This might be a dumb question, but.....

[Tdevil]

I am reading that originally no one knew how minoxidil worked, but now they know that it works by opening your potassium channels. Now I already know that male pattern baldness sufferers don't have a potassium deficiency, but what about your follicles themselves? Are they somehow being choked off from recieving it?

What I'm wondering here is if these channels are unable to recieve or process potassium, what if you gave it to them directly, as in a topical form of it?

Or do they need a drug to open them, where minoxidil is the only special key currently known to do so?

I'm sure doctors and scientists have already thought of this and researched it thoroughly. It just seems that they should have figured this out long ago, and they are dangling the cure for this right above our heads. Like they want us to keep spending our money for another decade or so.

[edit] I don't want to give anyone ideas, like taking large amounts of potassium supplements or something. You could end up destroying your muscle cells in the process.

 

[medmax84]

No No No.

K+ channels potentiate the hair growth cycle even in the face of damage induced by male pattern baldness. There is no deficiency... minoxidil just props the channels open so that the hair can grow even when it would be normal for them to slow down or die. It's a pure stimulant that surpasses physiological normalcy. Without it, male pattern baldness does not mean that the hair follicles are nutritionally deficient...not necessarily, anyway.

 

[Tdevil]

Thank you. I did MANY potassium + hair growth google searches but I couldn't find anything that put it in that proper perspective.

So minoxidil is basically the only known key capable of unlocking these K+ channels?