Accidental Find May Lead To a Cure For Baldness 404
kkleiner writes "Science is full of stories in which great discoveries are made by accident: the discovery of radiation, the discovery of the universe's shape through x-ray detection, and now perhaps the cure for hair loss. At the time they returned to the cages to find that their bald mice had miraculously grown their hair back, the scientists at UCLA had no intention of curing baldness. Originally, theirs was in fact a study aimed at reducing the harmful affects of chronic stress. The unanticipated side effect of their treatment could prove a boon to balding men and women everywhere, not to mention to the drug company that delivers the cure to them."
Missing info... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-and-hair-loss/AN01442 [mayoclinic.com]
Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone? (Score:5, Informative)
Condoms, lower failure rate.
Actually, that's not true. According to this data [contracept...nology.org], women on the contraceptive pill experienced less than half the number of unplanned pregnancies than women who used condoms alone. Combining the two is pretty darn effective. Contraceptive pills also do nothing to limit the spread of disease.
Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone? (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, it's might not be your imagination. Hair loss drug linked to less libido, ED [upi.com] To be honest, that possibility wasn't even on my list of things to consider when I opted not to treat my baldness.
Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone? (Score:4, Informative)
Many women report the same from contraceptive pills. They can't get pregnant; the irony is that once they start the pills, they have no interest in sex. There are many different types of pills, and it's possible that women who find their libido affected by one kind can find another that doesn't affect it, but working your way through the options can be a laborious process -- and since you don't have any real desire for sex anyway, it doesn't seem like much of a priority (at least, not until you look back on the last year and think, "wait a minute...").
Re:Shocked. Simply SHOCKED. (Score:4, Informative)
How and when you lose your hair is determined before birth (through a fetus' genes and the 'correctness' of homone programming during development (xx chromosomes should get estrogen, xy should get tetesterone). Every hair on your body will grow/fall an x number of times. Men with more tetesterone lose their hair sooner, and men with less keep a full head of hair until later in life, if they lose it at all. This has been scientific fact since the 1970's - I really don't understand why this is not common knowledge yet (perhaps so people will continue falling for those bullsh*t "hair recovery" commercials).
So when a man goes bald, the hair follicle is still there, it's just not producing hair anymore. According to TFA, researchers have managed to chemically 'trick' the follicle into producing hair again - but this will last only as long as the chemical is present; in its absence, the body will go back to its 'normal' pre-programmed (bald) state. In other words, if you stop taking the drug, you lose your hair.
This sounds like $$$ to me.