Fanjeera said:
By inhibiting 5ar2, we lower allopregnanolone production in the brain
This is not yet established fact. The few studies I've seen were very small and inconclusive. One that I can remember off the top of my head involved a small group of men in their 60's. The other issue is that these studies measured serum blood levels, NOT brain blood levels. I'm not sure if finasteride passes the BBB, but I do know that 5AR Type 2 is NOT found in the human bran; only type 1, which finasteride does not inhibit.
Fanjeera said:
which ultimately leads to Parkinson's disease.
What proof do you have of this? Admittedly I just took a cursory perusal, but I couldn't find any supportive evidence of this other than some rat models. And even then, I found contradictory studies, like this one that suggests higher allo levels
inhibit learning and memory, and may accelerate cognitive impairment:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23157375
Even if you can prove that decreased allo levels lead to Parkinson's, how do we know how much and what the effect will be? Do they have to be decreased 95% before we are at risk for Parkinson's? How much does finasteride actually inhibit brain allo levels? It might lower levels, but by what amount? 5%? Maybe a small decrease in allo levels actually prevents certain diseases, but a significant decrease makes things worse. Nobody knows these things right now.
These are all very important facts to establish before jumping to conclusions like you are already doing.
Your logic is basically: "finasteride might reduce allo, which can only be a bad thing. I notice I have restless legs. Hey, that shaking resembles Parkinson's. Parkinsons is a brain disorder. Allo exists in the brain and we know finasteride inhibits it. That means finasteride causes Parkinson's!" This is how doctors thought a hundred years ago.
Fanjeera said:
Restless legs syndrome is connected to Parkinson, because the same drugs cure them, and probably is the youth version of the disease.
Sorry but these are some very poor statements. You're saying that if one drug can treat two conditions, those two conditions are automatically connected? It doesn't work that way. Wikipedia shows that RLS may be associated with Parkinson's. It is also associated with ADHD, sleep apnea and diabetes. By your logic, people with sleep apnea are experiencing a "youth version" or Parkinson's? All these kids with ADHD are actually in early stages of Parkinson's? Give me a break.
Fanjeera said:
Restless legs' is often caused by muscle twitching. Basically they're similar diseases with involuntary movement.
No, you are way off. That's like saying indigestion and a heart attack are similar conditions because they both cause chest pain. RLS is not involuntary in the way that twitches are involuntary. When you experience a muscle twitch (fasciculation), your muscles are twitching on their own. It happens to everyone from time to time and they are normal unless excessive. Stress is a particularly common cause of muscle twitches.
RLS is more similar to Tourettes in that there is a conscious urge (an itch, burn, need, whatever) to perform this action in order to relieve the need. Both RLS and Tourettes 'twitches' can be suppressed with discomfort, so they are not involuntary like muscle twitches.
RLS is a condition, and twitches are a symptom. They are completely different from one another, and are caused by completely different systems.
So, come clean! Who is experiencing muscle twitching more than normal?
Again, are you talking about fasciculation or RLS?
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Lewis Hamilton said:
the chances of high grade cancer are increased on Propecia or Avodart
Wrong (at least for Propecia):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2844801/
A more recent review of that original study (including microscopic examinations of prostate tissues) revealed that finasteride actually had a 30% risk in all tumors, and a 27% decrease in high grade tumors. The old study failed to account for some biases and issues during examination, all of which are described in this study.
