Why Your Hair Isn’t Growing: 5 Mistakes
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Dr. Sam Ellis explains:
A time of growth
Our hair has a genetically-programmed maximum length, which is proportional to how long each follicle stays in the growth phase. This can be tweaked with hormonal treatments because in part, genes do what hormones tell them to—our genes have instructions for various different situations, and our hormones tell our body which set of instructions to express. For this reason, hormonal things like HRT and minoxidil can be tools in our toolbox.
However, even with such, other things can interfere with that. So, with that potential problem in mind, Dr. Ellis advises to avoid/fix these common mistakes:
- Not using multiple interventions: relying on just one treatment (like a supplement or minoxidil) isn’t enough—hair loss has many causes, so combining therapies such as red light, DHT blockers, microneedling, and topical/oral minoxidil is often critical for success.
- Neglecting scalp health: a flaky, oily, or inflamed scalp can hinder growth; using anti-dandruff shampoos like ketoconazole if necessary, and focusing shampoo directly on the scalp helps create a healthier environment for follicles. Notably, this one is affected by hormones too. So, if you’re a woman and experiencing dandruff, it might be worth having your estrogen and testosterone levels checked, as having too little of the former and/or too much of the latter can cause dandruff.
- Failing to protect existing hair: unprotected hair is prone to breakage from UV, heat, incorrect brushing, and chemical processing. Using heat-protectants and UV-protectants (even on baby hairs) and treating hair gently prevents it from snapping off before showing length.
- Having nutritional deficiencies: low intake of protein, iron, or vitamin D can stall growth—aiming for at least 80–120g of protein daily and supplementing iron or vitamin D when needed ensures the body has enough resources to support hair production.
- Not managing stress: unmanaged emotional or physical stress disrupts hair cycles—reducing stress through sleep, therapy, nutrition, or lifestyle changes is important since healthy hair can’t grow well if bodily resources are being taken away from it to deal with other problems.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
10 Minoxidil Hacks For The Best Hair Growth
Take care!
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Yoga for Better Sleep – by Mark Stephens
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The book has, as you might expect:
- postural exercises
- breathing exercises
- meditation exercises
Instructions given in all of the above categories are clear and easy to follow, and there are photographic illustrations too where appropriate.
What sets it apart from many books of this kind is that it also has chapters dedicated to various specific circumstances; the many actual reasons people seriously struggle to sleep; not just “screentime too late”, but for example deprepression, sleep apnea, hyperarousal, or even just aging.
As well as the comprehensive exercises, there are also many tips, tricks, hacks, and workarounds—it’s a practical guidebook with practical advice.
While the book is about yogic practices, the author also does tackle this holistically, acknowledging that there are many factors going on, and that yogic practices should be one more string to our sleep-improving bow—as we continue with other general good advice for good sleep too, have medical tests if it seems appropriate, that kind of thing. Basically, to have one’s assorted approaches work together with synergistic effect.
Bottom line: this book will quite possibly put you to sleep! But only in the best possible way.
Click here to check out Yoga for Better Sleep, and get those valuable Zs in, healthily!
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Nanotechnology vs Alcohol Damage!
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One Thing That Does Pair Well With Alcohol…
Alcohol is not a healthy thing to consume. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement, but there is a popular belief that it can be good for the heart:
Red Wine & The Heart: Can We Drink To Good Health?
The above is an interesting and well-balanced article that examines the arguments for health benefits (including indirectly, e.g. social aspects).
Ultimately, though, as the World Health Organization puts it:
WHO: No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
There is some good news:
We can somewhat reduce the harm done by alcohol by altering our habits slightly:
How To Make Drinking Less Harmful
…and we can also, of course, reduce our alcohol consumption (ideally to zero, but any reduction is an improvement already):
And, saving the best news (in this section, anyway) for last, it is almost always possible to undo the harm done specifically to one’s liver:
Nanotechnology to the rescue?
Remember when we had a main feature about how colloidal gold basically does nothing by itself (and that that’s precisely why gold is used in medicine, when it is used)?
Now it has an extra bit of nothing to do, for our benefit (if we drink alcohol, anyway), as part of a gel that detoxifies alcohol before it can get to our liver:
Gold is one of the “ingredients” in a gel containing a nanotechnology lattice of protein fibrils coated with iron (and the gold is there as an inert catalyst, which is chemistry’s way of saying it doesn’t react in any way but it does cheer the actual reagents on). There’s more chemistry going on than we have room to discuss in our little newsletter, so if you like the full details, you can read about that here:
Single-site iron-anchored amyloid hydrogels as catalytic platforms for alcohol detoxification
The short and oversimplified explanation is that instead of alcohol being absorbed from the gut and transported via the bloodstream to the liver, where it is metabolized (poisoning the liver as it goes, and poisoning the rest of the body too, including the brain), the alcohol is degraded while it is still in the gastrointestinal tract, converted by the gel’s lattice into acetic acid (which is at worst harmless, and actually in moderation a good thing to have).
Even shorter and even more oversimplified: the gel turns the alcohol into vinegar in the stomach and gut, before it can get absorbed into the blood.
But…
Of course there’s a “but”…
There are some limitations:
It doesn’t get it all (tests so far found it only gets about half of the alcohol), and so far it’s only been tested on mice, so it’s not on the market yet—while the researchers are sufficiently confident about it that a patent application has now been made, though, so it’ll probably show up on the market in the near future.
You can read a pop-science article about it (with diagrams!) here:
New gel breaks down alcohol in the body
Want to read more…
…about how to protect your organs (including your brain) from alcohol completely?
We’ve reviewed quite a number of books about quitting alcohol, so it’s hard to narrow it down to a single favorite, but after some deliberation, we’ll finish today with recommending:
Quit Drinking – by Rebecca Dolton ← you can read our review here
Take care!
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Almonds vs Pine Nuts – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing almonds to pine nuts, we picked the almonds.
Why?
It’s not just our pro-almond bias, but it was closer than you might have expected in some rounds!
In terms of macros, almonds have more than 2x the fiber and carbs and nearly 2x the protein, while pine nuts have somewhat more fats (healthy ones, though); we say that on balance, that’s a first-round win for almonds.
In the category of vitamins, almonds have more of vitamins B2, B5, B6, B7, B9, and E, while pine nuts have more of vitamins B1 and B3, an easy win for almonds here.
Looking at minerals, almonds have more calcium, magnesium, potassium, and selenium, while pine nuts have more copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc, for a 4:4 tie in this round.
In other considerations, almonds are much higher in polyphenols, so that’s another point in their favor. Do note however that this is for almonds with their skin on, not blanched. Blanching them would greatly reduce their polyphenol content.
Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for almonds, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts!
Enjoy!
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The Toe-Tapping Tip For Better Balance
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Balance is critical for health especially in older age, since it’s amazing how much else can go dramatically and suddenly wrong after a fall. So, here’s an exercise to give great balance and stability:
How to do it
You will need:
- Something to hold onto, such as a countertop
- A target on the floor, such as a mark or a coin
The steps:
- Lift one leg up, bring your foot forward, and tap the object in front of you.
- Then, bring that foot back to where it started.
- Next, switch to the other leg and tap.
- Alternate between your right and left legs, shifting back and forth.
- Your goal is to do this for 10 repetitions on each leg without holding on.
How it works:
Whenever you tap, you have to lift one leg up and reach it out in front of you. Doing this requires you to stand on one leg while moving a weight (namely: your other leg), which is something many people, especially upon getting older, are hesitant to do. If you’re unable to stand on one leg, let alone move your center of gravity (per the counterbalance of the other leg) while doing so, you may end up shuffling and walking with your feet sliding across the ground—something you really want to avoid.
For more on all of this plus a visual demonstration, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Fall Special ← this is about not falling, or, failing that, minimizing injury if you do
Take care!
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Balanced Energy Cake Bars
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Unlike a lot of commercially available products, these bars won’t spike your blood sugars in the same way. There’s technically plenty of sugar in them, mostly from the chopped dates, but they’re also full of fiber, protein, and healthy fats. This means they can give you an energy boost (along with lots of gut-healthy, heart-healthy, and brain-healthy ingredients) without any crash later. They’re also delicious, and make for a great afternoon snack!
You will need
- 1 cup oats
- 15 Medjool dates, pitted and soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
- 3 carrots, grated
- 4oz almond butter
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp flaxseeds, milled
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
- Optional: your choice of dried fruit and/or chopped nuts (mix it up; diversity is good!)
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Steam the grated carrots for 3–4 minutes; pat dry and allow to cool
2) Drain and pat dry the dates, roughly chop them and add them to a bowl with the carrots. Because we chopped the dates rather than blended them (as many recipes do), they keep their fiber, which is important.
3) Add the oats, seeds, almond butter, and tahini. Also add in any additional dried fruit and/or chopped nuts you selected for the optional part. Mix well; the mixture should be quite firm. If it isn’t, add more oats.
4) Press the mixture into a 10″ square baking tin lined with baking paper. Refrigerate for a few hours, before cutting into bar shapes (or squares if you prefer). These can now be eaten immediately or stored for up to a week.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
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How Prehab Boosts Recovery After Surgery
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…and other items from this week’s health science news:
Don’t wait until later!
Recovery from surgery can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be so bad: a randomized trial involving 164 patients aged 75 and older found that a four-week prehabilitation program before spinal fusion surgery reduced postoperative complications and improved recovery outcomes compared with standard care alone.
What this prehabilitation included: patients received a combination of strength training, balance exercises, flexibility work, cardiovascular conditioning, nutritional guidance focused on adequate calories and protein, and support for sleep, pain management, medication use, and psychological wellbeing.
To put the results in numbers, only about 75% of patients who completed prehab experienced at least one complication within three months of surgery, compared with more than 91% of patients who received only standard postoperative care, representing an 18% lower risk. Additionally, patients in the prehab group stayed in hospital for a shorter time after surgery, averaging 12 days compared with 14 days for those receiving standard care. Further, 68 of 79 prehab patients were able to get out of bed within 24 hours of surgery, compared with 55 of 80 patients in the standard-care group.
So, it’s not a magical panacea, but that’s still a relevant difference (imagine what you’d do for an 18% lower risk while you’re recovering!)
Read in full: Prehab can boost seniors’ recuperation from spinal fusion surgery, trial finds
Related: What To Eat, Take, & Do Before & After A Surgery
They can rebuild you; they have the technology
This one’s about SensoExo, a wearable system that combines a robotic hand exoskeleton with electrical nerve and muscle stimulation to help people with neurological hand impairments.
How the system works: a custom-fitted sleeve on the forearm delivers electrical stimulation to nerves and muscles through the skin, while sensors on the fingers detect touch and grip force and convert that information into stimulation patterns that provide artificial tactile feedback.
Why it matters: hand function depends not only on movement and strength, but also on touch sensation. After spinal cord injuries or brain injuries, people often lose both motor control and sensory feedback, making everyday tasks such as eating, dressing, and personal hygiene difficult.
This therefore means that the system can help users open and close their fingers through functional electrical stimulation, while also giving them information about how firmly they are gripping an object, something that is often lost after neurological injury, and something that has been a challenge for roboticists for decades, let alone cyberneticists doing enhancement tech for human bodies.
Read in full: Scientists develop wearable robotic system to restore hand function
Related: When a Hearing Aid Isn’t Enough ← we haven’t written much about cybernetic enhancements, so do pardon the more tenuous connection here as we didn’t have many to choose from, but cochlear implants are interesting too!
What’s going on with bird flu in cows
Birds and cows are not very alike. And it’s especially strange that the bird flu is being found in the cows’ milk, bearing in mind that birds are famously not mammals, and thus do not have breasts as we do (or udders, which are the same thing with a different name in non-human mammals such as cows) or produce milk.
So, what’s going on? In few words, researchers (Dr. Santhamani Ramasamy et al.) found that H5N1 preferentially binds to a glycan receptor subtype called N-linked sialic acid receptors. And, you guessed it, these receptors are abundant in the mammary glands of cows but (unusually for mammals) are largely absent from their airways, making the udder tissue highly susceptible while making the respiratory tract unusually resistant, unlike in humans.
Unfortunately, that is no help whatsoever to humans who drink raw milk, and promptly get the virus in their respiratory tract that does have the receptors that the virus binds to:
Read in full: Scientists find mechanism behind bird flu infections in dairy cattle
Related: Just How Infectious Is The Bird Flu In Cows’ Milk Anyway?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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