Fight Aging!

We humans are downright irrational beings - witness the fact that the possibility of a cure for baldness arising from stem cell based regenerative medicine garners just as much interest as a cure for heart disease using the same technology.

I think that the Onion had it right in its satirical treatment of the topic.

"I've always said I don't believe in that Frankenstein-type research, but lately I've been thinking that there might be something to it," said Tell, a 43-year-old father of two and victim of male-pattern baldness. "If there are people out there who could truly benefit from that stem-cell stuff, who are we to deny them?"

The shift in thinking occurred just three days after Tell received a haircut that revealed a large, bare patch at the crown of his head. The bare patch accompanies the recently converted stem-cell-research advocate's receding hairline, of which he has long been aware.

I'm not one to tell other people what they should be thinking, but fixing the fatal conditions before the vanity issues sounds like the better way forward to me. Still, if vanity is what it takes to get people to understand and support stem cell research...

Randall Parker has more on the most recent work on mice and their adult skin stem cells - and what that means for hair regrowth in humans.