Losing your locks? These foods can help

If you're tried every shampoo, conditioner and cream hoping for thick, shiny hair, you may be going at it all wrong. The truth is, eating the right foods will not only help you feel great but they'll give you luxurious locks as well. TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer has some advice for getting "ahead" in the hair game.

Healthy hair depends on the body’s ability to construct a proper hair shaft, as well as the health of the skin and follicles. Therefore, good nutrition assures the best possible environment for building strong, lustrous hair.

However, changing your diet now will affect only new growth, not the part of the hair that is already visible. In fact, starting a hair-healthy diet today will mean a more gorgeous head of hair within six months to a year, depending on how fast your hair grows. Hair growth varies between ½ and 1 ½ inches per month (depending on personal differences). On average, a person can expect to have about 6 inches of new growth every year, so it will take about that long to notice the effects of your nutritional changes.

Before discussing how nutrition helps hair, it’s important to point out what nutrition cannot help:

Thinning hair due to male pattern baldness cannot be helped with nutrition. Your best bet is to catch it early and speak with you doctor about medication.
Thinning hair due to aging cannot be helped with nutrition. As we get older our hair spends more time in a resting phase -- versus a growing phase, which leads to thinner, slower growing hair.
Other conditions that negatively affect hair – but are all reversible, include:

Hormonal shifts – women tend to notice hair changes during pregnancy, postpartum, and nursing.
Stress is one of the most common causes of reversible hair loss.
Several medications can cause temporary hair loss. Thyroid conditions (hypo or hyper). Low ferritin level (low reserves of iron).
After ruling out medical and stress related conditions, here’s my recipe for a Healthy Hair Diet!

Iron-rich protein

Protein is necessary for all cell growth, including hair cells. Hair gets its structure from hardened proteins called keratin. Without enough protein for keratin, hair grows more slowly, and the individual strands that do grow will be weaker.

Furthermore, the iron found in animal protein (called “heme iron”) is most easily absorbed by the body (more so than the iron in plant foods (non-heme iron). Iron helps red blood cells carry oxygen to all cells in the body, including the hair follicles.

For most people, foods can provide all the iron necessary for good health and strong hair. However, before menopause, women may want to consider taking a standard multivitamin that contains the daily value for iron. Never take straight iron pills without a doctor’s supervision – taking excessive amounts when your body is not deficient can be detrimental to your health.

Good sources of iron-rich protein include clams, oysters, lean beef, turkey, duck, lamb, chicken, pork, shrimp, and eggs.

Good sources of vegetarian iron rich protein include tofu, soybeans, lentils, beans, and black-eyed peas

Vitamin C

Vitamin C improves the body’s ability to absorb non-heme iron (also known as vegetarian based iron), so vegetarians should eat iron-rich vegetables and foods rich in vitamin C at the same meal.

Vitamin C is also used to form collagen, a structural fiber necessary for the body to maintain integrity by holding it all together. Hair follicles, blood vessels, and skin all require collagen to stay healthy for optimal growth of beautiful hair. Good sources include guava, peppers, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, pineapple, papayas, lemons, broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts.

B-vitamins—folate, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12
These vitamins are involved in the creation of red blood cells, which carry oxygen and nutrients to all body cells, including those of the scalp, follicles, and growing hair. Without enough B vitamins, the cells will not thrive, causing shedding, slow growth, or weak hair that is prone to breaking.

Good sources of vitamin B6 include fortified whole-grain breakfast cereals, garbanzo beans, wild salmon, lean beef, pork tenderloin, chicken breast, white potatoes (w/skin), bananas, and lentils.

Good sources of Vitamin B12 include shellfish (clams, oysters, crab), wild salmon, fortified whole-grain breakfast cereal, soy milk, trout, lean beef, and low-fat cottage cheese.

Good sources of folate include fortified whole-grain breakfast cereals, lentils, black-eyed peas, soybeans, oatmeal, turnip greens, spinach, green peas, artichokes, okra, beets, parsnips, and broccoli.

Zinc

The mineral zinc is involved in tissue growth and repair, including hair growth. It also helps keep the oil glands around the hair follicles working properly. Low levels of zinc can cause hair loss, slow growth, and dandruff. Good sources of zinc include oysters, lean beef, crab, ostrich, pork tenderloin, peanut butter, wheat germ, turkey, veal, pumpkin seeds, chicken, and chickpeas.

For more info on male pattern baldness and women pattern baldness visit: http://patternbaldness.blog.co.uk/

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Look Good, Feel Good: Hair Loss and Treatments

You’ve probably seen them: television spots that promise a thick head of hair to the follicle-challenged. But offers that seem too good to be true usually are.

Among men losing their hair, the most common affliction is a progressive thinning known as male pattern baldness. The more hair lost, the less successful treatment will be, so specialists recommend action at the first sign of trouble.

Losing as many as 100 hairs a day is normal, but more substantial shedding is a red flag, says Pirooz Sarshar, cofounder of the Grooming Lounge, a men’s style sanctuary in downtown DC and Tysons Corner. Hair follicles are “like a mattress,” he says. “Fresh, firm springs loosen up with age.”

We’ve combed area experts for their advice on keeping what you’ve got.

Medical Marvels?

Hormones are to blame for most age-related baldness so the best solutions try to counteract chemical changes, says Dr. Thomas Nigra, chairman of Washington Hospital Center’s dermatology department.

Minoxidil, an over-the-counter medication sold in the United States as Rogaine, has shown promise in stopping hair loss. Rogaine, a topical treatment, stimulates follicles, says Nigra, who helped develop the drug more than two decades ago.

A prescription pill called Propecia also works; it blocks DHT, a sex hormone that causes follicle shrinkage. It’s faster and easier to use than minoxidil, which takes several minutes a day to apply. But Propecia is ineffective for all women and for men over 60, he says.

Many so-called “miracle” products marketed on TV are doctored-up trisaccharides, or sugars, that coat hair and give the illusion of thickness, Nigra says.

Transplant Trend

Interest in hair-replacement surgery has increased in recent years, as procedures now offer more natural results than the “hair-plug era,” says Dr. Richard Giannotto, with the Hair Restoration Group of Northern Virginia.

Depending on the procedure, a client can spend as little as $2,500 or as much as $20,000. Giannotto also offers laser-light therapy, a lesser-known treatment in the United States that has been “a mainstay in Europe for years,” he says. Scientists have found that low-level light exposure can slow hair loss, he says. Other physicians say there’s no evidence it works.

Researchers in Great Britain plan to conduct the first clinical trials with hair cloning, Giannotto says, adding that the procedure could reach this country by 2010.

But even a top-notch transplant is “still only a disguise,” says Nigra, who contends “there’s no substitute for a healthy head of hair.” Rogaine, which runs about $60 for a several-month supply, and $1-a-day Propecia stimulate hair growth and prevent the progression of baldness, he says.

Hair Myths

Here are a few falsehoods and half-truths about hair loss:

• Baldness is predetermined by your mother’s genes. “I think it’s time to stop blaming your relatives,” Sarshar says. “Hair loss does have a genetic component, but no one is sure what it is.”

• Vitamin deficiency causes hair loss. This is partly true—vitamins B and E as well as magnesium, copper, and zinc nurture the scalp. But, says Giannotto, there’s no supplement that can regrow hair.

• Regularly wearing a hat leads to hair loss. “Only if you’re destined to lose that hair in first place,” Giannotto says. Stress can also lead to thinning, but the loss is reversible, he says, merely through a decrease in stress.

• Baldness is caused by hair mites. Hucksters use this tactic to “scare people and sell special shampoo,” Sarshar says.

Source: http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/health/

Nasty little mirror reveals dirty secret

At my father's house in Collingwood, there is this nasty mirror on the wall. And while a mirror may have worked wonders for the Queen in the classic Snow White fairy tale, as she deceived herself daily about her beauty, it provides a different perspective on my fading youth.

This malicious mirror is placed in a strategic location, perched on an angle on the wall behind the toilet. What it reveals, as I stand to relieve myself, is an expanding bare patch on the top of my head.

As we all know, it's hard to see, without some great effort and ingenuity, what's going on up there.

As I prepare myself for each working day, carefully combing my hair in an effort to combat the receding front on my forehead, I am oblivious to what's going on up there on the crown. It's an area of the head that only a carefully place mirror can reveal.

While spending time at dad's over the holidays, I had the opportunity to be reminded once again that the flowing curly locks of my youth have left for greener pastures.

I guess I should feel fortunate my hair stuck around as long as it did.

As a teenager, I did some pretty strange things to my mane in an effort to look different from my peers.

For highlighting, I was known to use food colouring. To keep everything locked into place, I would use a concoction of sugar and water, and later, even shoe polish.

In university, I would straighten my curly hair with a flat iron, and then add gobs of gel and hair spray. What was amazing about the amount of product in my hair was that even after wearing a motorcycle helmet, it would pop back into position after I took it off.

The sugar and water was a reliable staple for styling as a teenager. The only problem was mowing the lawn on a hot summer day.

For months I couldn't figure out why flies and bees would swarm my head as I pushed the lawnmower around the yard at our family homestead. Finally I figured out why they were so attracted me.

I guess I should feel fortunate to have retained a solid mane to this point, considering the crap I put into my hair and the fact many men went bald in their 30s.

I've never been one to shave my head, as seems to be the popular style for so many men these days. My philosophy has always been that I'm keeping my locks attached to my head as long as I have them. There'll be lots of life to live when being bald is no longer a choice, but a reality.

Now that that little mirror in dad's washroom has revealed the tragic loss so nastily, I wanted to find out a little bit more about what I have to look forward to.

While some men never go bald, everyone's hair thins out over the years. Despite much research, there's little men can do to slow down or reverse hair loss or androgenetic alopecia.

I've always been told that you inherit the hair genes from your mother's relatives.

But apparently, that's a bit of a myth, as baldness can come from either side of the family, or both. Looking at your family can give you at best, an educated guess about how you'll turn out.

When I look at my father, he's already missing most of the hair on top of his head. Maybe he put that mirror there to see if anything grows back?

"I had nothing to do with it," he said when I asked him to explain. "There was nothing sinister about putting it there, but I'm not really sure why we did."

Sure dad.

Another myth of hair loss is that wearing a hat to often can cause it. This is completely false, thankfully, as I may have to resort to wearing a ball cap for the rest of my life.

Did you know you lose up to 100 hairs per day normally? These hairs have finished their three-year life span and are ready to be shed, then replaced, or... not.

Many conditioners, shampoos, vitamins, and other products claim to help hair grow in some unspecified way. These are harmless but useless. To slow down hair loss, there are two options:

Minoxidil (brand name: Rogaine): This topical application is over-the-counter, no prescription is required. It works best on the crown, less on the frontal region. Available as a 2% solution, Rogaine may grow a little hair, but is better at holding onto what's still there.

Finasteride (brand name: Propecia): This is a lower-dose version of a drug that shrinks prostates in middle-aged men. Propecia is by prescription and is taken once a day. Propecia seems to do a nice job of retaining hair, however, it may also grow or thicken hair a little.

Other options include hairpieces and weaving (never) or surgery.

For me, I'm prepared to live with what I've still got up there, and pray that it hangs on as long as possible. This loss is an inexorable fact of life, and I am prepared to deal with it mentally.

But I don't need a stupid mirror, mirror on the wall to throw reality in my face.

For herbal medication on hair loss visit: http://www.herbalmedicationsonline.com/provillus/

News Source: http://www.ancasternews.com/an/viewpoint/viewpoint_697977.html