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Oral Minoxidil - Dosing & Timing


TorontoMan

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Just picked up my prescription of Loniten 2.5mg from the pharmacy today. The dermatologist who prescribed it to me said that she wants me to start at 1.25mg a day for the first 3 months, then gauge whether to make the jump up to 2.5mg. The pharmacist told me to take it before bed time and I was wondering if there is any specific reason to take it then? My plan was to take oral min in the am and still apply rogaine 1x a night. Does anyone have any experience using both in conjunction?

My reason is that the dose I'll be starting for oral min is very low, and at 1.25mg the half life is somewhere between 4-5 hours, meaning a lot of it will be out of my system by the evening & I've been tolerating topical min very well and don't want to miss out on its localized effect. Any thoughts on this protocol?

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I also just recently got a prescription for 1.25mg/day, at 3 weeks post op of my HT. The (no-name HT) doctor who prescribed it suggested 2.5mg due to my size, but I wanted to play it safe with 1.25mg for the first 3 months. He suggested to take it at night, I believe because of potential dizziness. Been on it for about a week now. The first night I felt tingling in my feet while in bed. Second night it wasn't as noticeable, and by the third night I haven't noticed it anymore.

Thanks for bringing up the half-life. I knew that it's short, and that for the topical it's quite long, but I should have thought more about the implications of that. I didn't notice much benefit from topical min in the past, so I felt like I could simply take oral min in exchange for it, especially given its recently popularity and rave reviews. At what dosage do you think topical won't be necessary? And what about taking oral min twice a day? How does 1.25mg morning/night compare with 1.25mg morning and topical at night?

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So the half life is only around 4 hours but its duration of effect could last several days. Being metabolized by your liver it obviously doesn't have a complete localized effect on your scalp, so I believe it would be hard to discern at what dosage it could replace topical min, as even topical min is hard to gauge for overall efficacy. However, oral min offers more enzyme conversion into the minoxidil sulfates that are giving you positive effect because more of that conversion will happen in your liver as opposed to your scalp, this is the reason why many men aren't actually great responders to topical minoxidil. 

"The positive effect of minoxidil on hair growth is mainly due to its metabolite, minoxidil sulfate, and the enzyme responsible for this conversion is sulfotransferase, which is located in hair follicles and varies in production among individuals." - dovepress.com

A lot of studies showed that 2.5 & 5 mg were effective for both men and women and these doses were in range considered safe. However to answer your question, I believe if you were able to tolerate 5mg (and 5mg has been shown to be tolerable), it could likely replace your topical min use. 

I don't plan on going over 2.5 mg, because I don't see the point. I think at this dose you're in a range where the medication is effective and you're limiting the amount of it in your body by a factor of 2( from 5mg), and I feel it allows me to continue topical min once a day in conjunction to optimize a localized effect. The problem with topical minoxidil is we don't yet have a test to see how much sulfotransferase enzyme activation we're getting at the scalp, and from what I've read it works for about 2 out 3 men for this reason. 

An interesting product to look out for is MinoxiBoost http://minoxistyle.com/MinoxiBoost.html 

Its suppose to be coming to market this year and I know a guy who got his hands on a test product and says its been working really well for him. It is applied before topical minoxidil and essentially enhances the enzyme so you get more effect from min. 

Anyway, my speculation is that 1-2.5mg of oral min is enough and safe, and using it with topical min could enhance the result. I wouldnt take it twice a day. 

 

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Thanks for the info. That company looks very interesting. I don't think minoxidil has done much for me (though it's hard to tell with my diffuse thinning), so I would love to use their test kit to confirm whether I have low sulfotransferase levels.

Curious why you don't think it's good to take oral min twice a day? Wouldn't you fix the issue with half-life along with similar rates of side effects?

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13 hours ago, giegnosiganoe said:

Thanks for the info. That company looks very interesting. I don't think minoxidil has done much for me (though it's hard to tell with my diffuse thinning), so I would love to use their test kit to confirm whether I have low sulfotransferase levels.

Curious why you don't think it's good to take oral min twice a day? Wouldn't you fix the issue with half-life along with similar rates of side effects?

I don't think its a bad idea necessarily, it does make sense to me, but I would do that under the guise of a doctor. Keep in mind more does not always mean better, 1 mg of finasteride taken twice a day would be only realize a marginal benefit but would increase the dosing by a factor of 2. Many studies have shown that the relationship with dosage and effect isn't linear, and you experience diminishing returns at some point. The name of the game is to get as much effect with as little dosing. So for me 1-2.5 mg makes me feel like i could fly under the radar of side effects and still enjoy a benefit to my hair that I wouldn't otherwise. If its tolerable with one time use of topical minoxidil as well, which so far it is for me, then I'm synchronizing the benefit of both. 

 

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