Blood test (DHT) with finasteride every other day.

[goldbondmafia]

I think you are making a big mess. In the first test with Fina I realized I used 1mg every other day and take the examination after the "no day" there was no reduction in DHT show some charts around the internet.

In the second test (not yet left the results) I used 0.5 mg daily and performed blood tests the next day, usually.

They are different things taking 1mg every other day and 0.5 mg daily, as this may prove to be the half-life of the product could actually reduce the DHT for several days even with just one dose, as speculated, and as I have not seen in my blood test. Another thing would be to use a dosage less than one day and see what would be the reduction.

So I guess it makes a difference when you take fin then blood test? For me personally I took mine 6 weeks into using fin but the blood test itself I woke up early, got my blood test, then took my daily 1mg after I got home and ate. I wonder if my DHT would have been lower assuming I woke up took the pill then went to the clinic

[JulioGP]

Sure.

It is known that the half-life of the drug is a few hours, for 6 to 8 hours. Some studies say that DHT could be suppressed for several days, but this is legend. Hormones such as insulin, testosterone and even DHT (which is much more potent than testosterone itself) has varied very dynamic and undergo rapid changes depending on what medication.

If you take the medicine and performs blood test shortly after that for sure will give you the difference if you take medicine today and do the blood test only the next day.

Wrong who think that taking this medication and knowing that in 12 hours there is absolutely nothing more in bloodstream, your DHT will remain low for several days. That I could easily observe performing blood test.

I participate in a forum to debate baldness in Brazil with over 7,000 users. Nobody does this kind of use (every other day), because no DHT test proves effective in this way, however, with this you cause large swings of DHT in your body because every time it is reduced when you take Finasteride in the days that you do not take Finasteride is a rebound effect.

Anyway, many here advocate this method of use. I'm not here to waste my time trying to prove something to someone, I'm just sharing my information.

[Dan26]

Sure.

It is known that the half-life of the drug is a few hours, for 6 to 8 hours. Some studies say that DHT could be suppressed for several days, but this is legend. Hormones such as insulin, testosterone and even DHT (which is much more potent than testosterone itself) has varied very dynamic and undergo rapid changes depending on what medication.

If you take the medicine and performs blood test shortly after that for sure will give you the difference if you take medicine today and do the blood test only the next day.

Wrong who think that taking this medication and knowing that in 12 hours there is absolutely nothing more in bloodstream, your DHT will remain low for several days. That I could easily observe performing blood test.

Also, you understand that half life just means that HALF of the drug has left you system after 6-8 hrs... then after another 6-8 hrs half of that remaining amount leaves your system and so on etc..

So still, the fact you took 0.5mg daily and 1mg EOD and there was a big difference in DHT reduction, is odd to say the least.

I participate in a forum to debate baldness in Brazil with over 7,000 users. Nobody does this kind of use (every other day), because no DHT test proves effective in this way, however, with this you cause large swings of DHT in your body because every time it is reduced when you take Finasteride in the days that you do not take Finasteride is a rebound effect.

Anyway, many here advocate this method of use. I'm not here to waste my time trying to prove something to someone, I'm just sharing my information.

Don't you find it odd though Julio, that some studies show otherwise? And guys like spencer only take it once a week (albeit 5mg)...

The reason I take it daily is because there are no studies that show haircount that are not using daily doses. I do believe you could be successful with taking breaks in between because of 5ar2 taking days to return to normal therefore DHT production taking days to return to normal.

[JulioGP]

Look Dan26,

Unfortunately a lot of nonsense is published on the internet. Many studies over many things are constantly being published, but few of them are measured by someone.

There is only one single chart that is on the internet showing how to behave DHT with these dosages of Finasteride (this chart is on page 1).

Here in Brazil, it is very common for people to have private health insurance plans, this makes it very easy to do any tests, even very expensive because they are paid by the health plan. This is one of the main problems I see, most people outside of Brazil does not perform blood tests and did not know if the medicine is working as independent studies show these.

Let's agree that these studies do not have reliable sources, just as many others are published and mostly do not know for sure by whom they were conducted. People read, do it for months without even knowing if it works or not, because there is no way of knowing if there exams.

In the case of Spencer, I'm not saying it does not work, but the DHT will not stay down for several days as it is believed. My question would be: The Spencer held a blood test to make sure it's working?

What you said does not happen "because of 5ar2 taking days to return to Normal Therefore DHT production taking days to return to normal." As soon as the system went Finasteride DHT levels return to normal, ie, it takes no more than 24 hours (the half-life is 6-8 hours).

If the Finasteride were a acting medicine slow, this could happen. But this whole process that involves 5AR is not "time release".

If he is taking 5mg 1 time per week, the DHT it remains low for only one day and the other six days the DHT it is already in the previous level. If the idea is that, then great. If the idea is to believe that using this way will keep DHT low for several days, it is to fool yourself.

[yan]

Julio, fact is, I know several persons who took EOD or even 2-3 times a week 1mg, and they all maintained and even thickened their hairs for years. My neighbor takes fin since 12 years 3 times a week. His brother is bald, he got a full head of hair, although he started losing his hair fast around 28.

Anyway, would be good if others could also do blood tests.

[yan]

Quote from Dr. Peter Proctor M.D.,PhD, (author of many hair loss treatment patents)

“First, the does response curve for finasteride is almost flat. That is, a little works about as well as a lot. Similarly, while the blood half life of finasteride is only a few hours, it forms an almost unbreakable complex with the target enzyme. Thus, restoration of enzymatic activity requires the synthesis of additional type-2 5-AR. This requires three days or so, at least. In the days before finasteride was released as the 1 mg form, Propecia, docs used to prescribe one 5 mg Proscar every three days or so This seemed to work just fine”.

How expensive is it to check its DHT levels in europe? Does anyone know?

[JulioGP]

yan,

I read a few articles like this too, but not why they are correct.

Anyway, the result came out of my blood test with DHT and it was as I expected. The use of 0.5 mg daily actually started to reduce my DHT, but the use of 1mg every other day, did not work.



After Saw Palmetto cause problems with my baseline, there was a 15% reduction of previous measurement when I was using 1mg every other day and had not had any reduction in DHT.

It is clear that undergoes reduction in DHT blood test with the use of 0.5 mg daily, unlike the use of 1 mg every other day. I'll still need to keep a few more days with such use in order to accomplish my baseline that was corrupted by Saw Palmetto, something that was thought to reduce the DHT which proved to me that is totally myth.

[JulioGP]

For me this last blood test showed 3 things.

Saw Palmetto does not function to reduce DHT.
Kératene not work to reduce DHT.
Use 1mg every other day, not work to reduce DHT. Maybe 5mg works, not sure.

Probably I continue to use 0.5 mg daily to see if there are no side effects with such use has proved to be efficient.

[Dan26]

Julio if side effects are a problem you should do 0.05 or 0.2mg every day

[yan]

0.5mg daily is still 10% above baseline. I can`t take your results serious. Im sorry. But thanks for your efforts.

As long as I dont see other people confirm your results, I dont believe it.

This medication is out since 15 years or something, so it should be possible that more than just julio post his blood results. I can`t believe no one else ever considered making blood tests on off days...

[yan]

The study from page 1 is from 1991.

A study from 1996 confirmed that DHT stays suppressed for several dose after a single fin dose:

"A single dose of finasteride suppresses serum DHT levels for up to 4 days, longer than would be expected from the serum terminal elimination half-life (t1/2z) of the drug: this is probably due to the high affinity that finasteride has for the 5 alpha-reductase enzyme"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8846625

Certainly, blood results are more important for us than random studies, but as long as there is only one person reporting otherwise than several official studies, its more than doubtful.

@Julio

Another idea would be to get a second blood work done from a different lab..maybe these guys have faulty devices! It does happen.

P.S. In approximately 3% of population finasteride doesn't work due to some type of genetic mutation. so there is a small possibility you may be in that group (although I really hope not brother) and most probably is unlikely.

I think best would be if another person who is on 0.5mg or 1mg EOD would do a blood test on an off day. Precondition is of course a DHT baseline.

[JulioGP]

Yan,

Not to be rude, but the only thing I can do is wish you good luck in their beliefs, after all, some people will believe in words and others will believe in results.

I would love to see other people who did blood tests, but I see that it is extremely rare here.

The same comical fact, occurred with Kératene with more than 100 pages and almost 1,000 posts here in the forum discussions, only 2 participants did blood tests and found that the product did not reduce DHT even so many people continue to believe in product. LOL Lucky manufacturer.

There are several studies similar to this that you posted, but it's pretty obvious I believe my own blood tests than any one study published in the internet, sorry.

Note that curious. The study you posted says: "Doses below 0.5 mg/day do not produce much suppression of DHT levels, and doses above 5 mg/day have little additional benefit. "

And in another study(http://s21.postimg.org/7xwy6cfuv/32210168_DHT_1.gif) there is already information that 5mg per day could decrease DHT by almost 70%. A study says that does not diminish either, another study says that reduced by 70%, who to believe? Each of these supposed study says one thing, you have to throw a coin in the air and the only way to know which one to believe.

Well, the results are there for those who want to believe or not.

[yan]

I'll still need to keep a few more days with such use in order to accomplish my baseline that was corrupted by Saw Palmetto, something that was thought to reduce the DHT which proved to me that is totally myth.

How do you explain that Saw Palmetto corrupted your baseline? So you say because of SP, your baseline is lower than normal? Makes no sense, because you said SP doesn`t work in reducing DHT.

Well there are hundreds who take it EOD or even twice a week and got good results. Let`s assume your blood results are accurate, it would still show that its enough to block DHT every other day.

I bet with you you could take 1mg every other day and not lose hair. Just do it, take it for some months and report back your results. I dont know what you try to do. Your blood results dont tell you if you will lose hair or not. You said 1mg EOD is useless, your quote: "Use 1mg every other day, not work to reduce DHT."

THIS IS SO WRONG. Even if it blocks just for 24 hours, it is enough to keep your hair. Proven by hundreds.

[yan]

You just have to google and you will find so so many people who report "it worked for me" with EOD or even MWF. There are people who take it this way since over 10 years and didn`t lose any hairs at all.

But ok until there are no other persons posting blood results with EOD, I don`t mind to discuss any more about this. EOD works, thats fact.

Maybe you can say it only blocks 24 hours out of 48 hours, ok believe it, but I dont care if it still works. Even more powerful than your blood results are experience reports of long-time users. And I believe in their results, proven with various hair-pictures.

[yan]

Anyway I want to thank you for sharing your results with us! I was a bit too rude in my last posts.

What I want to say is the following: The main reason people use EOD doses is to reduce side-effects. Maybe your blood test is the key why people dont have that much side effects like on ED doses... Who knows.
Another thing is, nobody is doing blood tests because it doesnt tell you much. If you see 10% or 50% reduction, you still dont know if thats enough for your body. Everyone is different. Its trial and error. For a lot of people, EOD is enough to maintain and even thicken up their hair.
Lets assume your results are correct, there is still a 24-hour dht-suppressed timeframe within 48 hours, which might be enough for some people.

Much better than blood results is just to test it out by yourself. Choose a dose and a frequenzy, take before-pictures of your hair, take it for at least 6 months and then reassess your hair.

This text is just about fin. If we talk about keratene and other stuff, it is for sure important to have blood tests done in order to assess if it works or not.


Btw. Julio, it would be interesting to see your dht levels on 1mg / eod ON DAYS... There should big a big difference between on and off days according to your theory...