Stumbled upon this by accident, but apparently it's been around for a while. http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/352.full
In short: the article tries to explain why scalp cooling prevents some or all of the hair loss caused by chemo therapy. It's widely used in hospitals around the world, and although they really don't understand why, it seems to work.
One thing that caught my eye was this particualt pharagraph:
"There are two scientific rationales for scalp cooling. The first is vasoconstriction, which reduces the blood flow to the hair follicles during peak plasma concentrations of the chemotherapeutic agents and so reduces cellular uptake of these agents. This was demonstrated by Bülow et al. [6]. The second rationale is reduced biochemical activity, which makes hair follicles less susceptible to the damage of chemotherapeutic agents. The latter may be more important than vasoconstriction [6]. A lower glucose/lactate was demonstrated in a hypothermic scalp than in the normothermic scalp [7]."
Now, of course this applies to CANCER patients, and not male pattern baldness. But hypothetically (and this is why I post this under "experimental"
) if you look at DHT, insulin, TGF or whatever follicle- killing agent as the "chemo"; by the same rationale vasoconstriction and reduced biochemical activity (caused by scalp cooling) would reduce those as well.
Also the last sentence is of interest: hypothermic scalps have a lower glucose/lactate concentration. The countless debates and studies on insulin resistance and hairloss comes to mind....
Yeah, I know this is a long shot, and comparing DHT to chemo is obviously insane, but you've got to admit this is a LITTLE bit interesting...
In short: the article tries to explain why scalp cooling prevents some or all of the hair loss caused by chemo therapy. It's widely used in hospitals around the world, and although they really don't understand why, it seems to work.
One thing that caught my eye was this particualt pharagraph:
"There are two scientific rationales for scalp cooling. The first is vasoconstriction, which reduces the blood flow to the hair follicles during peak plasma concentrations of the chemotherapeutic agents and so reduces cellular uptake of these agents. This was demonstrated by Bülow et al. [6]. The second rationale is reduced biochemical activity, which makes hair follicles less susceptible to the damage of chemotherapeutic agents. The latter may be more important than vasoconstriction [6]. A lower glucose/lactate was demonstrated in a hypothermic scalp than in the normothermic scalp [7]."
Now, of course this applies to CANCER patients, and not male pattern baldness. But hypothetically (and this is why I post this under "experimental"
) if you look at DHT, insulin, TGF or whatever follicle- killing agent as the "chemo"; by the same rationale vasoconstriction and reduced biochemical activity (caused by scalp cooling) would reduce those as well.Also the last sentence is of interest: hypothermic scalps have a lower glucose/lactate concentration. The countless debates and studies on insulin resistance and hairloss comes to mind....
Yeah, I know this is a long shot, and comparing DHT to chemo is obviously insane, but you've got to admit this is a LITTLE bit interesting...
