While hair loss is commonly associated with men, thinning hair is a great equalizer, affecting 35 million adult men and 21 million adult women in the United States. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, regardless of gender, there is a solution, and it’s right under your nose, or your skin, in this case.
At Ethos Integrative Medicine, we specialize in finding solutions for common problems that tap the human body’s amazing resources. It’s called regenerative medicine, and we’ve garnered incredible results using platelets and stem cells to rebuild your body on a cellular level. From joint pain to thinning hair, we’re helping our patients in Scottsdale, Arizona, overcome a number of medical and cosmetic concerns.
If, like millions of others, your hair is thinning, learn how regenerative medicine, specifically platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, can help.
The thinning problem
As we mentioned earlier, thinning hair is a universal problem among men and women, and it only gets worse with age. When you’re born, you have the most hair follicles you’ll ever have — approximately 5 million, with your scalp hosting only 100,000 of them. Throughout your life, these hair follicles gradually die off and don’t regenerate, which is good news on some parts of your body, but not so great on others.
Besides the follicles that die off naturally, premature hair loss can occur for several reasons, including:
- Certain medications
- Heredity
- Hormone imbalances
- Autoimmune issues
The reasons for thinning hair are numerous, and researchers have even linked stress to premature hair loss.
Until recently, the solutions for thinning hair either involved messy creams or painful transplants, which are somewhat effective, but the hassle factor is high. Thankfully, there’s a better way.
The power within
To address thinning hair, we turn to regenerative medicine, namely your platelets. While your platelets play a critical role in clotting your blood, they also contain growth factors, or proteins, that help your body to rebuild. These growth factors include vascular endothelial growth factors and epidermal growth factors, which can increase the blood supply in your scalp and maintain optimal follicle health.
To harness these growth factors, we draw a small amount of your blood and isolate your platelets using a centrifuge. Then, we mix the concentrate back into your own plasma and inject the solution into areas where you can use a regenerative boost — your scalp, in this case.
With PRP therapy, we’re essentially redirecting your body’s own resources, rather than trying to bypass Mother Nature entirely through medications or transplants.
Under study
To give you an idea of the effectiveness of PRP therapy for thinning hair, here’s a look at one study conducted a few years ago.
In the study, researchers administered a course of PRP injections into a group of 10 men, who all had positive pull tests of 10 hairs or more (meaning their hair easily fell out). After four PRP treatments, nine of the men had a negative pull test, with three hairs or less. As well, follicle counts went from 71 to 93 units in a square centimeter area.
In plain English, the PRP therapy not only strengthened their existing hair follicles, it encouraged new growth — a win-win by any standard.
If you’d like to join the growing number of success stories, simply give us a call or schedule an appointment using the easy online booking tool.
