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Green Tea and Hair Loss
- How Antioxidants in Green Tea May Prevent Thinning Hair

A team of researchers from Korea have found a novel medical application for green tea - hair loss treatment. According to Dr. Kwoni's research, green tea prevents thinning hair. For men and women who don't want to use drugs like minoxidil, finasteride or dutasteride to fight balding, tea may be a good choice for them.

In 2006, the researchers aimed to test a hypothesis - can the anti-oxidants in green tea stop balding by fighting androgens in the head. Androgens are the hormones responsible for most types of thinning hair for women and men. The research team in the Labaratory of Cutaneous Aging and Hair Research lead by Dr. Kwon found study subjects to contribute their hair follicles. The research team chose hair follicles that were currently in the anagen phase or growth period and they incubated the hairs in well dishes. what the research team found was encouraging. Hair follicles exposed to tea, in particular epigallocatechin-3-gallate, a natural element in the tea, displayed a greater ability to encourage growth and withstand hair follicle death.

In order to understand why these findings are so remarkable consider this: (1) Few investigations have been conducted by scientists, objectively testing natural elements, like green tea, may prevent hair loss. (2) Investigations that have occurred, frequently have biased methods, which makes the validity of the results difficult to substantiate. (3) More natural treatments in the battle to prevent balding, and re-grow a woman or man's own hair are in need.

How can I apply green tea to prevent hair loss?

The answer is yes and no. Yes, the scientists discovered that green tea displays the ability to encourage hair growth in hair follicles through a two-step process of hair growth and minimization of hair follicle apoptosis (shrinking). The scientists didn't brew a cup of tea and splash it on the scalp of the subjects. Instead, the doctors extracted the epigallocatechin-3-gallate in the tea and mixed this formula with ethanol. This mixture was then administered to the scalps of the research subjects.

It is believed that ethanol acts as a vehicle, which helps with absorption. This means the benefits of tea can be more easily observed by applying the green tea to the head within a mixture of ethanol. This does not mean that you cannot apply tea to your head. It just means your results may not be consistent with the impressive results of the research - unless you can develop the same mixture. Unless you are a chemist or great at mixing ingredients, the best answer is to find natural hair loss treatments that contain green tea.

See Also:

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• Does green tea necessarily help to prevent cancer?
• Tea and cancer- What is the relationship Between Green Tea and Cancer?
• Can green tea help with diabetes?
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