Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Starting to go bald? Propecia is the answer!

You are reading this online. You therefore know there are many sites allowing you to buy medication without the need to get a prescription from your doctor. All you need do is answer a medical questionnaire designed to check you can take this drug without serious risk. As an aside, you should always answer the questionnaire honestly. The questions are there for your own protection. That said, doctors are not completely redundant. Let us be clear. The process for self-diagnosis of hair loss is routine. You look in the mirror and see fallen hairs around the house. You want to prevent baldness and the drug used to prevent it is well known. Ordering online is reasonably safe. But there may be reasons to go see your doctor if there are other symptoms. Let us assume you are losing clumps of hair and also not feeling well.

There may be a serious underlying disease or disorder if you have one or more of the following symptoms:

  • fever;

  • moderate to severe pain;

  • loss of concentration, confusion or other signs of mental disorder;

  • difficulty in breathing;

  • loss of appetite and weight loss;

  • increase of appetite and weight loss (which may be more particularly associated with an overactive thyroid);

  • either extreme of constipation or diarrhea;

  • vomiting; or

  • obvious blemishes, bruising or marks on the skin.


Depending on the extent of the fever and degree of pain, it may be appropriate to treat any combination of these symptoms as justifying emergency treatment.

This set of circumstances has moved you outside the conventional hair loss situation. The issue now is to diagnose the disease or disorder so you will be pitched into the usual round of lab work, x-rays, scans, etc. Once a diagnosis is confirmed, the doctors will be able to advise you on whether treatment of that disease or disorder will restore hair growth on its own. For example, if the diagnosis is thyroid disease, the standard drug therapies restore hair growth without the need for any additional specific treatment. But if the diagnosis is a cardiovascular problem, hair loss is a standard side-effect to the use of blood thinners. In other words, the problem is going to get worse before it gets better.

In many cases, the only remedy will be concealment. If you cannot face the world without hair, you will be looking at the use of a wig or hairpiece. If you make a good physical recovery from the disease or disorder, but hair is slow to begin growing again, you can ask your doctor about propecia which limits the production of hormones preventing hair growth. In some cases, propecia will be useful. However, you may have to consider surgery if drugs have proved ineffective. Transplanting plugs of hair or individual follicles from one part of your scalp to another can produce some evening of effect between areas of thick growth and bald areas. Slightly more extreme is scalp rotation which works well for younger but not older patients.
You are reading this online. You therefore know there are many sites allowing you to buy medication without the need to get a prescription from your doctor[...]

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Thursday, July 2, 2009

So Why Do Younger People Lose Their Hair?

The most common reason in men is androgenic alopecia, sometimes called male pattern baldness because of the characteristic shape of the hair line. But loss also occurs in both sexes because of drug interactions, through physical or emotional trauma, poor nutrition, and other less common reasons. At this point, it is necessary to step outside the bounds of political correctness. In many contexts, it is considered inappropriate or, even, offensive to make distinctions based on race. The general rule is to assume that everyone is equal. However, in this case, there are significant differences between the races. Japanese men have less loss than caucasian men. Black men are four times more likely than their caucasian counterparts to suffer hair loss. Women of all races also suffer loss in the same proportions but, because of the difference in hormones, it is loss in the volume of hair rather than its physical distribution or patterning. This makes women's hair more difficult to plat or braid, ponytails hang more limply, and so on. These differences are noted by those who market hair loss products and changes how different brands are sold into their target markets.

What should everyone see when they look in the mirror - apart from someone "good looking", of course? Whether consciously or not, people monitor their appearance. It results from the way parents bring up their children and how children relate to each other. Parents impose their choice of clothes on their children, directing the choice of hairstyle, dictating the "look". The children compete with each other to break the parental mold, to impose their own choices and assert their individuality. The majority retain this interest in their appearance as they advance into adulthood. Those who are most into style and fashion are the most vulnerable to unexpected changes.

Most people will notice any change in their hair when they look in the mirror. They may also start finding more hairs caught up in a comb or brush. When hairs turn up on the pillow overnight or on the favorite chair, the list of symptoms is complete. There is a problem. For women, the first question is whether this is no more than damage caused by the excessive use of heat through curling tongs or the drier. Perhaps there have been too many applications of chemicals to dye or straighten hair. The style may also be slowly pulling the hair out by the roots so allowing the hair to be free rather than under traction may be the answer. For men who do nothing more than run a comb through their hair once every morning, the cause is most likely androgenic alopecia and the remedy is propecia. This applies regardless of race. The earlier men start taking this drug the better. It slowly restores the balance of hormones and prevents further loss. Over time, some hair will regrow. Propecia helps to maintain the same look over the years until age makes loss unavoidable.
The most common reason in men is androgenic alopecia, sometimes called male pattern baldness because of the characteristic shape of the hair line. But loss also occurs in both sexes because of drug interactions, through physical or emotional trauma, poor nutrition, and other less common reasons[...]

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