01-11-2013, 09:23 PM
Potential solutions for hair loss could be associated with vitamin D
Baldness affects both men and women. 40% of men will see first signs of hair loss at the age of 35, and this percent will continue growing with age: 65% of men aged 60 and 80% of people aged 75 will experience hair loss. Around 35 million men and 21 million women in USA are dealing with hair loss. Number of people seeking professional help doubled between 2004 and 2008. Around 2 billion dollars are spent annually on the surgical interventions and this number is growing each year. 60% of hair loss sufferers would rather have more hair than more money or friends and 30% would give up on sex to get their hair back!
People lose their hair because they have genetic predisposition (androgenic alopecia is typical for males), due to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, as a result of stress, accidents…. Whatever the reason, renewal of the hair is imperative for all of them and cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry spends a lot of money to find an ideal solution for this issue.
Hair is produced from a hair follicle. Hair growth is divided in three phases. Anagen comes first and it is the longest phase (2-7 years, genetically predisposed). In this phase hair grows actively, ~1 cm in 28 days. Catagen is the next, much shorter phase. During 2-3 weeks, active growth of the hair will be stopped and blood supply will be cut. Cells responsible for growth of new hair will form during this phase. Telogen is last phase. It lasts 3 months and during that time hair follicle is resting. After telogen phase is completed, cycle can start all over again. Usually, 90% of hair is in the anagen phase, 1-2 % is in catagen and 10-14% is in the telogen phase. Baldness occurs when cycle is disrupted.
Like all other processes in the human body, hair growth is guided by certain chemical signals. Hair follicle in the telogen phase will remain dormant until partner or dermal papilla cells send a signal to activate it. Chemical signaling will predispose whether stem cell in the head will differentiate into regular skin cell or in the hair follicle. Too many sleepy hair follicles eventually result in baldness. Scientists from the College of Medicine in Phoenix discovered that vitamin D might be crucial for the activation of the follicle and normal hair growth. Vitamin D itself doesn’t induce hair growth but it binds to vitamin D receptor that is essential for the activation of the hair follicle. Vitamin D receptor is tightly associated with another molecule called MED. This molecule suppresses activity of the vitamin D receptor. Using the MED knockout mice scientists showed that elimination of the MED gene resulted in increased hair growth. MED obviously plays significant role in the hair cycle and could be excellent target for the future gene therapy. Another, recently discovered molecule, LEF1, can activate hair follicle receptor but only when vitamin D is available. Japanese scientists grew dermal papilla cells in the medium supplemented with vitamin D to increase the number of active follicle cells. Another group of scientists used rat cells and noted that addition of vitamin D in the final stage of stem cell growth resulted in larger number of cells that successfully turned in the hair follicles compared to cells that didn’t receive vitamin D. All this examples strongly suggest that vitamin D might be a key for the future treatment for the hair loss.
Is it possible to enhance hair growth and wake up sleepy follicles after simple ingestion of vitamin D supplements? Probably not, because activity of the vitamin D is more associated with the way our body uses it than the amount of the vitamin D in the body. This vitamin is essential for the bones but too much of vitamin D can result in higher accumulation of the calcium in the body and kidney related problems. Until scientists figure out the best way of exploiting vitamin D in treatment of baldness, make sure to drink enough milk, eat a lot of dairy products, eggs, mushrooms and fish and spend as much time as possible outside on a sunny days because that is optimal way to naturally boost your vitamin D reserves.
Baldness affects both men and women. 40% of men will see first signs of hair loss at the age of 35, and this percent will continue growing with age: 65% of men aged 60 and 80% of people aged 75 will experience hair loss. Around 35 million men and 21 million women in USA are dealing with hair loss. Number of people seeking professional help doubled between 2004 and 2008. Around 2 billion dollars are spent annually on the surgical interventions and this number is growing each year. 60% of hair loss sufferers would rather have more hair than more money or friends and 30% would give up on sex to get their hair back!
People lose their hair because they have genetic predisposition (androgenic alopecia is typical for males), due to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, as a result of stress, accidents…. Whatever the reason, renewal of the hair is imperative for all of them and cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry spends a lot of money to find an ideal solution for this issue.
Hair is produced from a hair follicle. Hair growth is divided in three phases. Anagen comes first and it is the longest phase (2-7 years, genetically predisposed). In this phase hair grows actively, ~1 cm in 28 days. Catagen is the next, much shorter phase. During 2-3 weeks, active growth of the hair will be stopped and blood supply will be cut. Cells responsible for growth of new hair will form during this phase. Telogen is last phase. It lasts 3 months and during that time hair follicle is resting. After telogen phase is completed, cycle can start all over again. Usually, 90% of hair is in the anagen phase, 1-2 % is in catagen and 10-14% is in the telogen phase. Baldness occurs when cycle is disrupted.
Like all other processes in the human body, hair growth is guided by certain chemical signals. Hair follicle in the telogen phase will remain dormant until partner or dermal papilla cells send a signal to activate it. Chemical signaling will predispose whether stem cell in the head will differentiate into regular skin cell or in the hair follicle. Too many sleepy hair follicles eventually result in baldness. Scientists from the College of Medicine in Phoenix discovered that vitamin D might be crucial for the activation of the follicle and normal hair growth. Vitamin D itself doesn’t induce hair growth but it binds to vitamin D receptor that is essential for the activation of the hair follicle. Vitamin D receptor is tightly associated with another molecule called MED. This molecule suppresses activity of the vitamin D receptor. Using the MED knockout mice scientists showed that elimination of the MED gene resulted in increased hair growth. MED obviously plays significant role in the hair cycle and could be excellent target for the future gene therapy. Another, recently discovered molecule, LEF1, can activate hair follicle receptor but only when vitamin D is available. Japanese scientists grew dermal papilla cells in the medium supplemented with vitamin D to increase the number of active follicle cells. Another group of scientists used rat cells and noted that addition of vitamin D in the final stage of stem cell growth resulted in larger number of cells that successfully turned in the hair follicles compared to cells that didn’t receive vitamin D. All this examples strongly suggest that vitamin D might be a key for the future treatment for the hair loss.
Is it possible to enhance hair growth and wake up sleepy follicles after simple ingestion of vitamin D supplements? Probably not, because activity of the vitamin D is more associated with the way our body uses it than the amount of the vitamin D in the body. This vitamin is essential for the bones but too much of vitamin D can result in higher accumulation of the calcium in the body and kidney related problems. Until scientists figure out the best way of exploiting vitamin D in treatment of baldness, make sure to drink enough milk, eat a lot of dairy products, eggs, mushrooms and fish and spend as much time as possible outside on a sunny days because that is optimal way to naturally boost your vitamin D reserves.
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