Male Hair loss

The hair loss has always bothered men, especially those with familiar antecedent. Men vanity is nothing new, It was just something disguised. Today there’s no problem assuming that feature, and among the main concerns is the hair aspect. One of the reasons that contribute for this is the joviality: as it relation between age and degree of baldness exists, a bald person ends up seeming older than one that still has plenty of hair. Therefore, after the hair restoration a bald person will look much younger than before.

Another reason that makes the hair to be aesthetically important is its hole in the face harmony. The face of the man is divided in thirds: from the chin to the nasal base; from the nasal base to the eye-brow and from there to the heir line. Hair loss interfere on these proportions, messing up with the symmetry and therefore, with the facial beauty.

The hair still offers a series of possibilities: to customize it, following the fashion trends, to represent a lifestyle and a standard behavior. Therefore, it is so important in the composition of the person’s image and personality. When we think about life styles, from different ages we think about the clothes and the hair that were worn and used. It is important for artists, rebel demonstrations or to stand as a neat person, or simply to assume a relaxed "off work" aspect.

Clinical Case

The hair fall can start right after the puberty, but it uses to be more evident after 25 to 30 years of age, stimulated by hormone or genetic factors you’re your father is bald, you should watch out for the amount hair in the bathroom drain when you take a shower, hen you comb it or on the pillow. Another way to find out whether or not you are developing an initial baldness is by checking from time to time if you hair is getting thinner, clearer or taking more time to grow. The sprouting of ”hair fuzz", short and fine is another strong indication.

Differently from what occurs with women, masculine hair loss is almost always associated to hormone-genetic causes. In the case of Masculine the Androgenic Alopecia, it’s basically all about the masculine hormone acting on the genetic inheritance that conditions the baldness. That’s why the cases begin after puberty. Usually, the more severe a baldness case is, the more precociously it will begin. The classic clinical case starts with a reduction in hair growth of speed in the attack area by baldness. Hair becomes clearer, finer and even smoother. Hair fall can occur, but it is more frequent to have a gradual thinning of the hair, that finish evolving to baldness. The great villain, responsible for that is a less important masculine hormone called DHT (Di-hydro-testosterone).

Levels of baldness

Masculine androgenic alopecia, depending on the level of baldness, can demand different treatment: clinic only, sometimes surgical, or both. Generally, baldness begins in the frontal hairline in the frontal part of the head, with hair thinning to the progressive hair fall, till it gets to a very thin, soft hair (Norwood level II).
The lateral part of hair, in the frontal hairline area, is frequently affected too. Later on, the “frontal hairline” tends to fuse right behind the “forelock” leaving behind an “isle” of hair (Norwood III, IV and V). As the frontal hairline advances, a “crown” rarefaction can be seen. Finally, there’s a fusion between the frontal hairline and the crown (Norwood IV and VII).

Some patient’s baldness, though, begins in the crown (Norwood III Vertex) later on affecting the frontal hairline. Some others, instead of the classic frontal hairline, also present a total and uniform retreat of the frontline of the hair, giving the impression of a forehead progressive augmentation (Norwood IIa, IIIa, IVa and Va). Is just further on that the crown is affected. There are many types and degrees of baldness. Another one is a more diffuse start, affecting first the top of the head, saving the frontline as seen frequently in female baldness (Ludwig, I to III).

Norwood table: level of baldness.

Hair Treatment

The current handling consists exactly on blocking the production of this hormone, using the medicine, finasteride. This blocking is partial (70%). The DHT hormone, the main responsible for male baldness is a less important hormone for the masculine sexual features. The main masculine hormone, responsible for the sexual features, as well as for the production of sperm and the libido, is testosterone, which is not affected with the use of this drug. The finasteride (principle active of this drug) acts by blocking the enzyme responsible for the conversion of testosterone in DHT, which is the 5-alpha-reductase. There are some drugs as the Dutasteride that are capable of blocking 99%, what would make it more effective than finasteride. However was developed for handling prostate cancer. The use of it to combat baldness would be what we call "off label", which means that we would use a medication developed for a particular illness, to treat another one, even though it’s not been approved to be used in this purpose, nor proven and even, not officially indicated, even so it’s effective. What we do not know is the possible collateral effects. We still do not prescribe it, waiting the studies that have being carried through lately. There is still, the 17-alpha-estradiol, a topical use alternative that, theoretically, would have an action similar to the previous ones, (blocking the conversion of testosterone to DHT). However, only a few serious studies support this thesis and our clinical experience has shown the same. Along with the "anti-hormonal” medications there are some others of local action still not fully understood, as the famous, Minoxidil. Medications of topical use are always more laborious and present a greater possibility of provoking skin irritation. But the advantage is that it doesn’t have systemic collateral effects, besides it. There are a few other medicine, phytotherapies medicines, lotions and shampoos of action not well established yet.

What can I do to keep the hair indefinitely?

Most important thing is to start the treatment as soon as possible! Preferably, you should search for help as soon as you notice any hair fall or a reduction in hair volume. On the other hand it is an illusion to think that clinical handling only will be able to reverse an advanced baldness. The medicine treatment is going to stabilize the fall and even reverse part of the loss, improving up to 20-30%. Even the more effective medication, Finasteride, presents better resulted preventing the hair loss than overturning baldness. Although it is possible to get an improvement in diminishing the baldness, with the continuous handling, it is, generally, discrete and unsteady. The patient will notice an improvement from six months and up to two years. After that period, the effect diminishes and occurs a slow decline, with gradual hair loss. More than the fall itself, what we verify is a hair thinning in the bald areas, what is called "miniaturization". In consequence, the realistic objective of the handling it is to try to stabilize the fall and to perhaps improve a little the baldness, knowing that this effect will be temporary. Even so, it’s worth keeping the clinical handling to delay the fall, once the alternative would be to leave it to follow the natural evolution. To believe that the hair restoration separately, will solve it all can be far from reality, unless your baldness is totally stabilized, once the transplanted hair is sufficiently steady, not needing handling whatsoever. If the baldness is still acting gradually, though the problem will be of short-term, but later, with the progressions, new bald areas will appear, demanding a new surgery. Thus, the ideal would be to associate the Hair Restoration (hair transplant) to the clinical handling.

Do you think about going through a transplant? What should you know before doing it?

Quality of life, health and hair: point of view
Arthur Tykocinski

The importance of the way we live, where we live and what we eat are fundamentally aspects to determine the individual’s global health. Something apparently, obvious for our grandmothers, has been, for years, rejected by western medicine. The great difficulty is to carry through scientific works proving what seems so evident: the quality of life is determinant not only in the duration of our lives, as also as in the way we age. To get alder is inevitable, but the to be incapacitated by the aging process can be reduced, allowing to get older with dignity; with a certain independence; with a full social life and even economically productive. In order to do so we must opt to have a lifestyle that is pleasant (as much as possible), to regularly practice sports (aerobics and gym are essential), to get a healthful feeding habits if we want to reach the emotional balance. In order words, it is to live in harmony, a good life with enough and re-establish hours of sleep. This way, the hair, as indicator of health, as well as all the whole body will profit.

Stress and its psychological aspect
The old ones used to say “a sane mind in a healthy body". The opposite is equally, recommendable. Our fast-beat life and the growing competition make us try to push the limits. To get worse, we have the great-cities factors which influence our quality of life such as the busy transit, pollution and sedentarism. In addition, the little contact with nature tends to isolate us in a stressful routine with almost none physical activity. We walk little and we sleep badly – which consume our energy and make us even more mentally worn down. Searching for the equilibrium is not only important, but vital. The ideal is to create a harmonic living environment where body and mind can be health.

This is hard to prove scientifically, especially without great laboratories willing to finance research. But there have been some studies, as “the hole of stress as a ‘trigger’ to alopecia areata”. Another study shows the psychological stress inducting the hair’s catagenous and increasing the inflammatory process.

We are speaking of quality of life, that obviously, works for everyone, be they bald or not. Medicine has been illuminated by the eastern philosophy and its commands. Acupuncture is a nowadays considered a medical specialty. The sports medicine, as well as other medical areas has recognized the value of the practice of Yoga, the relaxation, meditation and other philosophies which search to equilibrate the vital energy. This would be one of the ways to search the mind-body balance.

In order to achieve that people must question themselves to find out what they really want for their lives and what really matters. Many times people keep in search for somebody else’s ideal, which means to live in internal conflict that only consumes them. To identify the dispensable causes of stress is a good start, already. To rearrange your routine, giving emphasis to sports, leisure and the spiritual peace is essential. We must open space for this. It only depends on us. To diminish the work rhythm can seem to be excusing to money or professional chances, but it is not. If you are to consider, in life how much we can produce in professional terms referring the “total hours worked ", it will notice that we have a stronger rhythm in the younger years than declines with aging. Thus, everything that you do to make today in order to improve your quality of life and to delay this aging will work to make more income in the future, once you will be able to produce more and for a longer period. However, in this case the total amount of hours worked will be bigger if we choose to take care of the body and the mind when we are younger. The best thing is to begin now! It is not a matter of making more money, but of living better. To earn more will be a mere consequence. The question is: What are you earning more?

stress

The hole of feeding

To have a healthful feed, as well as using supplementary food can be important as a secondary hole in hair handling. Not necessarily solving the cause of baldness, but it can contribute a lot on the treatment. If we are to imagine the hair, in the organic point of view, as superfluous to the organism, we will see that any alimentary deficiency is punished with a cut in the systems that are not vital or have no top priority for the organism, such as the hair. For this optics, a nutritional accompaniment and an alimentary supplementation can be highly beneficial. The feeding is not always adjusted or enough: the industrial process reduces the nutritional value of foods, reducing vitamins and staple fibers, that in a certain way exercise the digestive tube, keeping it healthful. To ingest is not the same of absorbing. Besides, in search for a healthy, perfect body, the exercises increase the consumption of micronutrients, oligoelements and proteins of high biological value, rich in essential amino acids. Muscles Eager for nutrients can compete with the hair, disestablishing this delicate balance, so, they must be supplemented. Milk, digested by the adult besides being the insoluble casein responsible for the cheese also contains the soluble casein and lacto globulins, rich in essential amino acids, but not absorbed in the digestive process of an adult. Furthermore, the lactose is a frequent cause of alimentary intolerance in up to 80% of the adult population, causing non-absorptive cases. The adequate supplementation can be gotten with products of ionic-swap whey protein base without lactose, that take the most out of milk, breaking and filtering these proteins, resulting in high absorption, essential AA. The powder can be mixed in juices or water.

In the case of women in fertile phase, there’s an aggravation: the menstrual flow represents a chronic loss to the organism, especially of iron. Theoretically, the organism would have to be capable to counterbalance this loss, magnifying the iron absorption. As we know, this mineral is of difficult absorption, exactly with oral supplementation and what we frequently see, is bordering or low levels of ferritin, compromising the hair. Even when the iron reserves are enough to prevent anemia, this supply can be insufficient for the hair, which demands bigger levels of iron. What happens is as if the organism would give a priority to the hemoglobin production in detriment to the hair, what, biologically makes sense. This is one of the reasons that explain the variations in women’s hair cycle, with frequent effluvia, many times linked to lack of iron. This deficiency can aggravate another problem, the female pattern hair loss (androgenic alopecia) or to limit the response of anti-androgynous. Recent studies show that female patients do not respond to the anti-androgynous with low levels of ferritin and must be corrected. Other studies show the importance of the biotin in the hair, as well as the benefit of its supplementation. Zinc, selenium and silicon have their importance. In my opinion, without an adequate and supplemented feed, the therapeutical response is limited.

Nothing substitutes good feeding. Some recommendations that can be useful:

The base of a healthful feed is vegetables, legumes, lots of fruit, integral cereals, soy and fish.
To drink: mineral water, coconut water, or juice fruit (avoid eating carbohydrates at night). Green-tea, ice-tea or black tea, which is better than coffee. It has anti-oxidant effect and improves the coronary function. Recent research has evidenced that one or two glasses of red wine per day also diminishes the incidence of coronary diseases.
The red meat, with high cholesterol must be replaced for fish or soy. The raw red meat can magnify the risk of prostate cancer. To eat fish means variety, trout, grouper, Haddock, salmon, fluke, Tilapia, cool tuna, cool cod, Mullet, etc. The salmon and the sardine are rich in Omega-3, important for the skin and the coronaries. Good fish is fresh and with natural seasoning.
Culinary Books: the secret of healthy food is the receipt. While a good burger beef alone is excellent, the fish must be prepared with a variety of ingredients and flavorful prescriptions. The Mediterranean culinary is pretty healthy.
Avoid animal fat because of its high cholesterol level. The vegetal fat does not contain cholesterol. It is very important to avoid at any cost the hydrogenated vegetal fat“ and the "maleficent trans fat " which hardens the sanguineous vases. It is found in margarine, ice cream, cookies and snacks.
The milk cream Substitutes for the soy cream. Run away from fried food, use extra-virgin olive oil.
Substitute candies for fruits, rich in vitamins.
Great part of vitamins is unnatural for the heat, therefore there’s another reason to eat a lot of fruit. Processed foods "natural type" are not valid. Consume integral cereals and only toasted ones, avoiding the “flakes”. Enrich the cereal with linseed, almonds and chestnut, rich in oligoelements.
For weight reduction the carbohydrate must be more ingested in the morning and a little in the lunch, avoiding it at supper.
Include a rich, light and varied salad menu in your daily diet. A season based on shoyu, lemon (or balsamic vinegar) and oil leaves are the most flavored one. Eat raw tomato which is good for the prostate.