Larger people able to tolerate higher dosage of Propecia?

[MJT82]

Obviously there is such a wide range in the tolerance people are having to Propecia/Finasteride. Some can take a huge dosage and claim little side effects and others (like me) can take very little and experience sides...one thing I've never seen brought up is the body weight we all have and how that may relate to our tolerance levels of this drug. To me it would make sense that someone who is 6'2 and 250lbs might be able to take 1/4 Proscar tabs all day long (1.25mg) and not have any issues. Whereas someone lighter like me, around 150lbs has side effects with .5mg or less. With other drugs and substances (such as alcohol) there is general correlation to tolerances in this regard. And likewise, maybe a higher dosage might be required to get good results with a heavier/larger person and a lower dosage could get the same effect on a smaller/lighter weight person. What do you think?

 

[Hage]

Makes sense to me. Propecia is available in 0.2mg and 1.0mg here in Japan. In a 2 year study, there was no significant difference in results bewteen the two dosages (Reported this in the wrong forum a few hours ago. Sorry moderators. I put it in the general section).
It's probably reasonable to say that Japanese men typically have smaller physiques than Caucasians, weigh less and many drugs are prescribed as smaller doses when compared to typically larger Caucasians (including v****). More importantly, as found in the 2 year 414 person study, there was no significant difference in the outcomes of the 139 people in the 1.0mg group, and the 137 in the 0.2mg group. But the fact that a smaller dosage is available for people who typically have a smaller stature at least tends to imply that the manufacturers think a smaller dosage may be appropriate for such recipients.

 

[MJT82]

Makes sense to me. Propecia is available in 0.2mg and 1.0mg here in Japan. In a 2 year study, there was no significant difference in results bewteen the two dosages (Reported this in the wrong forum a few hours ago. Sorry moderators. I put it in the general section).
It's probably reasonable to say that Japanese men typically have smaller physiques than Caucasians, weigh less and many drugs are prescribed as smaller doses when compared to typically larger Caucasians (including v****). More importantly, as found in the 2 year 414 person study, there was no significant difference in the outcomes of the 139 people in the 1.0mg group, and the 137 in the 0.2mg group. But the fact that a smaller dosage is available for people who typically have a smaller stature at least tends to imply that the manufacturers think a smaller dosage may be appropriate for such recipients.

Can we order the japanese version of the drug and have it sent over to us in the states at a reasonable cost? If so, I may be very interested in this.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Hage]

Yes and No. You could probably do it, but it wouldn't be cost effective. The current recommended price is 250 yen per tablet for either strength, which is why I was thinking of manually breaking down the larger dose. Given the current exchange rate, that would be about $2 US a tablet. I don't know how much you guys are paying, but it doesn't sound especially cheap to me.
Perhaps one advantage of a pharmaceutically manufactured dosage is consistency; i.e. exact 0.2mg doses. But then I wouldn't expect too much variation in dividing up a buffered tablet. Of course I'm guessing here. As the 0.2mg tablet is still relatively new here, it might be reasonable (hopeful?) to expect that it may become available in other countries at some stage.
I wonder if the Japanese are actually being used as unknowing test subjects to validate (or invalidate) a greater release of the lower strength tablets.

 

[bluechips]

Would dosage have to do with body size or how 'many' hormones you have? I am not a biochemist, but I don't think size is related to hormones in the body, and I believe that our hairloss is due to our increased hormone levels. From this, the question then is if people with higher hormone levels (or I guess, testosterone levels) could/should take more than 1 mg of Propecia a day? What do you guys think? I have been considereing it myself.

 

[Ras Gas]

I have a question here..

I knew that when any hormons level go down the body react in such away to compenstae that decrese ( nigative feedback control).

When we take propecia it means our DTH level goes down. I'm I right so far? Our body will produce more DTH to compensate. What's the point of taking pills then?

 

[Aplunk1]

Propecia's mechanism of action is by inhibiting the enzyme (5-Alpha-Reductase Type II) in our bodies that allow for the conversion of testosterone to DHT.

Propecia only blocks about 70% of DHT, meaning that 30% of the DHT CAN be produced... there will not be any upregulation of DHT levels produced.

However, it can be said that there is an increase of testosterone flowing through your body because the same testosterone wasn't converted to DHT.

I hope this isn't too confusing.

 

[rkim]

Does someone have a reply to what bluchips said? I thought the same thing, body mass doesn't have anything to do with hormone levels. Would body mass have something to do with how we process finasteride, making a difference? I'm kinda light (160lbs @ 6'). Planning to quit finasteride. Cutting to .5 didn't help at all. Debating whether it's even worth trying .25.

 

[the_swami]

I thought I would just revive this thread as it may not have been answered elsewhere. Body mass DOES affect hormone levels. From WikiPedia:

"Hormones secreted by adipose tissue include:

* Adiponectin
* Resistin
* Angiotensin
* Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1)
* TNFα
* IL-6
* Leptin
* Estradiol (E2)"

I don't know if it has ever been proven, but I am guessing that larger men would be more predisposed to Gynecomastia than thinner guys, but that is just a guess. I'm thin myself and have lower estrogen compared to "average". That is part of why I'm risking the 2.5mg finasteride/ day.

 

[Nesrednug]

Fantastic topic, I have been wondering this myself.

When you think about it, it makes sense. A larger person has more bodily fluids and tissue, and when the drug is dissolved and absorbed into the bloodstream, it's dispersed throughout the body. So a person with more blood, and more body mass, should theoretically (at least this makes sense to me) have a different ratio of the drug to a given amount of blood, meaning higher serum levels of the drug. It's the same reason why a 105 pound woman gets drunk off of a beer or two when a 250 pound man might not even catch a buzz.

Say you dissolve 1mg of Finesteride in 5 pints of water, and another 1mg into 8 pints of water. Take an 8 ounce glass from each, and you've got higher levels of Finesteride in the glass taken from the 5 pint sample. I'm pretty sure that this is why most over the counter medications give you a range of dosages, they'll tell you to take one, and then if it doesn't have much of an effect, take another one, up to a maxumum dose per day. Small doses for children are given based on their smaller bodyweight (and possibly higher sensitivity to drugs in general, but I'm not sure about that). Even for adults, it's usually recommended to take the smallest effective dose.

I'm only 5'9" and and 150 lbs. I get terrible sides from propecia 1mg, and I still get them, albeit not as bad, when I break them in half. I also experience this with other drugs as well, I usually only have to take the minimum dosage to get good results.

I stopped taking propecia about 9 months ago after my inability to deal with the sides, but my hair is thinning like crazy and I'm considering trying it again at .25 mg, by quartering up the 1mg pills. If it's true about the .2mg dose being almost as effective as the 1mg in most men, then I suppose it's worth a shot.

I'm not a doctor or a biochemist, but I'm pretty sure it's the concentration of drug in a given amount of blood, and not the total amount of drug in the body, that matters.