VDPHL01 is a new once-daily tablet for pattern hair loss, made by the US company Veradermics. It is an extended-release form of minoxidil, the same medicine used in hair loss foams and solutions, designed to release slowly through the day. In a trial of 519 men, it increased hair count by about 30 hairs per square centimetre at 6 months, against about 7 with placebo. It is not yet approved anywhere. Low-dose oral minoxidil, the older version of the same idea, is already prescribed off-label by experienced doctors in London.

World Menopause Day falls on 18 October, and in 2026 the International Menopause Society has chosen chronic pain at midlife as its theme. Joint and muscle pain is one of the most common and least recognised symptoms of the menopause. More than 70 percent of women report musculoskeletal symptoms during the transition, and many are told it is just age. It is not just age. Falling oestrogen affects tendons, cartilage, muscle and bone, and several painful conditions cluster in this decade. Most are treatable once they are properly diagnosed.

October 2026 brought a run of knee arthritis headlines, from Stanford scientists regrowing cartilage to an epilepsy drug that protects joints. The most exciting findings are still in mice and laboratory tissue, years from a clinic. Others, such as an artery procedure called genicular artery embolisation and a simple walking adjustment, are already being used in people, with real but limited evidence. This guide explains each study plainly and sets out what you can have for a painful knee today.

Regenerative skin treatments work by prompting your skin to repair and build collagen, which takes weeks, not days. A PRP facial course is usually 3 sessions 4 to 6 weeks apart, with results building over 2 to 3 months. Polynucleotides are typically 2 to 3 sessions 2 to 4 weeks apart. That means the time to start for Christmas parties and New Year is mid-October to early November. Leave it to December and you will see the start of the change, not the finished result.

Deuruxolitinib, sold as Leqselvi, is a twice-daily tablet for severe alopecia areata. NICE recommended it for adults in England in July 2026, making it the second JAK inhibitor available on the NHS for this condition after ritlecitinib. In its main trial, about 1 in 3 adults on the 8 mg dose had 80 percent or more of their scalp hair back after 24 weeks, compared with fewer than 1 in 100 on placebo. It is prescribed by specialist dermatology teams, and it is for severe disease only. People with patchy alopecia areata have other effective options.

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks hair follicles, usually causing round, smooth bald patches. Because the follicles are not destroyed, hair can regrow. For patchy disease, steroid injections are standard, and PRP is a steroid-free option with comparable results in trials. For severe disease, new oral JAK inhibitors are available, and a third was approved in the UK in March 2026.

2 studies published in 2026 strengthen the link between weight-loss injections and hair loss. A large US records study found new hair loss was more common in people starting semaglutide, the medicine in Wegovy and Ozempic, or tirzepatide, the medicine in Mounjaro, than in people starting metformin. A separate genetic study from NYU Langone suggests the GLP-1 pathway itself may raise the risk of male pattern hair loss. Neither study proves the injections cause permanent baldness, and most shedding linked to rapid weight loss recovers. Men who are already losing hair, though, have good reason to act early.

Recent headlines suggest a common sweetener could transform hair loss treatment. The research behind them used stevioside, the sweet compound in the stevia plant, to dissolve minoxidil far better and deliver it through a dissolving microneedle patch. In mice, the patch grew much more hair than ordinary minoxidil solution. It has not been tested in people, and eating stevia or adding it to your minoxidil will not help your hair. Treatments that already work in people, including minoxidil, PRP and combinations of the two, remain the place to start.

Pattern hair loss responds best when treatments that work in different ways are combined. Minoxidil lengthens the growth phase, PRP delivers growth factors to the follicle, and microneedling triggers a repair response and helps treatments reach the scalp. Trials show that adding PRP to minoxidil, or microneedling to minoxidil, gives more hair than minoxidil alone. The right combination depends on your diagnosis, what you are comfortable taking, and your goals.