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Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

sheffield.ac.uk

81–90 of 235 posts

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#81
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you need to keep reading. Finasteride blocks the enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT, which initially raises your testosterone levels. Your body reacts to this by secreting less luteinizing hormone, which results in less testosterone production, and your test levels return pre-finasteride levels. This is the suppression of natural testosterone production, and is exactly the same reaction you’d get from d…

I see you added "which you’re not going to notice unless you ever stop taking it."

I didn't edit my comment if that's what you're saying...

Taking moderate doses of steroids is also massively beneficial in many ways, with the worst of the side effects typically occurring if you stop taking them. But a lifelong dependency on a drug with a long list of adverse side effects is not a good thing, especially when ceasing treatment has its own long list of potential side effects.

Finasteride does suppress your natural testosterone production. If you intend to take it every day for the rest of your life, and are happy to gamble that you don’t get any of the other side effects, then maybe you’re happy taking that risk. But this is clearly not an ideal treatment, and I suspect most people who are prescribed it aren’t properly informed about these risks.

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#82
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see you added "which you’re not going to notice unless you ever stop taking it."

I didn't edit my comment if that's what you're saying... Taking moderate doses of steroids is also massively beneficial in many ways, with the worst of the side effects typically occurring if you stop taking them. But a lifelong dependency on a drug with a long list of adverse side effects is not a good thing, especially when ceasing treatment has its own long list of potential side effects. Finasteride does suppress…

I fully agree with the risk factor, I was even on it for some time and discontinued the use because of the risks involved. But the risks were (to my limited understanding) less associated with testosterone, but rather the decrease in dht. And the potential effect that it has on your sexual life

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#83

A cure for baldness is one of those holy grail drugs like a drug to treat obesity, or a drug to de-age your skin. The profit on this is potentially vast and Im assuming the 10 year patent limit wont apply to it.

I remember a female comedian, (perhaps Amy Schumer), joking that when she saw Jeff Bezos, she knew there was no cure for baldness.

If a multi-centi-billionaire is bald, then there's no viable baldness cure at any price.

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#84

> Findings from the study show that the deoxy ribose sugar is as effective at regrowing hair as Minoxidil - an existing drug used to treat hair loss Minoxidil is barely effective, especially for something that became widely available. It got approved in the 80s as a topical version of a hypertension drug, and IIRC the McStudy that supported it was funded by the original patent holder. I don't think anyone had much of…

Completely ancedotal, but I've taken minoxidil and finasteride for a little over a year. I took a break from minoxidil only for a few months and found my hair grew considerably slower than when I was on both. I think this makes sense given what minoxidil is supposed to do, which is not "save the hair" but, as I understand it, accelerate the hair growth cycle

Works fine if you use it prior to going bald. I started in my early 20's and my hair is the same as when I started. It also works on beards.

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#85
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't edit my comment if that's what you're saying... Taking moderate doses of steroids is also massively beneficial in many ways, with the worst of the side effects typically occurring if you stop taking them. But a lifelong dependency on a drug with a long list of adverse side effects is not a good thing, especially when ceasing treatment has its own long list of potential side effects. Finasteride does suppress…

I fully agree with the risk factor, I was even on it for some time and discontinued the use because of the risks involved. But the risks were (to my limited understanding) less associated with testosterone, but rather the decrease in dht. And the potential effect that it has on your sexual life

Yes, you're right about that. I'm just trying to note that there is no guarantee that ceasing treatment would reverse those side effects (if you happened to have them), or that it wouldn't create other also-bad side effects.

Hormone treatments are very scary, and I think people are far too casual about them. You usually take a hormone treatment to affect one thing that the hormone does, but it probably also does 100 other things that you might not want to interfere with, and those 100 other things probably also affect many other things downstream themselves. Your body probably also regulates production of that hormone in some way, so now you're also probably interfering with god knows what upstream from that hormone production. Some of these effects are well understood by medicine, but plenty of them aren't, and even for the ones that are, there's no way of predicting how you're going to react personally. They're a very blunt tool in that respect, and I think most people who take finasteride, or TRT, or birth control, or beta blockers, or even things like topical steroids aren't helped much to properly understand how they work, and all the ways the treatments can go wrong, including the ways that they can form dependencies on the treatment.

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#86
post #3

Oi! Baldy Just accept that it is part of life and of being male. Its because we have testosterone. save yourself a small fortune in hair cuts Buy yourself some decent hair clippers No 1, job done If you want hair on your head grow a beard

Despite hearing this feigned positivity forever, I have consistently been treated better rocking The Constanza than The Picard

Not quite so simple, sadly

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#87
post #3

Oi! Baldy Just accept that it is part of life and of being male. Its because we have testosterone. save yourself a small fortune in hair cuts Buy yourself some decent hair clippers No 1, job done If you want hair on your head grow a beard

Image is really a lot more important than conventional wisdom would say it is (and people would hope, since judging people subconsciously on appearance isn't very fair), and a lot of people get a long way based mostly on image. People who are perceived as more attractive really are treated better for no real reason apart from that, and there are negative stereotypes associated with baldness. In fiction there are tons…

Everyone that looks good bald has otherwise ridiculously strong features. Ignore the movie characters for a moment

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#88
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dutasteride and finasteride can also reverse some baldness.

The side effect profile isn't great, unfortunately. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finasteride#Adverse_effects

Some of these are just the effects of having low DHT, which is in reality not a negative, as this is the point of finasteride.

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#89
post #52

A true cure would be a change in the way male baldness is perceived by society.

Agreed, I find it amazing it's even called a "cure", as if baldness is an illness. Sure, it can cause psychological issues, but so can short height or big nose or what-have-you, and we don't talk about "curing" those (except in some hormonal imbalance cases).

We literally do though? People are interested in surgeries to change their height and noses.

Re: Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery

#90

A cure for baldness is one of those holy grail drugs like a drug to treat obesity, or a drug to de-age your skin. The profit on this is potentially vast and Im assuming the 10 year patent limit wont apply to it.

I remember a female comedian, (perhaps Amy Schumer), joking that when she saw Jeff Bezos, she knew there was no cure for baldness. If a multi-centi-billionaire is bald, then there's no viable baldness cure at any price.

Or perhaps it’s not so important to him to keep up to date with the latest anti-balding techniques?
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