Bald or balding? Good news for half the men in the world: there’s a naturally occurring sugar in human bodies that stimulates hair growth. In a study in Frontiers of Pharmacology, researchers reported their assessment of a 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2dDR) gel and its effect on hair growth. In an animal model, application of a small dose of the gel stimulated hair to regrow, and that regrowth brought about formation of new blood vessels. The gel also contained polypropylene glycol and phenoxyethanol. This is the first study to show that, in an animal mode of androgenic alopecia, application of 2dDR stimulated hair growth.

The groups tested:

Minoxidil can cause contact dermatitis and has potentially more serious side effects, such as anorexia, myocardial infarction, and acute anteroseptal infarction. The study concluded, “that 2dDR gel has potential for the treatment of androgenic alopecia and possibly other alopecia conditions where stimulation of hair regrowth is desirable, such as after chemotherapy. The mechanism of activity of 2dDR remains to be established.”

“We as naturopathic doctors need to realize that disease, pathology, or any malfunctioning of the body is not just a random causeless thing. Our natural state is health, and the body will return to health when given the proper conditions to do so. This study is quite intriguing, as it shows a similar effect of an anti-baldness drug that reduces dihydrotestosterone and a human metabolite. This does suggest that baldness may involve this metabolism being disrupted. Most intriguingly, they seem to not have any benefit when used together. What occurs to me is that dihydrotestosterone seems to be a response to this metabolic environment, and a consequence of this response may be baldness. However, in a healthy metabolic environment, it would still play a role in hair growth and that artificially lowering it at that point would result in reduced efficacy. As so often we see when the environment is corrected, interference in the form of drugs has increasingly severe consequences.” – Paul Anderson Theriault BSc, ND, VNMI, CBC