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Boffins can predict hairloss

Scientists claim they can predict when a bloke will go bald

By KATE WIGHTON

SCIENTISTS claim to have devised a way of predicting if and when a bloke will go bald.
Hailed as the first device of its kind, the online baldness calculator computes a man’s risk of losing his hair by asking a series of questions relating to family history, diet and lifestyle.

The device was first launched in Germany, where it received more than half a million hits in its first 10 days online.

An estimated two-thirds of Brit men are affected by male pattern baldness.

There is a strong genetic link, with lads advised to look at their dad and granddads to assess their chance of becoming a baldie. If all are sporting a comb-over, it may be curtains for your flowing locks.

Junk food

The boffins warned that junk food and long-term stress can also trigger hairloss.

Hair scientist Dr Adolf Klenk said: “Convenience foods may lead to a lack of energy support and premature hairloss.”

He explains: “Hereditary hair loss appears to be a large problem. More and more men value full hair. We have developed the male baldness calculator to raise awareness among men. They should deal with the problem as soon as possible.”

In order to treat hair loss effectively we would recommend that you have a diagnosis made as soon as possible by one of our experienced Westminster Trichologists. Stress can be an aggravator in almost all cases of hair loss and an accurate diagnosis will always, at the very least, take some of the stress away from you.

Gary Heron says: “You’ll have access to the most effective treatments available through The Hair Centre and at a fraction of the cost of going to other Private Commercial Clinics and Centres.”

When it’s time to see the Trichologist: If you begin losing hair rapidly, and or are cosmetically concerned about baldness, consult your Trichologist about treatment options. You can receive a free hair loss consultation with a Westminster Trichologist at our Hair Centre.

The point is that you are not getting to the real problem and you should seek specific professional advice from a Westminster Trichologist.

“Why buy hair loss treatments over the counter or on the internet when you can see a Westminster Trichologist for FREE and know that you are guaranteed results”

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help

Baldness calculator promises to predict men's hair loss

A pioneering new computer program that predicts if and when men will go bald is being offered to British men.

Two thirds of all British men will eventually suffer hair loss, according to recent research. Photo: GETTY

The ‘baldness calculator’ – said to be the world’s first reliable tool for predicting hair loss – has been a huge hit with men in other countries.

The program calculates the exact age at which someone will go bald or have lost most of their hair or provides reassurance by predicting that they will still have a full head of hair in old age.

More than half a million German men used it within ten days of it being unveiled there and three million men have tried it out globally so far.

Sixty per cent of users of the calculator to date have been young men aged between 15 and 30.

Two thirds of all British men will eventually suffer hair loss, according to recent research.

The program asks users about their age, marital status, occupation, where they live, what their current hairline is, hair loss in their family and their stress levels.

German scientists devised the program because half of men in their country suffer from hereditary hair loss.

Dr Adolf Klenk, head of research and development at hair care firm Dr Kurt Wolff, said: “More and more men value full hair but especially younger men.

“They are looking for a partner and are at the peak of their social lives. They are very conscious about their looks and being accepted within their social groups.

“They get concerned that if they lose their hair, they will cease to be attractive to others whereas older men don’t care so much.”

Dr Klenk said that men with a history of hair loss on either their mother or father’s side of the family are most at risk of going bald.

“Genetic predisposition is by far the most common cause of baldness. But other factors include severe, long-term emotional stress, perhaps associated with a divorce or the loss of a close relative.

“A poor diet can fail to provide the hair with sufficient nutrients and men who wear headgear in call centres or helmets on construction sites motorbikes may be putting their hair roots at risk of being pulled out or losing density.

“We have developed the male baldness calculator to raise awareness among men.”

The firm’s scientists have worked closely with dermatologists from Germany’s University of Jena to create a shampoo to combat baldness.

They claim that their new Alpecin shampoo and hair tonic, which rely on caffeine as the main component, stimulate hair growth and slow down hair loss.

Around 500 scalp samples were taken from volunteers and tests showed that caffeine benefited hair growth.

In order to treat hair loss effectively we would recommend that you have a diagnosis made as soon as possible by one of our experienced trichologists. Stress can be an aggravator in almost all cases of hair loss and an accurate diagnosis will always, at the very least, take some of the stress away from you.

Gary Heron says: “You’ll have access to the most effective treatments available through The Hair Centre and at a fraction of the cost of going to other Private Commercial Clinics and Centres.”

When it’s time to see the Trichologist: If you begin losing hair rapidly, and or are cosmetically concerned about baldness, consult your Trichologist about treatment options. You can receive a free hair loss consultation with a Westminster Trichologist at our Hair Centre.

The point is that you are not getting to the real problem and you should seek specific professional advice from a Westminster Trichologist.

“Why buy hair loss treatments over the counter or on the internet when you can see a Westminster Trichologist for FREE and know that you are guaranteed results”

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help

Botox 'could be the cure for baldness'

Botox, the antiwrinkle injection, is being used as a surprise treatment for baldness.

By John Bingham

Botox, the antiwrinkle injection, is being used as a surprise treatment for baldness Photo: REUTERS

Dr Simon Ourian, a cosmetic surgeon based in Beverly Hills, California, claimed that he stumbled upon its unexpected powers by accident while treating his mother who was suffering from migraines after having chemotherapy which had made her hair fall out.

Familiar with Botox’s use as a headache treatment, he injected the chemical – the medical name for a form of Botulinum toxin – into her scalp but was surprised to find that it also appeared to help her hair to grow back.

He said that he tested his discovery on volunteers for three years, adding a mixture of vitamins to make the process more effective.

“With my patients these Botox vitamin injections for baldness have been very safe and more effective than anything I have seen before,” he Dr Ourian.

If his claims are proved in formal scientific trials it could potentially be used as the basis for new treatments for baldness.

The theory is that by dilating blood vessels, Botox, a relaxant, allows nutrients into shrunk follicles by dilating the blood vessels.

“I was happily surprised by the result,” he said. “So I decided to share the discovery with several of my regular patients. Because hair loss is a significant source of insecurity for many people, both men and women, there was no shortage of volunteers with thinning hair.”

In order to treat hair loss effectively we would recommend that you have a diagnosis made as soon as possible by one of our experienced trichologists. Stress can be an aggravator in almost all cases of hair loss and an accurate diagnosis will always, at the very least, take some of the stress away from you.

Gary Heron says: “You’ll have access to the most effective treatments available through The Hair Centre and at a fraction of the cost of going to other Private Commercial Clinics and Centres.”

When it’s time to see the Trichologist: If you begin losing hair rapidly, and or are cosmetically concerned about baldness, consult your Trichologist about treatment options. You can receive a free hair loss consultation with a Westminster Trichologist at our Hair Centre.

The point is that you are not getting to the real problem and you should seek specific professional advice from a Westminster Trichologist.

“Why buy hair loss treatments over the counter or on the internet when you can see a Westminster Trichologist for FREE and know that you are guaranteed results”

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help

Human Skin Cells Given Stem Cell Properties

Amitabh Avasthi
for National Geographic News

November 20, 2007

Two teams of scientists have given human skin cells many of the properties of embryonic stem cells – a development that could ease political, ethical, and medical concerns over the highly controversial research topic.

Like embryonic stem cells, the new cells—known as induced pluripotent cells—are capable of developing into most types of cells in the body. But the new lines can be created without the use of an embryo.

Such cells could conceivably also be custom-made for any adult, sidestepping issues of cell rejection.

“The advantage of using [such] reprogrammed skin cells is that any cells developed for therapeutic purposes can be customized to the patient,” James Thompson, who led one of the studies, said in a prepared statement.

“They are probably more clinically relevant than embryonic stem cells,” added Thompson, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Embryonic stem cell work has long been mired in controversy. Such cells may lead to medical treatments such as tissue and organ replacement, but harvesting the cells typically requires the destruction of an embryo.

Since 2001 the United States government has restricted public funding to a limited number of embryonic stem cell lines, a move many U.S. scientists say has stifled their work.

Reprogramming Cells

The race to create induced pluripotent cells in humans began last year, when scientists at Kyoto University in Japan announced they had inserted genes into cells from the tails of mice and reprogrammed them into cells with properties of embryonic stem cells. (Related: “Mouse Testicles Yield Promising Stem Cells” [March 24, 2006].)

Thompson and his colleagues today announced they had finally translated the research to humans by using viruses to ferry four genes—OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and LIN28—into skin cells. The full findings appear in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

In a second study, appearing today in the journal Cell, the Kyoto team announced that they have also given human cells taken from skin and connective tissues stem cell properties.

Using the same technique as that of Thompson but with a slightly different combination of genes, the Japanese researchers report they were able to reprogram 10 cells out of every 50,000.

The Wisconsin team got one pluripotent cell for every 10,000 cells.

“We should now be able to generate patient- and disease-specific [induced pluripotent stem] cells and then make various cells, such as cardiac cells, liver cells, and neural cells,” team leader Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University said in a statement.

Good Alternative

Sidney Golub chairs the Human Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee at the University of California, Irvine.

In addition to alleviating concerns over embryonic stem cells, the new techniques may reduce the need to carry out somatic cell nuclear transfer, a controversial technique that uses harvested eggs to clone cells, he said.

Such a procedure is used to create animal clones, such as Dolly the sheep, and is being explored as a way to create human stem cell lines.

“This approach, if generally applicable, may be a good alternative to somatic cell nuclear transfer,” he said. “If it turns out to be a good alternative, obtaining donated human oocytes [eggs] may be less important for research progress.”

The advance, if it proves generally applicable, will allow the creation of cell lines that are genetically identical to an individual needing stem cell therapy, added Timothy Caulfield, research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta.

This would eliminate the possibility of tissue rejection, one of several barriers still impeding the development of stem-cell-based medical treatments.

Caulfield said that the findings hold “tremendous amount of potential, but [applications] could be years and years away.

“There are many other issues to consider,” he added. “If these cells are truly pluripotent, could they form eggs and sperm? If so, what then?”

Funding Snag

The effect of the findings on federal funding is also debatable.

“It is not clear if this work would be eligible for federal funding under the restrictions put in place by President Bush in 2001, as the genes that were transferred were obtained from embryonic stem cells,” UC Irvine’s Golub said.

“Even if this work was eligible, President Bush’s recent veto of the bill containing the NIH appropriation means that little new federal funding will be available for any new research developments,” he added.

Caulfield also suggested that the research has a significant downside, because the pluripotent cells are not true stem cells and no one yet knows the true extent of their abilities.

“For those who want to receive federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, it could be a blow,” he said.

“This will allow those against the research, particularly politicians, to say that embryonic stem cell work is no longer necessary, so there is no need for federal funds. This, in my view, is a mistake.”

Gary Heron says: “You’ll have access to the most effective treatments available through The Hair Centre and at a fraction of the cost of going to other Private Commercial Clinics and Centres.”

When it’s time to see the Trichologist: If you begin losing hair rapidly, and or are cosmetically concerned about baldness, consult your Trichologist about treatment options. You can receive a free hair loss consultation with a Westminster Trichologist at our Hair Centre.

The point is that you are not getting to the real problem and you should seek specific professional advice from a Westminster Trichologist.

“Why buy hair loss treatments over the counter or on the internet when you can see a Westminster Trichologist for FREE and know that you are guaranteed results”

Do you have Hair Loss Problems, read our Hair Loss Help