Hair Loss Cure 2020

Update: In September 2019, Dr. David Sinclair made yet another appearance on the Joe Rogan show. Besides discussing his new book and NAD, this time he also talks about metformin in more detail.

He also discusses HGH, rapamycin and fasting for longevity. On a somewhat related note, make sure to read my past post on TA-65 and Telomerase.

Edit: I have posted links to some critiques of Dr. Sinclair later in the post, but a reader posted this new one that is worth a read.

Update: In January 2019, Dr. David Sinclair made an appearance on the Joe Rogan show. He discussed NAD and other supplements in there.

Update: In a recent Linkedin post, Dr. Sinclair said that his own regimen was pretty simple: “I take 750 mg of NMN every morning, along with a gram of resveratrol and 500 mg of metformin.”

Joe Rogan and David Sinclair — Joe Rogan with David Sinclair.

I first mentioned Harvard University’s Australian professor Dr. David Sinclair in several posts in August 2016 and March 2017. At that time, he presented some groundbreaking findings regarding anti-aging research in relation to increasing declining Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD or NAD+) levels in aging humans. He is also renowned for his lab’s research on resveratrol.

Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD)

Dr. Sinclair states that his team does not recommend people taking NAD precursors, since they have not yet been formally tested for safety. On Amazon, it looks like NAD+ pills can be purchased legally, and they seem to be a form of Vitamin B3 (brand name Niagen). Edit: Seems like a company named Tru Niagen also sells them directly. A company names Alive by Nature also sells sublingual NAD+ and NMN online. Dosages can vary for most of these supplements.

Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN)

While NAD itself is difficult to administer directly to humans, its precursors — nicotinamide riboside (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) — are promising natural compounds to test in humans. Nicotinamide riboside has been touted to reverse grey hair, wrinkles, hair loss and various other signs of aging.

Do note that human trials for NAD and NMN have been underway in recent years. This will allow more conclusive evidence of both benefits and side effects in future.

Dr. Sinclair has formulated a capsule version of a precursor to NAD+ called Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). This precursor is a naturally occurring compound that is found in small amounts in fruits and vegetables such as broccoli, cucumber, avocado and edamame.

Resveratrol and Sirtuins

Dr. David Sinclair has all the credentials of a reputable and brilliant scientist. For well over a decade, he has promoted the benefits of resveratrol, which is found in small amounts in red wine, grapes, berries and other related fruits. Resveratrol switches on the well known anti-ageing gene Sirtuin-1.

Dr. Sinclair has conducted significant research on how sirtuins are modulated by endogenous molecules as well as pharmacological agents such as resveratrol. Other areas of anti-aging research in which Dr. Sinclair has participated include senolytics and caloric restriction.

However, many of Dr. Sinclair’s peers accuse him of being overoptimistic and impatient. Not always a bad thing in the hair loss world, where we typically have the opposite situation. The resveratrol angle has had some hiccups over the past decade and Dr. Sinclair seems to have shifted his focus to other anti-aging research in recent years.

Dr. David Sinclair and NAD Update

Yesterday, Dr. David Sinclair’s work on NAD and its anti-aging properties was back in the news in a big way (h/t Christopher and AndyOz). There are some very fantastical points made in the article, with the most striking being:

Dr. Sinclair is using his own NAD molecule. He has supposedly reduced his biological age by 24 years after taking the pill.
The good doctor’s father is 79 years old, and has been white water rafting and backpacking since starting to ingest the molecule a year-and-a-half ago.
Dr. Sinclair’s sister-in-law is now fertile again after taking the pill. This despite that fact that she started to transition into menopause in her 40s. (My note: I assume this implies that she is in her 50s now).
Potential increase in human lifespan to 150 years of age.
The pill leads to a decline in age related hair loss. (My note: Ironically, I find this to be the most believable of all the above fantastical claims. Even though hair loss is as yet almost impossible to cure in most people. New hair growth is especially hard.
Human trials still two years away, but Dr. Sinclair aims to release the product into the market in five years.

David Sinclair Companies

Dr. Sinclair is the co-founder of a number of biotechnology companies (Sirtris, Ovascience, Genocea, Cohbar, MetroBiotech, ArcBio, Liberty Biosecurity). He is also the founder of Life Biosciences LLC, a longevity startup.

Note: make sure to not confuse Dr. David Sinclair and Dr. Rodney Sinclair (who is also from Australia). The latter is a well known dermatologist and hair loss expert, who I have covered a few times on this blog in the past.

Also see this Australian newspaper interview with Dr. David Sinclair.

I have covered work on hair regeneration by Yokohama University’s Dr. Junji Fukuda a few times in the past. He is highly respected in the world of hair loss research.

Preparation of Hair Beads and Hair Follicle Germs

Last month, Dr. Fukuda and his team published a groundbreaking new study titled “Preparation of hair beads and hair follicle germs for regenerative medicine“. The team managed to generating new hair follicles from stem cells in far higher quantities than ever before in mice. This news was widely covered, including in today’s Guardian newspaper.

The researchers approach entailed use of a collagen gel in combination with spheroids formed from epithelial cells. This resulted in something called bead-based hair follicle germs (bbHFGs) that generated hairs more efficiently than previous approaches. A hair-raising protocol per one headline.

The success of this approach will potentially lead to the preparation of microtissues with high trichogenic ability upon transplantation. A key necessity in future hair follicle germ creation and transplantation from stem cells in humans.

Past research from Dr. Fukuda here. The researchers next step is to “find a way to expand the number of hair follicle stem cells“.

The below post on earlier work from Dr. Fukuda was written in February 2018.

Large-Scale Production of Hair Follicle Germs

I have covered Dr. Junji Fukuda and his important hair related work at Yokohama National University in Japan several times on this blog in the past. Most recently, this was just two weeks ago in relation to his latest paper titled “Spontaneous hair follicle germ (HFG) formation in vitro, enabling the large-scale production of HFGs for regenerative medicine“, which was published towards the end of 2017, but seems to now be dated as 2018.

At the time, I decided that this development was only worth a cursory mention in my once a month “brief items of interest” post. My decision was clouded by the fact that this research only entailed work on mice (see bottom part of image on left, courtesy Yokohama National University). We are all a bit bored/tired/frustrated with that of course.

However, earlier today, Dr. Fukuda and his team’s work was covered in the Science Daily publication. Key quote from Dr. Fukuda:

“This simple method is very robust and promising. We hope that this technique will improve human hair regenerative therapy to treat hair loss such as androgenic alopecia,” adds Fukuda. “In fact, we have preliminary data that suggests human HFG formation using human keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells.”

Perhaps this really might end up being a major development, even in humans.

Tsuji, Shiseido, Ohyama and perhaps now Fukuda? I have never been to Japan, but it looks like this may change in the future.

David Sinclair, NAD and NMN