The single best currently available medication to treat hair loss is enlarged prostate drug Dutasteride (which is basically Finasteride/ Propecia on steroids). I have covered Dutasteride or its brand name Avodart numerous times on this blog in the past. For many lucky people, this drug represents an already available cure for hair loss.
While Dutasteride is not yet approved for treating hair loss in the US or Europe, it is approved for that purpose in Japan and South Korea. Nevertheless, many US doctors are willing to prescribe it for hair growth purposes. To get an idea of how effective this medication can be, you can read the hundreds of mostly positive comments in this blog’s Dutasteride testimonials page.
Side Effect Fears from Ingesting Oral Dutasteride
I tried Dutasteride pills many years ago shortly after they first came out, but got paranoid about the potential side effects and stopped after several months of experimentation. However, based on the above mentioned numerous positive testimonials on this blog, I restarted the drug last year, albeit taking the recommended 0.5 mg per day dosage every second day rather than daily. As far as my hair loss goes, Dutasteride has been a miracle and instead of shedding 100 plus hairs after my daily shower, I shed 10-20 now. As far as regrowth goes, I have definitely seen some in my crown, but not elsewhere as far as I can tell.
However, despite this very successful outcome, I still have second thoughts about taking this drug because its long term side effects are certainly going to be worse than those from Finasteride for the unlucky who get them. Besides inhibiting a significantly higher portion of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in comparison to Finasteride, Dutasteride inhibits all three isoforms of 5α-reductase (i.e., types I, II, and III). Finasteride only inhibits types II and III. Hopefully my fears are overblown, and most studies from around the world seem to suggest so. Dutasteride is largely well tolerated per most research findings and very few people get major long-term side effects upon cessation of the drug. However, since the drug was only approved to treat enlarged prostates in 2001, there are very few studies out there that follow people who have taken the drug for 10 plus years.
Topical Dreams
For many years, I have been hoping that a topical gel or cream or liquid version of Dutasteride would come out so that I could take daily and higher doses with fewer chances of side effects, but so far no luck. In general, topical versions of drugs seem to result in fewer side effects than oral versions, although this is not set in stone. In some cases topical products still get into the bloodstream and show up in various tissues and organs in similar concentrations to their oral counterparts. Nevertheless, topical is always preferable to oral if both are equally effective in my opinion. Note: topical Finasteride is now available from various sources, and hopefully P-3074 will be released in the near future.
Local compounding pharmacies can often also make topical Finasteride or Dutasteride for you, but prices are very high. Moreover, I would be more comfortable with a well known corporation making the product so that I know that the topical compound and delivery method are reliable.
Mesotherapy with Dutasteride in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
Last week, I got a great surprise when I was browsing through PubMed for the keyword “Dutasteride”.
It seems like a new way of applying Dutasteride through mesotherapy scalp injections seems to give great results with no side effects. This potentially groundbreaking study comes from Spain. Moreover, the best part of the story is that:
“Laboratory tests showed no differences between serum hormone levels before and after treatment”.
This means that unlike oral Dutasteride, this treatment method does not alter your hormones beyond localized scalp DHT reduction. The scientists involved treated six patients (five male, one female) and all got good results. They posted one before and after photo:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The second best part of this story is that the treatment was only done once every three months. The authors mention that in the past, three other groups had tried similar mesotherapy treatments, but all involved far more frequent treatments. It would be very expensive and annoying to get injected every couple of weeks, but every three months as in the latest work is not so bad.
Dr. David Saceda-Corralo
I contacted one of the study’s lead authors Dr. David Saceda-Corralo to see if he had photos of any of the other five patients and to ask whether this treatment is available in the US. Unfortunately, while he has other photos, those patients have not given him permission to share them. He did say that he may share other relevant photos on his Instagram account.
According to Dr. Saceda-Corralo, this treatment is not easy to get in USA (he has worked in Miami). However, it is getting increasingly popular in Spain and the rest of Europe.