I'll believe it when I see it....

[Time to do something]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/22/clue-for-baldness-in-mice-and-men/

[Time to do something]

If the theory is hair doesn't grow where this specific protein is found on the scalp then why does hair transplanted from the safe zones grow where this protein is found? Apparently hair from the safe zone is resistant to this protein like it is resistant to DHT.

[mattj]

"I'll believe it when I see it...."

 

That's my thinking too. These science articles pop up too often to get excited. Fingers crossed though.

[Spanker]

These do come out quite often, however, the science keeps getting better and better.

 

The problem is what the scientists feel is a huge success is not what most of us feel is an actual "cure." Things like this are most likely to hit the market first, and they consider 15-20 percent hair growth to be a huge success. It is definitley a step in the right direction, but I don't believe this is going to be that silver bullet.

[Time to do something]

When Minoxidil and Propecia came out people thought this was the end of baldness. Not only was it not but now many people have ill effects from the side effects of Propecia. Beware.

[mahhong]

I wouldn't say that "many" people had ill effects from Propecia. Millions take it, only thousands get ill effects, most of them on the milder end of the scale.

 

Even though this is far from ready and not even proven I would also counter that the science from this doesn't seem as "invasive" as the mechanism by which finasteride works. This is apparently being looked at as a topical solution like minoxidil, targeting a very specific protein. Finasteride targets a very common receptor that converts testosterone into DHT, and anything to do with the hormone system is always likely to produce potentially far reaching effects on the body.

 

I don't think it's quite worth getting excited about, but as someone pointed out the science is improving and so are the results. If this is a more simplistic but more effective upgrade to finasteride with less room for side effects, I'd see that as a massive step up, even if it wasn't "the" cure.

[Time to do something]

I wouldn't say that "many" people had ill effects from Propecia. Millions take it, only thousands get ill effects, most of them on the milder end of the scale.

 

Even though this is far from ready and not even proven I would also counter that the science from this doesn't seem as "invasive" as the mechanism by which finasteride works. This is apparently being looked at as a topical solution like minoxidil, targeting a very specific protein. Finasteride targets a very common receptor that converts testosterone into DHT, and anything to do with the hormone system is always likely to produce potentially far reaching effects on the body.

 

I don't think it's quite worth getting excited about, but as someone pointed out the science is improving and so are the results. If this is a more simplistic but more effective upgrade to finasteride with less room for side effects, I'd see that as a massive step up, even if it wasn't "the" cure.

 

The problem is there is no way to know if you will be one of the ones to have an adverse reaction to it. I sure would not want to take that chance becuase once the damage is done in most cases it is lifetime. There have been enough bad side effects from this drug to warrent ads on TV asking people to contact their law firm it they were a vicitm of Propecia. If they didn't think they had a case against the product and enough people to file lawsuits they would not be spending large sums of money trying to locate the victims. In case you don't know this, anything topical penetrates the skin and goes in the body, so this could have the same side effects of a pill. In fact many times topical solutions are better than a pill because it doesn't have to pass through the stomach and risk being destroyed or reduced by the stomach acid. How may times have we seen drugs recalled because after they are "tested"and FDA approved they have terrible side effects that caused death? There has not been enough research to prove this is safe which is why I said I'll believe it when I see it. I hope it turns out to be the magic bullet.

[mahhong]

The problem is there is no way to know if you will be one of the ones to have an adverse reaction to it. I sure would not want to take that chance becuase once the damage is done in most cases it is lifetime. There have been enough bad side effects from this drug to warrent ads on TV asking people to contact their law firm it they were a vicitm of Propecia. If they didn't think they had a case against the product and enough people to file lawsuits they would not be spending large sums of money trying to locate the victims. In case you don't know this, anything topical penetrates the skin and goes in the body, so this could have the same side effects of a pill. In fact many times topical solutions are better than a pill because it doesn't have to pass through the stomach and risk being destroyed or reduced by the stomach acid. How may times have we seen drugs recalled because after they are "tested"and FDA approved they have terrible side effects that caused death? There has not been enough research to prove this is safe which is why I said I'll believe it when I see it. I hope it turns out to be the magic bullet.

 

I understand as I was one of the men to have side effects from finasteride on the two occasions I trialled it. They were moderate but persistent sexual side effects that disappeared on both occasions within about a week of stopping the drug.

 

I don't think your belief that once the damage is done in "most cases it is lifetime". Millions of men take finasteride and a few thousand report side effects, of which the overwhelming majority see a cessation of those effects after stopping the medication. Yes, there are some men who claim permanent side effects, but the evidence this is true is not forthcoming. If it was some kind of epidemic you'd be seeing literally tens or hundreds of thousands of men taking the pill and having major problems. This does not happen. And the men who claim it has ruined their life, whilst nobody can as yet prove one way or another, often don't make compelling cases for their claims.

 

The reason there are TV ads and lawsuits is because there is money to be made in them. This is not uncommon right across the medical world, unfortunately. It does nothing to prove finasteride is dangerous or its side effects are more common. I'm not suggesting these claims are lies because the jury is literally still out, but here's the thing. If finasteride was as dangerous as some claim, it would not be some covered up secret. There would be a great number of very vocal users whose lives were destroyed. Whilst there is a number of people claiming that, in the scheme of things it is not a great number.

[Time to do something]

I understand as I was one of the men to have side effects from finasteride on the two occasions I trialled it. They were moderate but persistent sexual side effects that disappeared on both occasions within about a week of stopping the drug.

 

I don't think your belief that once the damage is done in "most cases it is lifetime". Millions of men take finasteride and a few thousand report side effects, of which the overwhelming majority see a cessation of those effects after stopping the medication. Yes, there are some men who claim permanent side effects, but the evidence this is true is not forthcoming. If it was some kind of epidemic you'd be seeing literally tens or hundreds of thousands of men taking the pill and having major problems. This does not happen. And the men who claim it has ruined their life, whilst nobody can as yet prove one way or another, often don't make compelling cases for their claims.

 

The reason there are TV ads and lawsuits is because there is money to be made in them. This is not uncommon right across the medical world, unfortunately. It does nothing to prove finasteride is dangerous or its side effects are more common. I'm not suggesting these claims are lies because the jury is literally still out, but here's the thing. If finasteride was as dangerous as some claim, it would not be some covered up secret. There would be a great number of very vocal users whose lives were destroyed. Whilst there is a number of people claiming that, in the scheme of things it is not a great number.

 

You are speaking about the side effects of Propecia. Those have been documented. The point of my post was that Propecia was not the magic bullet to cure baldness as it was claimed to be by media hype. We now all know better. In addition DHT is in our bodies for a reason and to deplete it is not a good idea. A better approach would be to figure out how to develop hair folicles through genetic engineering that are not sensitive to DHT. Men who don't go bald don't have the genetic trait where their hair folicles are sensitive to DHT. They may still have a high level of DHT which the body needs and a full head of hair. Nobody knows what the side effects down the road for this new "baldness cure" could be. It could be much worse that what we saw with Propecia and I don't want to be a drug company's experiment. There have been no long term studies on this drug.