An article I shared with you a while back on balding and hair loss caught the attention of Kayla from Tuck, an organization devoted to promoting sleep health awareness.  They recently discovered that by the age of fifty, 50% of men and 40% of women will experience androgenetic alopecia.  They put a very comprehensive report together examining the connection between sleep and hair health and asked if I would share it with you.  Of course I said yes. 

Here are a few take-aways from their report:

• Most people have about 100,000 hairs on their head.
• Healthy hair falls out at a rate of about 50-100 telogen strands a day.
• Men and women are impacted differently by androgenetic alopecia, which is why the resultant hair loss is categorized as “male pattern” or “female pattern”.
• There is a significant three-way link among hair loss, stress, and sleep loss.
• Sleep deprivation causes people to anticipate the worst in situations, increasing stress through excessive worrying.
• There’s a connection between sleep apnea and hair loss.
• There is some evidence that melatonin also helps control the circadian cycle (the sleep-wake cycle that repeats roughly every 24 hours) of hair follicles.
• All medications come with side effects, and many hair loss drugs have challenging ones.
• Not everyone is a candidate for surgical hair loss treatment.  There are also side effects associated with these procedures, despite their relative safety.
• Create excellent sleep hygiene and achieving better sleep.
• Relaxation techniques such as mindfulness and meditation are useful skills to learn.

 
Below is the link to their full report on...

Can Sleeping Better Slow Down Hair Loss?

By the age of fifty, 50% of men and 40% of women will experience androgenetic alopecia (male and female-pattern hair loss), while many others every year suffer from some other form of hair loss.

The emotional toll is enough to make some people want to do nothing but hide in bed. As it turns out, there might be something to that: hair loss and sleep are connected on multiple levels. From the impact of sleep apnea to the role of circadian cycles, there is much to learn from the relationship between hair loss (particularly androgenetic alopecia) and sleep.

We’ve put together the article below to explain hair loss, illuminate the relationship between hair loss and sleep, and inform you of your options in treating both hair loss and sleep dysfunction.

Keep reading to learn more

Can we all agree we’ve hit max CBD hysteria? With CBD markets and thousands of sites and products, there’s nearly just as much misinformation as there are facts. The hemp-derived oil is 100 percent federally legal and powerful, but there are a lot of misnomers out there too. We sat down with the new cool kids on the cannabis block, David Weiner and Verena von Pfetten, the founders of weed-positive media and product brand Gossamer. Both knowledgeable experts, they myth-busted everything from dosing to legality—buckle up, because there are a lot of concepts to clear up.

CBD Is Cool and All, But It Has Limits

“CBD products do a lot of things and help a lot of cannabinoids do their specialties, but it isn’t actually a stand-alone,” says von Pfetten. While CBD is getting all the buzz right now, the other 80-plus cannabinoids in the cannabis plant are pretty undiscovered. “But there is a real opportunity for people to create these products that have very specific effects,” she says. In the next few years, look for the market to explode with products that not only feature but showcase things like CBN and terpenes. “CBD is not a myth or hoax, but it’s also not a cure-all,” says von Pfetten. “It’s a basis for all these other layers that could be incredibly promising and exciting.”

CBD Is Not for Sleep

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it a thousand times: CBD is not a sedative to be taken for sleep. It will help with things that might be keeping you awake though, like pain or anxiety, says von Pfetten, but it will not lull you into a deep snooze. It’s sister, CBN, is a sedative, though, and a powerful one at that. “However, it doesn’t work on its own. It needs to be taken with CBD in order to be effective,” she says. So while CBD is not the main ingredient in CBN sleep aids, it is a vital ingredient to make the product actually work better.

It Probably Has THC in It

Most users and non-users don’t realize that the full-spectrum classification means that it has the (admittedly small) legally allowed amount of THC in it (which is .3 percent). “It is a federally legal product and it will not make you feel high, but it does have THC in it,” says Verena.

And Potentially More THC Than Legal

That bottle of CBD? It can kind of say whatever it wants to say because, technically, there isn’t much oversight. It’s now under the FDA’s department to test and verify products, but testing is infrequent. The Gossamer duo and their labs have independently tested a number of products directly off the shelves and “some of them are crazy,” says Weiner. “Not only do some not have CBD in them, but some of them have much higher doses of THC than are legal.” Why? This is a plant-derived product, so each and every batch is going to have its own variations and differences.

For Gossamer’s own CBN product Dusk, each round is slightly different than the next, and that’s exactly why they test every batch independently. “Think about how hard this is when you are mass-producing CBD edibles, chocolates, or caramels,” says Weiner. “To get between that very specific concentration in every single chocolate, if you didn’t get it right, you’d have to dump an entire batch.” There is natural deviation in plants, so it’s impossible to claim each batch is exactly the same in potency and amounts.

Dosing Is Personal

CBD, and all things cannabis, affects every person differently. “Everyone has a different reaction to so many things, from caffeine to salt to alcohol to food to antibiotics,” says Weiner. “We think of CBD as this cure-all, this one-size-fits-all solution, but it’s not.” With a plant-based product, there’s no guarantee, so consumers have to educate themselves on personal percentages and dosing. 

You Already Produce CBD—Yep, Really

“There is not enough discussion about what actually happens when you consume it,” says von Pfetten. “Your body naturally produces small amounts of CBD on its own.” That’s why our bodies interact so well with cannabis oil. “There are cannabinoids that we produce and there are cannabinoids that we get from plants and outside sources,” she says. You have an endocannabinoid system (all vertebrae do) with specific receptors that react exclusively to cannabinoids. CBD binds to those receptors and helps to regulate and maintain homeostasis. “All of that is happening in your body when you take CBD,” she says.

Terpenes Are the Future 

“Terpenes are going to be the thing in the next two years,” Weiner says. You probably don’t even know it, but terpenes are actually in a lot of the products you already use. “They’re in perfumes, skincare, candles, and medicine already,” says von Pfetten. They are bountiful in the cannabis plant; we have much further research and studies conducted on the efficacy of terpenes than other elements of the plant.

“Each terpene has their own effects that we can gain benefits from,” says Weiner. For Dusk, they chose terpenes that have a sedative or calming effect so they complement the CBN and CBD to work together to promote better sleep. But there are energizing terpenes and beyond too.

“People understand what CBD is now, and it’s basically a base,” says Weiner. “Now, we can take the conversation one step further, like adding CBN. And then we can take the conversation even one step further and lay in terpenes, and that’s where you start to get wildly specific effects. As consumer knowledge grows, so do the products.”

Organic is Not Possible

“In 99 percent of cases that have that organic stamp on the bottle, it is fake—they just put it on,” says von Pfetten. That’s because it’s incredibly difficult to become certified organic in hemp and extraction processes. “It’s not that they aren’t organic, but the actual certification process requirements are very, very high,” she says.

The farm that creates Dusk is organic, but it cannot put that claim on the bottle because legally it’s nearly impossible. “Your space might be organic, but one or two farms over is not, and those heavy metals pesticides can end up in the soil and your product as well,” she says. “You want consumers to be wary, but people in the [market] space are taking advantage of the consumer and muddying the waters.”

That’s not to say what you’re consuming isn’t safe. A quality brand will test each batch a minimum of three times to ensure safety. “You test it at harvest, distillation, and right again before it goes into the bottle,” says von Pfetten. “The reason you test it those three times is to ensure you don’t have any runoff pesticides from nearby farms.”

You Can Be Price-Agnostic 

CBD on its own is not a particularly expensive item, yet you’ll see a product for $10 and the same size bottle from a different brand for $110. What gives? “What they are doing with it, where they source it, terpenes, the formulations, the packaging, the cannabinoids, their willingness to dump a batch—there is a reason for different price points,” says von Pfetten. “CBD itself is not super cheap, but it’s also not insanely expensive, so at a certain point, you are absolutely paying for marketing,” she says.

The main thing to ask yourself is “Does the product work for you?” “If it does, that’s all that matters,” says Weiner. But they suggest checking your product’s certificate of authenticity (COA) for your specific batch to verify what you’re consuming. But what you’re comfortable paying for is totally up to you.

How You Consume It Matters—a Lot

The effectiveness of CBD is based on how you consume it. “The number one most effective way is to vape it,” says von Pfetten. “The second most effective way is a sublingual tincture, meaning absorbing under your tongue—not swallowing it.” That means actually holding it under your tongue for 30, 60, or even 90 seconds to try to absorb as much as you can sublingually.

The number one least effective way to consume CBD? Eating it. “You lose up to 70 percent of the active cannabinoids,” she says. So if you’re eating a 10 milligram gumdrop: you firstly have to hope it actually has 10 milligrams in it, which you don’t have any guarantee of at this point, and secondly, you’re losing 70 percent of it, so you’re maybe getting three percent at most, and that was only if it had 10 milligrams in the first place.

“That’s why we stand behind tinctures at this point,” says von Pfetten. “Sure, vaping, but a lot of people are just reluctant to vape something at this point, and that we can understand.”

The Gossamer duo isn’t over CBD though. Every day they get emails and notes from users of their CBN/CBD tincture, saying how much it’s helped them. “What we’re over is the gimmicks,” says Weiner. “CBD in coffee, etc.—the overpromising.”

This information is from Domino

You may recall from chemistry class the term “half-life”—the time it takes for an element to decay by half its original value. While often utilized in nuclear physics to describe the decay of radioactive atoms, the concept also applies to the metabolization of substances by biological processes in the human body. Alcohol, prescription medications, metals, and even water have biological half-lives and deteriorate at different rates.

In this blog post, we’ll address the following:

• How Long Does CBD Stay in Your System?
• What Factors Contribute to How Long CBD Stays in Your System?
• Does Frequency of Use Change How Long CBD Stays in the System?

So, How Long Does CBD Stay in Your System?

CBD is no different. It decays like all other compounds, but that rate of decay varies depending on many factors. A 2014 study titled Cannabidiol: Promise and Pitfalls concluded that the half-life of orally-administered CBD was about 1 to 2 days. In other words, if you were to take 40 mg of CBD, only 20 mg would remain after 1 to 2 days. As noted in a 2012 study, CBD half-life changes based on the method of consumption:

• IV administration: 18 – 33 hours
• Oral administration: 2 – 5 days
• Smoking: 27 – 35 hours

A general rule of thumb in pharmacokinetics, which studies how drugs move throughout the body, is that it takes 4 – 5 half-lives for a drug to be effectively eliminated. The point at which the intake of a drug is at equilibrium with its elimination is known as its “steady state.” In keeping with the previous example, if the half-life of CBD is assumed to be 1 to 2 days, then it would take anywhere between 4 to 10 days for any given dosage of CBD to reach this steady state.

What Factors Contribute to How Long CBD Stays in Your System?

It’s important to note that these are merely ballpark estimates, and that multiple other factors contribute to varying rates of CBD decay, including:

• Age
• Sex
• Weight
• Metabolism
• Lifestyle
• Frequency of use

Because of this, it can be very difficult to assess exactly how long CBD lingers in the body, and at what concentrations. CBD is fat-soluble and can build up and store in fat cells for quite a while, especially in daily and high-BMI users. Those who live very active lifestyles, on the other hand, will most likely metabolize CBD at a faster rate than even a moderately active person. Likewise, all other things being equal, a younger person will naturally metabolize CBD faster than someone much older.

Does Frequency of Use Change How Long CBD Stays in the System?

Arguably, the most crucial factor when it comes to drug elimination is the frequency of use. How much and how often someone uses a substance will have a major and perhaps the most significant effect on how long it takes for that substance—be it CBD or any other drug—to dissipate completely.

Unfortunately, there is no single definitive answer to the question of how long CBD stays in your system; there are just too many different contributing factors. But it’s also essential to address the reasoning behind such an inquiry. Too often, it’s a question pitched by CBD enthusiasts who are worried about testing positive for THC in a drug test as a result of their CBD use, although this is exceptionally rare (as discussed in a separate blog post).

As the market for CBD continues to expand, so will the need for additional clinical trials and other scientific testing. In due time, we may yet gain more detailed insight into the effects—and duration—of CBD in the body.
 
This information is from Zatural
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​It’s the cold and flu season! AGAIN!

Sick people either stay home or go to the doctor. They do not come to the salon.

If you are not feeling well, please stay home and take care of yourself.

I know your time is valuable and you are thinking if I miss this appointment I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back in. Just know I will do my best to accommodate you ASAP.

More times than not, when you come to your appointment sick, even if you think you are feeling betting, within 2 or 3 days I come down with whatever you had myself and I can’t come into work and finish out the workweek, which is very inconvenient for me and the rest of my clients. Remember, too, that I do not have paid sick leave like most of you.

If I am feeling under the weather I will let you know as soon as possible that I need to cancel and reschedule your appointment. It is not fare to you that I come to work sick and get you sick.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a sniffle or the flu — STAY HOME! If you are too sick to go to work you are too sick to come in for your appointment. So PLEASE let me know as soon as possible if you are not feeling well so we can reschedule your appointment.

I will say this again, STAY HOME AND TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. I will do my best to accommodate you ASAP.
​
Take Care,
Hair by Brian

​Cold myths debunked: Here are 3 common cold myths that parents still rely on
 
Going outside with wet hair will not lead to a cold.

It’s a belief passed on by generation after generation, and although experts say it’s not backed by science, a new poll suggests many of us still believe it.

Researchers at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Michigan found this myth, along with a few others, is still popular among parents, CNN reported.

Polling more than 1,000 parents with children between the ages of five and 12, researchers found 70 per cent believed in these “folklore strategies.”

“For example, 52 per cent of parents reported that they tell their child not to go outside with wet hair, while 48 per cent said they encourage their child to spend more time indoors to avoid catching a cold. In contrast, 23 per cent of parents said they encourage their child to spend more time outdoors to prevent colds,” authors wrote in a statement.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a clinical researcher at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, told Global News it’s hard to pinpoint why people still believe these myths.

“A lot of these beliefs started well before germ theory,” he said. “Some of these myths and quirks just get passed down from generation to generation but it’s hard to know why. Simply being cold doesn’t mean you’re going to get a cold.”

The poll in detail
The poll also found half of parents believed giving their child over-the-counter products, like vitamins or supplements, can prevent colds.

“These products generally have no or limited evidence of effectiveness in preventing colds,” authors continued. “The most common product that parents gave their child in the past year for cold prevention was vitamin C. Around 25 per cent of parents had tried giving their child products advertised to boost their immune system.”

But the poll also uncovered some good news: 99 per cent of parents encouraged personal hygiene like washing hands. Parents also told their children to avoid others who were sick and to clean shared toys.

Getting through cold season
Bogoch stressed that colds have nothing to do with the weather. Instead, colds are viruses that circulate. “They can cause nuisance symptoms like low-grade fever, sneezing, coughing, runny noses, and people generally feeling crummy until it passes.”

Colds can be more prevalent in colder months because people typically are more clustered together.

“Preventing the cold can be challenging [in colder months], but good hygiene is key,” he said, adding viruses can live on surfaces like doorknobs, keyboards, and elevator buttons.

Tips for parents
Besides encouraging children to wash their hands, parents should also know there isn’t a way to fully prevent the cold.

“The vast majority of these infections are self-limited and most of the time it will be over in a few days,” Bogoch said. “There is no silver bullet… there is nothing you can do to shorten the duration.”

Authors who conducted the research said parents should also teach children not to put their hands near their nose or mouth, and avoid sharing utensils or drinks with others.

Bogoch said always monitor how your children feel. If colds are consistent or last for a long period of time (even with off-the-counter products), speak with your health-care provider.


This article is from Global News