Can Coffee Cure Baldness?
By Brian on Sep 21, 2011 with Comments 0
Does coffee cause hair loss? A better question might be “Should I drink coffee for hair growth?” According to a study published in the January 2007 issue of the International Journal of Dermatology, drinking enough coffee may indeed cause hair growth. But don’t start your run to Starbucks just yet. According to the experts, you’d need to drink 60 cups of coffee a day to stop hair loss.
German researchers discovered the caffeine connection. They took scalp biopsies from 14 men in the beginning stages of hair loss, extracted hair follicles from the samples and put them in test tubes containing various concentrations of caffeine. After five to eight days, they found that the hairs had grown by 33 and 40 percent. In different test tubes, hair from follicles mixed with testosterone grew much more slowly.
The investigators suggested that caffeine in coffee might prove to be a way to stimulate hair growth in men going bald. If so, it probably would be applied to the head in a topical solution.
And so, it turns out that a German cosmetics firm named Alpecin has created a caffeine-rich solution that can be rubbed on the scalp.
“Caffeine is a well-known substance, yet little is known about its effect on human hair follicle growth,” said Dr Tobias Fischer, who effectuated the latest research at the University of Jena in Germany.
“But this study shows it’s a promising candidate for hair growth stimulation.”
It’s believed that most baldness is caused when hair follicles, the tiny sacs in the scalp from which hair grows, become exposed to too much dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. DHT is a chemical made by the male hormone testosterone.
If there is too much DHT circulating in the blood the follicles shrink, so the hair becomes thinner and grows for less time than it normally would.
Experts say that men with high levels of testosterone are more likely to lose their hair, especially if baldness runs in their family.
Over-the-counter scalp lotions have been a popular solution to boost hair growth, but these are largely lacking and scientific basis or proof.
Several anti-baldness drugs like Propecia have been developed in the last few years. They work by stopping DHT from reaching the follicles and stunting their growth.
However these drugs have only a small effect on men who have already lost their har.
Some men resort to hair transplants, taken from the back or sides of their heads on to the top to cover the receding patches. However this is dependent on transferring individual hair follicles rather than millions of active cells.
A British company called Intercytex is developing a technique involving taking a tiny sample of skin from the head and using it to mass produce dermal papilla – the cells which have already matured into hair-growing factories.
These are then injected back into the scalp, potentially giving a full head of hair.
Despite these advances, a caffeine-based lotion could be a more affordable and effective alternative to curing baldness.
To test the idea, Dr Fischer took scalp biopsies from 14 men in the early stages of hair loss.
He extracted hair follicles and placed them in test tubes with solutions containing different levels of caffeine.
The samples were left in the laboratory for up to eight days to determine their growth. At the end of the experiment, caffeine had boosted the length of the hairs by between 33 per cent and 40 per cent.
In contrast, other test tubes containing hair follicles mixed with testosterone showed that they grew much more slowly.
Scientists behind the breakthrough believe caffeine affects hair cells in such a way that they are able to resist the damaging effects of DHT.
“Hair follicles that were treated with caffeine showed a highly significant growth rate at 24 hours, and still showed further significant growth at eight days,” said Dr Fischer.
See the study from the January, 2007, issue of the International Journal of Dermatology here
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