This One's for Xenon; Ateriovenous Anastomoses (Connection to Scalp?)

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/august/cooling-glove-research-082912.html

Obviously these networks are present in the hands, but it would be interesting to see if they were connected to any scalp pathologies. The implications for muscle is huge, and if this type of connection formed in the networks of the galea, it might corroborate part of your theory, given their thermoregulatory functions. But given that they tend to form on hairless parts of the body I kind of doubt they are found in scalp tissue (I'm having trouble finding any anatomical charts that depict anything in detail), but if they are present they might actually be bad for hair. Especially if they form due to arterial/veinous insufficiency to begin with.

Thanks for this... very interesting info. And if it's of any interest to you, here is a pdf I've been reading on AVA's: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a245385.pdf

To touch upon something in the article:

"In 2009, it was discovered that muscle pyruvate kinase, or MPK, an enzyme that muscles need in order to generate chemical energy, was highly temperature- sensitive. At normal body temperature, the enzyme is active – but as temperatures rise, some of the enzyme begins to deform into the inactive state. By the time muscle temperatures near 104 degrees Fahrenheit, MPK activity completely shuts down.

There's a very good biological reason for this shutdown. As a muscle cell increases its activity, it heats up. But if this process continues for too long, the cell will self-destruct. By shutting itself down below a critical temperature threshold, MPK serves as an elegant self-regulation system for the muscle."

The same process occurs within all cells subjected to higher than normal temperatures, especially hair follicles, as this is where so much heat is lost. So not only is ATP lowered, but the cell structure itself becomes damaged (due to histamines).

I'd like to stress, though; I only ever lose hair if my scalp *severely overheats* byway of too much intensive exercise or any other activity that causes a sharp increase in metabolic heat, i.e., excessive masturbating or release of stress metabolites, etc. This is probably why my hairloss problem is somewhat mild in comparison to many other board members on here because it's only this heat issue causing the problem.

I've managed to get it under control byway of several methods that have assisted greatly in thermoregulation - one of them being, the regular consumption of cold drinks (instead of regular cups of hot tea throughout the day).