Oral Minoxidil Might Increase the Possibility of Alcohol Hangover. If you are like me and never heard of the OMAHA effect, then read on! Oral minoxidil is increasingly used for the treatment of hair loss. Authors from New York recently reported ten patients who used oral minoxidil and developed alcohol hangover symptoms with alcohol. These symptoms included nausea, headaches, and light sensitivity.   The authors note that an online interaction checker showed that alcohol and minoxidil do have a moderate interaction – because the two have an added effect on lowering blood pressure. I noted ..read more

I enjoyed reading a study by Sanfilippo and Friedman in the March issue of the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology about practitioners' opinions on the benefits of oral minoxidil. Oral minoxidil is increasingly popular. What matters most to me is what the science says. Is oral minoxidil helpful, and is it better than topical minoxidil, and what are the long-term side effects of oral minoxidil after 35 years of use? It’s now clear that oral minoxidil is helpful. It’s not entirely clear if it’s better than topical minoxidil - at least based on wonderful studies like the study we reviewed by Penha et ..read more

Authors from China recently performed a large study to assess the relationship between alopecia areata and various allergic conditions, including hay fever, eczema, asthma, and allergies to pollen, dust, and cats. Interestingly, the authors’ data showed a significant genetic correlation between atopy/allergies and an increased risk of developing alopecia. Notably, strong associations were observed for eczema, hay fever, asthma, and specific allergies to pollen, dust, and cats. All these conditions are associated with an increased risk to develop alopecia areata. The authors conclude that there ..read more

I’m amazed at the number of studies I read nowadays linking air pollution, water pollution and climate change in general to the rise in autoimmune diseases. Wen et al 2024 A study by Wen et al investigated the possible role of air pollution in 15 autoimmune diseases. Data from the authors revealed that hypothyroidism, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus and celiac disease were all among the group of diseases causally associated with higher exposure to air pollution. The authors propose that their research underscores the necessity of rigorous air pollutant surveillance wit ..read more

5-alpha reductase enzymes have an important role in the production of 5α-reduced neuroactive steroids. These molecules may affect human drinking behaviours and alcohol consumption. Authors of a new study set out to evaluate dutasteride's tolerability and efficacy for reducing drinking. The study included 142 males with heavy drinking (defined as more than 24 drinks per week) and a goal to reduce or stop their drinking were randomized to either dutasteride 1 mg daily or placebo for 12 weeks. Results showed that 25% of dutasteride-treated participants had no hazardous drinking (no heavy drinki ..read more

40 % of women aged 15-54 have low ferritin and 13 % are anemic Low ferritin can sometimes contribute to hair shedding - especially as ferritin drops well below 40. Authors of an interesting new study set out to determine the prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in women 15-54 in the province of Ontario Canada. Iron deficiency was defined as ferritin <30 μg/L. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin <120 g/L and Iron deficiency anemia as ferritin <30 μg/L and hemoglobin <120 g/L. Over 700,000 women were evaluated in this study. Surprisingly, 38.3% of women had low ferr ..read more

Is oral minoxidil more effective than topical minoxidil?   A new randomized controlled study suggests that male users of 5 mg oral minoxidil once daily do not seem to get all that much more hair growth on the scalp compared to those using 5 % topical minoxidil twice daily.   As you’re probably well aware, oral minoxidil was originally used as a blood pressure medication. In fact, the FDA approved it for the treatment of hypertension back in 1979. Typical blood pressure doses were 10 to 40 mg daily. At these doses, the most common adverse effects are hypertrichosis, tachycardia, heada ..read more

Introduction Medications have the potential to trigger many diseases. This includes hair loss. It’s always important to pay close attention to drugs that cause or trigger a specific disease because this provides important clues to the underlying mechanisms governing the disease pathogenesis. The FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS): A Powerful Tool to Track Post-Marketing Side Effects The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a publicly available database that allows individual patients, healthcare professionals, and manufacturers to report adverse events caused by medications. T ..read more

Over 1 billion people in the world smoke - which here is defined as the consumption of nicotine-containing tobacco. Smoking is felt to be a risk factor for both the development of AGA and the worsening AGA. The subject, however, remains somewhat controversial. Several studies have examined the relationship between smoking and androgenetic alopecia. To date, there are almost a dozen such studies. Mosley and Gibbs, 1996 The Mosley and Gibbs study of 1996 often gets referenced when it comes to smoking and hair loss studies. This was one of the first reports that meant to address the relationship ..read more

Introduction It is increasingly clear that androgenetic alopecia (i.e. male and female genetic hair loss or “balding) is an inflammatory condition. Even though the scalp typically looks non-inflamed, scalp biopsies show that inflammation is present just a few millimetres beneath the scalp in an area known as the isthmus and infundibulum. Studies have shown that inflammation occurs relatively early in the course of androgenetic alopecia. This inflammation is believed to facilitate the progressive miniaturization of hair follicles. Although the scalp usually looks fairly normal and non-inflamma ..read more