BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: hair loss

What Is Biotin? Can It Prevent Hair Loss?

Biotin-3D-ballsBiotin, most notably know as Vitamin B7, is a type of B vitamin. B Vitamins are involved in a plethora of metabolic processes in the body.  Biotin is found in foods like milk, eggs, and bananas – and it plays a vital role in assisting enzymes and supporting a healthy metabolism. Biotin helps our bodies convert certain nutrients into glucose and aids amino acids in carrying out their bodily functions. Biotin deficiency is proven to cause hair loss in the form of alopecia, and can even cause hearing and vision problems. However, Biotin has many benefits as an important coenzyme in the body, helping break down carbohydrates, fats, and others substances – which in turn aids in weight loss. Biotin supplements are often used to treat brittle nails, hair loss, as well as rashes.

Biotin For Hair Growth: Does It Work?

Despite, Biotin is often overused in hair supplements due to its history of helping strengthen nails, hair, and skin. This is partly due to its easy to access over the counter, and celebrities like Kylie Jenner promoting it on Instagram. According to Dr. Kimbre Zahn, a family medicine physician at Indiana University Health, “our bodies require only a very small amount of biotin, which is easily achieved if you’re eating a relatively normal American diet”. Based on this, it doesn’t seem that it is necessary to take supplements containing Biotin on a regular basis. However, you can also benefit from it even if you don’t deal with hair loss.

Keratin is a basic protein in our bodies that makes up our nails, skin, and hair. It has been proven that biotin improves our bodies keratin infrastructure, therefore  Biotin can help strengthen these facets of our body. Its important to keep in mind that many of the touted benefits are not fully conclusive, since most studies that have proven the benefits of biotin also contain other ingredients as well. Therefore this hair growth seen in studies cannot be attributed to the biotin alone. There are many brands of supplements that provide a multi-targeted approach, by using a variety of nutraceuticals – substances that provide health benefits – in their supplements. The belief around hair loss is that a multifaceted approach is necessary to combat all the different issues that may cause hair loss.

Health Supplements - Nutraceuticals - 50191152323One such supplement is Nutrafol – they claim to support hair growth by helping the body fight back against contributing hair-thinning factors, such as our nutrition, metabolism, hormone level, and even tries to manage larger factors like our stress-level by using Sensoril Ashwagandha – an adaptogen that helps build resistance to stress by balancing cortisol level. They believe that through a variety of active ingredients, such as collagen, kelp, vitamin A, vitamin E, and selenium, can combat hair loss internally as opposed to cosmetic solutions. They use naturally sourced botanicals, with recognized clinical studies to back up their ingredients and claims.

After being on Nutrafol myself for about 4-5 months , I feel a thicker, stronger head of hair and am happy with my results. As someone who takes many supplements – mushroom mycelium, multi-vitamins, etc., it was not too difficult to add these four pills to my regimen. And as a result, any bald spot I’ve noticed on the top of my head is/looks gone and I am proud to say I am a few days further from baldness! I recommend this to anyone looking to up their hair game.

-Merrillenmeyer

Tiny Devils Take Down Gentle Giants all due to Climate Change!

File:Alce (Alces alces), Potter marsh, Alaska, Estados Unidos, 2017-08-22, DD 139.jpg

A innocent female moose, about to be attacked by an onset of terrible parasite in Northeast Canada.

Winter Ticks, not containing Lyme Disease or other Human-harming diseases, are rising exponentially in population throughout New England and Canada, all due to increasingly warmer and snow-free springs and later winters everywhere. As a result, an unlikely species in this region is being targeted by these tick epizootics, Moose, because ticks search for hosts in the fall and other warmer temperatures and stop once freezing weather and snow befalls the land. Yet, when these conditions occur much later, it gives these ticks more time to feast on peaceful animals, and also giving more time for female ticks to fall off its host and create tons more larvae, not making this issue any better. As these raisin sized parasites latch onto to these large creatures, draining so much blood at a time that they simply are unable to function anymore and weakly fall, succumbing to the environment, other predators, or even more ticks. But it’s not simply a few ticks, no, these moose can carry up to around 90,000 ticks! Because of this, there has been “an unprecedented 70 percent death rate of calves over a three-year period” according to a similar source from the University of New Hampshire. Plus, this problem has gotten so bad that now a threatened species in this region of British Columbia, the boreal Caribou, are being eaten alive as well!” If blood loss from heavy tick loads does not directly kill animals, it can make them susceptible to other health risks, Schwantje adds in the original source. “They have spent so much time scratching and chewing on themselves that they haven’t been feeding, so they are in poor body condition,” she says, even with tremendous hair loss that they become basically unrecognizable.

File:Ixodus ricinus 5x.jpg

An example of one of these detrimental winter ticks, a female engorged in size with blood and larvae, ready to reproduce .

But How Can This Be Stopped?

Currently, researchers are offering a multitude of solutions to help save these wonderful species from these terrifying parasites, as Swantje says that “They have huge cultural and nutritional value to our First Nations, And when moose forage in wetlands, they help release nutrients into the environment and make them available to other plants and organisms, studies have shown”, one solution can even be seen here. One possibility is to continuously treat half of the moose with anti-parasite gel and pills that make attached ticks drop from their bodies in order to isolate specifically what the ticks do and don’t do to harm these moose. The other possibility is a highly unlikely one, hunt the moose. Researcher Peter Pekins suggests that “issuing more moose-hunting permits in strategically selected areas” could essentially starve out the ticks in certain areas, yet it is argued that this would only benefit the environment short term, as the climate will continue to warm leading to the growth of more and more ticks.

Who know, if this isn’t stopped soon, ticks will continue to grow in population and maybe even take down us humans! Save the moose (and the caribou)!

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