Fennel, The Reliable and Less Expensive Functional Food For Treatment of Hirsutism

Kyle J. Norton

Fennel may have a therapeutic effect in reducing the risk of unwanted hair growth in women, some scientists suggested.

Hirsutism is an unwanted hair growth pattern in women.

The exact causes of Hirsutism are unknown. However, researchers do know certain risk factors are associated to the early onset of the disease, including women who have a persistent hormone imbalance, are obese.

Certain medical conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome, infertility, long-term, irregular period, abnormal menstrual conditions and cysts presented in the ovaries, and Cushing's syndrome are also considered the prevalent risk factors of Hirsutism.

Some women with the syndrome may experience symptoms of deepening voice,  persistent acne on the facial skin, decreased breast size, increased muscle mass, particularly, unwanted hair growth.

If you have some of the above symptoms, please check with your doctor to rule out the possibility.

In most cases, Hirsutism is treated by androgen inhibitor such as spironolactone(Aldactone). Topical cream. Eflornithine (Vaniqa), a prescription cream is a primary treatment for women with excessive hair growth.

If you use the above medication, please make sure that know all the side effects.

Some researchers suggested due to the complex nature of the syndrome, management is usually a long and troublesome process.

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a plant species of the genus, belonging to Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), native to the Mediterranean.

The herb or food has been used in traditional and herbal medicine as warming, carminative, antispasmodic, antidepressant agent and to stimulate the appetite, ease indigestion, soothe coughing, reduce intestinal spasms, to regulate the menstrual cycle and relieve PMS,...

The double-blind study, using an ethanolic extract of Fennel, obtained by a Soxhlet apparatus to test the efficacy against the expression of idiopathic hirsutism of a total of 38 patients, includes women with idiopathic hirsutism, a normal ovulatory menstrual cycle and normal levels of serum androgens but exhibited male growth pattern were selected to participate.

All patients were assigned randomly to receive either topical cream containing 1%, 2% of Fennel extract or placebo.

At the end of the experiment, researchers found that application of fennel cream exerts a significant effect in reducing hair growth diameter compared to placebo.

Fennel cream with 2% concentration displayed a strongly inhibited activity compared to cream with 1%.

Specifically, the mean values of hair diameter reduction were 7.8%, 18.3% and -0.5% for patients receiving the creams containing 1%, 2% and 0% (placebo) respectively, without inducing any untolerated adverse effects.

These results suggested that fennel ethanolic extract in reducing male hair growth pattern may be attributed to estrogenic property in the activation of the molecular pathways involved in the estrogen-mediated induction of hair growth.

Dr. Ozra Akh, the lead author said, "Estrogens harness the making of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the papilla cells of the skin by controlling 5-alfa reductase enzyme or increasing the conversion of testosterone to weaker androgens and decreasing the testosterone available for conversion to DHT".

Truly, in the review of literature of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial carried out from 2009 to 2011, in Sari, Iran with a total of 44 women with mild to moderate idiopathic hirsutism, researchers assigned participants either to the group of 22 treated with fennel gel 3% or the control group received placebo.

The mean age of both groups are not much difference at  26.9±6.7 and 25.6±4.3 years in case and control group, respectively, the researchers after taking into account co and confounders indicated that application of fennel gel 3% demonstrates a significant effect in the reduction of thickness of facial hair in micrometer by microscope compared to placebo, after 24 weeks of treatment.

 The results of the score of both groups were compared to the baseline taken before the experiment

Although no severity of side effects was found during the period, 4 patients complained of itching (3 in the case group) and 4 patients complained of irritation and itching (3 in the case group).

In compared to the results of 2 experiments used in the article, both  2% gel and 3% gel exerted a similar efficacy in treating idiopathic hirsutism in patients with mild, moderated and excessive hair growth.

Truly, the property in reduced unwanted hair growth in the study, probably due to the presence of major bioactive phytochemical trans-anethole and di-anethole anti-androgenic effect.

Based on the evidence found, fennel may be considered a reliable and less expensive functional food for treatment of idiopathic hirsutism.

However, due to the limited information provided by the small sample size, short period time of follow-up and the case severity does not include in both studies, Additional studies are necessary to reconfirm fennel anti Hirsutism viability.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Antihirsutism activity of Fennel (fruits of Foeniculum vulgare) extract. A double-blind placebo controlled study by Javidnia K1, Dastgheib L, Mohammadi Samani S, Nasiri A.(PubMed)
(2) The effect of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) gel 3% in decreasing hair thickness in idiopathic mild to moderate hirsutism, A randomized placebo controlled clinical trial by Ozra Akha, MD,1 Khadijeh Rabiei, MD,*,2 Zahra Kashi, MD,1 Adele Bahar, MD,1 Elham Zaeif-Khorasani, MD,1 Mehrnoush Kosaryan, MD,3 Majid Saeedi, PhD,4 Mohammad Ali Ebrahimzadeh, PhD,5 and Omid Emadian, MD(PubMed)