What natural treatments? Side effects?

[Davey Jones]

Actually no, I don't have an opinion on these matters.

I'd have to disagree. To say that no alternative treatment works is stretching well past what one could say factually. It would be more appropriate to say that "there is currently no compelling evidence that I'm aware of that leads me to believe alternative treatments are effective." That's a little wordy for a response, so I get why you said it your way, but I'm just sayin'. To be fair, your assertion was a little over the bounds of what could be called a "fact."

[alanrudy]

2020, does that mean you don't believe Minoxidil can work either? Maybe these natural treatments can produce the same results as Minox.

[2020]

2020, does that mean you don't believe Minoxidil can work either? Maybe these natural treatments can produce the same results as Minox.

minoxidil increases the number of blood vessels thus extending the anagen phase.

Blood Vessels Hold Key To Thicker Hair Growth

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010215074636.htm

The VEGF-enhanced mice grew hair faster and thicker in the first two weeks of life than did the control mice.
The VEGF-enhanced mice also regrew hair faster. Shaved 8 week-old VEGF-mice not only grew hair back sooner, they exhibited a 30 percent increase in hair follicle diameter 12 days after depilation. "By overall volume, the hair was about 70 percent thicker than in wild-type mice," says Detmar. Blood vessels located in the skin surrounding the pumped-up hair follicles were 40% larger in diameter than those found in normal mice, suggesting that the VEGF-mediated angiogenesis was causing the hair to grow faster and thicker.

Minoxidil upregulates the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in human hair dermal papilla cells.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9580790

[alanrudy]

Thanks for the reply with the studies. The first article mentions that increasing blood flow to the scalp helps stave off baldness, isn't capsaicin (in cayenne pepper) thought to increase blood flow by making blood vessels larger? So would larger blood vessels have the same effect as more blood vessels?

[2020]

there was a discussion about this on HLH:
minoxidil upregulates VEGF in dermal papilla cells while histogen's stuff(has VEGF) MOST LIKELY upregulates it in endothelial cells.
That's why minoxidil growth doesn't last long while Histogen has continued with their growth ONE YEAR after.

You simply don't have the tools to do the same. You'd be pretty much wasting time. Try something else

[alanrudy]

Why couldn't capsaicin upregulate VEGF in Dermal papila cells. I'm not sure yet, but I think I will try The Natural's regimen.

[FlightTL]

What about applying pure Aloe Vera Gel directly to your scalp and letting it sit there for a while before washing it off. Aloe Vera is an anti-inflammatory agent.

[BGP]

Alanrudy,

Did you have problems with the conventional treatments such as minoxidil / finasteride? I'd recommend talking to your doctor about those.

I'm not going to say no natural treatment will work but you have the choice of products whose efficacy is supported by scientific evidence, vs an unknown array of potential garbage. If any natural treatment did have anywhere near the same efficacy of minoxidil / finasteride, everyone would know about it.

Also, there's a huge fallacy that natural things are automatically safe. Cyanide is natural too

By the way, please don't feel I'm trying to be harsh towards you, I really do wish you the best of luck and hope you find something that works.

[alanrudy]

Hi BGP, fair points. I started having some of the sides with Fin when I started taking it about 10 years ago and decided it wasn't worth it to me. I also tried Min for a while, but was hard to keep up because it wasn't foam at the time and I shave my head so it was a mess. Also a little worried about Min because I do exercise a lot and am a little worried about some of the sides related to that.

I think I just have had good experiences overall with natural products so I guess I am biased towards them and I feel a big reason there is scientific evidence for these drug products is that it's big money owning a patent for a drug that is effective. It's a business and these pharm companies pay big money for scientists, marketing, etc. IMO, there are probably natural treatments that are effective, but what would be the payoff to these drug companies if they found out a relatively inexpensive product they can't patent works?

[new bubble]

Hi BGP, fair points. I started having some of the sides with Fin when I started taking it about 10 years ago and decided it wasn't worth it to me. I also tried Min for a while, but was hard to keep up because it wasn't foam at the time and I shave my head so it was a mess. Also a little worried about Min because I do exercise a lot and am a little worried about some of the sides related to that.

I think I just have had good experiences overall with natural products so I guess I am biased towards them and I feel a big reason there is scientific evidence for these drug products is that it's big money owning a patent for a drug that is effective. It's a business and these pharm companies pay big money for scientists, marketing, etc. IMO, there are probably natural treatments that are effective, but what would be the payoff to these drug companies if they found out a relatively inexpensive product they can't patent works?

your absolutely spot on, drug companies want to make money so natural remedies are useless to them

[Clinicspots]

While approval for use to grow scalp hair will depend on the upcoming phase 2 clinical trial results (and hopefully Allergan will decide to fund further phase 3 clinical trials), Bimatoprost has already been FDA approved for use in humans for:
1. Glaucoma and ocular hypertension treatment, approval in 2001 (brand name Lumigan). Dosage = 1 drop of Lumigan 0.01 percent or Lumigan 0.03 percent depending on source, once daily.
2. Eyelash growth (lengthening) treatment, approval in 2008 (brand name Latisse ). Dosage = 1 drop of Latisse 0.03 percent, once daily.
Bimatoprost Side Effects
Although there are some significant side effects (e.g., darkening of iris, undereye, eyelash and eyelid), that can occur when using Bimatoprost for the above applications, most seem to be reversible. It is also great to know that people have been using this product in such a sensitive areas as the eye for over a decade now without any large-scale reports of major injuries, nor any class action lawsuits against Allergan