Dr. Teri Fisher: Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Anti- Aging Insights. Thank you for joining me again today for this episode. Today is a really special episode, I think because we get to talk about one of the latest, most revolutionary products in hair restoration, in hair growth. And I am so proud to say that we are the first clinic in Vancouver to actually be able to offer this particular device. What am I talking about?

I’m talking about a specific device called Alma TED. Now today, we’re going to chat all about this device. We’re going to talk about how this works for hair restoration. If you are a woman and you are interested in learning about how you can get some of that thickness of your hair back, or if you are a man, and you’re wondering if there’s a way that you can combat the male pattern baldness that is all very, very common, then we have a solution for you. And again, I’m really excited to be able to chat with you about this. I want to go through the details. I want to explain to you what this is, how it works, why it is so different than other hair restoration treatments that are out there, and then give you a little bit of a taste of what it’s like to actually have the treatment done.

I actually had the treatment done to myself when we first got the device only a few weeks ago. Our staff needed to be trained and I volunteered to be their Guinea pig, so to speak. And I was incredibly surprised at the experience. And I’ll get into that in just a few moments here. So let’s talk about what this is.

The device is called Alma TED. Alma’s the company that creates the device. TED stands for transepidermal delivery. And this is critical because this is what makes this device so revolutionary.

This device is all based on low frequency ultrasound. And that means, and here’s the key, there are no needles involved with this. It is a completely pain free approach to hair restoration. How does that compare to treatments that are already out there? Well, let’s talk just a little bit about that for a few moments here.

The most common treatments for hair restoration, whether it’s from male pattern baldness or thinning of the hair is a combination of topical treatments, medication, or oral medication, or in some cases, PRP, platelet rich plasma. Now with platelet rich plasma, it can actually be a little bit uncomfortable because what it is, it’s essentially a treatment where we take a blood sample from you, spin down the blood in a centrifuge, and then take off the serum, which has the growth factors and platelets in it, hence the name platelet rich plasma. And then we can inject that in multiple small injections all over the scalp to encourage the hair follicles, to then grow and start to regain some of that hair loss. As you can imagine having multiple injections over a scalp can be a little bit uncomfortable. There are ways that we can deal with that. There are ways that we can minimize the discomfort, but nevertheless, it’s not the most comfortable treatment.

That is where Alma TED comes in and it is completely revolutionary. The way this device works is it simply is an ultrasound device. Alma TED uses low frequency ultrasound. Why does this work so effectively? Well, let’s talk about our skin and our scalp and what’s happening there. Our skin, throughout our entire body, is like a wall. It is a barrier between the external world and the internal body, our cells that make up who we are. The skin typically is a very effective barrier. It keeps out foreign bodies. It keeps out bacteria. It keeps out all the stuff that we don’t want to get into our body. But, what if we have a type of serum that includes growth factors that can increase hair growth? We want that to get into those particular areas, like the scalp, for example. So, this is where Alma TED comes in. As I mentioned, Alma Ted is essentially an ultrasound probe.

The way the procedure works is a technician holds the probe over your scalp in various areas and moves it back and forth for about two minutes at a time. That ultrasound causes vibrations and it is essentially, you can think of it, as vibrating the bricks of your wall, you’re epidermal layer, your skin cells, it’s vibrating those bricks apart slightly, so there’s a little bit of a gap so that we can get those nutrients down to the hair follicles. So that’s the first step, as I just said, you use the ultrasound probe, you vibrate apart the skin cells, and now you’ve got these small little microscopic gaps where you can drive the growth factors down into the scalp.

The second part of the treatment is then to apply this serum, which includes synthetic peptides, it includes growth factors, and that prolongs what is known as the anagen phase of hair growth. That is the growth phase. That is the phase where your hair follicles are growing the hair. So we put that serum on the scalp, and then we do a second round of the ultrasound to drive that serum down into the scalp, into the skin, into the hair follicles, where it can start to work its magic and encourage those hair follicles to grow and enter that growth phase. And as a result, we get thicker hair, increased hair growth where previously hair growth had stopped.

The entire process is that what I just described to you. There is no needle involved. There is no pain involved. It literally is an ultrasound probe massaging your scalp, then pouring the serum in the area, and then using a second round of the ultrasound probe to drive the serum into the scalp. And then we let it do its work.

Now, the studies have shown that this is most effective with three treatments done approximately one month apart. So typically when someone is undergoing an Alma TED treatment, they are going to be signing up for three treatments. You do the first one, you wait approximately four weeks. You do the second one. You wait approximately four weeks and you do the third one. And the studies have shown that people that do this type of treatment have tremendous benefit and the hair growth does look thicker and you start to replace the hair in areas that have been lost.

So, who is this for? It’s for both men and women. In the case of women with thinning hair, this is extremely effective. The most common reason to have the treatment for a man is when a man has male pattern baldness or androgenic alopecia, as it is known, where the temples and the crown of the scalp can start to lose hair. This device, this treatment, is effective for areas where there previously were hair follicles so that we can reactivate those. It does not work on areas where there were no hair follicles, meaning you can’t just do this treatment on a part of your body where you have no hair growth and then have hair growth appear there.

But what you can do is areas where you do have hair follicles, you can use it. So although the official indication for Alma TED is for hair growth on the scalp, it is being used by some clinicians off label, for example to increase beard growth or eyebrows, areas where there is evidence of prior hair growth. If you have had hair loss as a result of chemotherapy, it actually is very effective as well. So that’s something to keep in mind.

Now, how do you prepare for this treatment? Well, we want hair to be clean so that we have nothing else in the area of the scalp when we are doing this procedure. So we recommend that you do not use any hair products on a day that you’re going to have this treatment. We recommend that you do wash your hair, but then have it completely dry when you come for the treatment. Once the treatment is done, we recommend not washing the hair, and not doing any strenuous exercise where you’re going to sweat, because we want to keep the scalp clean for approximately 24 hours. That is how we can maximize the effect of this treatment.

Now, who’s this not for? Well, it’s not for people unfortunately that have had scarring alopecia. So a type of hair loss where they actually end up with scars in the area because once the scar is there, the cells are now different. The follicles are no longer there to be activated. And unfortunately it is not effective for that. It’s also not generally used on people that have active skin lesions. Some mild dandruff is okay, but if you’ve got some active skin lesions in the scalp, then that should be treated first before this treatment is done on you. Other reasons not to have the treatment would be if you have an implanted hearing aid, because the vibrations can interfere with that. If you can remove a hearing aid, that’s no problem. You can take it out and there’s absolutely no problem with having the treatment done.

Now, one of the questions that we often get with this treatment or with any other treatment is, what are the side effects? And that’s actually one of the most amazing things about this treatment. As long as you don’t have any of those issues that I just mentioned, that would make you not a candidate for the treatment, there really is not much side effect at all, apart from some slight redness in the area, which will go away a relatively quickly. As I mentioned, this is not painful. It literally feels like a massage. When you are having the treatment done, you will feel the vibration in your scalp. You may also hear sort of a buzzing noise. Some people describe it as hearing like an ambulance siren and that’s those sound waves that are being transmitted through your bone to your ears. And you can hear that. So something just to be aware of. It’s completely normal. The other thing is just with the ultrasound and the vibration, you can sometimes feel a little bit of warmth, a little bit of heat from it. But again, it’s comfortable. It’s not so hot that you burn yourself by any means. It’s very comfortable. And as I mentioned, I had the treatment done. It was extremely comfortable. To me, it felt like a massage. And I almost felt like I could fall asleep. It was actually a relaxing experience. So, it’s pretty revolutionary. I’m really excited about this. When you think about the differences between this and the other treatments that are out there it’s pretty remarkable.

And again, as I mentioned right at the outset, we have this device now. We are the first in Vancouver to have it. And so if you are interested in learning more about Alma TED, or signing up for Alma TED treatment, then I encourage you to join us at Anti-Aging Medical and Laser in Vancouver for this treatment. Feel free to contact us. You can contact us on the website at antiagingvancouver.com or you can always book an appointment to discuss it with me at DrTeriFisher.com and I encourage you to follow us along on Instagram as well. My Instagram handle is Dr. Teri Fisher, D R T E R I F I S H E R.

I want to thank you once again for tuning into the podcast. It’s a real pleasure as we get this podcast rolling. We’re now up to episode eight and I love bringing these to you. It’s so much fun to chat about these topics, and I hope that you are enjoying them as well. If there are specific topics that you want to learn more about, then please reach out to me. I would love to hear from you and get those topics featured on this podcast so that we can all learn together, because if you’ve got a question, I’m sure that other people have the same question as well.

And finally, if you are so inclined, a review of the podcast is always appreciated on your favorite podcast player. We are now on all the major podcast players, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and a review there would be a greatly appreciated and again helps the podcast to be discovered by others as well. So thank you again for tuning in. I look forward to speaking with you again next week. Alma TED is there for you, if you’re interested. Please reach out and I’ll talk to you again very soon. Have a wonderful week. Be well.