Herbal Supplements: Can They ... Video Transcript

Participants

Peter S. Halperin MD, Shari Lieberman PhD, David Folk Thomas

Summary

If you're trying to put an end to your hair loss, you've probably encountered an endless array of products that claim to stop or even reverse the process. A few are FDA-approved medications, but there are also many natural or herbal treatments that have not been subjected to the same rigorous tests. Do any of these actually work, and is there any harm in trying? Join our specialists as they take a close look at some of the most popular herbal remedies for hair loss.

Webcast Transcript

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: If you're trying to put an end to your hair loss, you've probably encountered an endless array of products which claim to stop or even reverse the process. A few are FDA-approved medications, but there are also many natural or herbal treatments which have not been subjected to the same rigorous tests. Now, do any of these actually work, and is there any harm in trying? In this program we'll take a close look at some of the popular herbal remedies for hair loss.

Joining me are two experts in the field. On my left is Dr. Peter Halperin. He's an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and New York Hospital. To Peter's left is Dr. Shari Lieberman. She's a nutrition scientist, exercise physiologist, and she's also on the faculty of the University of Bridgeport, and she's the author of a few books on the subject.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Let me start with you, Peter. Is there any difference between herbal treatments for hair loss and other medical treatments available, and if so, can you talk about those?

PETER HALPERIN, MD: One key difference is the way they're studied, David. Medically approved treatments undergo a certain type of testing, and in the best scenario they undergo something called placebo, blinded, controlled testing. That means that you take 1,000 people and give them a medication, and you take another 1,000 people, kind of like the same group as the first, and give them a placebo, or sugar pill, and see if the medication influences their life in what you're trying to study. So if you're trying to grow hair, then you give one group an active hair pill and you give another group a sugar pill and you see if the group taking the pill meant to grow hair actually grow hair, then you've done something. That's really what the FDA-approved types of treatments look at. They are medicines that have been studied. We know about their side effects, we know about their efficacy, how effective they are. We know that if you use the medicine in L.A., it'll do the same thing in New York, and it's down to a science. We know what it does, we know the side effects, we know how it works.

We don't know a lot about these herbal supplements, and that's the thing. They're not studied as rigorously, or studied at all. They need no approval to appear on the shelf, so a manufacturer can really say whatever they want about it. It can just sit there and say it's going to grow hair and detoxify your liver and do whatever else it wants to say, but it's not a medication and it doesn't come under the thumb of the FDA, like a medicine does.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: So if it's not under the thumb of the FDA, is there any agency out there that if there was some product that you said, "This will grow your hair in three weeks," or something outrageous, would somebody rein that in?

PETER HALPERIN, MD: You know, the FDA still is in control of that. However, they can only get involved if the product has been shown to be harmful to a patient, so that if you mix up something and throw it out there on the shelf and it does no benefit to anybody, the FDA won't go after you unless that product hurts somebody in some way.

SHARI LIEBERMAN, PhD: That's actually untrue. The FDA very heavily regulates the dietary supplement industry. In fact, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was passed. If you put on any product a claim that it will grow hair, you will be fined.