Science Close to Finding Baldness Gene in Men

It’s something that millions of men should be praising the skies for right now.  It’s not the newest Sport Illustrated Swimsuit issue.  No, it’s something much more exciting and promising than that temporary, albeit fun, piece of happiness that so many men look forward to each year.  It’s the fact that scientists may be on to something genetically as to the underlying reason for baldness and hair loss in men, and they are are close to finding the specific gene that is responsible for most cases of male hair loss, both premature and as we age.

That’s a great thing, because that means that we will all be able to look forward to heads full of hair some day, and baldness will be a thing of the past since therapies and hair loss products for men will be a thing of the past, well at least in the traditional sense, and we will be able to go through some sort of gene therapy instead to regain hair.  Wait, let me back up a minute.

That could be a bad thing, think of the expenses associate with that type of labored therapy!  Jeez…..talk about twenty first century technology and expense, that might be something only the elite can afford.  But I digress.  Let’s talk about why this inching closer to finding the gene responsible for male hair loss is exciting to us. It’s called the sox1 gene, and it was actually discovered not by American scientists, but by Japanese researchers.

They found that when they tinkered with this gene in rats, who are in many ways similar genetically to humans, were injected with something that messed with this gene, they could make the rats go bald quickly.  This is what tends to happen in male pattern baldness, which suggests strongly that they may have found the gene that goes awry both prematurely and at later times in men with male pattern baldness.

Hair loss in men causes so many psychological issues that it’s one of the leading industries today.  How many ads have you seen for male hair loss products, clubs, supplements and hair washes and solutions that claim to help you regrow your hair? There’s a reason for that.  Hair makes us look younger and makes us feel more handsome.  It’s fun to do things with, and it’s sort of our crowning jewel that defines who we are..  Lots of men feel inadequate and embarrassed about their hair loss and try to cover it up with the likes of comb overs, wigs, toupees and other methods of covering, none of which really do a convincing job.