Relax, minoxidil isn't aging you.

[Alk]

Personally, I do believe minox aged my skin and gave me dark circle for the eight months I used it. Maybe i was very sensitive but wrinkles on my forehead were much more noticable at the peak of treatment and then became much less noticable after discontinuation. To be honest i'm now more concerned about heart issues related to minox then skin aging. It is concerning how many people have reported this effect of skin aging.

[dm90]

Its a positive feedback loop through group paranoia. Skin is just sensitive to diet, sleep schedule, water intake and a whole mess of other things. One day my skin will look absolutely terrible, especially with flash, but the next day it looks youthful. When people are reporting sides involving skin aging they are making two assumptions. The first one is that minoxidil is actually inhibiting the lysyl hydroxylase enzyme and that its diffusing well enough that its inducing this effect on facial skin. We know that minoxidil has a very poor rate of diffusion and only 1-4% of the total dosage even goes systematic. The study I posted demonstrated that the collagen content was the same in both the control and treatment group. A histological assay was done on the area where the minoxidil was directly applied and no inhibitory effect was observed. The whole reason that scientists even took notice of the invitro inhibitory effect was that it showed promise of being used as an antifibrotic. They were not concerened with whether or not rogaine was aging someone. The in-vitro studies did not support the in-vitro studies. I realize there will be more and more reports of "well minoxidil aged my skin" but I have presented verifiable evidence that this does not occur. Everyone is entitled to their own belief about this compound, but rest assure there is evidence supporting that you're going to be ok. This thread is mainly for the individuals who are benefiting from minoxidil but perhaps are affraid to continue the treatment.

[PatientlyWaiting]

Its a positive feedback loop through group paranoia. Skin is just sensitive to diet, sleep schedule, water intake and a whole mess of other things. One day my skin will look absolutely terrible, especially with flash, but the next day it looks youthful. When people are reporting sides involving skin aging they are making two assumptions. The first one is that minoxidil is actually inhibiting the lysyl hydroxylase enzyme and that its diffusing well enough that its inducing this effect on facial skin. We know that minoxidil has a very poor rate of diffusion and only 1-4% of the total dosage even goes systematic. The study I posted demonstrated that the collagen content was the same in both the control and treatment group. A histological assay was done on the area where the minoxidil was directly applied and no inhibitory effect was observed. The whole reason that scientists even took notice of the invitro inhibitory effect was that it showed promise of being used as an antifibrotic. They were not concerened with whether or not rogaine was aging someone. The in-vitro studies did not support the in-vitro studies. I realize there will be more and more reports of "well minoxidil aged my skin" but I have presented verifiable evidence that this does not occur. Everyone is entitled to their own belief about this compound, but rest assure there is evidence supporting that you're going to be ok. This thread is mainly for the individuals who are benefiting from minoxidil but perhaps are affraid to continue the treatment.

That's just wrong. One day it looks it's aging and the next day it's gone, who said that?

Why can't you just like minoxidil and also admit that some people may get sides?

I use minoxidil and it gives me these aging sides and dark circles, I can admit that and still admit it's a good drug hair loss.

[dm90]

That's just wrong. One day it looks it's aging and the next day it's gone, who said that?

Why can't you just like minoxidil and also admit that some people may get sides?

I use minoxidil and it gives me these aging sides and dark circles, I can admit that and still admit it's a good drug hair loss.

I'm saying that depending on the lighting or current physical condition the appearance of skin can drastically change.

Because thats asking me to accept anecdotal reports over multiple scientific studies. Given the choice to believe internet forums or histological data I will choose the later. The reports of dark cirlces can be credible in my opinion. Angiogenisis was observed in the treatment group. Due to minoxidils poor diffusion rate this can be avoided by careful application.

[Alk]

Although the study is clear; this isnt the most concrete evidence that minox doesnt age ur skin. It may not have stopped the healing process but these mice were only given minox once a day for 21 days. There are many studies in vitro and the study even states to reject its possible effects as an antifibrotic agent, more objective animal models should be developed and studied. Minox definetly goes systematic if 2% minox can effect left ventricle mass as explained in this study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1386573/.

Some ppl get sides some dont.

[dm90]

Yes good catch, these studies were done over a short period of time. However, minoxidils inhibiting effects have been observed to occur almost immediately. I will admit the acromegally does raise some questions however. Its basically the only case study of REALLY serious side effects of minoxidil, and it occured over a period of 10 years. The theory that a form of "selection" occured allowing the resistant fibroblasts to multiply unchecked is definitely unnerving. However skin aging is usually something reported after only a few months or years of topical use. The study you posted is a good addition to this conversation. Minoxidils effects on ventricals is well documented and quite scary.

[michel sapin]

hey dm , so you are sure that minoxidil can't age your skin ? Ive been paranoid about this effect since ive started . Moreover i'm way worse than baseline after 5 month , do you think i will recover?

[dm90]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9326711
"Minoxidil did not demonstrate significant inhibition of wound contraction rates"
"These observations do not support the proposed use of minoxidil as an "antifibrotic" agent."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3985251/
"Main histological findings regarding minoxidil topical usage showed that collagen content and tensile strength of burned area did not differ between groups."
"Although minoxidil improved the process of wound-healing, our results did not support the proposed idea of its usage as an antifibrotic agent. However, to reject its possible effects as an antifibrotic agent, more objective animal models should be developed and studied."

Its important to understand the difference between in-vitro and in-vivo. Minoxidil applied directly to cultured fibroblasts shows a significant inhibitory effect on collagen formation. However, In-vitro is not a good model for understanding the actual mechanism of a compound. Orgasms are extremely complex with untold number of molecular interactions. Isolating one cell and applying a compound to it isn't representative of the biological model. Minoxidil showed nearly complete inhibition of lysyl hydroxylase, the enzyme responsible for collagen formation, at 2nM and cytotoxcitiy at 4nM. These are approximately 1/100th the dose of 2% minoxidil. 5% showed no effect on collagen content in any in-vivo study. Think of it this way, if minoxidil could kill off nearly all collagen maturing enzyme the result would be horrific. The only serious skin complication reported from minoxidil was actually deposition of too much collagen, this guy was taking an extremely high dose of 50mg daily for 10 years. Even this extreme case of pseudoacromegally reversed itself over time.



To sum up, there are a lot of anecdotal reports of minoxidil aging skin, however the science doesn't appear to support this phenomena. Everyone is entitled to believe what they do, but I personally do not believe 5% topical minoxidil exhibits any aging effects on skin.

Are you using fin or dut? If so how long have you paired it with minoxidil? The thing about minoxidil is consistence is so important. If you decide to treat your hairloss with these drugs you need to be diligent.

Disclaimer
I'm just a person with a scientific education not a doctor (not that anyone thought that lol)

[Never2bald]

Hi
Im new to this forum..been using 5% minox for about 5 months..hair has thickened to the point where my hairdresser commented on its density. Only thing is the dark eye circles. How can i carefully apply the solution to avoid this?
I only apply less than 1ml at night with a dropper

[Never2bald]

Can somebody help me on this please