Is 1/4 Proscar Worse Than 1mg Finasteride As Outer Coating Is Cut?

[afferd]

Proscar and Propecia both have a coating on the outside (designed to stop the pills being digested and absorbed until they hit your stomach acid).

I was wondering if quartered proscar may be somehow less effective because you lose the coating on two edges and therefore it starts being broken down by saliva.

I'm no biologist, but I assume most of it still ends up in your bloodstream, but who knows maybe the stomach is better at getting the finasteride into your bloodstream than saliva.

Anyone got any thoughts?

I was thinking I could buy some cheap pain killer capsules (the kind where you can slide the two plasticy sleeves apart) and placing each quarter inside....

 

[br1]

That's a good point.. I am not sure if the coat exist for that reason though... It might be just to avoid the pill to crumble.

But the gelatin capsules are a good idea anyhow..

I know you can buy it at amazon..
https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=empty+capsule+gelatin

 

[br1]

Please correct me if anything...

After a quick web research, I found that there are different types of pill coats.

finasteride seems to be "film-coated". And this film is there only to hold the ingredients together and doesn't affect the drug release mechanism.

About "film-coated" drugs (https://www.swallowingdifficulties....et/different-coatings/film-and-sugar-coatings):

These are very thin layers of a safe ingredient placed around the tablet to again protect the tongue from the flavour of the contents and protect the contents from moisture and light. The film will break down with agitation and significant amounts of moisture (saliva or stomach acid) and therefore does not significantly affect the way in which the drug is absorbed into the body.

When I search for finasteride pills, I usually get the description as:

"Finasteride 5 mg Film-coated Tablets"

 

[afferd]

@br1 - appreciate the research.

I asked the pharmacist, and he said the 25% gain in concentration by quartering proscar (1.25mg finasteride) more than makes up for any slightly weaker absorption through saliva digestion as opposed to stomach acid digestion.

I didn't even think to look on Amazon for empty pills of air - you really can buy anything on there.

Also they're so cheap, at 1c each I'll have enough to last me 3 years, so I might as well give it a go.

 

[ahmed wolf]

so ur saying that 1.25mg don't digest as good as propica?

 

[Mach]

This has always been debated even generic vs brand because of the inactive ingredients. Also if pill taken with grapefruit juice helps the absorption.

 

[afferd]

@ahmed wolf - I'm saying the difference will be tiny, plus quartered proscar has 25% more finasteride, which will almost certainly make up for any diminished absorption. But I just wondered if others thought the same, or maybe knew of some research showing the difference.

@Mach - I've read conflicting views on grapefruit juice (some good, some bad) plus nearly all of the posts about grapefruit juice in this form are very old (2005ish) and hardly any recent posts. Have you got any interesting info on grapefruit juice worth reading - I'd love to take a look?

 

[Mach]

Nope.
To clarify I was meaning finasteride with grapefruit juice for absorption is debatable. I guess I wrote that wrong.

I like your thinking but it's so hard to see if a hairloss drug is affective. Usually once you stop and 2 months later your freaking out because the drug was affective.

 

[whatevr]

I got some pretty good gyno from quartering Proscar for several months. So, it definitely f*****g works that way.

 

[afferd]

Yeah, for sure it still works.

Was just wondering if anyone else thought the same or even had any studies to read on the effectiveness of chopping pills.

@whatevr - maybe you dodged a bullet - perhaps your gyno would be 0.01% more if you'd put your quartered pills in capsules

 

[afferd]

Thanks Wolf Pack

 

[Pacey123]

Doesn´t matter if you cut it or not, the film is just to protect for example women from the drug since small doses of finasteride can damage the unborn child. The film doesn´t protect the pill from dissolving early at all. Put it in some water and see what happens.

But, there are pills that have an acid resisting film. These are the ones not meant to be cut since they pass the stomach and are only getting absorbed in the intestine.

 

[afferd]

@Pacey123 - best explanation yet - thanks! I'm curious...

...do you think dutasteride is designed to be broken down in the stomach or intestine?

 

[Pacey123]

@Pacey123 - best explanation yet - thanks! I'm curious...

...do you think dutasteride is designed to be broken down in the stomach or intestine?

Well afaik Dutasterid is handled the same but the capsule is jellyish so i don't know if that's a problem in regard of stability. I think you should be able to dissolve it for example 5ml of vodka and drink 1/5 a day to get the dosage .5 to.1

 

[afferd]

@Pacey123 - yeah I meant the exterior of the liquid dutasteride capsules seems quite thick - so was wondering if that is designed to not be broken down by stomach acid?

 

[Pacey123]

there was a problem with my post i database error, I edited it now

 

[afferd]

Adding vodka to anything can't be a bad thing!