In this episode 37 protocols
▶ 24:34 Peppermint or Menthol-Type Oils Diet “Or why some people will suggest that people take peppermint oil, for instance, or menthol type oils of different kinds and massage them into the scalp, things that make the scalp tingle.” ▷ 24:45 Light Therapy for Scalp Tools “Or there will be light therapies designed to what? To increase blood flow to the scalp.” ▷ 25:41 Avoid Wearing Hats Behaviors “So if you've heard things like don't wear a hat if you want to maintain your hair, or massage your scalp if you want your hair to grow faster, in some sense, that's true, but none of those manipulations on their own is going to robustly enhance the rate of your hair growth.” ▷ 25:41 Scalp Massage Behaviors “So if you've heard things like don't wear a hat if you want to maintain your hair, or massage your scalp if you want your hair to grow faster, in some sense, that's true, but none of those manipulations on their own is going to robustly enhance the rate of your hair growth.” ▷ 43:53 Minoxidil Supplements “Okay, so minoxidil works by way of increasing blood flow to the stem cell niche below the hair. The dosage ranges of the oral minoxidil are tremendous, 0.25 milligrams all the way up to five milligrams once per day.” ▷ 44:16 Leave Topical Minoxidil on Scalp for 3–5 Minutes Behaviors “It's also important, by the way, if you're going to take this route, that you actually leave that solution on the scalp for three to five minutes. You can't just rub the stuff into your head and then rinse it off and expect it to be absorbed.” ▷ 45:11 Use Minimal Effective Dosing for Hair-Loss Medications Behaviors “I would hope that if people are working with a physician, or if they're not in taking minoxidil, that they would start with the lowest possible dose. So for oral minoxidil, that would be 0.25 milligrams, and then increase it as needed rather than jumping in right at five milligrams.” ▷ 47:51 Low-Dose Tadalafil Supplements “And they're prescribing things like low dose Tadalafil. So 2.5 milligram to five milligram Tadalafil.” ▷ 51:33 PRP Tools “So people are getting PRP injections into their scalp. Those are not stem cell injections. Those are PRP injections into the scalp with some moderate success.” ▷ 53:17 Microneedling Tools “Microneedling has been shown to do two things. It has been shown to reactivate semi-quiescent populations of stem cells that are in that telogen phase, putting them back in antigen phase, and thereby stimulate more hair growth.” ▷ 57:24 Use 1–2.5 mm Microneedling Needle Lengths Behaviors “I was also able to glean from this review and some of the papers described within it that needle lengths of about one millimeter to 2.5 millimeters seem to be more effective than shorter needle lengths.” ▷ 58:36 Combine Microneedling with Hair-Loss Medication Behaviors “The combination of microneedling and minoxidil treatment together is far more effective than either of those treatments alone.” ▷ 59:30 Stay on Minoxidil Long Term Behaviors “I should also mention that minoxidil treatment, if you pursue it, is likely something that you are going to have to do for the rest of your life if you want to hold on to the hair growth that you obtain with minoxidil.” ▷ 1:03:35 Botox Tools “Botox injections can be applied to the scalp in order to relieve tension of the scalp. And in hearing that, it should be obvious why Botox is being used to try and offset hair loss.” ▷ 1:16:32 Topical Caffeine Supplements “By ingesting caffeine or by applying topical caffeine ointment or cream to the scalp, you can suppress PDE sufficiently enough to increase IGF-1 and increase some hair growth or at least maintain hair growth in that region. Head-to-head topical caffeine application can be as effective as minoxidil application without actually lowering things like blood pressure and potentially increasing prolactin.” ▷ 1:17:28 Apply Topical Caffeine Ointment About 3 Times Per Week Behaviors “Keep in mind that topical caffeine ointments shouldn't necessarily be applied every single day. So this is the sort of thing you might do three times a week.” ▷ 1:21:07 Growth Hormone Supplements “So there's one very direct way to increase hair growth and maintain the hair that you have on your head, and that's to increase IGF-1. That can be accomplished through prescription drugs such as growth hormone.” ▷ 1:21:23 Avoid Eating for 2 Hours Before Sleep Behaviors “Keep in mind, growth hormone is released from the anterior pituitary during the first hours of sleep, especially when you haven't eaten anything for the two hours prior to sleep.” ▷ 1:21:52 Keep Regular Bedtimes Behaviors “There's probably a plus or minus 30-minute window.” ▷ 1:22:11 Sermorelin Supplements “And as I mentioned, there are prescription approaches and those are growth hormone itself and things like sermorelin, which is a peptide that increases growth hormone. It's actually a secretagogue. It causes the secretion of growth hormone and thereby increases an IGF-1.” ▷ 1:23:43 Maintain Insulin Sensitivity Behaviors “So one of the things you really want to pay attention to is to avoid being insulin resistant, or rather you want to try to be insulin sensitive.” ▷ 1:24:39 Myo-Inositol Supplements “There are a few supplements. So these are over the counter supplements, such as myoinositol, taken at dosages of about 900 milligrams before sleep, which by the way, can also assist in sleep,” ▷ 1:25:13 Healthy Nutritional Program Diet “But really exercise and maintaining a healthy nutritional program are also going to be key. You just can't discard those.” ▷ 1:25:34 Metformin Supplements “Keep in mind that both berberine and metformin dramatically reduce blood sugar levels.” ▷ 1:25:34 Take Berberine or Metformin with Carbohydrates Behaviors “Keep in mind that both berberine and metformin dramatically reduce blood sugar levels. And so if you're not going to take them with carbohydrates, it can lead to some feelings of discomfort.” ▷ 1:25:34 Berberine Supplements “Keep in mind that both berberine and metformin dramatically reduce blood sugar levels.” ▷ 1:26:30 Check Iron Levels with a Blood Test Behaviors “Fortunately, the tests or the blood tests for iron are usually a very inexpensive add to your current blood pan” ▷ 1:26:49 Iron Supplements “If your iron is low, you may need to supplement your iron. If your iron is too high, that's not good either, but iron plays a key role in the antigen phase of hair growth, so you want to make sure you at least have sufficient iron.” ▷ 1:29:01 Saw Palmetto Supplements “It's also known that when taken at about 300 milligrams per day... most of them focused on about 300 milligrams of saw palmetto per day, divided into two or three doses.” ▷ 1:29:27 Split Saw Palmetto into 2–3 Daily Doses Behaviors “So if you can get a hold of 50 or 100 milligram capsules or tablets of saw palmetto and divide those up, taking them in the morning, afternoon, and evening, or even just in the morning and evening to achieve a total of about 300 milligrams per day.” ▷ 1:34:53 Ketoconazole Shampoo Supplements “What is clear is that the use of ketoconazole shampoos two to four times per week with a scalp contact time of about three to five minutes has been shown to give about an 80% response rate of maintaining hair that would otherwise be lost.” ▷ 1:35:57 Use Ketoconazole Shampoo at 2%+ and Massage It into the Scalp Behaviors “Again, the typical recommendation is two to four times per week with a scalp contact time of three to five minutes and really rubbing it in and then rinsing it out. You want to make sure that it gets down into the follicle and around the follicles, not just sitting on top of the hair.” ▷ 1:37:29 Biotin Supplements “Things like thinning and brittleness of the hair that sometimes can be offset by using shampoos that contain things like biotin... but it is clear that having sufficient biotin around is important.” ▷ 1:47:25 Finasteride Supplements “Some recommendations that I was able to arrive at based on the clinical studies and frankly, in discussion with some doctors who prescribe finasteride were the following, 0.5 milligrams to one milligram of finasteride as a tablet per day seems to be an effective and pretty safe starting place for most people.” ▷ 1:50:04 Monitor DHT and Other Hormones While Using Finasteride Behaviors “If you decide that finasteride's right for you, you get a prescription, I would hope that you're monitoring your DHT levels and other hormone levels. That would be ideal, and working with a doctor, please.” ▷ 1:50:22 Use Topical Finasteride Once Weekly Behaviors “For topical finasteride, it's going to be that one milliliter of 0.25% that we talked about earlier, but that's taken only one time per week.” ▷ 1:56:31 Dutasteride Supplements “So as a consequence, the typical dosage of oral dutasteride, get this, 0.5 milligrams to 2.5 milligrams taken orally, works two to five times faster than typical finasteride at inducing hair regrowth and reduces DHT by, get this, 95%.”