, stress, and poor nutrition.

What Are The Causes Of Hair Loss?

The most common cause of hair loss is hereditary baldness, or androgenetic alopecia (AGA) also known as male pattern baldness.  Strikingly, as we age pattern hair loss may ultimately affect almost as many women as men. Other less-common causes of hair loss include disorders which may be linked to underlying diseases, medications, medical treatments, normal hormonal changes, stress, and poor nutrition.

Easy question, complicated answer.

Common pattern hair loss is known to be triggered by three factors:

1)  Genetics

2)  Age

3)  Circulating hormones

A number of investigators, including those in our lab and elsewhere, believe that stress constitutes a fourth less well-appreciated factor.  Here, aside from the well-described androgen hormone 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) other biochemical triggers may negatively influence the health, vitality and growth rate of susceptible scalp hair.  

Recent studies, including work performed by the University of Albany (SUNY) on behalf of HairGenesis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19692448) demonstrates a clear and compelling link between tissue inflammation and pattern hair loss.  Specifically, certain molecular markers of inflammatory cytokines, including CCL17, CXCL6 and LTB(4) are associated with pathways involved in inflammation and apoptosis in many tissue and organ systems, including skin and hair follicles.   Previously, we clinically tested liposterolic extract of Serenoa repens (LSESr) and its glycoside, beta-sitosterol, in subjects likewise affected by pattern hair loss and showed a highly positive response to treatment (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12006122).

A remarkable and lucky fact about the skin is that it is the one organ in humans that is amenable to local and systemic treatment.  For example, consider the treatment of skin irritations, e.g. atopic dermatitis.  Typically, in such an instance, your clinician may prescribe a systemic antibiotic concomitant with a local anti-inflammatory.

For those who consume a normal diet, the factors influencing hair cycling, hair growth and specifically, hair loss are well outside the scope of nutrient-driven biology.  Even homeless people experience hair loss in approximately the same ratio as the rest of the population.  Pointedly, residents of homeless shelters exhibit ailments, poor hygiene, drug addiction and other maladies.  And so, we find that the prevalence of pattern hair loss in such people closely coincides with the non-homeless population.

In the maintenance of human health, systems have been designed in us to surveil and deal aggressively with invasion by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, helminths etc.  Likewise, our bodies have been designed to detect and weed out rapid out-of-control cell growth because this generally signals the onset of cancer.  

Sometimes however, the surveillance mechanisms can be overly sensitive, leading to the diseases of autoimmunity.  Examples of such disease includes type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, alopecia areata and lupus erythematosis.  Here, instead of protecting us against outside attack, the body, in a manner of speaking, attacks itself.  Microscopic photographs of autoimmune lesions contain white blood cells which have been described as a swarm of bees.  

As the 2011 New Year looms, many people naturally take stock of the goals they hope to accomplish.  New Year's resolutions are more than a tradition.  They represent a chance to turn a page and achieve something important.  Some goals are relatively banal, others profound.  Tuning up one's health and personal appearance often lands high on the list of New Year's resolutions.  Striving to retain the vigor of youth, people go on diets and renew their commitment to exercise.  As the year wears on though, such commitments can become cumbersome and by March or April many of us are back to our old -- less healthful -- habits.