So I searched for the oldest post with the word "cure" on this website

[Spanker]

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/144341-cell-cloning.html

 

There it is for anyone that wants to look at it.

 

 

This was over 11 years ago. A decade is a long time in technology and medicine standards.

 

In that amount of time we created and used the atom bomb, landed a man on the moon, built the Hoover Damn, etc.

 

It does kind of surprise me that over a decade later we have not found a non-surgical cure. Not only have we not found a cure in that time, besides coming out with foam instead of liquid minoxidil, I don't believe that there has been any meaningful non-surgical advancements.

 

Get it together chemists. Not to get political, but a lot of me thinks that if/when a cure or excellent treatment is found, it will come out of somewhere besides the U.S. Because of FDA regulations, govt. red tape, people suing each other and businesses as a sport, etc., I don't think this is the type of research that gets intense money and resources poured into it. I think were there a different climate a lot of us would not even need to be on this message board.

 

What are your thoughts on the future of hair loss treatment? Does it discourage you when you read posts well over a decade old talking about the same thing?

[sapo]

I hear you, my friend.

In times when the word 'Cure' means the opposite of 'Profit', keeping faith is a tremendous task.

[sharan9895]

I was 11 years old when that post was made... Enjoying my life to the Fullest then... No worries about Wind, rain.... Totally free...But now i' here at 22 with receding Hairline...

 

This post has Literally killed the Optimist in Me...

[Spanker]

Any additional thoughts? Saw a program this morning that said a cure was at a minimum 8 years away. I really don't think anyone has any clue.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Spanker

[StaggerLee123]

I hear you, my friend.

In times when the word 'Cure' means the opposite of 'Profit', keeping faith is a tremendous task.

 

That doesn't make sense since a cure would be the biggest profit maker of them all.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Spanker,

 

Thanks for drudging this old topic up. As you can see, members of this community have been discussing the possibility of a "hair loss cure" for over a decade. Unlike you however, I'm not surprised that a cure doesn't yet exist. I say this because when I was a child, I used to say to members of my family when baldness became a topic of discussion (well before I started losing my hair) that I'm sure a cure would exist by the time I started losing my hair. I was approximately 7 or 8 when I started making these statements and 13 years later when I first noticed signs of hair loss, no cure was available. Fast forward another 15 years, there's still no cure.

 

I've been hearing that hair multiplication is approximately 10 years away each and every year since 2004. At the last 2012 ISHRS scientific meeting (click here for highlights), it was reiterated that hair multiplication is at least 8 to 10 years away.

 

While a cure may one day become available, I suspect it'll be awhile until one exists and is readily available to individuals. Sad but most likely true.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[nativeremdies]

I remember when I was 7 back in 1984 seeing commercials for hairclub for men.

 

We do have a modern miracle of science! Hairloss prevention in a pill. If you are 'lucky' it works. If you get sides effects, it will suck away your soul like a stripper girlfriend.

 

Should be noted, both rogaine and propecia are "and it grows back here too?" happy accidents.

[Bobilero]

Im not surprised either. All the things mentioned like atom bomb, Space travel , Hoover Dam etc are all man made technology / advancements.

 

Where as with something like Baldness were talking about human biology (the most complex conundrum of all for man to solve. Primarily due to its something man has not created and it is all new discovery and trial and error).

 

I believe a chart to 'a cure' to baldness will map similary to something like a cure for cancer. With preventative measures and inconsistant treatments being the best availalbe until hopefully man cracks this complex conundrum of human biology in time.

[sapo]

Mate, I worked 3 years for a german pharmaceutical company as a salesrep. I'm sure my old bosses thank God everyday for people with same ideas as yours.

[Spanker]

Mate, I worked 3 years for a german pharmaceutical company as a salesrep. I'm sure my old bosses thank God everyday for people with same ideas as yours.

 

Not sure I follow you?

[mahhong]

The word cure is, in many ways, one of the most unfortunate terms in the English language. The problem with it is that it conjures up the idea of a singular, catch-all treatment that can completely reverse or stop a particular medical or biological problem.

 

In reality, science has "cured" virtually nothing. We haven't cured diabetes, or heart disease, or infection.

 

I don't say this to be pessimistic, because we have made some problems treatable to the point that they are virtually non-problematic. Infection is one of those; it's still as deadly as it ever was but in the overwhelming majority of people it is controllable and we win the fight. There are always a few who succumb, mostly due to other factors such as age or co-morbidity, but we have made tremendous advances.

 

I am unfortunately knee deep in research about cancer at the moment (one of my family members has it). It has put hairloss into perspective (though I'd still like to see it dealt with!) but it has also made me realise that the term "cure" is equally mistaken in that field. Cancer is not curable, yet every day many sufferers go into remission, often for years or even for the rest of their lives.

 

The human body and disease is almost infinitely complex. I would hazard a guess that virtually nothing can be "cured" in the sense we can develop something that, in one fell swoop, guarantees complete cessation of the problem. But, as one of the oncologists I was studying said - cancer will become manageable and will probably go out not with a bang, but with a whimper. There won't be a day when we can hold up the elixir that cures cancer, but as each therapy becomes refined, added to, more targeted, combined with emerging therapies, people with cancer find their life expectancy and chance of remission increase by months and years and, hopefully in the not too distant future, increasingly large amounts of cancer will become chronic illness and not imminent death.

 

Back to baldness - that too will go out with a whimper and not a bang. There won't be a cure. We are talking about a mind-bogglingly complex biological problem. It involves genes, enzymes, proteins, environmental factors and much more. No drug will deal with all of those at once, straight away.

 

Being an optimist, though, I do believe that within the next 10-20 years several new treatments will be developed that can be combined with existing and emerging treatments to create a regimen that will deal with the major factors of balding - giving men the chance to hold on to seriously impressive amounts of hair. That, perhaps combined with surgical restoration on a smaller scale (not to mention the cloning, stem cell and other treatments going on in the surgical field) will mean that all therapies and surgical options combine to make, in theory, balding no longer a problem.

 

Will it be a cure? No. It probably won't work for everybody. Even if 999 out of every 1000 men see great responses, there will be somebody who doesn't get the results they want. But will balding become increasingly treatable, and the options increasingly plentiful? Absolutely.

 

My advice is to not wait for a "cure" but research a regimen based on current therapies and stay well tuned in to what is emerging from trials. If you wait for that pill that will regrow every follicle on your head, you will be disappointed.

 

Balding and cancer share a lot in common in that respect (I don't mean that morbidly). Neither are, strictly speaking, "curable". But in the same way there are cancer survivors and people battling successfully every day, I see men on these forums who were bald and who are no longer bald. Some are not just no longer bald, they have impressive heads of hair. The chances are they got there through a balanced combination of the best available treatments, surgery and the occasional sprinkling of good luck or unexplained fortune.

 

That's just how medicine works. I am becoming increasingly wary of the word "cure" in any field. A cure rarely exists, but a well-researched regimen and balanced approach can be indistinguishable from a cure in many diseases and problems. Sometimes it's not cheap and sometimes it's not easy, but it's often doable.

 

My advice? Remove the word cure from your head - it distorts thinking. But do live in the hope that one day balding might be more of a nuisance than a condemnation. There will be options - perhaps not always an easy, single option, but an array of tools that will get you where you want to be. Many of those tools are already out there and some look like they're about to land, so don't forsake them in the hope the cure is around the corner.

[Blake Bloxham]

Mahhong,

 

Excellent post! Additionally, I wish your family member a quick and full recovery. Best of luck.

[mahhong]

Thanks, Blake

[Spanker]

Thanks, Blake

I agree, great post.

[KO]

To be fair, Aderans is finishing P2 trials this month for their HM protocol. If it works, we'll find out very soon.

 

Starting P3 trials is the big one.