Topical Inhibitors

[rill]

Some think that topical Finasteride will inhibit DHT, but I wonder how?
I mean it inhibits the production of DHT and it isnt produced i n the scalp, its produced in your nuts!!!.
Also wounder what you mean when you say that topicals "inhibit" DHT.
Do they "wash" it away or somethin, dont get it really..

 

[George Costanza]

Topicals like spironolactone work by blocking dht from the receptor sites.

I don't think finasteride would work well topically as far as what I've read.

 

[HairlossTalk]

Some think that topical Finasteride will inhibit DHT, but I wonder how? I mean it inhibits the production of DHT and it isnt produced i n the scalp, its produced in your nuts!!!.

DHT is also locally produced, which is (as to my understanding) exactly why it takes slightly longer for Propecia to work when ingested as a pill into the bloodstream. It immediately affects serum DHT levels (levels in the blood) but there is a whole other world in the scalp where DHT is also produced locally in the follicle, and inhibiting it here is the kicker... which is why just because something "inhibits DHT" (saw palmetto, green tea, monkey piss, bocaraton coconut tanning lotion, a moms love, etc.) does not necessarily mean its going to do jack for hair loss.

Also wounder what you mean when you say that topicals "inhibit" DHT. Do they "wash" it away or somethin, dont get it really..

Testosterone is made in your testicles and sent into the bloodstream. An enzyme known as 5-alpha reductase is also in your blood. The two meet, think eachother are cute, and glob together in a libido forming ball of lust called "DHT". That DHT floats about your bloodstream making you see random parts of girls bodies and for some weird reason, getting turned on by them (eyes, lips, legs, ears, breasts, etc.). Propecia comes in and finds that 5-alpha reductase enzyme and blocks it from being able to bind with Testosterone. The result is less DHT in the system, less negative influence on your hair, and unfortunately, in some guys, less libido. You get to decide whether propecia is your friend or not

As a side note - one of the marketing "themes" for Nioxin is that it "washes DHT away". Every time I hear this I roll my eyes and its all I can do to not get into it with my hair stylist about how wrong that terminology is in so many ways. He just gets angry and tells me I know nothing about hair loss though, so I keep my mouth shut.

HairLossTalk.com

 

[blue]

I have been thinking this for a while now

HairLossTalk.com said something about how dht is locally produced..

We need to figure out how to make dht stop attackin our heads and redirect it to our chest hair,or back hair.Kill two birds with one stone.

 

[George Costanza]

If only there was a way to keep follicles from producing androgen receptors.

 

[jblig]

fda is testing a a series of shots that stops nicotine from entering the brain thereby making cravings nonexistent for smokers, now why cant they stop dht from entering the head as well damnit......I want answers now!!!!

 

[Cassin]

fda is testing a a series of shots that stops nicotine from entering the brain thereby making cravings nonexistent for smokers, now why cant they stop dht from entering the head as well damnit......I want answers now!!!!

Hey man

Could you PM me or post here where you read about that?

 

[jblig]

Sorry cassin, I saw it on the news, but would imagine there is something on the web about it......

 

[Cassin]

Oh ok, thanks anyway.

Having a hell of a time quitting............ issed:

Sorry to hijack your thread rill.

 

[The Gardener]

I feel for you, Cassin. I went through that, and finally quit on my one thousand, four hundred and thirty third attempt. Been nicotine free for five years plus.

I messed around with patches and gums and such, all failed. The only thing that worked was cold turkey. It is amazing how your mind plays tricks on you during the first week off the crap. You think that the world is going to end because you can't smoke.

You are going to quit eventually, you'll get there. You just have to decide if you want to quit now and get it over with once and for all, right now, today.... or continue your self-inflicted nicotine tease/torture routine another week/month/year. I finally got to the point where I was sick of it, sick of teasing myself.

Consider this analogy... Cigarettes are a relationship. A BAD one. They are the ultimate bitchy girlfriend... she is hot, the sex is great, but she is a complete b**ch to you. Then, the day comes when you can't stand the bitchiness anymore, the humiliation, the powerlessness and you say GET OUT, b**ch! Then after a few hours, you start thinking about the good old times you had with her, that piece of lingerie that looked fantastic on her, that cute little sound she would make when you slapped her *** during doggie style, the great sex... then she calls you every day telling you how much she misses you too... calls in the morning to tell you she wishes you were waking up in bed with her... calls you at lunch to tell you how hungry she is for you... calls you after dinner to tell you she wants to give you a massage... on and on until you finally cave in and get back together with her. But no sooner than you have your first day with her you are reminded of her bitchiness again and you want out again.

The cycle repeats again and again until you reach that day when you finally realize that you are being fucked with. You have to convince yourself that this girl is a waste of your time and is no good for you. You have to break up with her, once and for all, and truly let her go. And when she calls in the morning, reminding you of the good times, you have to be able to say "we are over, not interested" and slam that phone down.

This is kind of how I treated my nicotine cravings. Nicotine is just f*****g with you, and some fatcat in North Carolina or wherever is making a fortune off of your habit and laughing his *** off. When you quit, and the cravings come a'callin', slam down that thought and say, "no thank you, we are OVER, not interested and f*** you very much, mister tobbacco."

Well, this was my approach. Hope something works for you. Believe me, once you quit you WILL be very glad you did. Life is better this way.

 

[Cassin]

Gardener my man!

Thanks bro! That is exactly what I needed to hear. That makes perfect sense. Thanks for taking the time to write such a long post. Damn cancer demons. It's like I need to hold onto one vice from days gone by. Cold Turkey eh? I agree, I quit once before that way. But that very same girl you described got me into smoking again one day when I was cleaning my car. She asked me if I wanted one! After 7 months! Bah........been smoking since.

What did you do for nic fits? I was thinking about buying a huge vat of peanuts or something.

 

[The Gardener]

The ol' seven month relapse... after all that time she caught you when your guard was down, bro. Well, I am sure you have learned your lesson about relapses now after that.

Most normal people don't smoke. That is what I keep in mind. I try to remind myself that it is not like having a cup of coffee, it is a drug that has recently been proven to be equally addictive as heroine and cocaine. If everyone else around me can get by without smoking, then I can too. When I see people smoking, I think about how much they are probably thinking inside their heads about how much they want to quit. When you think about it, all smokers want to quit. Have you ever met a smoker that said 'nah, I smoke, but I dont want to quit because I really enjoy smoking, I love it, what it does for me and all the good things that it does for my life'? I've met a few.. but 99.9% of the smokers I have met all desperately want to quit. This is because smoking sucks. Not worth your time nor money. It's a teasing little b**ch, just like heroine. A nasty little habit.

The hardest nicotine fits come early in the process. I basically kept myself busy to keep my mind off of it. I told my friends I was quitting... they said 'yeah right'... and then I told them no, I mean it, I am quitting... and asked them for their help and then spent a lot of time with them. Support is the best thing, if you can tell people about your struggle, that helps a lot. Exercise helped too, gets those endorphins in the blood, and for me a half hour of weights crushed cravings, at least temporarily.

The hard part for me was driving (oh God I love to smoke when I drive) and after meals. I just had to white knuckle it through my drives, made do with gum, lots of water, and loud music. Once I got to work I was okay. After meals I got up and took a walk, got fresh air, and prayed that I would bump into someone down my street that I could talk to. I did this immediately after eating, did not even rinse my dishes until I got back and that initial post-meal craving was gone. Those were hard, but, I got through it. Oh, I snacked a lot too.. honey roasted nuts at work. It gave me something to do with my hands and kept me from getting too hungry, which helped. Luckily, unlike past attempts to quit, on my final attempt I had no problems sleeping. But, I had no Magic Bullet to face the cravings, just held my breath and let them pass, which they always do in a minute or two.

 

[The Gardener]

You know, the other thing I remembered realizing about mid-way through my first week was how surprisingly EASY it was to quit. What I mean by that is, when you first QUIT, your mind gets all anxious like you are about to enter hell or something. But, when I actually thought about it in retrospect, it really wasn't that hard to do once I set my mind to it. It was not HELL, it was about maybe 10 minutes in total of HELL moments interspersed throughout the day... and the rest of the day was easy! Now, I do admit that I had one or two days where I thought about it all day, and those were hell days, but the rest of the days were relatively okay.

I know it may seem contradictory, but, quitting was one of those things that is hard while you are going through it, but once you get through it, you realize that in retrospect it really wasn't that hard, physically, to do. Most of the pain was self-inflicted, it was me the person wanting to quit against me, the smoker who was trying to psych myself out to convince myself that I wanted to smoke again. In that conflict is the real hard part... looking back, the physical withdrawals were not as bad as I thought, but the habit part of it, breaking the association I had between smoking and certain activities was tedious at times.

I know I probably sound like a loon to the non-smokers out there, but I think that the smokers and ex-smokers know what I am TRYING to explain here... it is complicated.

 

[Cassin]

Ah yes, getting into the car. Start car, reach for a smoke. I was doing fine with this until Monday. Without even thinking I reached for a smoke and after 2 puffs I cursed myself for not throwing away the pack. It was automatic. Funny how that works. Muscle memory maybe. How long does it take to get nicotine out of the blood? 72 Hours? After that, isn't it all mental?

Not that being all "mental" makes it easier. I am just curious. I figure I average $100 a month or so on smoking. Yep, $100! How about that for inviting a flaming post from someone on here. Go ahead folks, I am ready.

Yep, 27 now, been smoking since 17. Who knows how much I have spent total. The stuff is disgusting no doubt. I honestly can't think of a good reason to smoke. Have a nice dinner with your Girlfriend, you have a geat time, she wants to kiss, I feel so gross. Besides that, I was looking at my bank transactions the other day and was amazed at all the $4.25 or whatver transactions for smokes. Ahhhhhh it is embarrassing.

Who knows what damge I have, and will continue to do if I keep smoking. I am not to terribly sure if their is a worse thing I could do to my body. Maybe crack or drinking a 5th a night.

Just ranting at this point, sorry again rill.

 

[The Gardener]

Besides that, I was looking at my bank transactions the other day and was amazed at all the $4.25 or whatver transactions for smokes. Ahhhhhh it is embarrassing.

Ah yes, the ol' $4.25 transactions. It is SO nice to be able to drive by a minimart and not have that reflex thought "do I have enough smokes, or should I stop and pick some up?" I was going to the minimart so much that the people there knew me and would have my pack of cigs on the counter and rung up without me even asking. How embarassing! I was SO addicted to that sh*t. Now, I NEVER go into minimarts unless I am getting gas and want something cold to drink.

 

[Yardbird]

Not to flame either of you, but I've often justified the money I spent on hairloss treatments (around 25 dollars a month) on the fact that I haven't picked up bad habits like smoking.
I'd say for people who feel bad about the money they're spending on their treatments, consider smokers....
They spend sometimes up to 4-5 times that amount on a product clinically proven to *kill*.
At least your treatments have a good chance of giving you something good in return for your investment.
Congrats on your efforts to quit. I am pulling for you guys.

 

[The Gardener]

First off, Rill, sorry again for hijacking this thread... but, a man is trying to quit smoking here and that is very important.

Yardbird, I am a quit smoker for 5 years and know where Cassin is at. You are so right, you are lucky not to have dabbled in such things and as far as I'm concerned nobody should be. Every less smoker this planet has is one less smoker a curious child has to look at and wonder, 'what is he doing with that smoky stick, it looks like fun?' That is also part of the reason why I quit way back when... it bothered me when I would go into a minimart to buy smokes and there were kids behind me waiting in line to buy gum or a slurpee or whatever, looking at me, wondering, 'what is that he is buying?' It made me feel gulity as hell.

Cassin, just drop the habit. Life is SO much better without it. Believe me, even though your craving-wracked body is telling you that cigarettes are the answer, I will tell you that life without them is better that you could ever imagine. Better mornings, no smoky smell, more money, MORE TIME, infinetly more ENERGY through the day! and no urges to duck out and hide somewhere to have a smoke... I can just enjoy an evening with people without having to think about how many smokes I have left or where I can get my next pack. Think about it, it is a drug addiction.

 

[jblig]

Cassin and Gardener all of what you say is so very true....But have you guys ever thought about how things were before you smoked like little things such as going on a long car ride, I just couldnt do stuff like that anymore without ciggarettes, or eating a big meal, ciggarettes make the little things in life more enjoyable it almost seems, well you guys know what I mean, I just bought some commit the other day and have set a date, I hope all goes well.....

 

[Axon]

I've never been a smoker, but given that I work on the litigations on a fairly regular basis, I highly, highly suggest you stop smoking. I've seen too much nasty sh*t in these documents.

 

[blue]

motion seconded!