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There is no absolute remedy for accelerating the growth of hair; this is the case whether you try searching for a medical alternative or home remedy. However, if you are trying to recover some of the hair that has been lost to alopecia or hair loss, then there are some remedies for this. These treatments are unfortunately not home remedies and you will have to get a prescription for at least one of them after evaluating the pros and cons of using the treatment. One of the treatments mentioned should only be used if you are a male as the treatment is a hormone synthesis blocker and could have some radical side effects if you take it. The other can be used by both men and women.
Finasteride is one of the boons of modern medicine to those suffering from androgenic alopecia or male pattern baldness. This has been a problem for men for a greater part of the century to deal with and it is only recently that the mechanism of hair loss has been understood properly. Hair loss and hormones is deeply connected in men. The hormone that has been discovered to cause male pattern balding is called dihydrotestosterone or DHT. DHT is a powerful sex hormone in men and is required to subdue the action of estrogen that is also secreted in men. When DHT is running in the blood in excessive amounts, it accumulates in the hair follicles. The hair follicles react to the excessive amounts of DHT by simply falling off. The only way to stop this process is to block the synthesis of testosterone to DHT by a drug called finasteride. Finasteride unfortunately does have some side effects. As mentioned before that DHT neutralizes the effects of estrogen, some of the side effects of blocking DHT synthesis are breast development and erectile dysfunction. These are usually not permanent situations and patients recover after stopping the drug.
Minoxidil has no such effects and is a drug that was initially used to reduce blood pressure but it was found that the side effects of using it topically on the scalp was a return of hair growth. It is one of the most popular treatments today for any kinds of balding. However, just like finasteride, the effects of this treatment are also temporary and you end up losing the hair you gained and the one you had normally as well. Therefore, both of these treatments of finasteride and Minoxidil need to be taken for the rest of your life to prevent a reversal of benefits.
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