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You've probably had it. The annoying itch associated with hair thinning. A significant number of men and women who are experiencing hair loss have it, and many of our users report such unbearable itching that they scratch until it hurts. Find out why using Nizoral shampoo can mean the difference between failure and success in your hair loss treatment regimen...We contacted Dr. Kevin McElwee, owner of Keratin.com and asked him to write
an article for us on how detrimental inflammation and sebum production is
to the hair loss and hair loss treatment process. Here was his reply, and
his very elaborate article:
"Well you opened a real can of worms with that
article suggestion. It is a complex situation and you will find different
dermatologists saying different things about the significance of inflammation
in AGA (Androgenetic Alopecia, or Male and Female Pattern Baldness). I have
spent a few hours trying to knock it into shape and as a result it has gotten
rather long. Feel free to hack the article down to size."
The technical stuff...
When looking at tissue biopsies from human scalp skin it is fairly common
to see inflammatory cells. Inflammatory cells are part of our immune system.
They should always be there. We need them to protect against viruses and bacteria
that can get into our body through wounds. Healthy skin should contain a lot
of what are called dendritic cells and Langerhan’s cells. These cells
form part of our primary immune defense. They are involved in what is called
“immunosurveilance”. In other words, these cells migrate through
the skin constantly checking our cells and other material they find to make
sure there are no foreign proteins present, particularly foreign proteins
from bacteria and viruses. There are even some inflammatory cells inside the
upper regions of the hair follicle. They probably look for pathogens that
might try to take up residence in the hair follicle canal.
More Inflammatory Cells in the Scalp than Elsewhere
 |
Inflammatory Cells |
Scalp skin contains more clusters of inflammatory cells than you would see
in non-scalp skin. These cell clusters are often very close to follicles, and
they contain other immune cell types that would not normally be seen
in healthy skin. Many times they contain things like mast cells, lymphocytes,
and sometimes neutrophils. While there are always a few of these cells in healthy
skin, seeing them in greater numbers on the scalp is a rather worrisome sign.
When inflammatory cells increase in number they are usually responding to something.
The cause of the greater clustering on the scalp isn't totally understood. It
could be a response to some change in the skin or hair follicles, or it could
be from an outside factor entering the skin.
Not many studies have been done to look at these cell clusters. Three are mentioned
in the footnotes of this article. These small studies generally involved taking
biopsies and looking at the numbers of inflammatory cells around hair follicles.
By comparing the frequencies of cell numbers in alopecia affected and normal
scalp skin, most of the authors concluded that inflammation might contribute
towards the hair loss. However, there is a flaw in this reasoning.
These studies always look at the inflammation after hair loss had developed.
They didn't take into account the possibility that changes in the hair follicle
DURING hair loss may attract the cells, and an inflammatory response. So there
is a lot of argument among dermatologists over whether scalp inflammation in
AGA actually contributes to AGA. Some well respected dermatologists believe
that it does, while others say that scalp inflammation is common and seen even
when AGA is not present.
(Continued on the next page...)
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