Finasteride and DHT

[genius130]

I have been taking finasteride over a year now and it seems my crown has stopped shedding but then again I have grown most of my hair so it is hard to tell how well it is working.

 

Does anyone know if finasteride is supposed to completely block DHT in the scalp or just partially block it?

[Gish]

Search some of my old posts, I go into greater detail about such things.

 

To be a bit nit-picky, there is no such thing, medically speaking, as a "DHT Inhibitor". Finasteride Inhibits an enzyme (one of two iso-forms) that converts testosterone to DHT.

 

It partially 'blocks' it. Localized scalp measurements are more difficult to obtain, but serum levels of DHT drop by an average of 85% when one takes finasteride.

[genius130]

I noticed in some of your posts you mentioned that more Testosterone does not equal more DHT. Out of curiousity where did you get that information? The reason i ask is this. Finasteride blocks one of the two enzymes responsible for converting testosterone to DHT thru binding. So this still leaves the other enzyme available for converting testosterone to DHT. In that case if a person has high testosterone won't it be true that there will be more conversion happening thru the enzyme not blocked which will continue to convert and make DHT?

 

In any case a person with high testosterone or even someone eating foods which increase tesosterone or exercise would have more testosterone available to be converted to DHT thru the enzyme which is not blocked? This I ask since your post somewhere said exercise should not increase hair loss.