A little story about hair loss and hair growth?In Hamburg, Germany, some scientists got together for a party. Well, okay, it was not a party. They carried out some incredibly cutting-edge research, in an attempt to figure out how stress causes the loss of hair. %GOOGLEAD%

They were definitely going up against the stream, because most doctors and scientists believe that hair loss is strictly a genetic hardship that you are born unto. But these little men in white coats, little only because they seem so far away from us, were thinking something else entirely.

They knew, first of all, that stress has been a suspect for centuries as a possible cause for hair loss in various species. A wide range of neuro-peptides, transmitters and hormones control systemic stress responses. What does this mean? Well, Testosterone is a hormone, and it is specifically this hormone that can turn into its ugly stepsister, Dehydrotestosterone, and cause hair to fall out.

Their study proclaims that, indeed, Stress can alter hair growth and loss, certainly in mice and probably also in Humans. They administered sonic stress to laboratory mice. They found that this induction of stress activated the pituitary and adrenal stress response axis. That?s lab-speak for ?activated the hair follicle brain.? And the brain didn?t like it. %GOOGLEAD%

Now when this sonic stress was induced, many of the hormones released along this axis caused an inhibition of hair growth. In mice.

They found that sonic stress could actually induce, for the axis (brain follicle), a ?programmed organ deletion? by destroying the follicle?s regenerative capacity. And Voila! You lose your hair!

Previous studies had been restricted to connecting stressful life events with clinical evidence of hair loss.

Previous studies have largely been restricted to correlating the temporal coincidence of stressful life events with clinical evidence of hair loss. However, none of the previous studies showed direct evidenced that stress actually alters hair growth in vivo.

This pilot study reported the first experimental evidence that stress does negatively affect hair growth in vivo, and their key results strongly support the concept that stress inhibits hair growth. It can stop it, so say the guys in Hamburg, by attacking the follicles and destroying them through ?programmed organ deletion.? It happens on your head, and in this special lab world where every hair follicle is considered a brain unto itself.

This is great research, even if we don?t completely comprehend it. What you should do now is spend a little time each day with some soothing sonic delights, treating your hair follicles to soft and gentle ocean waves, rain, the songs of whales. Whales don?t have any hair loss problems. I?ll bet there is a connection in there somewhere . . .

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