Worse Case Scenario — I’m Allergic to Minoxidil and Propecia Makes Me Slow

I’m allergic to minoxidil and Propecia makes me stumble over words. I’ve been off Propecia for 8 days now and I’m pretty much back to how I was before Propecia, wit wise. My hair was thinning before and it still lookes the same now.

The only other real options I have are this saw palmetto and soy/equol. If this equol does inhibit DHT from working, does this mean we have to consume soy everyday? What if we go on a month safari to somewhere in Africa where soy is not prevalent? WHat then?

I am not sure if soy/equol actually inhibits DHT. For that matter I am not convinced that even saw palmetto inhibits DHT, but there are some suggestions that it does impact the prostate and may impact the hair. It might be a good gamble to use this provided that saw palmetto does not produce the same effects on you. I have not seen any good scientific literature pointing to these claims. Here is a seemingly unbiased summary I found from a simple Google search regarding saw palmetto: Pharmacology of Saw Palmetto.

You, the consumers, drive this industry as we are all trying to find the next best thing. The cure for balding, the cure for aging, etc. We latch on to loose associations and circumstantial evidence. We read things on the Internet which are not all true. We like to believe in commercials and promotions (“looks good, sounds good, must be a true” type of attitude).

That’s my two cents worth of rambling, but if you are asking for my personal opinion as a physician, my answer is: I suppose it won’t hurt, but it probably won’t work. I always say “It’s a buyer beware market,” but maybe I should rephrase the last comment as “It’s a price is right market…”. For a few dollars (or euros, pounds, etc) we seem to think it may be worth it.

By the way, who says there is no soy in Africa?