How close are we to an actual cure?

[clee984]

You'd think that something HAS to happen soon with baldness treatments, it's been 22 years since propecia, and there are so many other medical advances in other areas with organ transplants and stem cells etc.

[John P. Cole, MD]

The communication between the dermal papilla, secondary hair germ, and bulge stem cells is complicated and not a simple process to replicate.

[clee984]

I bet it's more complicated than I could grasp in 7 lifetimes, but we cloned a sheep in 1997, and I hear about face transplants all the time. I just would've thought that given how psychologically traumatic baldness can be (I don't know how many people commit suicide because of it, but I bet it's non-negligible), how much money is spent on the industry, and the exponential increases in computing power etc, that you geniuses are going to figure it out soon!

[John P. Cole, MD]

I've considered the sheep clone and the best analogy I can make is baking a cake. Imagine you put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them up. You put them in a cake bin, place it in the oven, set the temperature, and then bake a cake. You have a cake. The more complicated scenario is to mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and then ask to make sugar. Not so easy.

[clee984]

Do you think that you guys will be able to "make the sugar" any time soon, dr? I'm very intrigued by what doctors actually think about this, realistically, because we hear so much speculation from those of us who know nothing.

[StanleyDin]

I bet it's more complicated than I could grasp in 7 lifetimes, but we cloned a sheep in 1997, and I hear about face transplants all the time. I just would've thought that given how psychologically traumatic baldness can be (I don't know how many people commit suicide because of it, but I bet it's non-negligible), how much money is spent on the industry, and the exponential increases in computing power etc, that you geniuses are going to figure it out soon!

Unfortunately, there is also PR in medical practice. I understand this and do not expect a major breakthrough in the next 10 years. Perhaps if scientists advance in research on the mechanics of aging, then everything will happen faster.