Friday, February 13, 2009

Hair Growth with Vitamin E Tocotrienols from Palm Oil – Experiment Conclusion

Tocotrienols are said to help with hair growth
Tocotrienols are said to help with hair growth. (Photo by mauroguanandi)

This post marks the end of my experiment with Toco-Sorb, a supplement that contains tocotrienols meant to increase hair growth.

As I wrote in the first post of the experiment, the patent study related to a similar product called Toco-8 suggests tocotrienols might help with hair growth. These results haven't been reproduced in other studies, however, so it seemed like a worthwhile experiment.

Unfortunately, the only noticeable increase I've recently seen in hair growth was from the retinol cream, which I was using as part of another experiment. The bottle of Toco-Sorb contained 120 gelcaps, so at a rate of 2 caps per day, it lasted me exactly two months. Admittedly, a longer time is recommended for any hair growth product, but for now, this'll have to do.

However, there seems to have been a reduction in the amount of hairs shed daily. Following my own advice on how to determine whether a hair growth product is working or not, I counted the average numbers of hairs shed before the experiment and got about 70 hairs per day. This fits within normal limits, but after about a month or so into the experiment, I've regularly counted about 40 hairs per day.

I'm not sure whether this effect is only temporary or whether it can be attributed to tocotrienols, but in any case, even these results seem more positive than a lot of other things I've tried. If anyone else has similar experiences from palm oil tocotrienols, be sure to leave a comment and share them.

In case you're wondering about absorbing tocotrienols from natural foods like palm oil instead of taking supplements, unless you're ready to consume ridiculous amounts of palm oil, it's not going to work. Not in the amounts used in the patent study that showed hair growth, at least.

If you don't want to take the supplement route and are willing to settle for less tocotrienols, a good way to improve the absorption of tocotrienols is to add sesame seeds to your meal. Sesame seeds increase the absorption of tocotrienols by up to five times.

Even if you do decide to buy either Toco-8 or Toco-Sorb (I'm unaware of other products at the current time), taking them with sesame seeds is very likely to help. During the experiment, I poured about a tablespoon of sesame seeds into my morning smoothie and chased the gelcaps down with the smoothie. I also consumed about a tablespoon of palm oil each day, as I mentioned in the post about my typical intermittent fasting meal.

I've also ran across some studies that suggest tocotrienols may have other health benefits as well, so I may continue supplementing with them at a later time. For now, however, it's onward and upward to new fascinating experiments in the bizarre world of hair growth.

For more information on hair growth, see these posts:

Topical Ketoconazole (Nizoral) Increases Hair Growth in Mice
Hair Growth Battle: Emu Oil vs. Hair Again® Topical Gel
Chinese Hibiscus Leaf Extract Increases Hair Growth in Mice
Mixture of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid and Iron Increases Hair Growth in Mice



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3 kommenttia:

Chris Vetrano May 9, 2011 at 9:51 AM  

Hey man. I work for Primordial Performance, the company that sells toco-8. I too have had the same effects of less hair falling out. I don't shed very much to begin with. 20-30 hairs I have counted on average in the month before I started the supplement. Now it's on average 10-20, though admittedly my hair is quite short and I may be missing some hairs from both counts.

Anonymous September 6, 2011 at 8:44 AM  

As I was following your experiment with high interest, I hope you will still read this because it is already 2011.
I was reading that other people had hair regrowth when taking tocotrienols.

Sorry, that it did not work for you but I think it is maybe because you made a mistake..
As you stated in the scientific study, the group had to take the supplement twice a day.

When you calculate the formula again, it would mean that you would have to take 2 times 2 pills of your own formula to match these results!

Maybe you should try again ?
I certainly will .

Anonymous October 9, 2011 at 1:43 PM  

1g of "whole grain" (hulled, but not pearled) barley contains about 0.9mg of Vitamin E tocotrienol.

The equivalent of 100mg of Vitamin E tocotrienol would require roughly 110g of barely a day, which wouldn't be much more expensive than the supplement if you factor in everything else.

Rather than tossing oats into a smoothie, consider tossing in some hulled barley.

This chart on tocotrienol.org is helpful as a reference point:

http://tocotrienol.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49

Although the part at the bottom saying you'd need 3kg of barley a day to reach appreciable levels is BS.

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