Accidental Find May Lead To a Cure For Baldness

kkleiner writes "Science is full of stories in which great discoveries are made by accident: the discovery of radiation, the discovery of the universe's shape through x-ray detection, and now perhaps the cure for hair loss. At the time they returned to the cages to find that their bald mice had miraculously grown their hair back, the scientists at UCLA had no intention of curing baldness. Originally, theirs was in fact a study aimed at reducing the harmful affects of chronic stress. The unanticipated side effect of their treatment could prove a boon to balding men and women everywhere, not to mention to the drug company that delivers the cure to them."

Comments

Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[elrous0]

This treatment works by restricting a hormone that helps regulate our stress levels. Isn't it maybe a bad idea to go fucking around with that just because we want a full head of hair?

Just a thought.

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[CastrTroy]

Meh, million of women mess around with their hormones every month just as a method of birth control, even though much more successful methods exist, and even though many (non-manogamous) should probably be using other methods anyway to protect against diseases. Most people have no problem with stuffing their body full of chemicals, especially when it's prescribe by a "doctor" or in a tasty meal.

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[Wyatt Earp]

Not to mention athletes, body builders, and people like myself who get to adjust male hormones, if you do it with the right chemicals in the right doses, farking around with hormones isn't a problem.

Before I got my current treatment regimen going, I was at 39 ng/dl when normal total testosterone levels range from 300 - 1000 ng/dl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypogonadism

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[ShavedOrangutan]

The current treatment (Propecia) restricts testosterone. I tried that and it completely eliminated my sex drive. After 8 months, I stopped, but I swear my drive never come back 100% and my hair fell out anyways. So yeah, going bald sucks but messing with your hormones is much worse.

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Abstinence has been working for millions of Slashdot readers for years.

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[gad_zuki!]

Err, stress literally kills. The hormones it produces are toxic. A significant amount of people are stressed all the time and its only made worse by the 24/7 society.

Unlike our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we aren't sitting in the sun all day. We're not getting a short high stress event (killing an animal) and then relaxing the rest of the day. We're not getting this level of downtime anymore and chronic stress is common. Heck, Americans barely get vacation days.

Your society, your city, your processed food, your vitamin enriched food, the vaccines in your blood, etc are all technology that has nothing to do with how evolution shaped us for so long. Of course, we should be addressing stress, the same way we address horrible urban conditions with germ theory, cleaning, better sewage, soaps, and antibiotics.

Its a luddite position to think that your body and mind are well suited for modern living and anything controlling that is "unnatural." Its a luddite who says we shouldnt be playing with this. This pandora's box was opened long ago. Appeals to "the natural man" are a fallacy for this reason.

Adding relaxation techniques into your life can make such a significant change its not even funny. Its incredible how much stress we take for granted. Its not normal, its not healthy, and it is a problem. I'm very excited by this research. I hate the idea that its 100% socially acceptable to be a caffeine addict workaholic, but once we start talking about relaxation, downtime, stress, etc suddenly we're all so careful!

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[PCM2]

Condoms, lower failure rate.

Actually, that's not true. According to this data, women on the contraceptive pill experienced less than half the number of unplanned pregnancies than women who used condoms alone. Combining the two is pretty darn effective. Contraceptive pills also do nothing to limit the spread of disease.

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[hedwards]

Unfortunately, it's might not be your imagination. Hair loss drug linked to less libido, ED To be honest, that possibility wasn't even on my list of things to consider when I opted not to treat my baldness.

Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone?

[Malc]

Our predecessors had an average life expectancy approaching 80 years did they? That's right: if I keel over with a stress induced heart attack or stroke at 40 years old, I've still lived longer than the stress free peoples you're talking about. What's your point?

Re:Hair Loss?

[rolfwind]

Ditch your palms and buy an iPhone or Android. It's not worth the bother cleaning them up.

Missing info...

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

This has nothing to do with male pattern baldness despite the grand title. It only allows showed the hair loss specifically related to stress to be reversed -- which actually can also happen on its own if you remove the stressor(s) that are causing it to occur.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-and-hair-loss/AN01442

Re:Socialists find the answers that Capitalists ca

[pushing-robot]

Or perhaps "capitalist societies" and "socialist societies" don't exist outside of textbooks, because real societies always contain some degree of each?

Won't someone think of the money, er animals!

[ackthpt]

PETA will have a field day with this one, what with causing artificial stress in the mice to the point where they start losing hair? Think of their self esteem, think of premature heart attacks and strokes...

The trauma to female mice .. when they see these bald mice returning to the general population with great big pompadours and new-found confidence, "Hey, Baby, come over to my corner of the cage tonight and we'll split some cheese."