Either the medical community and the big pharmaceutical companies have been missing a trick, or this is a story you can file under “hogwash”, but the cure for
hair loss is, apparently… a common fern.
According to Teesdale teacher Jenny Lee, the cures for multiple ailments and conditions are all around you if only you know where to look. And, in an article in her local newspaper the Darlington and Stockton Times, she suggests that maidenhair fern is the answer to baldness.
Herbs and foods for illnesses
"
Throughout time,” she tells the newspaper, “
people have turned to herbs and foods to treat and cure illness. Healers determined which food or plant would treat a specific disease by looking to the plants themselves for clues to how they should be used.”
She asserts that plants are believed to share characteristics (such as shape, name or colour) with whatever body part they are helpful in treating. This, she says was known as their "
signature" of what they could do. Says Ms Lee: “
This theory was called the Doctrine of Signatures."
The plant-lover says that liverwort relieves liver problems, snakeroot is an antidote for snake bites and that pilewort cures haemorrhoids (obviously). As for maidenhair fern, the clue is all in the name, too.
According to the herbs2000 website, maidenhair fern’s application as a hair loss treatment comes in the form of a herbal tea that can be made from it. The website also states, however, that the belief that the fern could prevent human hair from falling out “
has no real basis in fact.”
The Darlington and Stockton Times also cautions that no one should try and use plants as cures unless they know exactly what they are doing. This is sound advice given even natural remedies can carry serious risks; a young man
died earlier this year after using traditional Chinese medicine to treat his hair loss.
Clinically-proven treatment
The fact is that no one needs to resort to mystical methods to regrow lost hair, as many conditions can now be treated. The most common cause of hair loss
Male Pattern Baldness, which will affect at least half of all men by the time they are 50 can often respond well to the two clinically-proven
hair loss treatments.
The once-a-day tablet
finasteride 1mg is designed to inhibit DHT, the testosterone by-product which causes follicles to shrink and hair to thin in men who are genetically predisposed to be sensitive to it, whilst
high strength minoxidil comes in a number of topical formulations which are applied directly to the scalp to encourage new hair growth. Both these medications are officially recognised by the UK's and USA's medical regulatory boards, being both MHRA licensed and FDA approved.
Supplementary
hair growth supporting products and Clinical Treatment Sessions involving scalp massage and infra-red light therapy can be used alongside this pharmaceutical approach which may involve either or both of the established medications.
Other conditions such as
Alopecia Areata can often be treated, too, and the best place to start is probably not with a root around the garden but with a consultation at a specialist hair loss clinic where a professional diagnosis can be given.