The quest to find a cure for hair loss has raged on for as long as men have been stressing about their disappearing locks. To date, Minoxidil and Finasteride, are the only two clinically proven licensed treatments for male pattern hair loss. That means that a whole pile of studies and research have shown them to be effective.
But that doesn’t mean the search is over. There’s still a lot more to be understood about hair loss and the potential ‘cures’. And according to a recent study from the University of Sheffield, a sugar that naturally occurs in the human body could be another key.
What does the study say?
In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology, researchers have discovered that a sugar called 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR), which plays a fundamental role in various biological processes both in animals and humans, can stimulate hair regrowth in mice.
Over the past eight years, scientists have been studying how 2dDR can help to heal wounds by promoting the formation of new blood vessels. While researching, the team also noticed that hair around the healing wounds appeared to grow more quickly compared to those that hadn’t been treated.
Is it as effective as Minoxidil?
To explore this further, the scientists established a model of testosterone driven hair loss in mice. This is very similar to the cause of pattern baldness in men. The researchers found that applying a small dose of the naturally occurring sugar helped to form new blood vessels, which led to hair regrowing.
And interestingly, the findings from the study show that the deoxy ribose sugar could be as effective at regrowing hair as Minoxidil.
Keep in mind
Now it’s important to reiterate, this is a study in mice and we’re still miles away from confirming its effectiveness in humans - so please don’t go rubbing the sweet stuff on your bald spot just yet.
But it’s still nonetheless an interesting piece of news from the world of science, and one that could potentially lead to another effective hair loss treatment to join Finasteride and Minoxidil.
What does Dr Knut say?
“This is a great example of the work being done to research new effective treatments for hair loss.
“It's early days and much further study would be needed before this is proven to be effective for male pattern hair loss or even available commercially, however it does show promising results and will be interesting to see where it goes next”.
- Dr Knut Moe, Sons Medical Director
All of our blog articles are reviewed by our Medical Director before publication.
