I think pale rider raises an interesting issue. With that being said, every single drug there is has a reaction in our body that can cause ancillary actions. So I think the premesis that drugs in general are not an ideal solution for treatment has some truth to it. With that being said, without the use of say anitbiotics, which do also have side effects, life expectancy would be significantly lower as people would be dying from infections and bacteria almost all the time. The point im making is that while drugs in general are not an ideal solution for treatment, they are the best form of treatment we have in most cases currently.

In reagards to Finasterside specifically, I understand pale riders point that we take this drug, when its original purpose was intended to treat the prostate. There are a few points Id like to make in regards to your issue with finasteride. The first point is that a phyician is supposed to explain the possible side effects that are associated with any drug they prescribe. Pale, Are you against the right we have to take drugs that are prescibed legally to us? My second point is that there are other instances where drugs have inadvertantly or through the use of other treatment be found useful to treat other conditions. This is not the first time in medicine that this has happened. My final point is that all we are trying to accomplish when taking any drug whatsoever is to increase our quality of life. Having hairloss does significantly decrease your quality of life unfortunately. Will you die from hairloss? No. Will you die from diabetis, without insulin? Yes. You have to be aware that some people would rather be dead than to have to experience hairloss. That is extreme, however does exist. More realistically, some are willing to suffer the consequences of taking finasteride, whatever they are, to maintain their hair. Judging somone for making this decision is not an intelligent way to think. You are obviously very passionate about this isssue, and I think thats not a bad thing. You have to think about why you are so passionate and opinionated about this. I mean this is a complete tangent of what the original posters questions were.

It is by belief that because of the effects drugs have on our bodies and for other reasons, cell therapy will revolutionize and resorb the way we practice medicine altogether. Instead of taking a drug to treat liver cancer, we will just recrecreate your liver when it was healthy. This is the direction medicine is going. This is why I am so passionate about companies like Replicel and its competitors. Timelines are not definitive and therefore subjective to debate, but I dont think we are that far off. I think it will happen in my lifetime and im 28.

DISpHAIR.

Pale's point is that he took the medication knowing that if he stopped he would return to normal. At least that is what Merk proclaimed.

fyi

I agree, especially with the Artificial Intelligence boom that is soon coming, it will help tremendously to accelerate technological advancement.

Personally, I think the best attitude is remaining "cautiously optimistic" toward future treatments, but not at the expense of utilizing effective current options.

Having said that, I think we will see some non-invasive, interesting therapies within our lifetimes. Furthermore, I completely agree with the member who discussed using these new treatments in conjunction with others to achieve a better overall result.

Additionally, I've been pretty satisfied with the newest data about Propecia (finasteride): Japanese Study Finds Propecia Safe and Effective for Male Hair Loss.

However, I truly feel for any hair loss sufferers experiencing ongoing adverse effects.

__________________
Blake (Future_HT_Doc)

Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

Antibiotics were made to fight bacteria and they did a great job, Finasteride was made to treat prostate problems NOT hair loss. It is just if you have given your young son a shot of morphine when he fell of a bicycle and got his knee and elbows bloody just because morphine eases pain potentially making him a drug addict. It is just silly and a bit of mad. Giving young men Finasteride made for old age pensioners with enlarged prostates is more than a shame for 21 century medicine in my opinion. DHT is in our bodies for a very good reason and attacking it is just "killing the wrong person", risking some serious side effects of your reproductive system at such a young age is form of crime in my opinion.

I am not against the right to use finasteride/dutasteride but you will have to agree at this post atomic and high tech information age using THAT quackery is just unacceptable. And I know that hair loss can decrease a quality of life and that some of the people would rather die than to be bald but if you look at the pros/cons you are in shit anyway. You are bald but have a libido and a healthy reproductive system, some girls will not want to talk to you because you are bald and that is ok, bad but ok, they do not like you, you move along and find a girl that will not mind if you are bald or not(there are lots of good looking girls out there that do not mind that or even quite the opposite, they like shaved bald men). On the other scenario you take finasteride/dutasteride maintain what you have, most of the girls dig you, but your libido is for shit and you can not stay up very long, guess how long that girl(or even the one that likes bald men) will stay with you if you are bad in bed? Third scenario, you get married and you can not get her pregnant even if you stopped using that drugs long time ago or get a sick child, you will never know is that child sick, deformed, mentally challenged etc. because of your years of using fin/dutas. Side effects that were never written by Merck. I say tough call on all scenarios. If you ask me the quality of your life will fail in any scenario it is just the matter of severity. In first one you are bald but physically healthy and have limited girlfriend options, second you have hair but you cannot screw like you used to and you are probably less enjoying it and third one you got married, stopped taking the drug(or a drug is not working for you anymore since it does not work forever) when the two of you decided to start a family, you are now bald, have a low libido, big boobs, potentially sterile and old. Your wife will divorce you or screw aside eventually. If you ask me I would rather have the first scenario, save up money for HT and get the best I can for I have left in my donor region.

Call me a pessimist but I have done a lot of research on these drugs and every time I decide to take fin/dutas I find at least a dozen more reasons not to do it.

Best thing a man can do is to stop taking this half cocked products, refuse to buy and finance this profit hungry inefficient pharmaceutical companies and make them that way to start making products that will actually work and that we will all finally have benefits from it. That is why capitalism is so great, you can punish someone where it hurts him the most, his pocket.


I too believe in future medicine I am 27 years old and if I can get full head of hair at the age of 40-47 I would still be a happy man.