How long until we have a cure??

[winkywoo]

A lot of people on this forum are a lot more educated about all things hair loss related than I am.

If anyone knows How long do you think roughly until we have a cure? Is there any evidence to show that we are close? Or are we still 10/20 years off? Sorry for the pretty vast question, but I'm curious!

[Buster]

No one knows. If you read posts from early 2000 you'd see the same stuff that you're seeing today.

[Aik82]

True, and this is really tragic...

[Dench57]

No one knows. If you read posts from early 2000 you'd see the same stuff that you're seeing today.

Those are really depressing. Reading stuff from 1998-2005, people full of optimism that the cure was just a few years away. Here we are in 2015 in the same boat. Fin/Minox still the only real options for the average Joe. At least hair transplants are getting better and more affordable.

[jeffreybaks]

could you name a few of your top picks with hair transplant dench, iv been looking into Dr. Raymond Konior

[burtandernie]

If you searched there are probably 20 million threads on this same topic. No one has any clue honestly. If a cure is NW 7 waking up as NW 1 brad pitt than my guess is a decade probably more like 2 or 3. If your talking stopping MPB from ever progressing I would say 5 years or so if not already with fin/dut. New treatments will exist in the next 3 or 4 years but none of them are turning water into wine like NW 7 to NW 1

[Dench57]

could you name a few of your top picks with hair transplant dench, iv been looking into Dr. Raymond Konior

I've no idea, I haven't looked into a HT (yet).

I just meant that hair transplants are the only thing guaranteed to be getting better, and more affordable with time, compared to what they were 10-15 years ago.

As for treatments, we're still stuck with Fin/Dut and Minox as the main hitters. Really pathetic in my eyes, the side effects from screwing around with DHT can be incredibly serious. Minox is a pain in the ass and even if it works, it's just "artificial" hair that will fall out upon stopping treatment.
RU doesn't really look to be the solution to our problems, it hasn't made it through human trials and in general people aren't having the same success as Fin/Dut and we don't know anything about what damage that systemic absorption could be doing.

Personally I've pinned my hopes on CB, imagine that on the shelf next to Rogaine in the pharmacy in the next 5 years. I imagine people have been saying the same thing about X treatment for the last 20 years though. With the knowledge we have now, the next big thing has to be a topical anti-androgen that blocks DHT from binding to scalp receptors completely, AND does not get absorbed at all in the blood stream causing any systemic sides. Much like what Fluridil or even RU should have been.

I'd be interested to hear from the veterans who've been around these forums for 10-15 years and seen the next "big thing", the next cure, come and go several times. How far away do they think we are from an effective, mainstream treatment that 95%+ guarantees maintenance with no side effects? Considering technology/medicine will only advance in an upward curve , I'd like to think in the next 10 years. As for a cure that takes you from a NW7 to a NW0, well, that just seems like science fiction even in 2015.

[burtandernie]

If by cure you mean maintenance I think that could happen in the next 2 or 3 years with the next batch of stuff on the way. Stuff like CB, SM and that kind of thing could end up doing that. Heck with dut right now I would say most men could probably maintain. I think the hairline/temples might be a problem even with fin and there are rare cases where fin or maybe dut dont work for whatever reason. Most of the time though prevention is possible right now assuming you got the money and can accept the risks of the drugs

[mlamber5]

I'm one of the optimists on here that finally believes it is actually 5-10 years away. I don't think nw7 to nw0 will be science fiction in 5-10 years. Just because a cure isn't out yet and we still only have fin and minoxidil doesn't mean a whole shitload of progress hasn't been made in the understanding of AGA. Progress has been huge the last 10 years. I liken this situation to mathematics in the middle ages... There really was no good way to attack complex problems like orbits of planets and other very tough problems without the development of calculus. Geometry and Algebra couldn't do it. It is the same for biology. We haven't had the "tools" (like calculus was the mathematic tool of the middle ages) to really study this in depth at the mechanism level up until very recently. Hell, we only sequenced the human genome completely 12 years ago. We are just now within the last 7-8 years really getting the tools and understanding to unwind this riddle and test things in depth. I'm a huge proponent of the prostaglandin deregulation pathway being the main problem, and I recognize I'm squarely in the minority on that one around the internet forum goers lol.

[mlamber5]

I am one example... But looking back I've had prostaglandin issues my entire life. I'm allergic to Ibuprofen which converts arachiadonic acid to the different prostaglandins. I had bad sub dermal acne during puberty. One the main causes they think this is is too much prostaglandin j2... which is made only from prostaglandin d2. Furthermore, I had the worst case of chickenpox that the doctor had ever seen when I was 6. The virus spreads to the skin through t-cells which have the gpr-44 receptor on them. This is what prostaglandin d2 (the evil one) acts through. Furthermore, my brother has a slightly receding hairline whilst I am a 26 year old norwood 4+ ,I caught my chickenpox from him and his was a very average case, and he is not allergic to ibuprofen. Early onset baldness also runs on my dads side, my dad was NW7 by early 20s. Prostaglandin deregulation is the major player here in my opinion. I was having problems with it far before testosterone starting ramping up in my body.

[mlamber5]

Forgot to add, id probably have been a norwood 7 by now if I hadn't used fin from age 16-20.

[burtandernie]

MPB hasnt had a good history as far as new things getting finished either. This was very promising topical pretty similar to CB that might have been out by now had they finished it. Many MPB products with promise seem to never get finished. Its been what 25 years or more since finasteride and its still the only thing that really exists to fight androgens for MPB

http://www.androscience.com/artman/publish/news/Results_of_ASC-J9-202_Phase_2B_Clinical_Study.shtml

[GNX]

being affordable now is about as close to a cure as ur gonna get.....