But is it treatable, reversible, recoverable, repairable, replenisable? Yep.
Dr Cotsarelis at the University of Pennsylvania discovered the enzyme Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) prevented hair follicles from maturing. Ironically, asthmatics and allergy sufferers are being treated with a drug that counteracts the enzyme. But in pill form the drug does no good for the hair-forlorn.
The good doctor is hooking up with pharmaceutical companies in an effort to convert the pill into a creme. But why bother? Baldness is not life threatening...
By age 50, 50% of men are affected with male pattern baldness, and by age 70, 70% are living with an air-conditioned dome. Not a tragedy as much for men as for women. By retirement, 40% of women are also bald, they just hide it with others people's hair.
The drug is at least two-years off, so if you are 90 forget it, you are gonna check out the way you checked-in, chrome-domed and doomed. But if you are 40 and playing hide-and-seek with your inevitable hair demise, hope is just around the corner.
One more thing, if the forest is already gone, don't get too excited just yet - the medical team didn't grow hair on a billiard ball, they just stopped it from disappearing on a pack of lab rats.
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