Who had take Accutane for acne? Come here!! we also have CCCAlopecia!!

[Selb]

I've just stumbled across this thread, and I'm fascinated. I had a full, thick, dense head of hair until I was about 29. I took accutane, then I noticed visible thinning. It got a little better when I stopped accutane, but the thinning has continued gradually since then. I'm now almost 40. Lots of thinning on top. Bodyhair is much more diffuse than it was. Same with facial hair.

So, it looks to me like it would be a good idea to:

-Test VitaminA metabolism / signalling
-Test RA Receptors
-Test atRa levels
-Test trans retinoic acid levels (in tissues)
-Test for lymphocyte inflammation

If, for argument's sake, that accutane has caused the problems that were described in earlier posts, what can we do to fight it / reverse it / minimise the damage?

-Find a way to regulate our retinoic acid?

What else?

I'm going to try and contact the authors of the study, to see if they can offer any advice.

How do we test any of what you listed? I guess you can check for overall inflammation in the body with ANA but not sure how to get retinoic acid tested.

the two options are fighting the inflammation by using immune system drugs or by using a retinoic acid inhibitor

 

[DarkHairHair]

I've had thick hair for most of my life, until I took accutane for acne. Accutane triggers this gene, and then my dupa hairloss began. I started taking finasteride at 19 and I'm now 26. I never lost much hair after I started finasteride, but I never regained the density and the hair on my sides and back. 3 years ago, finasteride wasn't working much at all and I began panicking. I tried dermaneedling etc but it just wasn't effective.

Then by a lucky coincidence, I had covid a few months back and I started taking an immune boosting medication. After a month, I noticed a lot of the hair on my sides, back and the overall density increasing. This was something that never happened before.

I then started reading and reading and I have everything saved on my computer, turns out many studies show taking specific immune boosting medications reverses this type of hairloss.

Now I only took it for a month and ran out of it. I ordered it again but it takes time to arrive from Europe to North America.

Now I'm testing another similar compound that is supposedly stronger than the one I took, and if that doesn't pan out, I'll go back to using the original one I tried.

The medication is called inosine pranobex. You can find a lot of studies on it being quite effective for our type of hairloss.

I took it at 3g/day

It's pretty safe as well

Hi man , are you sure it's working ? I have real DUPA since my 19 y old and nothing work against this even finasteride or dutasteride. I have lost my hopes to reverse it.

 

[Selb]

Hi man , are you sure it's working ? I have real DUPA since my 19 y old and nothing work against this even finasteride or dutasteride. I have lost my hopes to reverse it.

Might as well try it. Could help

 

[RagnarLothbrok]

finasteride/minoxidil works for me in reversing my hairloss, so im not so sure on "its impossible to reverse". Even the authors of the paper admit upregulating wnt helps.

I have thick as f*** beard and bodyhair too, I am 32 now. What worries me is that I started diffusse thinning 11 years after accutane and also on sides which is not common.

Again, there is no reason to think standard mbp treatment wont work. For us its probably even more important since we need to keep the wnt upregulated more than someone without disrupted retinoic acid metabolic route. Also lowering dht should help.

 

[Selb]

finasteride/minoxidil works for me in reversing my hairloss, so im not so sure on "its impossible to reverse". Even the authors of the paper admit upregulating wnt helps.

I have thick as f*** beard and bodyhair too, I am 32 now. What worries me is that I started diffusse thinning 11 years after accutane and also on sides which is not common.

Again, there is no reason to think standard mbp treatment wont work. For us its probably even more important since we need to keep the wnt upregulated more than someone without disrupted retinoic acid metabolic route. Also lowering dht should help.

The thing with me is that my dht is already super low. And my test is on the lower end of the spectrum (which is surprising considering my libido). Plus my family history has little to no hair loss.

even if I’m susceptible to androgenic alopecia, I’m thinking my hair loss is more a result of accutane. Maybe minoxidil is helpful because of its wnt properties. Finasteride tho I don’t see how it would help

 

[RagnarLothbrok]

Well, as mentioned earlier, we have abnormal weak sebaceus glands (good for acne, bad for hair) in the follicle , so DHT has it much easier to damage the follicle and destroy it to the point of cicazitration. I wouldn't risk it haha

But yeah if you DONT have MBP then greatly upregulating wnt should fix it alone. How do you respond to minoxidil+needling? Thats the biggest heavy hitter of wnt we have right now sadly. Waiting for SM, maybe works very good for us.

 

[Selb]

Well, as mentioned earlier, we have abnormal weak sebaceus glands (good for acne, bad for hair) in the follicle , so DHT has it much easier to damage the follicle and destroy it to the point of cicazitration. I wouldn't risk it haha

But yeah if you DONT have MBP then greatly upregulating wnt should fix it alone. How do you respond to minoxidil+needling? Thats the biggest heavy hitter of wnt we have right now sadly. Waiting for SM, maybe works very good for us.

Even at like 13ng/DL? I am taking a saw palmetto extract everyday, so maybe that’s enough at such a low dht level.

Minoxidil helps me. Haven’t tried microneedling yet, I don’t want to inflame my scalp. But it could be worth a try. Maybe a 1.5 mm session every ten days.

 

[RagnarLothbrok]

Bruh read the studies, the wnt signaling goes to the roof with needling+minoxidil but not with minoxidil or needling alone. I responded amazingly to it when minoxidil alone didnt work years earlier

 

[Selb]

Bruh read the studies, the wnt signaling goes to the roof with needling+minoxidil but not with minoxidil or needling alone. I responded amazingly to it when minoxidil alone didnt work years earlier

Hmm, what’s your microneedling regimen? Do you use a pen? I might just do it

 

[RagnarLothbrok]

1.5mm dr pen m6 every 10 days, pretty standard

 

[kaneki]

This is pretty big because accutane induced hair loss as far as I know hasn’t been reversed. Maybe stopped but hair usually doesn’t grow back. The fact that you can grow it back by messing with your immune system just shows that it’s all an immune system related problem. I’ll look into trying inosine pranobex.
Have you lost ground since stopping inosine?

Not really no. Although I have been taking something else. An immunomodulatory peptide (Thymosin 1 Alpha).

Hi man , are you sure it's working ? I have real DUPA since my 19 y old and nothing work against this even finasteride or dutasteride. I have lost my hopes to reverse it.

Yes. finasteride/dutasteride doesn't help much for such hair loss, only helps maintain, and even then, it's not guaranteed to keep working.

 

[Selb]

Not really no. Although I have been taking something else. An immunomodulatory peptide (Thymosin 1 Alpha).

Yes. finasteride/dutasteride doesn't help much for such hair loss, only helps maintain, and even then, it's not guaranteed to keep working.

Thanks. I think I’m going to try out the one you tried on covid. Who knows, that might be it. Steroid creams and doxycycline doesn’t seem to work

 

[DarkHairHair]

Not really no. Although I have been taking something else. An immunomodulatory peptide (Thymosin 1 Alpha).

Yes. finasteride/dutasteride doesn't help much for such hair loss, only helps maintain, and even then, it's not guaranteed to keep working.

Is there any other drug besides inosine pranobex that has the same effect on dupa? Because the drug is not available in my country and it is too expensive.

 

[kaneki]

Is there any other drug besides inosine pranobex that has the same effect on dupa? Because the drug is not available in my country and it is too expensive.

There are many immunotherapies available, but I only know of Inosine pranobex as the one tested for hair loss.

It's pretty cheap here: https://eliveragroup.com/products/neosine-forte-1g-x-30-tablets?_pos=9&_sid=51f0cfa8f&_ss=r

 

[justlookingforanswers]

The itchy feeling is likely inflammation eating away at the folliciles

how can i stop this inflammation ?

 

[Gunnersup]

how can i stop this inflammation ?

We are still trying to figure out how to stop the inflammation that accutane caused. So far two drugs that I'm on have helped a ton, otezla and tofacitinib, but they are dangerous for long term use. They do stop my hairloss completely though. Just can't stay on it forever

 

[justlookingforanswers]

We are still trying to figure out how to stop the inflammation that accutane caused. So far two drugs that I'm on have helped a ton, otezla and tofacitinib, but they are dangerous for long term use. They do stop my hairloss completely though. Just can't stay on it forever

oh so accutane inflammation is separate from other types ? and why is otezla so bad long term?

 

[Gunnersup]

oh so accutane inflammation is separate from other types ? and why is otezla so bad long term?

Well you can look into it yourself. The side effects can be rough. But you can try Otezla and you will find the hairloss to likely stop. The hard part is sourcing it from other Countries. I bought mine from Bangladesh

 

[justlookingforanswers]

Well you can look into it yourself. The side effects can be rough. But you can try Otezla and you will find the hairloss to likely stop. The hard part is sourcing it from other Countries. I bought mine from Bangladesh

can i get it from a store or something or do i need a prescription? ask how much would i need to take? and what are the side effects?

 

[Gunnersup]

can i get it from a store or something or do i need a prescription? ask how much would i need to take? and what are the side effects?

No it's a prescription drug, you just take 30mg or so. The side effects include nausea for the most part. It's also called apremelist