After reading some stuff about taurine from Haidut, it finally caught my eye when i read its a vasodilator and lowers adrenaline. IIRC Charlie also posted about how taurine made his adrenaline go down substantially when he tried it.
Since Peat says minoxidil works by increasing NO, which is a vasodilator during stress with long term negative effects, i thought maybe there is something to it. Hairs have also been shown to be inefficient in the way they produce atp, and generates a lot of lactic acid. So there might be a low CO2 environment in the scalp, CO2 protects against lactic acid, and increasing blood flow and CO2 might be good for the hair.
Taurine seems to not only be a vasodilator but also its taken up by hair bulb, protects it as well as inhibits TGF-beta1, which inhibits hair growth and causes fibrosis!
"Taurine is a naturally occurring beta-amino acid produced by methionine and cysteine metabolism. It is involved in a variety of physiological functions, including immunomodulatory and antifibrotic. Taking advantage of the ability of human hair follicle grown in vitro to recapitulate most of the characteristic features of normal hair follicle in vivo, we studied (i) taurine uptake by isolated human hair follicles; (ii) its effects on hair growth and survival rate; and (iii) its protective potential against transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1, an inhibitor of in vitro hair growth and a master switch of fibrotic program. We showed that taurine was taken up by the connective tissue sheath, proximal outer root sheath and hair bulb, promoted hair survival in vitro and prevented TGF-beta1-induced deleterious effects on hair follicle."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18489269
Since Peat says minoxidil works by increasing NO, which is a vasodilator during stress with long term negative effects, i thought maybe there is something to it. Hairs have also been shown to be inefficient in the way they produce atp, and generates a lot of lactic acid. So there might be a low CO2 environment in the scalp, CO2 protects against lactic acid, and increasing blood flow and CO2 might be good for the hair.
Taurine seems to not only be a vasodilator but also its taken up by hair bulb, protects it as well as inhibits TGF-beta1, which inhibits hair growth and causes fibrosis!
"Taurine is a naturally occurring beta-amino acid produced by methionine and cysteine metabolism. It is involved in a variety of physiological functions, including immunomodulatory and antifibrotic. Taking advantage of the ability of human hair follicle grown in vitro to recapitulate most of the characteristic features of normal hair follicle in vivo, we studied (i) taurine uptake by isolated human hair follicles; (ii) its effects on hair growth and survival rate; and (iii) its protective potential against transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1, an inhibitor of in vitro hair growth and a master switch of fibrotic program. We showed that taurine was taken up by the connective tissue sheath, proximal outer root sheath and hair bulb, promoted hair survival in vitro and prevented TGF-beta1-induced deleterious effects on hair follicle."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18489269
