Do you suffer with Dandruff? You need Dandrene. 

What is Dandruff? More a symptom than a disease, also called scurf or pityriasis capitis — describes any excess flaking of dead skin cells, especially from the scalp. While normal light shedding remains discreet, some people suffer unusually obvious exudate, often accompanied by greasiness and irritation.

Skin diseases that cause dandruff include seborrheic dermatitis and dry pityriasis, the most common conditions, plus atopic dermatitis, pityriasis versicolor, tinea capitis, psoriasis, and contact dermatitis.

Seborrheic dermatitis causes greasy ashen chunks of dead skin to shed from scalp, ears, nose, and other oily areas, sometimes accompanied by itch, inflammation, or hair loss. White or yellow scales collect on dark clothing. Called cradle cap in infants, seborrheic dermatitis may be the single most chronic inflammatory skin condition, with cycles of inactivity and flare up. Generated by hyperseborrhea in the presence of certain fungi, dermatitis runs in families, made worse by stress, fatigue, weather, acne, infrequent shampooing, lotions with alcohol, and obesity. Parkinson’s disease, head injury, stroke, and HIV are also linked. Dandrene targets all primary etiological agents of seborrheic dermatitis.

Dry pityriasis occurs when insufficient sebum production combines with a dehydrated environment. Simple aridity generates desquamation of fine, dry, white scales. Dandrene has ingredients to regulate hyposeborrhea.

Atopic dermatitis has a strong genetic component, although its exact pathway is not illucidated. Fungi are not the causative agents of this chronic inflammatory skin disease, associated with asthma and hay fever, but rather serve as exogenous triggers. Others include food, dust mites, topical irritants, psychology, and climate. Chronic dermatophyte infections also plague atopic patients. Dandrene targets several of the triggers for atopic dermatitis.

Pityriasis versicolor (tinea versicolor) afflicts neck, upper trunk, and arms with a chronic noninflammatory infection caused by lipophilic fungus of the genus Malassezia, marked by irregular macular patches that appear lighter or darker than normal skin. Dandrene inhibits both Malassezia and seborrhea.

Tinea capitis is an infection of the scalp caused by fungi of the genera Trichophyton and Microsporum, characterized by scaly patches and a few dry brittle hairs. Dandrene inhibits a broad range of pathogenic fungi.

Psoriasis rapidly turns dead skin cells into large, thick, silvery scales, most commonly on the knees, elbows, trunk, and scalp. Diagnosis of the desquamative disease, believed to be immune-mediated and not contagious, is based on appearance, not blood tests or diagnostic procedures.

Contact dermatitis describes inflammation that results when hair dyes, gels, sprays, even some dandruff medications come in contact with some skin.

So, What Causes It?

Dandruff gets blamed on dry skin, oily skin, shampooing too much, not shampooing enough, poor diet, rich diet, stress, and styling products. Any can be partly true, but current science has established the essential actors to be a genus of cutaneous yeasts called Malassezia, in the kingdom Fungi.

When hungry Malassezia encounter excess sebum, dandruff ensues. The lipophilic microbes have a taste for that savory mix of glycerides, free fatty acids, wax, and squalene more commonly known as skin oil, which explains why dandruff flares in puberty as hormones activate sebaceous glands. A high density of glands make scalp uniquely susceptible to mycotic infection.

Normally as the epidermis replaces itself, dead skin cells push out and flake off in about a month. In the presence of Malassezia with seborrhea, however, cells can slough off in two to seven days, resulting in large, oily, visible clumps on hair and clothing.

Dandrene contains multple compounds designed to inhibit the fungi, dampen the seborrhea, slow the cell cycle, and hide the evidence.

Myths and Factors of Dandruff

No convincing evidence points to perspiration nor to consumption of sugar, yeast, or other foods as having any role in dandruff. Those are myths. Certain factors, however, do make people more susceptible.

Oily scalp. Pathogenic Malassezia yeasts feast on scalp oils.

Age. Dandruff usually begins in young adulthood, when sebaceous glands are stimulated by testosterone, and continues into middle age.

Gender. More men than women suffer with dandruff, further suggesting a role for testosterone.

Illness. Adults with neurological diseases like Parkinson’s are more likely to develop seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff, as are people recovering from heart attack and stroke and those with compromised immune systems.
Dandruff and baldness share the common etiology of hyperseborrhea, but are there any other links? One 2006 Iranian study finds that of participants who are not shedding hair, only nine percent carry Malassezia, but of the participants who are suffering hair loss, 90 percent carry the yeast — 10 times more.