Great "Advice". Not.

[Cave Dweller]

Health.com (from Health magazine) published an article today titled 21 Reasons Why You’re Losing Your Hair. It gives a trite synopsis of various causes such as chemotherapy, age, diseases, vitamin deficiencies, etc. and lists even more trite, simplistic and rather obvious things one can do to treat those causes. Guess what it recommends to combat a vitamin deficiency.

Having worked in journalism and seen what reporters actually do in preparing stories, I know good and well this reporter probably had no clue about the subject. The content of the article makes that pretty clear.

Under what to do about male pattern baldness, it says only this:
"There are topical creams like minoxidil (Rogaine) and oral medications such as finasteride (Propecia) that can halt hair loss or even cause some to grow; surgery to transplant or graft hair is also an option."

I find this is about as useful a magazine for health information as People is for in-depth news investigations.

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20727114,00.html

[Mikekoz13]

I'll bet the article didn't mention what taking those drugs might do to a guys "Little Soldier".

[TheSlyBear]

Hmmm, nowhere do I see a mention of the word poison. Quite the omission.

[schro]

Hmmm, nowhere do I see a mention of the word poison. Quite the omission.

Glad I let SB and Koz screen the article for me. Sounds like 5 minutes of my life I'd would have liked to get back.

[Cave Dweller]

That is why I found it so ironic that the "advice" was in a "health" magazine.

Somehow, I don't think of chemical castration, man boobs, permanent ED, and loss of sex drive as "healthy" things for most men.

[g_bald]

WOW! Simply...wow...

What would have been better is to offer the drugs (and list known side effects) and other options (like if it is a vitamin deficiency, how to approach finding out what it is, etc.). Something that purports to BE a "health" magazine should probably at the very least MENTION the drugs, surgery, etc. side effects. Maybe they figure you're going to go see a doctor, but Rogaine is available OTC so maybe you won't, etc.

Heredity is the biggest key here, and well, unless you can afford to have your genes replaced - or regenerate like Dr Who - you can't really dodge what nature has in store. You can old 'fake it.' Or you can do what we do, say "we don't need it anyway" and buzz it all off.

Disappointing to hear this news. Thanks for checking into Cave, sounds like an article we want to warn others about being potential as harmful in other ways than just the natural loss of hair...