Plasma-Rich Hair Treatments, Leuocytes, Inflammation In The Body, And You: What Ties All Of The Above Together

Balding and thinning hair is something a lot of people would rather not see as they grow older. There is a new procedure that not only stops thinning hair, but also helps reverse it. Here is the thing; it may not be the best option for you if you have a high leukocyte (i.e., white blood cell) count in your body already. You need to have a blood cell count before you proceed with this hair loss treatment. The following explains how all of these things are tied together, and how some of these things may force you to remain with thinning hair for a while.

​Plasma-Rich Injections

Cosmetic surgeons currently remove a single bag of blood from you. They put it in tubes, spin the tubes through a centrifuge to separate red cells from plasma, and then take your plasma out of the tubes to re-introduce the plasma to your scalp via a needle. The plasma has been shown to reawaken hair follicles that shut down, and thicken hair that was thinning due to old age and genetics. The effective part of this is the white blood cells in the plasma. They destroy the inflammation that may exist in the scalp that may be causing your hair loss. For anyone that hates seeing those thinning hair spots on their heads, this seems like a perfectly logical solution, and one which your body will not reject because it is your own plasma.

​Leukapheresis

Leukapheresis does something similar to removing plasma from the red blood cells, except that in this case, only the white blood cells are removed. You may be thinking that this is the next step in restoring hair because it is the white blood cells that have the most impact on the plasma-rich injections under your scalp. Sadly, it is not.

Most people who are undergoing leukapheresis are doing so because they have far too many white blood cells, a dangerous condition. They may also have inflammation and disease in the body, and the white blood cell count is high because they are trying to fight off the disease. Hemophiliacs need constant leukapheresis to deal with their disease. If you are suffering from an already high white blood count, and you inject your scalp with more of your own white blood cells, nothing good will come of it.

​Hence, the Blood Tests

That is why you need to have your white blood cell count taken and have your blood plasma tested. Your cosmetic surgeon needs to know that your white cell (leukocyte) count is within normal limits before taking those cells out of your body and putting them back into your scalp with the plasma to regrow hair.