4 Effective Hair Loss Remedies Discovered in 2022

For decades, doctors have mostly relied on two proven hair loss drugs: Rogaine and Proscar.

Rogaine is a topical liquid or foam that must be applied regularly to the scalp, while Proscar, an oral tablet, is a drug primarily used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, or male pattern baldness.

And in 2022, there are several new hair loss treatment options for people of either gender, each with promising years of research behind them.

Here are the most prominent hair loss discoveries announced in 2022:

Dermatologists have discovered a much cheaper way to use the active ingredient in Rogaine

Rogaine is the brand name for the drug Minoxidil, which has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a topical treatment for hair loss since 1988.

But the drug was not originally intended for application to the head. It has already been developed to treat high blood pressure.

In 1979, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s minoxidil-based drug Lonitin for the treatment of blood pressure.

The extent of minoxidil’s success in hair growth was only discovered later. And so a topical treatment called Rogaine from The Upjohn Company, now owned by Johnson & Johnson, became available as a foam or lotion.

This year, more than four decades later, dermatologists are still using minoxidil to treat hair loss, but in a different way. It’s now no secret that a small dose of oral minoxidil — the same pills doctors prescribe at higher concentrations to treat high blood pressure — can work just as well as rubbing in Rogaine. It’s also cheap.

The US Food and Drug Administration has finally approved a treatment for alopecia areata.

Alopecia areata is different from hormonal or hereditary hair loss. This is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation inside the skull, around the root of the hair shaft.

“Once this inflammation occurs, the hair becomes thinner and falls out and then gets stuck in the part of the hair growth cycle where it doesn’t grow,” explains Dr. Arash Mostagimi, MD, dermatologist and hair researcher at Harvard, Brigham. and a women’s hospital.

This can lead to smooth, round bald patches or even complete loss of hair all over the body.

The new drug is called Olumiant, and it’s a once-daily pill for adults with severe alopecia areata.

Mostegimi said that genetic research to develop this new drug began in the late 1990s, when a patient advocacy group (National Alopecia Foundation) partnered with Columbia University to perform genetic sequencing of patients with alopecia areata.

Over the years, they have found that people with alopecia areata have more mutations in the JAK-STAT pathway, an important component of the immune system that is also designed to treat other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

And last June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant (baricitinib) for alopecia areata after successful early trials.

The scientists found that a 4 mg dose of the drug resulted in “significant regrowth of scalp hair” within a year in 40% of patients. This means scalp coverage of approximately 80% or more.

Two more treatments for alopecia areata are in advanced trials this year and could be on the market soon.

One daily tablet of ritlecitinib from Pfizer is subject to FDA review. If approved, it will be available to patients with alopecia areata aged 12 years and older.

Another drugmaker, Concert, is testing a twice-daily tablet for alopecia areata (CTP-543). Its results are also encouraging: some patients who have tried the drug have been able to almost completely restore their hair.

It would be great to “go from having no FDA-approved treatment options for this condition earlier this year to three by 2024,” Mostagimi said.

First Comprehensive Study on a Hair Loss Supplement

Three natural supplements have been shown to prevent the causes of androgenetic alopecia, also known as baldness.

Androgenetic alopecia is one of the main causes of hair loss. According to Harvard Health, androgenetic alopecia is associated with the action of hormones called androgens, which are essential for normal male sexual development and perform other important functions in both sexes, including sex drive and regulation of hair growth.

Mostagimi pointed out that some patients may benefit from certain dietary supplements, such as a plant called saw palmetto, which is available as a supplement because it targets the 5-alpha reductase pathway, which is important for male development. baldness.

Studies have shown that saw palmetto supplements can help treat some cases of baldness, but Mostagimi says finasteride, which is sold under the brand name Proscar, does the job better and at a lower cost.

“There is still no one-size-fits-all treatment for hair loss, in part because the biology is so complex,” Mostagimi said.

Some hair loss is hereditary, others are caused by autoimmune diseases, and can also occur as a side effect of cancer treatment or be the result of tight hair styles.

“We hope to continue to make breakthroughs in this area, but so far these are the main treatments that we have,” Mostagimi concluded.

Source: Business Insider