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Re:An Old Medicine Grows New Hair for Pennies a Day, Doctors... by phnofive on Saturday August 20, 2022 @05:30PM (#32535284)
> "I call us the off-label bandits — a title I am proud to bear,” said Dr. Adam Friedman

I get the sentiment, but bandits don't go to school for twenty years. Cholestyramine, for example, is a quality of life necessity for some patients following cholecystectomy, but there'll never be widespread acceptance by surgeons since its not their area.

> "Oral minoxidil costs pennies a day,” Dr. King said. “There is no incentive to spend tens of millions of dollars to test it in a clinical trial. That study truly is never, ever going to be done.”

Just a shame. Can there be no other path to getting acknowledgement from the FDA? More and more I am inclined to ignore their seal (or lack thereof).

> Some patients taking low-dose minoxidil, though, notice stray hairs growing on their faces and chins. So some dermatologists, including Dr. Sinclair, have added another drug — very low doses of spironolactone, a blood pressure drug that also blocks certain sex hormones called androgens — to try to prevent unwanted hair growth.

To be clear, minoxidil is a vasodilator and spironolactone is a diuretic - both can treat hypertension, but in different ways. At the hair-regrowth dose, I assume these effects are negligible, but I hope the bandits are handy with their sphygmomanometers.

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