prostates this is a situation where usually you know of course men have larger prostates and they have difficulty urinating so if you're able to shrink down the prostate with the use of this drug then they feel better and it was approved in NUMBER_TOKEN in the u.s for the use of bph then in NUMBER_TOKEN it was also approved for the treatment of androgenic alopecia so now let's talk about the mechanism of action of finasteride testosterone is first synthesized in the lydic cells of the testes and it enters the prostate gland where it's subsequently converted to dht or dihydrotestosterone and this reaction of testosterone being converted over to dht is catalyzed by a membrane-bound enzyme called NUMBER_TOKEN-alpha reductase and dht binds then to the androgen receptor and this is what causes the miniaturization of the hair follicles finasteride is a competitive and specific inhibitor of NUMBER_TOKEN-alpha reductase and it's specific for the type NUMBER_TOKEN form of NUMBER_TOKEN-alpha reductase there's three types of five alpha reductases in our bodies type one two and three so finasteride targets type two five alpha reductase and in so doing it's blocking that conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone okay so that's the mechanism of action and for androgenic alopecia it's typically taken orally at a dose of one milligram per day and by taking it in that way it has been shown to rapidly lower serum and scalp dht levels by over NUMBER_TOKEN percent and as you take finasteride it will stabilize hair loss and promotes hair regrowth so some would argue that propecia which is the brand name of finasteride is actually more effective than generic finasteride because the generics are made in different places around the world that sometimes have quite varied manufacturing protocols and even though there's the same active ingredient the efficacy of the actual medication has been shown to sometimes be quite different so now how effective is finasteride especially compared to minoxidil and we're going to display this graph that i found in a really nice review article from NUMBER_TOKEN and it's been shown to essentially be this is many many different studies compiled into this uh graph and it's been shown to be almost twice as effective in increasing hair density and thickness and this is based on many many different studies so again finasteride is going to be more effective for you in general again every individual might be a little different but on the whole finasteride more effective than minoxidil and that's again why it's such a commonly prescribed medication especially for someone who's looking to stabilize their hair loss so that's why we recommend it for a lot of people right it's not because it's one of those things out there it's actually one of the most effective things out there guys make sure to subscribe to the channel if you're not subscribed already and turn on notifications we have a lot more videos in store for you and most of the people who watch our videos are not subscribed so why not just hit that button thank you so much now let's talk about the topical formulation of finasteride this is off-label use right now has not
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