The Herbs Taken Internally in Hair Loss Treatment

Hair loss has become steadily more common in this century, and both Western and Korean medicine have been approaching the research from many angles. Western medicine works from hormonal and nutritional angles and has produced a few treatments, but they only work while you keep taking or applying them, and some carry side effects serious enough to give people pause.

Research on hair loss in Korean medicine has lagged somewhat, but most of the hair loss products now on the market rely on herbal ingredients, and experiments using certain herbal formulas have produced meaningful results. The potential of Korean medicine treatment is growing.

I became interested in hair loss some years ago by chance. Since then I have gathered material on Korean medicine treatment of hair loss from a wide range of texts, organized what I found, and applied it in day-to-day practice, opening up a path for treatment with Korean medicine.

Classical Korean medicine texts say relatively little about hair loss. People probably worried about it less back then, life expectancy was shorter so fewer people lived to experience it, and hair loss among teenagers would have been rarer still. What treatment material exists deals mostly with cases caused by aging or stress. In more recent texts and clinical casebooks, though, the material grows richer and more varied, which suggests hair loss has become more common with each generation.

Today, working from that written record, I want to go through the herbs used internally in hair loss treatment. Understanding the reasoning behind the herbs in various products and in the decoctions prescribed at a Korean medicine clinic should make the treatment itself easier to follow.

Before getting to the herbs themselves, it helps to know how Korean medicine understands hair loss in the first place. Once the theory is clear, it becomes much easier to see why these particular herbs are the ones that get used.

In Korean medicine, hair is seen as closely tied to "blood" (hyeol). Blood here does not simply mean the fluid in your veins; it refers to the material foundation that nourishes the body, and the concept takes in circulation as well. Korean medicine holds that the body's organs are nourished by blood, body fluids and essence, and that these share a single origin and differ only in the form they take as needed. Because the liver and the kidneys govern blood, essence and body fluids, herbs that tonify the liver and kidneys are applied directly to hair loss treatment.

The best-known herbs that replenish blood, essence and body fluids while strengthening the liver and kidneys include prepared rehmannia, fo-ti (he shou wu), angelica, goji berry, eclipta, mulberry fruit, glossy privet fruit, black sesame and schisandra.

These herbs contribute to hair loss treatment in another way as well, by balancing the body's water and fire energies. People struggling with hair loss often have an excess of fire energy, so they feel heat in the face or scalp or notice it flushing upward. Herbs with a water character that replenish blood and essence bring that fire down and refill the water side, restoring the balance. That is why, among the blood- and essence-tonifying herbs, the ones with a neutral or cooling nature tend to be used most.

Korean medicine also holds that blood moves along with qi, so tonifying the blood has always been paired with tonifying qi or regulating its flow. Alongside the blood- and essence-tonifying herbs, then, come qi-tonifying and qi-regulating herbs such as ginseng, astragalus, tangerine peel and nutgrass. Besides supporting the production of blood and keeping qi moving so the organs function properly, these herbs also help the body generate new tissue, skin and muscle.

In short, the herbs traditionally used are the ones that replenish blood, essence and qi, balance the water and fire energies, and keep qi flowing freely.

Adding herbs that improve circulation and break up stagnant blood makes the formula better still, and in practice you will find small amounts of blood-moving herbs worked into these prescriptions: moutan bark, safflower, angelica tail, cinnamon twig and sappanwood, among others.

Next time I will look at the herbs used externally in hair loss treatment.