What is spironolactone? How spironolactone help in hair loss?
Hair plays an important role in identity, self-perception, and psychosocial functioning. Hair loss can be a devastating experience that decreases self-esteem and feelings of personal attractiveness while also leading to depression and anxiety. Although increasingly popular, surgical hair restoration, including hair transplantation, is costly and carries considerable risk. In this case, spironolactone helps a lot. let’s see “What is spironolactone? and How spironolactone help in hair loss?”
What is spironolactone?
Spironolactone also is known by its trade name Aldactone is a medication that has been used for almost 60 years and has a number of benefits. Spironolactone helps in many applications. One such application is the reduction of DHT found in the body or more specifically the scalp. It is a topical cream that is effective in the treatment of certain hormonally related conditions for adult acne, unwanted facial or body hair and hair loss.
How spironolactone mechanism works.
Spironolactone is a drug that undergoes metabolism to give the active metabolite which runs into competitive blocks. The binding of the aldosterone to the mineral corticoid receptor inside the cells of the collecting duct of the nephron inhibits the activity of the receptor and consequently decreases the expression of the genes that encode proteins of the sodium channels.
This leads to the inactivation of the sodium channels as well as the sodium, potassium, ATPase pump and stops the production of new channels on the apical surface. This ultimately reduces reabsorption from the lumen into the blood and decrease in potassium secretion into the urine.
Fair Conditions for Spironolactone use.
First is acne. Women who suffer from acne, hair loss, spironolactone has been found to be an effective treatment. Short and long term has been deemed safe. It is also used to treat excessive hair growth. Hirsutism also knew as excessive hair growth is a common symptom in women who suffer from the polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS.
This condition is caused by an excess amount of androgens such as DHT in the body and spironolactone has been proven to effectively reduce the level of androgen present in the body. A study was performed on 1500 patients suffering from heart failure.
700 patients received a daily dose which was 25 milligrams of spironolactone. It was found that the patients who received the spironolactone had a 35 % less frequency of required hospitalization and also had a 30 % decrease in the risk of death.
DHT, the androgen hormone is also responsible for excessive hair growth in women and also responsible for baldness which can occur in both men and women. Spironolactone has been shown to reduce the levels of DHT in the body and has found to be an effective treatment for those suffering from hair loss.
What is DHT? How is the production of DHT useful for hair growth?
DHT is a chemical that’s produced when testosterone, the male sex hormone comes into the contact with an enzyme called sulfa reductase. When someone suffers from androgenetic alopecia also referred to as male pattern baldness, the production of DHT leads to the miniaturization of hair follicles in DHT sensitive regions of the scalp.
To understand this concept, first, we have to understand how our hair grows. There are three phases associated with hair growth- anagen, catagen, telogen. Anagen is the phase of active hair growth and this phase has a length between 2-6 years. Catagen is also known as the transition between active growth and breast.