Hair today Gone Tommorrow

Balding is not something anyone would look forward to. Even though we are unable to stop aging we can help ourselves when it comes to hair loss.

Our hair does get thinner as we age and more for some than others but with today's medications and creams etc we may be able to slow this down.

I have looked into many hair loss remedies and have found some that are better than others in how they say the can slow down hair loss and some even say they will help your existing hair grow more and stronger. I do not know about that but have heard of some of the good some of them do.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Treatments For Hair Loss In Women

By Al Benson

Helping people deal with their hair loss is big business but the reality is there are very few products that actually will treat the hair loss effectively. You can find all kinds of remedies and natural hair growth products on the web by just doing a simple search. But, when you really look into their claims you see that most of the methods have never been studied in a clinical trial setting.

There are two drugs though which have been studied by the Food and Drug Administration in the US and found to have a positive effect in dealing with balding problems. These substances do very well at keeping the hair you have. They also will assist in re-growing some hair but not a lot.

The first drug, Finasteride, was originally being developed to treat male urinary tract problems. In particular, it was targeting enlarge prostates. During clinical trials anecdotal evidence indicated many men on the drug were also seeing relief from their hair problems.

New clinical trials were initiated that showed the drug was effective at helping to slow down and in some cases reverse hair loss. Finasteride is a medication that is taken by the mouth in tablet form every day. Once the treatment is started it must continue or any gains will be quickly lost.

This treatment works well for men only. Women of child bearing age are never prescribed this medication because of the potential for birth defects. In fact, it is so powerful that women are not even allowed to touch the tablets because the active ingredient may be absorbed through the skin. The drug is effective for men but there are other potential side effect concerns also.

The second drug approved by the US FDA as a treatment for hair thinning and balding is Minoxidil. This drug was also shown to have a positive effect on hair loss while trials were being conducted on another condition. Minoxidil is a vasodilator medication which means it helps to make the tiny blood vessels in the body larger which in turn lowers high blood pressure.

Increasing the size of the blood vessels apparently counteracts the effects of the male and female pattern baldness and allows the follicles to continue to produce hair shaft material. The Minoxidil is applied to the scalp daily with a 5% solution for men and a 2% solution for women. This is the only drug that has been targeted to the effects of the pattern baldness condition on women.

These two drugs have been shown to be effective in the fight against hair loss. If you are a man you can use either drug but women can only use the second. The point is, there are actually remedies for hair loss that do provide results.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment