Comb Your Baldness Away?
Great. As if I don't get enough spam each day for treatments for baldness, a small penis, notification that my loan had been approved or an urgent request to help out a Nigerian doctor to bring 20 million dollars to the US, now there is a treatment for male pattern baldness that actually seems to work. Using a low level "cold" laser, the new FDA-approved hair brush will, if their claims and studies are true, actually result in increased hair growth.How can this be? Don't lasers actually destroy tissue? Well, I called an old friend who has been using low level laser for years to treat chronic pain and inflammation and asked him: Can this really work and if so, how the heck does this work?
Here is how Dr. Leonard Rudnick of Tucson explained this to me. Low level laser accelerates healing and inflammation, restoring tissues and cells to their normal healthy function. When applied to hair follicles, this return to normal cellular function and stabilization of the membranes results in a return of hair growth. Think about it -- years of damage from sun, poor diet, tobacco, excess hormones and bad genetics can be overcome by a laser hair brush.
But as with all new and magical solutions to age-old problems, let's let time decide whether or not this will really work. Is it really worth $500? How quickly will hair regrow and if so, will the hair remain or will it fall out again? Will the hair look the same or will it be different? What about any side effects? Could these treatments do any damage, after all, we are aiming these lasers into our brains? My guess is that like most press release "breakthroughs," this will be of some benefit but not the cure-all we all would hope.
Rest assured that if it helps in any way, then these laser hair brushes will be a hotter topic than the next presidential election. Just be careful where you aim them.
I can hear the spammers at their computers now.
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Technorati Tags: hairmax, male pattern baldness, hair loss
7 Comments:
Is WebMD turning into the National Enquirer of health sites? What a chatty little article to tease people thru unsubstantiated facts.
As my Irish grandmother said "The newspaper never refuses ink." Well that reflex has moved online in my opinion.
The "cold laser" being used by Dr. Rudnick in Tucson is an FDA-approved device that has been endorsed by the American Academy of Pain Management. As a beneficiary of this technology, I can attest to its effectiveness. I applaud Dr. Marks for the blog entry on this technology because I can see many in the medical and pharmaceutical communities afraid of the cold laser because they may no longer need as many billon-dollar drugs anymore. I (thankfully) do not need to use the laser comb and hopefully will never need to use it... But the underlying technology is real and should be embraced. Anonymous, your assertions that these are "unsubtstantiated facts" is well, baldly wrong.
I have to agree with Anonymous, the article is a piece of fluff unworthy of WEB MD. In my opinion Jeff misconstrued the comment about "unsubstantiated facts".
It's not that the FDA had no basis for their approval, but rather that they did and the article does not provide any specifics about the results of the trials done.
Readers want to evaluate what constitutes "success" and the likelihood of their achieving it with differing types of hair loss causes.
Joe in Arizona
Does this laser work for women with thinningn hair and almost baldness too.
I would like to hear from someone who has used this product and report to us, their results!! $500 is chicken feed for a beautiful head of hair! don't you agree? "Wondering"
As Dr Sheldon Marks writes: Here is how Dr. Leonard Rudnick of Tucson explained this to me. "Low level laser accelerates healing and inflammation, restoring tissues and cells to their normal healthy function. When applied to hair follicles, this return to normal cellular function and stabilization of the membranes results in a return of hair growth."
The dismissal of surrounding skin cell treatment and what happens to them and not just the follicles is also at debate.
Also as a Psoriasis patient the treatment to "return to normal cellular function and stabilization of the membranes" might lead one to hope this could help with this condition too. I would not discount so quickly such a treatment, but soon this could become one of those devices which treat everything from hair loss to erectile disfunction.
I would buy it in a heartbeat if it could help with psoriasis as this is a socially debilitating skin disease but as Marks explains, and too for the reading audience, we'll wait for more results as we are certainly not the type to rush to WalGreens this morning are we?
At least he didn't add their website.
I have used the laser technology for about 6 months now and I can verify its effectiveness. In the front of my head I have had 5000 FU and it only covers the front quarter of the top of my head. Hair Transplant Dr's minipulate the pictures of their clients because it is impossible for them to cover a full head of hair. The cold laser has slowly began to cover the back of my head.
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