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Avacor Review Continued
A better and cheaper alternative than Avacor
First minoxidil (the active ingredient in Avacor) actually does grow a small amount of hair at the hair line in some cases. So it is not completely worthless for people losing hair at the hair line. Secondly minoxidil does not really attack the real cause of male and female pattern hair loss which is a hormone known as DHT. Inside your follicles the hormone testosterone is being converted to DHT. DHT has a destructive effect on the follicle causing it to get smaller and smaller. Gradually these miniaturized follicles stop producing hair, or the hair that is grown is shorter and much thinner. There is only one proven treatment according to the FDA for reducing DHT and regrowing some hair and that is the prescription medication known as Propecia. Propecia can have some nasty side effects. One side effect is gynocomastia.....the growing of female type breats in men. It can also cause a loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. There are other side effects as well. If you do a search on the internet for "propecia side effects" you will find many testimonials as to the side effects of this drug. There is even a web site designed to spread the word on the risks for this medication. You can find it
here.
In all fairness there are people who take Propecia and don't experience side effects. It will regrow a fair amount of hair in some cases but I just wanted you to be aware of the potential dark side of this drug. If you want to give it a try just go to your physician and ask him if he will prescribe it. But I do want to state for the record I am against using this drug for a cosmetic problem. Propecia is not approved for women however and for most men the results will be disappointing. This is because of what I call the "30 month window". Research suggests that once a follicle has stopped producing hair (a thick, long hair) for more than 30 months, it can never be stimulated to produce hair again. So a 30 month regression in hair loss is the very best we can hope for with treatment. A more realistic goal is to prevent further hair loss. But it is irrelevant whether you are looking to stop further hair loss or regrow some hair. The treatment to do either is the same. If we reduce DHT in the scalp there is a good chance we can slow, stop, or even reverse slightly, the balding condition.
So our two choices among the so called "proven" treatments are Minoxidil (the active ingredient in Avacor) and Propecia. Minoxidil probably will not cause side effects if used as directed....but it probably won't work very well. Propecia works fairly well but it could be potentially dangerous. There is a third alternative and that is the "unproven" treatments. Unfortunately among the "unproven" treatments there are hiding many "snake oil salesman". So you have to be careful. But before we can explore the unproven treatments we must first understand what I call the "glitch" in modern medicine.
The Glitch In Modern Medicine.
For a company or a person to legally say something is proven to grow hair it must first undergo rigorous Phase I, II, and III double blind testing. Suffice it to say this is an expensive process and can cost a company hundreds of millions of dollars. Before a company would be willing to risk this investment it must first obtain a patent for the substance they wish to test and prove. To go through the testing process without a patent would be financial suicide. Suppose however they did just that. They proceed to spend a hundred million dollars and successfully prove a certain substance grows hair. They now have the legal right to advertise the substance as such. Unfortunately without a patent, there would be no stopping other companies from making and selling the same compound. This would drive down the price. The company that paid for the initial testing would never be able to charge enough to recoup their investment. This "glitch" does not only apply just to hair loss treatments but to any treatment for virtually any disease or condition. I've often wondered how many people are needlessly suffering from various diseases simply because of this "glitch".
So the only substances that are ever tested for effectiveness by FDA standards are the "man made" type substances that can be patented. Unfortunately that means only a scant few compounds have ever been tested for the treatment of hair loss! There is our dilemma. If we wait around for a drug company to come up with something better you will probably lose most of your hair! Meanwhile there are thousands and thousands of natural substances will never be tested because no one can legally obtain a patent! But that does not mean these natural substances have not been researched. They simply have not been researched as much as the approved substances. There is presently a much better infomercial product that helps people keep their hair and even regrow some. It combines the approved ingredient minoxidil with some other natural compounds that are highly suspected to be helpful for the balding condition. The product is known as Scalp Med. It is ridiculously overpriced but I can show you how to make a generic version which will only cost you about $10 a month. I still have a few more things to say before we can discuss this subject. But I think I should have convinced you not to waste your money on Avacor!
Avacor Review continued
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