Are You Going to Use Finasteride for Hair Loss? Read This First

Sold in the market under the brand names Propecia and Proscar, finasteride is a medication that is intended to treat people who are suffering from hair loss.  In the early days, finasteride was just like other medications that were originally used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy and prostate cancer. It turns out that patients who took finasteride for their prostate-related issues had experienced great results with it, along with a surprising bonus, and that is, the growth of hair.

Finasteride actually works by means of inhibiting or stopping type II 5-alpha reductase, the enzyme responsible for converting the hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT).  DHT, in turn, is the one responsible for losing one’s hair, resulting to baldness if not remedied.  Thus, simply put, the action of finasteride is to prevent the conversion of testosterone into DHT, and the end result would be the prevention of hair loss. This “favorable side effect” of preventing hair loss and promoting growth of new hair by finasteride is what made it famous in the pharmaceutical world, not by its primary use which is for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy and other prostate-related ailments. Read more…

Posted by David Elkins and others

New fibrage-statin combos work their way through the system


The FDA is looking for more data to support a new US drug application for a product called Certriad which combines two cholesterol meds -- Abbott's TriLipix and AstraZeneca's Crestor.

TriLipix is a class of drugs called fibrages that boost "good" cholesterol and reduce triglycerides, a fat found in the blood stream, and "bad" cholesterol. Crestor is a statin that raises "good" HDL cholesterol while reducing "bad" HDL cholesterol.

The new product is intended to treat dyslipikemia, which results from elevated cholesterol and triglycerides. More than 100 million Americans suffer from the disorder says The American Heart Association.

The companies will continue to work with the FDA.

Studies on the effectiveness of statins in the prevention of cardiovascular disease are ongoing. One of many was reported in Journal Watch Cardiology last August by Dr Harlan Krumholz It results came from of an analysis of 10 trials with over 70,000 subjects over an average of 4 years, mean age 63, mean baseline LDL level 140, 2/3rds were male., ¼ of those had diabetes. Mortality was 5.7% in the control groups and 5.1% in the statin group. Go to http://bit.ly/bqbdnc for more.

The study concluded that statins can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in those without cardiovascular disease.

Posted by David Elkins and others at 5:22 PM

1 comments:

said...

IF you don't have time to watch all of this excellent presentation on:

+ how HDL can become "bad."...

+how to properly test for it...

......**and the importance of "knowing" the IMPACT of medications that "raise good HDL"

then at least watch from 43:04 forward in the Q&A session**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_rPFF5X-pc

(Title: When Good Cholesterol Goes Bad )

In the clinical investigation between physician and client is there some danger in prescribing these medications without doing more advanced laboratory investigation of the existing nature of the the patient's HDL performance ( not just presence).
According to this researcher even APoA 1/HDL comparisons are not good enough.
Therefore the first step is to ensure the best laboratory assessment tool is in place first.

31 March, 2010 12:35 PM