Plan on dosing 0.025mg Finasteride via Ethanol solution

[mjk258]

I'm planning on using Everclear and crushing up Propecia tablets. I'm not sure whether I will be able to get the 95% Everclear, will the 75% abv Everclear work?

Should I get blood tests before I start to see if I'm getting my desired suppression of DHT?

Is there any risk in doing this besides the risks of Finasteride and the obvious risks of alcohol?

 

[mjk258]

is there any possibility that there will be a reaction between the ethanol and the adjuncts in the tablet? I've heard of people doing this with Proscar but not with Propecia

Is it possible that such a low dosage will simply "damage" the dht but not destroy it and cause other problems?

 

[Nex]

Hey MJK, as you know I have also been wanting to do this. Instead of using an alcohol solution I think I might just buy a digital scale and measure it out everyday. The only disadvantage to this is it takes a little more work each day. It would be cool to get a blood test before and compare the results after a month or two.

 

[mjk258]

Hey Nex, I picked up 200 ml bottle of 95% Everclear and a couple of 1 ml droppers.

I too would prefer to just use a scale. I was thinking of weighing it out and storing it in those lab papers tied off with rubber bands. I think storing them might be tough to do, so weighing it out everyday would probably be the way to go.

On the other hand the solution route would be a convenient way to go if can figure out whether its safe to do so.

 

[Rawtashk]

Why are you using such a teeny tiny amount as a topical?

 

[mjk258]

Why are you using such a teeny tiny amount as a topical?

I plan on using this orally. It seems that 0.05 mg/day drops serum DHT by 50%. I hope to drop it by less than that.

 

[Aks20]

Very interesting. Could you please keep us updated reg your dosages and applications, plus results?

 

[mjk258]

Will keep you posted Aks20.

So far I've crushed up 4 Propecia tablets and have had them in solution for about 12 hours. They're not fully dissolved yet.


Again, if anyone has ANY reason why this may not be a good idea, please let me know!!

 

[Rawtashk]

Why not just take them orally like you normally would? And I highly doubt that .05mg reduces DHT by 50%. .5mg, yes....but 5% of the recommended dose....?

 

[Nex]

Raw- finasteride has a flat dose response curve. 5mg inhibits basically as much as 1mg which inhibits basically as much as 0.25 mg, give or take a few percentage points all doses inhibit approx 7X %. Its not until you get to a very small dose that finasteride inhibits less DHT, thus why he is taking such a low dosage. Even at that extremely low dose it still will inhibit quite a bit of dht, I have a study that I will dig up that gives supporting evidence to what I just said, too tired to do it right now though.

 

[sapinho]

Since finasteride blocks DHT at such low concentrations, orders of magnitude better than 'natural' alternatives, isn't there a chance your hair follicles can derive a greater benefit from applying it topically? ...obviously it's not absorbed instantaneously, a guy who knows nothing like me would assume it has a chance of knocking out some DHT along the way. Please elucidate this error in logic or quantify. Obviously popping a pill is easier, and logical if it's absorbed anyway, but only if topical has almost no advantageous effect. Can there seriously be no difference?

Does there exist a higher affinity towards blocking serum DHT as opposed to follicle DHT for topicals (in general)?

 

[mjk258]

I've run into a slight problem- not all of the components of Propecia are soluble in ethanol. For example, talc is not soluble. I've shook the heck out of the solution and it won't dissolve.

This strategy could still work but you won't be able to get precise dosages from it because some of the finasteride is likely trapped between the the undissolved particles.

I might still go ahead with this. If I do, I'll remake the solution because I've shook the bottle very vigorously and there may be some tiny glass particles in the solution that eroded from the bottle.

 

[mjk258]

@Sapinho

I'm not too sure but I've read about someone who made a topical and realized that there DHT levels were about the same as a person taking it orally.

 

[gh05]

Very interested in this - please keep us updated.

Would be WAY more useful too if you had DHT levels tested at baseline and after finasteride too.

btw...i asked Dr Rassman about low dose finasteride on his balding blog a couple of weeks ago...scroll through his posts to see the response. It wasn't a brilliant response to be honest - he couldn't understand my reasoning.

 

[mjk258]

I've made a bit of a disappointing discovery. If you look at Figure A, it shows that while a 0.04 mg dose quickly converges to a DHT level similar to the standard dose.

While I'm sure that there is a suitable dose for my plan, it would take many many bloodtests to figure out what the suitable dose is. I really need to get a doctor on side but that isn't easy.

As far as I know, blood tests for DHT are very rare. DHEA is more commonly tested for. Is there any point in investigating DHEA?