oral minoxidil (Loniten)

[Nuli]

I know this is used to treat high blood pressure, and I see people saying taking it would not be wise at all. Are the side effects really that severe? It would have a great benefit on hair IMO, as it would thicken all hair and not just where you apply it. Of course body hair would be affected too, but not much of a issue if it puts lots of hair on my head. What do you guys think?

 

[neis]

I would like to know the answer too.
Is there anyone using it with success?
I would appreciate it if Bryan could give as his opinion

 

[IBM]

I post about Loniten years ago. A guy was taking finasteride, spironolactone and loniten as regimen with great sucess. Loniten is certainly an Hiroshima bomb.
People should be encouraged to try this alternative routes.

 

[Nuli]

I post about Loniten years ago. A guy was taking finasteride, spironolactone and loniten as regimen with great sucess. Loniten is certainly an Hiroshima bomb.
People should be encouraged to try this alternative routes.

What do you mean by Hiroshima bomb? Did he have side effects?

 

[IBM]

I post about Loniten years ago. A guy was taking finasteride, spironolactone and loniten as regimen with great sucess. Loniten is certainly an Hiroshima bomb.
People should be encouraged to try this alternative routes.

What do you mean by Hiroshima bomb? Did he have side effects?

I mean a great medicine to revert hairloss. He didnt had any side effects.

 

[Bryan]

To Brian (or the other) please :

I can't find the whole text of this study (only abstract) : "Evaluation of oral minoxidil in the treatment of alopecia areata". Do you have it (among the hundred of papers all around you) ? Thanks

I do have at least a couple of studies on minoxidil and alopecia areata, but I don't remember for sure if the one you mention is one of them. Can you give me the full citation, not just the title (name of the medical journal, date, volume number, etc.)?

 

[follicle84]

Yes i heard someone on this forum two years ago i think had impressive results with oral minoxidil. He grew alot of hair back whilst other treatmeants had failed him. I think anyone who gets side effects from topical minoxidil should steer clear of it however.

 

[Nuli]

I've used up to 6ml a day of topical without any side effect. I wonder if I can tolerate the oral.

 

[follicle84]

Apparently you can get oral nizoral too but its too dangerous to use for hairloss. It seems to be both stimulant and anti androgen.

 

[Bryan]

Brian,

FIEDLER-WEISS V. C., RUMSFIELD J., BUYS C. M., WEST D. P., WENDROW A., 1987, "Evaluation of oral minoxidil in the treatment of alopecia areata", Archives of dermatology (ISSN 0003-987X CODEN ARDEAC), vol. 123, no11, pp. 1488-1490

Yes, that IS the one I was thinking about! I have a copy of the full study, and I finally found it near the very bottom of my Study Stack!

They found that oral minoxidil was somewhat more effective for alopecia areata than topical minoxidil, although the overall effect still varied considerably from patient to patient. The most interesting part of the entire study is the pair of before-and-after pictures of a woman who had been using topical 5% minoxidil for 15 months (1 mL every 12 hours), and in that "before" picture, she is absolutely completely BALD. Bald as a billiard ball!! Then she took oral minoxidil for four months (5 mg every 12 hours), and the "after" picture shows a rather surprising amount of regrowth. There's still a sizeable baldspot at the back, but damn....there's hair pretty much all over the rest of her scalp! It's quite impressive, after only four months.