Hair Loss Research - Tips to Help Find What You Are Looking For
If you are searching for alopecia or hair loss research on the internet, you'll need to be a little more specific.
Otherwise, you'll come up with studies concerning alopecia in HIV patients in India and other research topics that are probably not what you are looking for.
What you might want to search for instead is "androgenic alopecia".
Of course, you may still come up with unwanted results, as there are over 10,000 studies concerning some form of alopecia and the databases that store them are not perfect.
So, even if you typed in androgenic alopecia, you would still see results concerning chronic cutanous lupus erythematosus, the condition affecting the singer Seal.
Practically any health problem that you can think of causes symptoms involving the skin, hair, scalp and fingernails.
That's one of the reasons there have been so many published studies.
Many of the studies address the issue of preventing alopecia in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
While the side effect is not detrimental to a person's health, it causes psychological discomfort for many patients, which is why researchers would like to be able to prevent it.
Much of the hair loss research still concerns finasteride, even though the drug has been on the market for a number of years.
One recent study attempts to explain why depression is among the side effects caused by the drug.
It may never be possible to draw any scientific conclusions concerning that effect.
Researchers are still unsure about what causes depression in general.
Finasteride is the subject of many studies because it is the only drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of male androgenic alopecia or male pattern baldness.
Androgenic alopecia occurs in females, too, but finasteride is not prescribed to them except by a handful of doctors.
Studies indicate that it is not effective for women, and if they became pregnant while taking it, the infant would be likely to suffer from birth defects.
Another popular subject for hair loss research is Minoxidil.
To date, over 1500 studies have been published and are available for review at PubMed.
com, the database created by the US National Library of Medicine.
Although Minoxidil has been on the market since the 1980s, it was originally marketed as Rogaine and the patent did not expire until the late 1990s.
So, some research groups were unable to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the treatment until recent years.
One thing that most hair loss research has in common is that the results vary.
But, with Minoxidil, the results have been duplicated over and over again.
The studies have been scientifically controlled, compared to placebo, and both the researchers and the participants have been unaware of who was getting the active solution.
It's applied topically.
It's completely safe.
The only common side effect is redness on the scalp, immediately after application and not everyone experiences that.
Hair loss research has proven the effectiveness of Minoxidil for both men and women.
If you are balding, do a little comparative shopping before you buy.
That way you'll find the best quality and get the best results.
Otherwise, you'll come up with studies concerning alopecia in HIV patients in India and other research topics that are probably not what you are looking for.
What you might want to search for instead is "androgenic alopecia".
Of course, you may still come up with unwanted results, as there are over 10,000 studies concerning some form of alopecia and the databases that store them are not perfect.
So, even if you typed in androgenic alopecia, you would still see results concerning chronic cutanous lupus erythematosus, the condition affecting the singer Seal.
Practically any health problem that you can think of causes symptoms involving the skin, hair, scalp and fingernails.
That's one of the reasons there have been so many published studies.
Many of the studies address the issue of preventing alopecia in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
While the side effect is not detrimental to a person's health, it causes psychological discomfort for many patients, which is why researchers would like to be able to prevent it.
Much of the hair loss research still concerns finasteride, even though the drug has been on the market for a number of years.
One recent study attempts to explain why depression is among the side effects caused by the drug.
It may never be possible to draw any scientific conclusions concerning that effect.
Researchers are still unsure about what causes depression in general.
Finasteride is the subject of many studies because it is the only drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of male androgenic alopecia or male pattern baldness.
Androgenic alopecia occurs in females, too, but finasteride is not prescribed to them except by a handful of doctors.
Studies indicate that it is not effective for women, and if they became pregnant while taking it, the infant would be likely to suffer from birth defects.
Another popular subject for hair loss research is Minoxidil.
To date, over 1500 studies have been published and are available for review at PubMed.
com, the database created by the US National Library of Medicine.
Although Minoxidil has been on the market since the 1980s, it was originally marketed as Rogaine and the patent did not expire until the late 1990s.
So, some research groups were unable to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the treatment until recent years.
One thing that most hair loss research has in common is that the results vary.
But, with Minoxidil, the results have been duplicated over and over again.
The studies have been scientifically controlled, compared to placebo, and both the researchers and the participants have been unaware of who was getting the active solution.
It's applied topically.
It's completely safe.
The only common side effect is redness on the scalp, immediately after application and not everyone experiences that.
Hair loss research has proven the effectiveness of Minoxidil for both men and women.
If you are balding, do a little comparative shopping before you buy.
That way you'll find the best quality and get the best results.