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 By: Dr. David Ryan It is likely to happen to you: You train hard, lifting more weight, doing more sets - and the side effect can be early hair loss. If you are like me, you try to stop the process to keep that youthful look of a full head of hair. So it starts: first the Rogaine (Minoxidil), then the Propecia (Finasteride).
Let's face it, you will do anything to keep that hairline. The trouble is you are likely kicking your own butt, each time you squirt it on your hair or take the pill.
As you take oral Finasteride, a type II 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor, it quickly deactivates testosterone in your body. Men with early hair loss were found to have low serum dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and normal or slightly elevated serum testosterone. Rogaine and Propecia are designed to quickly turn testosterone to DHT.
I have been personally using Propecia and Rogaine for almost six years and as I was coming up on my 44th birthday some strange things were happening. Other people were lifting more than me in the gym, and that isn't normal. I would wake up tired, looking flat, and not to mention a multitude of other problems. So I checked in and saw Dr. Eric Serrano, M.D. Now, if you are professional figure athlete you likely know that name. Dr. Serrano serves on the medical team every year at the Arnold Weekend. So the blood studies come back showing the testosterone is way down. Boom, reality check time!
It is one thing to want to have a nice head of hair, but what good does it do, when you don't even feel like getting out of bed? You know the next step. Toss out all those drugs! Well, it had only been two weeks, but let's just say that there were major changes. I could actually wake up and feel like I had slept. My strength come back and I scare everyone with the weights I use. "That's a good thing!" (Martha Stewart).
Hair loss has several causative factors, and the honest truth is that your particular hair loss situation could be from literally hundreds of causes.
The current level of medications designed to target Androgenetic Alopecia seem to have side effects that most of us can't live with.
Possible side effects from Finasteride include:*
*Now, even though the study shows a small percentage of side effects, realize that if most men aren't starting at the top, then they don't notice much change. To read more about the possible side effects of Finasteride, click here.
Just be aware that if you have been taking any of these medications, you should have your blood tested to determine if you're fighting the wrong fight! Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here! Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
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Male pattern baldness. A progressive loss of scalp hair in men that begins in the twenties/early thirties, and depends on the presence of the androgenic hormone testosterone, and is caused by a combination of genetic and hormonal factors. The term "androgenetic alopecia" implies that a combination of hormones (andro-) and heredity (genetics) is needed to develop the condition.
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