JordanM said:
just so that i'm on the same page -- taking zinc daily helps to decrease the DHT levels in your system, correct?
No. Not exactly. My knowledge is this: male pattern baldness is caused by DHT (and an associated genetic sensitivity to DHT in us baldy types). Finasteride powerfully arrests the production cycle of DHT. However, in doing so, what also happens is that testosterone levels in your bloodstream increase.
This wouldn't be a problem were it not for the fact that in some of us this excess testosterone is turned into oestrogen by a further enzyme called aromatase. It is these additional produced levels of oestrogen that we think are repsonsible for causing the side effects of finasteride. (These range from floppy-c*ck right the way up to scary sh*t like gynecomastia and the terrifying supposed "finasteride crash" - see propeciahelp.com for stuff that will chill you to the marrow; but the truth is that much of this is speculation on our parts, as not nearly enough research has been conducted. This issue is a quagmire, but to me it is self-evident that the company that produces finasteride, Merck, is concealing the true scale of side effects which are certainly in excess of the ludicrous 1-2% they tout.)
Taking supplemental zinc (50mg+ ED) is supposed to act as an aromatase inhibitor. Thus keeping the levels of pesky oestrogen down. This information comes to us from bodybuilders, who have similar problems with sides. However, additional risks present themselves with long term high zinc usage (above 75mg ED) that you should look into. One suggested way of combatting these is to take a combined zinc and copper supplement, as I do (50/2mg).
Clinical aromatase inhibitors like arimidex and tamoxifen are extremely powerful prescription-only meds. My mother takes them for breast cancer for example, and they are classed as hormonal chemotherapy.
In starting finasteride I got significant sexual sides almost immediately. Chiefly impotence. I have found taking daily 50mg zinc coupled with a horny goat weed complex EOD (brand: Optima) has definitely suceeded in ameliorating these to a significant degree. However, I am clearly very sensitive to finasteride and am now down to only 0.25mg EOD. (I gradually moderated microdoses through a tincture until I found one where the sides I got subsided to a tolerable level - everyone is different.)
However, I remain to be convinced that this low dose will result in any regrowth for me (still NW3, and 4 months into finasteride treatment), but if you are experiencing sides, particularly sexual, zinc in my experience is definitely worth a try: its effects on me were dramatic.
One word of warning though. In studying the various boards and treatments something very common has become aparrent to me: the speed with which male pattern baldness can take hold, contributes to a quite understandable desire for a solution: NOW. This mindset is shared by many people I think, who on discovering that a regimen change doesn't work for them in a week or so, abandon it, in the desparate pursuit of something else.
This is foolish. Because the hormonal cycles we are seeking to modify are at least a month long. So the best advice I can give you is this:
If you are looking for some sort of regimen change to combat sides, ponder your options carefully, then make a change that you stick to for at least one whole month before altering it again.
I hope this helps. I've been reading this board for some time now, and this is my first contribution; in grateful thanks for all the information that has come my way through it.
www.renefurtererusa.com
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov