(.5mg) Finasteride every 3 days.

[decro435]

Well I've been looking at a way of tackling my hair loss without suffering the side effects I had when I took (1mg) Finasteride daily. After experimenting with Finasteride I noticed that when I took a single dose of (.5mg) Finasteride my head would not feel itchy for another 3 days. I thought well maybe thats just all in my head but I tried it again and had the same result.

After looking at the chart I saw that plasma levels of DHT would rise once again after 3-4 days:

I also discovered that taking (.2mg) is almost the same as taking (1mg) Finasteride:

http://www.hairloss-research.org/Update ... an-08.html

It also mentions that taking (.5mg) every 3 days is as effective as a daily dose of (1mg). For the educated users on this Forum , explain to me why this would/wouldn't be the case. What does it mean that the half life of the drug in the body is about 5 hours? Why would (1mg) be reccomended if it is not needed? Were these conclusions made by the Drug companies that sell Finasteride (Cipla)?

 

[eXVee]

Wouldn't taking 0.5 create every 3 days constantly fluctuating levels of DHT and mess up your hormonal sytem even more?

 

[decro435]

How and why? I don't have the answers to these questions I'm hoping someone will answer them for us..

 

[pproctor]

How and why? I don't have the answers to these questions I'm hoping someone will answer them for us..

Before finasteide became available in its 1 mg. Propecia formulation, many physicians (myself included ) would prescribe one 5 mg "proscar" (the formulation for prostate enlargement) every three days. This seems to work just fine. I don't know if .5 mg would also work.

But it might be worth a shot. Finasteride has a "flat" dose-response curve. In English, this means a little often works as well as a lot. I.e., 1 mg works as well as 5 mg. The curve starts to turn down a little somewhere around .5 mg. But the agent still seems to work in many persons even below this dose.

As for the "every three days". While the blood half-life of finasteride is only 8 hours or so, it forms an essentially unbreakable complex with the active site of the target enzyme, type-2 5-AR. That is, it takes synthesis of new enzyme to restore activity. This takes "days". How many is uncertain, but by analogy with other drugs that cause permanent inactivation of a target (e.g., aspirin and platelets) likely longer than three days.

Peter H. Proctor, PhD,MD

 

[Mens Rea]

How and why? I don't have the answers to these questions I'm hoping someone will answer them for us..

Before finasteide became available in its 1 mg. Propecia formulation, many physicians (myself included ) would prescribe one 5 mg "proscar" (the formulation for prostate enlargement) every three days. This seems to work just fine. I don't know if .5 mg would also work.

But it might be worth a shot. Finasteride has a "flat" dose-response curve. In English, this means a little often works as well as a lot. I.e., 1 mg works as well as 5 mg. The curve starts to turn down a little somewhere around .5 mg. But the agent still seems to work in many persons even below this dose.

As for the "every three days". While the blood half-life of finasteride is only 8 hours or so, it forms an essentially unbreakable complex with the active site of the target enzyme, type-2 5-AR. That is, it takes synthesis of new enzyme to restore activity. This takes "days". How many is uncertain, but by analogy with other drugs that cause permanent inactivation of a target (e.g., aspirin and platelets) likely longer than three days.

Peter H. Proctor, PhD,MD

Thanks for the post, Peter.

Regarding so many people splitting Proscar here, i read this isn't that great of an idea. Well, not ideal as compared to simple 1mg tablets of finasteride.

I read that these tablets have finasteride unevenly spread throughout them so cutting it into 5 doesn't equate to 5 1mb does, in fact you could be taking 4mg in one piece and none in some others...

any commnents on this?

 

[Jm0311]

Wouldn't taking 0.5 create every 3 days constantly fluctuating levels of DHT and mess up your hormonal sytem even more?

I would like to know this as well ^

 

[pproctor]

Regarding so many people splitting Proscar here, i read this isn't that great of an idea. Well, not ideal as compared to simple 1mg tablets of finasteride.

I read that these tablets have finasteride unevenly spread throughout them so cutting it into 5 doesn't equate to 5 1mb does, in fact you could be taking 4mg in one piece and none in some others...

any commnents on this?

It is very unikely that finasteride is anything but more or less evenly spread in a proscar tablet, since this would be technically difficult and there is no specific reason to do it.

Anyway, the unusual pharmacokinetics of the drug ( blood half life of hours, but essentially irreversible inhibition of the target enzyme ) plus the flat dose-response curve ( a little works as well as a lot ) cover a lot of therapeutic sins. I.e., the exact treatment schedule or dose on any one day likely don't matter very much over a pretty broad range.

Peter H. Proctor, PhD,MD

 

[ali777]

I did experiment with different doses of finastride..

Personally I didn't see any difference between .5 and 1mg. I also tried .25, ie a quarter pill. I tried .5 EOD, 1mg every 2-3 days, .25 every day, etc...

I don't like the way finasteride made me feel and I thought there might be a dose that doesn't give me that feeling... I couldn't find that range...

Anyway, for me, the effects of 1mg and .5mg lasted about 5-6 days. I don't know what that means in hair terms, but I could feel it in my body for at least 5 days. I would say .5 every 3 days is probably something worth trying.