Ultimate herbal treatment

[WonderBang]

Hello,

I recently bought the book wrote by Kobren. I don't want to start finasteride first, because it sounds scary. There is a whole chapter on herbal treatments. There are 7 herbal mentionned : saw palmetto, Green Tea, Pygeum, Stinging Nettle, Zinc Picolinate, Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) and Ho Shou Wu.

1) Is it possible and not dangerous to take the 7 herbals at the same time, not just one.
2) If yes, will this combination make it as efficient as Finasteride alone ? Because the combination might reduce as much DHT as finasteride alone ?

Everyone seem to want to try finasteride only, not so many people talk and want to try the herbal treatments. According to Kobren, he saw lots of people having good results, as if they took Finasteride.

[PayDay]

Hello,

I recently bought the book wrote by Kobren. I don't want to start finasteride first, because it sounds scary. There is a whole chapter on herbal treatments. There are 7 herbal mentionned : saw palmetto, Green Tea, Pygeum, Stinging Nettle, Zinc Picolinate, Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) and Ho Shou Wu.

1) Is it possible and not dangerous to take the 7 herbals at the same time, not just one.
2) If yes, will this combination make it as efficient as Finasteride alone ? Because the combination might reduce as much DHT as finasteride alone ?

Everyone seem to want to try finasteride only, not so many people talk and want to try the herbal treatments. According to Kobren, he saw lots of people having good results, as if they took Finasteride.

Spencer himself has said many times on his show that he is no longer a strong believer in the herbal approach and if you do try it to do it as a last resort if Propecia and Rogaine don’t work for you. A few months ago he said on the show that when the book was written like 15 years ago, there was enough anecdotal evidence to include that herbal chapter, but if he were to write the book today that he would not included it and that those herbs can cause some of the same side effects as Propecia for some people.

[WonderBang]

Now I understand why nobody talk about it anymore on forums. So there is not a single treatment that have no side effects ? What about mesotherapy ? There is a dermatologist not too far who can do it.
I even plan on getting a hairpiece instead of taking this freaking finasteride.

[PayDay]

All treatments have potential side effects, including mesotherapy. If you don’t t want to take the calculated risk then a hairpiece is probably your only choice, unless you just want to shave it all off .

[Plan C]

Hello,

I recently bought the book wrote by Kobren. I don't want to start finasteride first, because it sounds scary. There is a whole chapter on herbal treatments. There are 7 herbal mentionned : saw palmetto, Green Tea, Pygeum, Stinging Nettle, Zinc Picolinate, Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) and Ho Shou Wu.

1) Is it possible and not dangerous to take the 7 herbals at the same time, not just one.
2) If yes, will this combination make it as efficient as Finasteride alone ? Because the combination might reduce as much DHT as finasteride alone ?

Everyone seem to want to try finasteride only, not so many people talk and want to try the herbal treatments. According to Kobren, he saw lots of people having good results, as if they took Finasteride.

Pretty sure green tea raises DHT levels.

[burtandernie]

propecia. There is nothing else worth saying or debating. No herb will stop your hair loss if your actually going bald. If it did we would all be using those instead of taking much more powerful drugs. Oh I guess you said your going with hairpiece then. You have a long time probably before you reach that stage and all the experts say MPB will be cured in 5 years.
Waiting and doing nothing is always an option too. In a few years there will be something safer like CB. I think propecia is finally nearing its end.

[Notcoolanymore]

propecia. There is nothing else worth saying or debating. No herb will stop your hair loss if your actually going bald. If it did we would all be using those instead of taking much more powerful drugs. Oh I guess you said your going with hairpiece then. You have a long time probably before you reach that stage and all the experts say MPB will be cured in 5 years.
Waiting and doing nothing is always an option too. In a few years there will be something safer like CB. I think propecia is finally nearing its end.

Agree with the bolded part 100%. The propecia debate is played out. Take it if you want a chance to keep your hair, if you don't want to risk sides then dont.

As far as the last part goes. I hope you are right and that we will have a cure in 5 years, then I can drop meds and get all my hair back. With that being said I won't be holding my breath.

Wonderbang, not sure how bad your hair is now, but if I were in your shoes I would shave the top of my head and get a piece now. You don't want to over play the hair piece option only to get one and find that you cant deal with it.

[EricPotratz]

A potent extract of saw palmetto can be about 50% as effective as finasteride, according to this study - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23298508

There are some herbal formulas that have been researched which appear to show similar or slightly better results as saw palmetto. (seen above)

You do need to be careful with Ho Shou Wu however. Reports of liver complication are a bit concerning, but it doesn't appear be a problem when used in traditional herbal mixes such as "Seven Treasures" or combined with Dang Gui (Dong Quai, Angelica sinensis).

[burtandernie]

When I say cure in 5 years I am talking about something like CB that is more a prevention tool to stop MPB from progressing more than growing hair back. I think growing huge amounts of hair back is decades away.
That study you linked says fin worked better than saw palmetto. I would be surprised saw palmetto even does anything at 320mg dose. Again though fin has 20 years of the best evidence in existance it works and saw palmetto has a few tiny studies suggesting it might do something. Everyone has their choice we have beat this topic to death already and its apparent people love the herbs

[EricPotratz]

Sorry, I'm new to the hair loss forums lingo and I don't know what "CB" is.

There is solid research behind finasteride but otherwise it's nothing special. Finasteride provides a small benefit (e.g., 8-12% increase in hair count after 12 months) for about 70% of men. Progesterone is also a potent 5a-reductase inhibitor. Its extremely cheap and easy to obtain, and can provide results similar to finasteride, albeit at a higher mg dose. Saw palmetto is a much weaker 5a-reductase inhibitor but it probably has some other mechanisms working for it. Keep in mind, there are also other natural treatments with human placebo controlled clinical trials demonstrating upwards of 30-40% increase in hair count within 6-12 months.