Sunday, March 6, 2011

Andropause and Hair Loss

Andropause and hair loss often go hand in hand. Imagine clumps of hair falling off your head, or observing strands of once healthy hair collecting in the shower drain. Maybe you run your hand through your hair and feel it thinning. It can feel daunting and quite scary.

Typically, hair loss is a result of an imbalance of male testosterone hormone in the body. Instead of infusing the hair with healthy testosterone, enzymes break it down to a simpler form known as dihydrotestosterone.

An excess of this hormone has the effect of decreasing the size of hair follicles which eventually break down and make your hair fall off sporadically. The medical condition that is best associated with hair loss in Andropause sufferers is hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is a by-product of decreasing levels of Human Growth Hormone, which is responsible for regulating our aging process. Andropause sufferers' hormones have a profound effect on the rate and consistency of hair loss. Dihydrotestosterone (considered by medical circles the strongest, most potent form of testosterone) is responsible for building and growing body hair in men (at normal levels - an excess causes hair degeneration.)

This includes body hair, pubic hair, head hair, armpit hair – any hair. DHT is directly produced in the skin, made to work by supporting enzymes that break it down for distribution throughout the body. DHT levels are present more in certain areas of the body than in others – explaining why we may have a full crop of hair on our heads and little bushes of hair on our chests and backs. Realize, women also have DHT in their bodies but produce less of it.

Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that protests were illegal, amid various calls for demonstrations demanding changes in the kingdom, state media said.

“Regulations in the kingdom forbid categorically all sorts of demonstrations, marches and sit-ins... as they contradict Shariah law and the values and traditions of Saudi society,” said a ministry statement carried by SPA state news agency.

The statement said police were “authorised by law to take all measures needed against those who try to break the law”.

Several hundred people protested on Friday in the town of Al Hufuf in Eastern Province, calling for the release of an arrested cleric, Sheikh Tawfiq Al Aamer, and other detainees, witnesses said.

A similar protest was held in Al Qatif, also in the Eastern Province, but was dispersed by police, witnesses said.

On Thursday night, 22 people were arrested as police dispersed a rally in Al Qatif in which protesters demanded the release of prisoners, said Ibrahim Al Mugaiteeb, head of Human Rights First in Saudi Arabia.

“The protesters demanded the liberation of nine ‘forgotten’ prisoners in Al Qatif, and also of Sheikh Al Aamer, whose picture they carried, and called for national unity,” Mugaiteeb said by telephone.

On Friday, a dozen men gathered at the exit of Riyadh’s Al Rajhi Mosque, one of the capital’s most important, chanting slogans, according to witnesses. Three men were arrested, they said.
Japan's foreign minister suddenly quit Sunday for having accepted a political donation from a foreigner - a violation of Japanese law - dealing another blow to the embattled administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

Seiji Maehara, 48, was foreign minister for just six months, and was viewed as a leading candidate to succeed Kan.

Maehara acknowledged receiving 50,000 yen ($590) last year from a 72-year-old Korean woman who has lived most of her life in Japan. He said they had been friends since his childhood.

Some Japanese newspapers, however, said her donations over the past several years totaled 250,000 yen ($3,000).

Japanese law makes it very hard for foreigners to become citizens, even if their families have lived in the country for generations. The foreign residents include hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans, many descended from laborers brought forcibly to Japan during World War II.

Japan's political funding law prohibits lawmakers from accepting donations from any foreigners, even those born in Japan.

Maehara's resignation at a televised news conference Sunday night furthers the high turnover that has plagued government officials in recent years and is likely to further erode public confidence in Kan - the country's fifth leader in four years - whose public approval rating has fallen below 20 percent.

Israel's leader has accused the international community of automatically siding with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the Palestinians are refusing to make peace overtures, "instead preferring to take advantage of the international community's Pavlovian reflex in their favor."

Peace talks broke down in September. The Palestinians blame Israel for the stalemate, saying continued Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is preventing the resumption of talks.

Netanyahu reportedly is considering making an unspecified interim offer, but the Palestinians have rejected provisional arrangements and want nothing short of an accord for a permanent Palestinian state.

"Slumdog Millionaire" child star Rubina Ali says her home was gutted by a fire that tore through her Mumbai slum.

"There was fire everywhere, there was so much chaos, my house was completely burned down, the whole slum was burned down," Rubina told CNN on Sunday.

The 12-year old said she was watching TV Friday when her neighbors started yelling "fire, fire!"

She then grabbed everything she could get her hands on and ran out. "But my awards are gone, my memories are gone," she said.

Ali was referring to the numerous awards she received for her role as the young Latika in the critically acclaimed film that nabbed multiple Academy Awards..

Rubina said the her family is now living in a temporary shelter. Rubina's father Rafiq Qureshi said they plan to move into a new home provided by a trust set up by the film's director Danny Boyle next month.

"They were in transit. They were just about to move to an apartment the Jai Ho Trust has allotted for them," said trustee Nirja Mattoo said. "But as the building is new, they were waiting for the water and electricity to be installed. But unfortunately this incident happened."
Your face may be about to get official corporate sponsorship.

Seriously.

It's the ultimate -- for now -- extension of American advertising relentlessness.

You may recall a column here earlier this year about a marketing executive's idea to put advertisements on the floors of the plastic bins that go on conveyor belts through airport security checkpoints -- the bins into which travelers must place their carry-on items.

I asked the executive, Joe Ambrefe, if he could think of any place that would be off limits to advertisers -- any place where placing an ad might be going too far.

"Not offhand," he said.

Some readers jokingly -- at least I hope they were joking -- came up with proposals for airport ads that would be even more intrusive than the security-line-bin ads.

The next scheduled stop on the Arab protest tour: Kuwait. This, however, is more of a return engagement.

Calls for anti-government rallies Tuesday are an extension of nasty political skirmishes in Kuwait that were under way long before the first glint of dissent that began in Tunisia more than two months ago.

Kuwait has the Gulf's most powerful and combative parliament, and opposition lawmakers have already taken bold shots at the ruling emir's inner circle, including twice staging no-confidence motions since December 2009 that nearly brought down the prime minister. The plan now is to take the demands for a political overhaul to the streets in the style of Egypt and nearby Bahrain.

But while the tactics may be similar, it also shows that each of the Middle East's protest movements carries its own spirit.

"There's a distinct personality to each place and each protest," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. "That's the challenge for policy makers trying to make sense of it all."

As I write I can hear volleys of gunfire hammering around Tripoli. It is around 1430 on Sunday and since early morning supporters of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi have been out in the streets celebrating.

They have been told - and seem to believe without question - that his forces have scored important victories. One of the government spokesmen said Zawiya, Misrata and Ras Lanuf had been recaptured from rebels, and that Col Gaddafi's forces were advancing on Benghazi, the epicentre of the rebellion.

Not long after first light, I went to Green Square, right in the middle of Tripoli and the place where true believers in the regime congregate to celebrate its triumphs.

A couple of thousand people were there - the numbers have grown since then - and the atmosphere was crackling with feverish celebration.

Young men had climbed on to speakers and were dancing to music that praised their leader. Women, many with small children, swayed and sang along.

Guns were everywhere, pistols as well as Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles. Every so often their owners fired into the air. Someone was letting off fireworks as well.

Masked attackers burned tents of protesters overnight in the main city of Iraq's Kurdistan region, police said Sunday.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered later in the day in Sulaimaniya for another protest against Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government, witnesses told CNN.

The unrest in northern Iraq that erupted three weeks ago has killed five people and injured 158 so far, the head of the emergency health department, Dr. Nozad Ahmed, said.

According to police officials, several empty tents erected by protesters at Bardagi-Sara central square of Sulaimaniya were set on fire before dawn. The attack was under investigation, the police officials said.

Some protesters blamed the attack on Kurdish security forces, who denied any involvement.
Ireland's new government will stick to the budget targets laid down in an 85 billion euro ($119 billion) EU/IMF rescue package as it seeks to win European partners round to giving it easier terms on the loans.

Ireland's prime minister in-waiting Enda Kenny is under huge pressure to persuade Europe's paymaster Germany to cut the interest rate Brussels is charging and give Dublin more time to restructure its banks before a Europe-wide deal on the debt crisis is hammered out at summit on March 24-25.

The coalition agreement between Kenny's center-right Fine Gael party and the center-left Labour party, clinched shortly after midnight, seems designed to curry favor with the fiscally conservative Germans and draws a veil over some of the anti-EU rhetoric deployed in the election campaign.

"We have to repair broken bridges across our European partner to build up an understanding of our position," Brendan Howlin, one of the chief negotiators for the Labour party, told state broadcaster RTE.
With violence approaching their doorstep, 10-year-old Beverly Dempsey and her father had eight hours to gather their belongings into one suitcase apiece and evacuate Egypt during last month's uprising.

Her mother, a U.S. State Department employee, had to stay behind while they were relocated to temporary housing in Falls Church, Virginia, with other displaced diplomatic families.

Jim Dempsey tries to make life as normal as possible for his daughter, who is attending school for the first time in the United States, having lived abroad since she was 2. But her heart remains in Egypt, the place she's come to regard as home.

"I really like it here, but it would have made me feel better if we were in Egypt because that's where I want to be right now," she says. "I want to go back really badly, but that doesn't mean I don't like it here. I just want to be able to say goodbye."
A coalition of over 100 interfaith, nonprofit and governmental organizations plans to rally in New York City against a planned congressional hearing on Muslims' role in homegrown terrorism.

The coalition says Thursday's hearing will send the wrong message to U.S. Muslims by "demonizing" them.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says affiliates of al-Qaida are radicalizing some American Muslims and that he plans to hold hearings on the threat they pose to the U.S.

Republican congressman Peter King of New York told CNN's "State of the Union" that he sees an international movement with elements in the United States of Muslims becoming more radical and identifying with terrorists.

A Minnesota Democrat, congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House, says that while it's proper to investigate radicalization, he thinks it is wrong to single out a religious minority.
England produced a stunning comeback at the Cricket World Cup on Sunday to beat South Africa by six runs in a dramatic encounter in Chennai, India.

After being bowled out for just 171, England looked set for another disappointing result, following-on from their disastrous defeat to competition minnows Ireland and thrilling tie with India.

Aside from a 99-run fourth-wicket stand from Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara, the England batsmen could not offer any resistance to spin bowler Robin Peterson -- who dismissed openers Andrew Strauss and South Africa-born Kevin Pietersen in the first over.

In reply, South Africa still looked the likely victors at 124-3, but quickly lost four wickets for three runs in five overs and slipped to 127-7.
The top Chinese government official in Tibet says the Himalayan region continues to face serious challenges from separatism three years after major anti-government protests.

Regional Communist Party head Zhang Qingli says those seeking to overthrow Chinese rule threaten Tibet's stability and therefore its economic development.

Zhang was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying that officials and the Tibetan public should remain vigilant against anything that could sabotage public order.

His remarks Sunday at a meeting of Tibetan delegates to the national legislature in Beijing underscore the government's relentless crackdown on all dissent in the region.

The March 2008 rioting in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, left at least 22 people dead.

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley said on Sunday the Obama administration is considering tapping into the U.S. strategic oil reserve as one way to help ease soaring oil prices.

Speaking on NBC television's "Meet the Press," Daley said: "We are looking at the options. The issue of the reserves is one we are considering. ... All matters have to be on the table."

There has been support among Senate Democrats for tapping the reserves. Senator Jay Rockefeller on Thursday became the third Democrat to ask President Barack Obama to tap America's emergency oil supply to cool prices that have risen past $100 a barrel on the strife in Libya.

In a letter to Obama, Rockefeller said a "limited draw-down" from the nation's 727-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve "can protect our national security by preventing or reducing the adverse impact of an oil shortage."

On Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu ruled out releasing oil from the reserve, saying ramped up oil production in Saudi Arabia should lower the crude price.

A large number of people protested outside the palace where Bahrain's cabinet was meeting Sunday, the first time a protest had been allowed at the site.

Protesters chanted slogans calling for the downfall of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, many waving one-dinar bills to criticize his purchase of the Bahrain Financial Harbour development for that amount in 2005.

The protest, which lasted about two and a half hours, was peaceful and broke up before the cabinet meeting ended.

There was no immediate comment from the government or Bahrain Economic Development agency.

Anti-government demonstrators continue to camp out in Bahrain's Pearl Roundabout, where seven people died when security tried to clear the area.
South African Rory Sabbatini will take a five-shot lead going into the final day of the Honda Classic PGA event in Florida.

Overcoming another day of blustery conditions at Palm Beach, Sabbatini carded a four-under par third round 66 on Saturday to move onto nine-under overall after 54 holes.

American Jerry Kelly and YE Yang of South Korea trail Sabbatini on four-under, while overnight leader Kyle Stanley dropped to fifth place on two-under and first-round leader Spencer Levin is now down in 16th on two-over-par after a round 73.

Meanwhile, Lee Westwood's hopes of regaining the world No.1 ranking from Germany's Martin Kaymer look to be over, after the Englishman shot a poor round of 75 which included bogeys at the third, fourth and sixth holes.

The 37-year-old -- who fell to No. 2 in the world after last week's WGC Match Play championship -- is now tied for 30th position on four-over, eight shots off the top-three finish that would see him leapfrog Kaymer.

Alberto Contador won the Vuelta de Murcia on Sunday in his second competition since avoiding a doping ban.

The Tour de France champion defended the lead from Saturday's mountain stage by winning the 7.7-mile time trial in Murcia.

The Saxo Bank rider finished with an overall time of 9 hours, 27 minutes, 18 seconds.

Frenchman Jerome Coppel was 11 seconds behind for Saur Sojason, while Russia's Dennis Mechov, riding for Rabobank, was third at 17 seconds off the pace.

Contador had tested positive for clenbuterol but was later cleared of wrongdoing by the Spanish cycling federation. The International Cycling Union said it will decide by March 24 whether to appeal the Spanish federation's decision.

The two opposition parties that triumphed in Ireland's election, conservative Fine Gael and left-wing Labour, announced Sunday they have reached agreement to form the country's next coalition government following five days of negotiations.

The proposed pact still must be ratified at separate meetings of both parties later Sunday. But the leaders of Fine Gael and Labour, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore, said they were confident this would happen, while some key issues - such as the share of Cabinet posts - would remain unsettled for a few more days.

Approval of the joint government platform - which includes goals on slashing Ireland's deficits in line with its international bailout - would permit Fine Gael and Labour lawmakers to elect Kenny prime minister when the new parliament convenes Wednesday.
"They've moved the goal posts again," Wall Street Journal Personal Technology Columnist Walt Mossberg told FOX Business--that is, if all Apple (AAPL: 360.00, 0.00, 0.00%) says about its soon-to-be-released iPad 2 holds up when it’s released March 11.

As the tablet wars heat up, with several Google (GOOG: 600.25, 0.00, 0.00%) Android tablets on the way, as well as Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ: 42.61, 0.00, 0.00%) webOS-based TouchPad coming this summer, Apple has, surprisingly, come out as the "low-priced guys," Mossberg said.

Check out more tech reviews by Walt Mossberg on FOX Business

"The [tablet devices] that have come out so far have not been able to meet [Apple's] price points at the same screen size, which is unusual for Apple because they're usually high-priced," he said.
Mario Matt of Austria won his second straight World Cup slalom race Sunday and Nolan Kasper of the U.S. had the fastest second run to finish in a tie for second, a career-best showing.

Matt was fifth after the opening run and finished the Podkoren course in a combined time of 1 minute, 49.19 seconds for his 12th career victory. The Austrian also won in Bansko, Bulgaria, last week.

"I had the self-belief to fully attack. My material is perfect, that makes ski racing a pleasure for me," Matt said.

Kasper and Axel Baeck of Sweden both finished on the podium for the first time, sharing second place, 0.09 behind Matt.

Kasper is the first American to reach a men's World Cup slalom podium since Bode Miller in November 2008 in Levi, Finland.

"I had two really good runs," said Kasper. "(Matt) is one of the best guys in the world ... so I am not disappointed at all. It's more than I could hope for that I can compete at this level with these guys."
Benin's presidential election due to take place Sunday has been postponed until March 13.

On Saturday, state television announced that the constitutional court had accepted the electoral commission's request for a one-week delay because voting materials had not been printed and election observers had not been properly trained.

President Boni Yayi, first elected in 2006, is facing 12 opposition candidates in his bid for a second term. Benin is viewed as a rare example of democracy in a region of West Africa better known for coups.

Yayi's popularity has been hurt, however, by a Ponzi scheme scandal that touched numerous members of his administration and in which more than 100,000 people in the nation of 8.7 million lost their savings.

The Strokes debuted a song from their new album 'Angles' on US TV last night (March 5).

The New York band played 'Life Is Simple In The Moonlight' on Saturday Night Live, which saw them introduced by teen singer and actress Miley Cyrus.

Scroll down now to watch a clip of the performance.

The song is the closing track on the band's fourth studio album, which is out on March 21.

The band also performed 'Under The Cover Of Darkness', the first single from the album - you can also watch this below.

Earlier this week, The Strokes streamed another track from 'Angles' - 'You're So Right' - exclusively on NME.COM.

They also revealed the second of three in-studio clips documenting the making of 'Angles' - stay tuned to NME.COM for the third instalment.

Speaking to NME about the influences which inspired the album, Julian Casablancas namechecked the likes of REM and Boston.

Read the full interview with the frontman in this week's NME, on UK newsstands or available digitally now (March 6).

Famed progressive and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore was among the highlights at rallies inside and outside of the state capitol in Madison, Wisc. today.

According to reports on the ground, Moore rallied "thousands" with a rousing speech that focused on "three major lies" of the "past decade."

"Wisconsin is broke. There are weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq,] and the Packers need (Brett) Favre to win the Super Bowl," Moore said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"The country is awash in wealth and cash," Moore said to the crowd of union members and their supporters. "It's just not in your hands."

"Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic," he added.
Nearly 50 Bangladeshi migrant workers evacuated by sea from Libya to the Greek island of Crete jumped ship during the night, Greek authorities said Sunday, apparently to avoid being sent back to Bangladesh. Three died, 11 remained missing and many others were hospitalized.

Nearly a dozen Greek Coast Guard and Navy vessels, a military helicopter and fishing boats were scouring the waters off the coast of Crete in search of the missing, the Merchant Marine Ministry said.

The 49 evacuees had been on board the Ionian King, which docked late Saturday in the port of Souda after sailing from Tripoli with 1,288 evacuees from Libya, most of them Bangladeshi nationals.

The men used a rope to lower themselves from the Cypriot-flagged ship into the sea during the night, the ministry said, in an apparent attempt to avoid being sent home after arriving in Crete.

Authorities have not said why they think the men jumped, but they may have been trying to avoid being quickly sent back to Bangladesh. Tens of thousands of migrants seeking a better life cross illegally into the European Union through Greece every year.

John Galliano's signature line is to be presented to fashion insiders less than a week after the disgraced British designer was sacked from Dior amid allegations he made anti-Semitic insults.

His fall-winter 2011-12 ready-to-wear collection was initially meant to be shown in a runway show, but the line decided on a lower-key presentation in light of the scandal.

Galliano's undoing started when a couple alleged he hurled anti-Semitic insults at a Paris bar. Other allegations later surfaced, as did a video that shows Galliano saying "I love Hitler."

Galliano's signature line is owned by Dior parent company LVMH Moet Hennessy, and its future is anything but certain. Sunday's presentation will take place sans Galliano, who is rumored to be in rehab in Arizona.

Japan's foreign minister has announced his resignation in a televised news conference over donations he received from a foreign resident in violation of the country's laws.

Seiji Maehara, who had been seen as a likely successor to embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan, said on Sunday he was stepping down after admitting he received several hundred dollars from a restaurant owner of Korean ethnicity.

"I apologise to the Japanese people for stepping down after only six months and provoking distrust over a problem with my political funding, although I have sought to pursue a clean style of politics," said Maehara, 48.

The resignation is another blow to the embattled administration of Kan, whose public approval rating has fallen below 20 per cent.

Kan is fighting to keep his own job and avoid calling a snap election that his fractious Democratic Party (DPJ) could well lose. He is also struggling to enact budget bills in a divided parliament.

Maehara had admitted on Friday accepting donations from the restaurant owner who lives in Japan, but said he had done so unknowingly.

That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover, who has spent more than 10 years studying meteorites around the world, told FoxNews.com in an interview. “This field of study has just barely been touched — because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”

Hoover discovered the fossils by breaking apart the CI1 meteorite, and analyzing the exposed rock with a scanning-electron microscope and a field emission electron-scanning microscope, which allowed him to detect any fossil remains. What he found were fossils of micro-organisms, many of which he says are strikingly similar to those found on our own planet.

“The exciting thing is that they are in many cases recognizable and can be associated very closely with the generic species here on earth,” said Hoover. Some of the fossils, however, are quite odd. “There are some that are just very strange and don’t look like anything that I’ve been able to identify, and I’ve shown them to many other experts that have also come up stump.”

In order to satisfy the inevitable hoard of buzz-killing skeptics, Hoover’s study and evidence were made available to his peers in the scientific community in advance of the study’s publications, giving them a chance to thoroughly dissect his findings. Comments from those who decided to sift through the evidence will be published online, alongside the study.
If you look at the US fiscal situation, it's easy to see that Medicare is a looming black hole ready to swallow the entire economy. Reforming the entitlement seems necessary to prevent fiscal ruin.

But actually that's too narrow a way of looking at things. After all, the costs borne by Medicare are no more sustainable if they're shifted to private individuals. It's just the path is different.

The REAL problem is how expensive our healthcare system is compared to its benefits, at least relative to other countries.

This chart is from SocGen's Albert Edwards. As you can see, the US has the same life-expectancy of Chile at 7 times the cost.

Now, the root causes of this can be debated ad nauseum. We need to reform what we pay for. We need to lose weight. We need to end the doctor cartel, on and on you can go. But if you're looking for a problem THIS is it.

Solve it, and the Medicare crisis goes away.


Justin Bieber has opened his heart for the first time about why he fell for girlfriend Selena Gomez and revealed: “It’s so important that a girl makes me laugh.”

The teenage superstar said: “She’s hot. Of course every guy likes the girl to be hot, which Selena is.

“But I like to mess around and pull jokes on people so I like to be around people who make me laugh and share my sense of humour. That’s Selena for sure.

“She is a really great person and I think she has the best smile in the world.”

In an exclusive interview with The People the heart-throb singer, who turned 17 on Tuesday, also confessed

Twilight star ROBERT PATTINSON has given him advice on talking to girls.

He wants CHERYL COLE to sing a duet with him – and he’d love...

DAVID and VICTORIA BECKHAM to invite him for dinner with their sons.

Justin was talking about his relationship with Disney Channel actress Selena, 18, just days after the pair went to the Vanity Fair Oscars party in Hollywood.