Body News.

Byline: Kristin Sainani

A Key to Healthy Hair

Though cosmetic products can alter hair's condition, hair texture and growth are significantly influenced by genetics. Now scientists have found that two rare genetic disorders--one that causes coarse, dry hair and one that causes early hair loss--are linked to different defects in the same gene. "This implies that the gene plays a very important role in maintaining normal hair growth and appearance," says Eli Sprecher, associate professor of dermatology at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, who wrote a commentary on the discoveries in Nature Genetics . Though "it's too early to predict," he says, the finding could lead to drugs to treat hair disorders or to improve hair quality.

A Cream for Better Skin Tone

A new skin-lightening product is effective, researchers report. When 19 people with the pigment disorder melasma were treated with a cream containing octadecenedioic acid, which interferes with pigment production, melasma severity decreased by 40 percent in eight weeks, and most of the women reported having less negative feelings about their skin. The cream is well-tolerated and achieves results comparable to those observed with retinoids, says Ulrich Scherdin, a scientist at Beiersdorf AG in Germany (which makes the treatment). Though prescription-strength ...