Month: January 2023

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Eucapil – Comments from the Inventors

I received this comment to my post from last month about Eucapil from M. Sovak, M.D., University of California Medical School —

Response from the inventors of Eucapil:

We understand that a comment by Dr. Rassman was published on the site consecrated to the surgical hair loss restitution. We therefore understand that plastic surgery will remain the priority of its practitioners.

We nevertheless have to correct a number of statements which are erroneous:

1. Eucapil is not a cosmetic available only in “the Czech and Slovak countries”. Eucapil was approved as a cosmetic in the Czech and Slovak Republics and thus under the EU Law of Cosmetics can be made available in all EU countries.

2. The definition of a cosmetic in Europe is not the same as in the US and the producer of Eucapil, Interpharma Praha, is not making any medical claims whatsoever. In the EU, a cosmetic is a product which acts on the skin and its appendages without having any systemic effects.

3. It is not clear what “good things for the appearance of hair” means. To state that there is no suggestion or proof that Eucapil can reverse hair loss is simply untrue. We refer the reviewer to the appropriate scientific presentations and articles in peer-reviewed journals on the website, www.eucapil.com (Sovak M, Seligson AL, Kucerova R, Bienova M, Hajduch M, Bucek M. 2002. Fluridil, a rationally designed topical agent for androgenetic alopecia: first clinical experience. Dermatol Surg 28:678-685, with an erratum on p.971; Bienova M, Kucerova R, Hajduch M, Fiuraskova M, Sovak M. Efficacy and Safety of Eucapil Gel in hirsutism (Pilot Study). Proceedings of 14th Congress of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, London, October 12-16, 2005; Kucerova R, Bienova M, Novotny R, Hajduch M, Fiuraskova M, Seligson AL, Sovak M. Eucapil in Female Androgenetic Alopecia: Efficacy and Safety after 9-month use. Proceedings of 14th Congress of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, London, October 12-16, 2005).

4. Everybody in hair dermatology knows that the reversal of hair loss can occur only if the follicles are still viable and this applies to systemic therapy such as one with finasteride (Propecia) or the topical material such as minoxidil (Rogaine). We agree, however, with Dr. Rassman that the ultimate and best way of dealing with hair loss which can no longer be reversed is to use implants and other plastic surgery approach which today has been developed to excellence.

5. Eucapil IND has recently been filed with the US FDA with all relevant preclinical and clinical information. We should perhaps state that the primary endpoint of the studies is arrestation of hair loss of those who suffer from continuous effluvium (hair fall out) and that as a secondary point and based on clinical observation there is a statistically significant increase in the hair diameter which may be responsible for the overall improved appearance of the hair. We wish to be sure that the readers of this response understand that Interpharma is not a “producer of natural supplements” which pushes “claims that may not be valid”. Interpharma works strictly under good manufacturing practices (GMP) and publishes its findings in recognized journals. More information for anyone who would wish to read scientific abstracts is contained at the Eucapil website, www.eucapil.com.


2006-06-06 08:43:59Eucapil – Comments from the Inventors

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Why Does Estrogen Stop Hair Loss? (from Reddit)

Women who have the same genetics as men don’t lose all of their hair in patterns because they have high estrogen levels, which protect their hair, and low testosterone. This is not rocket science. The best treatment for hair loss is to have your testicles taken off before you start losing your hair and then your hair will react to its genetic as a female would do. Very radical of course and not something I am suggesting.

We need to seriously find out why Estrogen can grow a hair full of head in a NW5 man… why aren’t scientists focusing on that? Anyone done any research on this? from tressless


2018-09-19 06:11:50Why Does Estrogen Stop Hair Loss? (from Reddit)

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Estrogen Inhibitor Novedex XT and Hair Loss

Dear Doctor:

Let me first state that I have had an obsession with my hair loss for some time. I have been on Propecia, Avodart, Revivogen and may others in the hopes of saving or regrowing my hair. However, I am an extremely thin male (40 years old) with very little muscle mass. I am now getting quite flabby around the gut with pretty severe love handles. I am a gym rat, going to the gym at least 4 days a week doing both cardio and resistance training. My diet is extremely clean. I am attempting to increase muscle mass and decrease my abdominal fat, but have had zero results over the past 2 years. I have discovered a product by the name of Novedex XT, which is an estrogen inhibitor. From the research I have done and the people I have spoken to who use it, they say it is the best product they have ever tried to gain lean muscle mass. There is a pub med article on it as well.I wish I could provide the link, but it doesn’t point to the page. The bottom line is that Novedex XT increases Testosterone, free testosterone and DHT levels significantly. My question is this, would continuing to use Avodart reduce the chances of DHT related hair loss? I assume the DHT increases because estrogen is inhibited and both total and free testosterone is increased. This is not an anabolic steroid that uses some “unknown pathway” to convert to DHT. So, if I were to continue using Dutasteride, would this offset the DHT related hair loss? Here is the article from pubmed:

Willoughby DS, Wilborn C, Taylor L, Campbell W.
Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7313, USA.

This study examined the effects of an aromatase-inhibiting nutritional supplement on serum steroid hormones, body composition, and clinical safety markers. Sixteen eugonadal young men ingested either Novedex XT or a placebo daily for 8 wk, followed by a 3-wk washout period. Body composition was assessed and blood and urine samples obtained at weeks 0, 4, 8, and 11. Data were analyzed by 2-way repeated-measures ANOVA. Novedex XT resulted in average increases of 283%, 625%, 566%, and 438% for total testosterone (P=0.001), free testosterone (P=0.001), dihydrotestosterone (P=0.001), and the testosterone:estrogen ratio (P=0.001), respectively, whereas fat mass decreased 3.5% (P=0.026) during supplementation. No significant differences were observed in blood and urinary clinical safety markers or for any of the other serum hormones (P>0.05). This study indicates that Novedex XT significantly increases serum androgen levels and decreases fat mass.

PMID: 17460335 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE

Thanks!

I get questions like this all of the time. Playing with your hormones could very possibly do damage, as these are off label uses of these medications. You can not stop the negative effects of the hormone blockers with dutasteride or finasteride, but you trying to do it anyway. Maybe one day you will learn what you are doing to your body and realize that it can’t be good with estrogen blockers and pushing your testosterone high to get in shape and impact the blubber that you have around the middle. I don’t mean to sound rude, but why not do it the right way, which is a good exercise program with a professional trainer working with you on your routine and your diet?

I also gleam another question: Whether the estrogen inhibitor will increase DHT to the point that dutasteride is rendered ineffective. I don’t believe that is the way it works, as this is a competitive inhibition process between the drug and 5 alpha reductase. It will still compete effectively for the receptor.

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Estradex for Androgenic Alopecia?

I have just been diagnosed with AGA and given some Estradex. This is very costly and i’m wondering if I could get the same effect by using Minoxidil and taking a high oestrogen pill, or a pill that helps inhibit Androgens? Also, do you believe Estradex to be more effective than using Minoxidil alone? My fear is that it may just be an overly priced lotion. Thankyou

I do not understand or appreciate what Estradex is, so I can not comment on it. As you were prescribed this by a doctor, ask that doctor. Androgenic alopecia, also known as AGA (female genetic hair loss), needs to have an extensive evaluation. Have you had it? See previous Female Hair Loss posts for more.


2006-09-20 15:35:03Estradex for Androgenic Alopecia?

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Estimating lifetime donor supply

I’ve attached a magnified picture of my donor area that I captured; a couple of your posts I saw stated that folks can send you pictures of their donor and you can use your personalized formula to estimate their donor. The caliber of my hair follicles are 55 which I’ve been told is in the middle. Would you mind helping me estimate my donor grafts availability?

There are 29 follicular units I counted (click on the photo below), and I took the total hair count and divided it by the number of follicular units 72/29= 2.5 (rounded). This means that you have a donor density of 2.5 hairs/FU, which is 24% higher than the average Caucasian Donor density. With a hair thickness of 55 microns as measured by your micrometer, I would suspect that you can easily harvest between 8000-9000 grafts in your lifetime. Of course, the type of FUE that picks out all of the high numbers of Follicular Unit hair grafts would reduce this number substantially. That means with proper FUE performed, leaving enough good grafts behind, you can bald to a Class 7 pattern and still get hair.

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Especially on TV, Your Appearance is Everything

Hi Doctor. My hairline has been the same for about 20yrs and about a year ago noticed a slight change on one side. I haven’t seen much of a change in a year and a half. To me, it looks like my hairline never finished maturing. I’m now 37 years old and recently made my debut on national television. My hair is black and curly with good density. I did see a doctor who said that at this point, if I got a HT, it would look like I had hair on my forehead. She said the measurments were normal etc. I am also starting to get gray hair and will probably start dying it soon. Is it possible when you go gray your hairline might change slightly? If I wanted, would you lower my hairline if it continues to recede? People tell me that at age 37 if you aren’t showing signs of baldness, or have mild recession you probably wont lose your hair; is this true. Just concerned about my new career on tv, where your appearance is everything. Thanks.

Firstly, grey hair and balding are not related. Look at the beautiful head of hair on George Clooney for an example.

At one time I had transplanted a number of men who were in their early 20s and had soap opera stardom, with hair loss starting as you described. The entertainment field demands that many of its male soap opera actors look almost like boy toys, apparently that being the look most women like. So getting hair transplants to maintain a career look is not an unusual request and I would be happy to render you my opinion upon examining you. I’d argue that for many people, appearance is everything — so that isn’t limited to just entertainment-based careers.

If you are receding slightly and want to do something proactive (due to TV careers, personal preference, etc), a choice to have a hair transplant surgery is an option, but it is one that you must fully be educated on with respect to its limitations and expectations. At your age (37), if you don’t have significant balding, your chances of further balding may be slim. You may continue to recede in the front corners, but I really cannot tell. You should have your hair examined under a microscope for miniaturization. If appearance in front of a camera is important to you and you are conscious of your frontal hairline, you can also consider using makeup products (like DermMatch or Toppik) that make your hair look fuller.


2008-12-11 11:09:55Especially on TV, Your Appearance is Everything

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Ervamatin

I’ve been seeing lots of ads of Ervamatin. As a person who is not allowed to use finasteride due to liver problems, is it safe to use Ervamatin? It’s made by Amazon Health Care.

I have done some extensive research on this herbal medication. I am not convinced about this drug until I see more concrete medical data. Finasteride was first discovered in South America in a plant extract by a group of primatives who normally ate large amounts of it in their diet. They had children that were hermaphrodites, as the pregnant mothers ate the extract in their daily diets at very high concentrations. I must warn you about herbal medications, because some of them can be toxic to your liver as well.


2006-01-11 08:34:20Ervamatin

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Erectile Dysfunction with finasteride

I took fin for 11 days, stopped because i was afraid of the sides. Then four days later i tried to have sex with my gf, but i couldn’t get it up at all. After some days it went back to normal. But some weeks later i tried to have sex again, and my penis didn’t get up. I had this on my mind before the act, so that may have been the case. We had sex later that day, and i felt better, and the next day we had sex three times.

I maybe suffer with PFS? Going to an neurologist soon. I have also tried a quarter pill of viagra, but that doesn’t help much. Is this just me overthinking?

Yes, you are focusing too much on your penis and performance. That, by itself, can give a man ED.


2021-03-26 06:32:16Erectile Dysfunction with finasteride

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Erectile dysfunction sometimes and not other times since I have been on finasteride

I began taking fin on December 1, so right now, still very early in the game. I’ve had sexual intercourse with my significant other later that week and I had difficulty keeping an erection. We decided to take a break from intercourse and try other things in the interim. In those encounters, I’ve had weaker than normal erections. On the contrary, when masturbating, I’ve had minimal difficulty obtaining and keeping my erection. Libido itself isn’t down, but I’m definitely having tons of performance anxiety. Is this normal? I’ve perused a bunch of articles and studies about taking fin, and knew of the side effects, and deep down inside, I feel I will be fine, but any type of professional advice would be appreciated. You seem to be knowledgeable and experienced with patients prescribed this medicine. Is this all common response, and if so, any tips on how to overcome?

Thanks in advance, if just for reading this.

It you can keep a strong erection when you masturbate, then the problem may be interpersonal between you and your partner or a placebo effect.

 


2019-01-07 13:22:06Erectile dysfunction sometimes and not other times since I have been on finasteride

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Erectile Dysfunction may be precursor of heart disease in young men

Erectile dysfunction might well be the “canary in a coal mine” of men’s health, indicating that men need to “metaphorically evacuate” before they develop life-threatening disorders, said Arie Parnham, MD, from the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, United Kingdom.

More than half of all men 40 to 70 years of age have experienced erectile dysfunction — defined in EAU guidelines as “an inability to attain or maintain an erection sufficient for sexual performance” — according to the Massachusetts Male Aging Study.

Many of these men have multiple comorbidities, the most prevalent of which is coronary artery disease, Parnham explained during his presentation at the European Association of Urology 2020 Congress.

The link between erectile dysfunction and coronary artery disease was first made by Italian researchers in a 2003 study of 300 men with acute chest pain and angiographically documented coronary artery disease. The prevalence of erectile dysfunction in the study cohort was 49%, and in 70% of those men, the onset occurred in the 40 months preceding their diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

Then, a 44% increase in the risk for cardiovascular events, a 62% increase in the risk for myocardial infraction, and a 25% increase in the risk for all-cause mortality were seen in a 2013 systemic review of 14 studies — a pool of 92,757 men with erectile dysfunction — with a mean follow-up of 6.1 years.

“Younger people were at higher risk” the systemic review showed, said Parnham, which “highlights the importance of screening in this group.”

Source: Medscape, Erectile Dysfunctin: A Urologic ‘Canary in a Coal Mine’ by Ingrid Hein, July 21, 2020


2020-07-23 12:17:59Erectile Dysfunction may be precursor of heart disease in young men