10almonds Gets Hairy

Hair loss is a thing that at some point affects most men and a large minority of women. It can be a source of considerable dysphoria for both, as it’s often seen as a loss of virility/femininity respectively, and is societally stigmatized in various ways.

Today we’re going to focus on the most common kind: androgenic alopecia, which is called “male pattern baldness” in men and “female pattern baldness” in women, despite being the same thing.

We won’t spend a lot of time on the science of why this happens (we’re going to focus on the remedies instead), but suffice it to say that genes and hormones both play a role, with dihydrogen testosterone (DHT) being the primary villain in this case.

We’ve talked before about the science of 5α-reductase inhibitors to block the conversion of regular testosterone* to DHT, its more potent form:

One Man’s Saw Palmetto Is Another Woman’s Serenoa Repens…

*We all make this to a greater or lesser degree, unless we have had our ovaries/testes removed.

Finasteride

Finasteride is a 5α-reductase inhibitor that performs similarly to saw palmetto, but comes in tiny pills instead of needing to take a much higher dose of supplement (5mg of finasteride is comparable in efficacy to a little over 300mg of saw palmetto).

Does it work? Yes!

Any drawbacks? A few:

• It’ll take 3–6 months to start seeing effects. This is because of the hormonal life-cycle of human hairs.
• Common side-effects include ED.
• It is popularly labelled/prescribed as “only for men”

On that latter point: the warnings about this are severe, detailing how women must not take it, must not even touch it if it has been cut up or crushed.

However… That’s because it can carry a big risk to our unborn fetuses. So, if we are confident we definitely don’t have one of those, it’s not actually applicable to us.

That said, finasteride’s results in women aren’t nearly so clear-cut as in men (though also, there has been less research, largely because of the above). Here’s an interesting breakdown in more words than we have room for here:

Finasteride for Women: Everything You Need to Know

Spironolactone

This one’s generally prescribed to women, not men, largely because it’s the drug sometimes popularly known as a “chemical castration” drug, which isn’t typically great marketing for men (although it can be applied topically, which will have less of an effect on the rest of the body). For women, this risk is simply not an issue.

We’ll be brief on this one, but we’ll just drop this, so that you know it’s an option that works:

❝Spironolactone is an effective and safe treatment of androgenic alopecia which can enhance the efficacy when combined with other conventional treatments such as minoxidil.

Topical spironolactone is safer than oral administration and is suitable for both male and female patients, and is expected to become a common drug for those who do not have a good response to minoxidil❞

Read more: The Efficacy and Safety of Oral and Topical Spironolactone in Androgenetic Alopecia Treatment: A Systematic Review

Minoxidil

This one is available (to men and women) without prescription. It’s applied topically, and works by shortcutting the hair’s hormonal growth cycle, to reduce the resting phase and kick it into a growth phase.

Does it work? Yes!

Any drawbacks? A few:

• Whereas you’ll remember finasteride takes 3–6 months to see any effect, this one will have an effect very quickly
  • Specifically, the immediate effect is: your rate of hair loss will appear to dramatically speed up
  • This happens because when hairs are kicked into their growth phase if they were in a resting phase, the first part of that growth phase is to shed each old hair to make room for the new one
• You’ll then need the same 3–6 months as with finasteride, to see the regrowth effects
• If you stop using it, you will immediately shed whatever hair you gained by this method

Why do people choose this over finasteride? For one of three reasons, mainly:

• They are women, and not offered finasteride
• They are men, and do not want the side effects of finasteride
• They just saw an ad and tried it

As to how it works:

Minoxidil upregulates the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in human hair dermal papilla cells

Some final notes:

There are some other contraindications and warnings with each of these drugs by the way, so do speak with your doctor/pharmacist. For example:

• Finasteride can tax the liver a little
• Spironolactone can reduce bone turnover
• Minoxidil is a hypotensive; this shouldn’t be an issue for most people, but for some people it could be a problem

There are other hair loss remedies and practices, but the above three are the heavy-hitters, so that’s what we spent our time/space on today. We’ll perhaps cover the less powerful (but less risky) options one of these days.

Meanwhile, take care!

Today’s edition of 10almonds brings you a blast from the past with a modern twist: an ancient Russian peasant food that became a Soviet staple, and today, is almost unknown in the West.

Before we get to that, let’s take a sneaky look at this declassified CIA memorandum from near the end of the Cold War:

(Click here to see a bigger version)

The take-away here is:

• Americans were eating 2–3 times more meat than Soviets
• Soviets were eating nearly double the amount of grain products and potatoes

…and both of these statistics meant that nutritionally speaking, the Soviets were doing better.

Americans also consumed more sugar and fats, which again, wasn’t the best dietary option.

But was the American diet tastier? Depends on whom you ask.

Which brings us to a literal recipe we’re going to be sharing with you today:

It’s not well-known in the West, but in Russia, it’s a famous national comfort food, a bastion of health and nutrition, and it rose to popularity because it was not only cheap and nutritious, but also, you could eat it for days without getting sick of it. And it could be easily frozen for reheating later without losing any of its appeal—it’d still be just as good.

In Russia there are sayings about it:

Щи да каша — пища наша (Shchi da kasha — pishcha nasha)

“Shchi and buckwheat are what we eat”

Top tip: buckwheat makes an excellent (and naturally sweet) alternative to porridge oats if prepared the same way!

Где щи, там и нас ищи (Gdye shchi, tam i nas ishchi)

“Where there’s shchi, us you’ll see”

Голь голью, а луковка во щах есть (Gol’ gol’yu, a lukovka vo shchakh yest’)

“I’m stark naked, but there’s shchi with onions”

There’s a very strong sentiment in Russia that really, all you need is shchi (shchi, shchi… shchi is all you need )

But what, you may ask, is shchi?

Our culinary cultural ambassador Nastja is here to offer her tried-and-tested recipe for…

…Russian cabbage soup (yes, really—bear with us now, and you can thank us later)

There are a lot of recipes for shchi (see for yourself what the Russian version of Lifehacker recommends), and we’ll be offering our favorite…

Nastja’s Nutritious and Delicious Homemade Shchi

Hi, Nastja here! I’m going to share with you my shchi recipe that is:

• Cheap
• So tasty
• Super nutritious*
• Vegan
• Gluten Free

You will also need:

• A cabbage (I use sweetheart, but any white cabbage will do)
• 1 cup (250g) red lentils (other kinds of lentils will work too)
• ½ lb or so (250–300g) tomatoes (I use baby plum tomatoes, but any kind will do)
• ½ lb or so (250–300g) mushrooms (the edible kind)
• An onion (I use a brown onion; any kind will do)
• Salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, parsley, cumin
• Marmite or similar yeast extract (do you hate it? Me too. Trust me, it’ll be fine, you’ll love it. Omit if you’re a coward.)
• A little oil for sautéing (I use sunflower, but canola is fine, as is soy oil. Do not use olive oil or coconut oil, because the taste is too strong and the flashpoint too low)

First, what the French call mise-en-place, the prep work:

1. Chop the cabbage into small strips, ⅛–¼ inch x 1 inch is a good guideline, but you can’t really go wrong unless you go to extremes
2. Chop the tomatoes. If you’re using baby plum tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), cut them in half. If using larger tomatoes, cut them into eighths (halve them, halve the halves, then halve the quarters)
3. Chop the mushrooms. If using button mushrooms, half them. If using larger mushrooms, quarter them.
4. Chop the onion finely.
5. Gather the following kitchenware: A big pan (stock pot or similar), a sauté pan (a big wok or frying pan will do), a small frying pan (here a wok will not do), and a saucepan (a rice cook will also do)

Now, for actual cooking:

1. Cook the red lentils until soft (I use a rice cooker, but a saucepan is fine) and set aside
2. Sauté the cabbage, put it in the big pot (not yet on the heat!)
3. Fry the mushrooms, put them in the big pot (still not yet on the heat!)

When you’ve done this a few times and/or if you’re feeling confident, you can do the above simultaneously to save time

4. Blend the lentils into the water you cooked them in, and then add to the big pot.
5. Turn the heat on low, and if necessary, add more water to make it into a rich soup
6. Add the seasonings to taste, except the parsley. Go easy on the cumin, be generous with the rosemary and thyme, let your heart guide you with the salt and pepper.
7. When it comes to the yeast extract: add about one teaspoon and stir it into the pot. Even if you don’t like Marmite, it barely changes the flavour (makes it slightly richer) and adds a healthy dose of vitamin B12.

We did not forget the tomatoes and the onion:

1. Caramelize the onion (keep an eye on the big pot) and set it aside
2. Fry the tomatoes and add them to the big pot

Last but definitely not least:

3. Serve!
4. The caramelized onion is a garnish, so put a little on top of each bowl of shchi
5. The parsley is also a garnish, just add a little

Any shchi you don’t eat today will keep in the fridge for several days, or in the freezer for much longer.

*That nutritious goodness I talked about? Check it out:

• Lentils are high in protein and iron
• Cabbage is high in vitamin C and calcium
• Mushrooms are high in magnesium
• Tomatoes are good against inflammation
• Black pepper has a host of health benefits
• Yeast extract contains vitamin B12

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