I posted this on another thread but decided to start a new topic so thatmore people see this.
I started B5 about 3 months ago and was taking about 20 grams (20,000 mg) daily to clear up my acne. I took this amount for about 3 weeks when I started to notice the shedding. It wasn't massive but enough to concern me. So I stopped the B5. My acne began to return but I maintained it with vitamin A. The hair shedding slowed but did not stop completely. A few weeks later I suffered a huge breakout of acne on my face so I panicked and began taking the B5 again but this time only taking 5 grams per day. Two weeks later my hair began shedding a lot!! I was so depressed. So I began my research into B5 hairloss. Google seemed to have mostly useless information....so I went on to Google Scholar, which has all the studies and medical literature. And I found the answer....
I found this study about mice being treated with Pantothenic Acid (B5) for some sort of nervous system disorder. It is somewhat unclear as to why the mice are being treated,as the full study is not shown unless you pay for the website. But what is clear is that these mice developed alopecia but when Inositol was added, the hair loss stopped. Here is the study.
[Removed link]
I happened to have inositol at home, which I sometimes take for mild anxiety. I would take one capsule per day from time to time. I use the Vitamin Shoppe Brand that contains 650 mg per capsule. Anyway, I began taking one capsule of inositol with every gram of B5. For the last two days I have taken 5 grams of B5 per day as usual, but adding 650 mg of Inositol with every 1 gm of B5 throughout the day. The hair loss came to a screeching halt. Today, as I type this and run my fingers through my hair, not one single strand is coming out. its a miracle! It took only 2 days for the hair loss to stop! I cant believe it!
I should add that I ive also used this new hair growth shampoo only twice but I doubt its the shampoo. It wouldn't work so quickly. I hope this helps someone.
On 6/13/2016 at 10:12 AM, Beemm said:I posted this on another thread but decided to start a new topic so thatmore people see this.
I started B5 about 3 months ago and was taking about 20 grams (20,000 mg) daily to clear up my acne. I took this amount for about 3 weeks when I started to notice the shedding. It wasn't massive but enough to concern me. So I stopped the B5. My acne began to return but I maintained it with vitamin A. The hair shedding slowed but did not stop completely. A few weeks later I suffered a huge breakout of acne on my face so I panicked and began taking the B5 again but this time only taking 5 grams per day. Two weeks later my hair began shedding a lot!! I was so depressed. So I began my research into B5 hairloss. Google seemed to have mostly useless information....so I went on to Google Scholar, which has all the studies and medical literature. And I found the answer....
I found this study about mice being treated with Pantothenic Acid (B5) for some sort of nervous system disorder. It is somewhat unclear as to why the mice are being treated,as the full study is not shown unless you pay for the website. But what is clear is that these mice developed alopecia but when Inositol was added, the hair loss stopped. Here is the study.
[Removed link]
I happened to have inositol at home, which I sometimes take for mild anxiety. I would take one capsule per day from time to time. I use the Vitamin Shoppe Brand that contains 650 mg per capsule. Anyway, I began taking one capsule of inositol with every gram of B5. For the last two days I have taken 5 grams of B5 per day as usual, but adding 650 mg of Inositol with every 1 gm of B5 throughout the day. The hair loss came to a screeching halt. Today, as I type this and run my fingers through my hair, not one single strand is coming out. its a miracle! It took only 2 days for the hair loss to stop! I cant believe it!
I should add that I ive also used this new hair growth shampoo only twice but I doubt its the shampoo. It wouldn't work so quickly. I hope this helps someone.
Thanks for this Beemm!
Please do all of us a huge favor and continue to update this thread with any updates! (Good or bad)
Hair still not falling out. Yay for inositol! I've decided to stop the B5 and just take the inositol. So far it's too early for me to notice any hair growth but can say that may hair is definitely not falling out anymore. I take a higherdose nowthough. 2 capsules (650 mg each) 6 times per day. I tried lowering the dose about a week ago, to see if only 3 capsules a day would still work but the shedding started up again. As soon as I upped the dose like before, hair shedding stopped. I'll update once I see hair growth, though according to the mice study, both B5 and inositol were given for hair growth. I have seen testimonials online of people seeing hair growth with inositol alone or especially if taken with choline. So I may add a tiny bit of B5 back or alternatively add choline for re-growth. But I confirm that the inositol alone has been enough to stop my hair loss. Just waiting on noticeable regrowth now.
On 6/25/2016 at 8:03 AM, Beemm said:Hair still not falling out. Yay for inositol! I've decided to stop the B5 and just take the inositol. So far it's too early for me to notice any hair growth but can say that may hair is definitely not falling out anymore. I take a higherdose nowthough. 2 capsules (650 mg each) 6 times per day. I tried lowering the dose about a week ago, to see if only 3 capsules a day would still work but the shedding started up again. As soon as I upped the dose like before, hair shedding stopped. I'll update once I see hair growth, though according to the mice study, both B5 and inositol were given for hair growth. I have seen testimonials online of people seeing hair growth with inositol alone or especially if taken with choline. So I may add a tiny bit of B5 back or alternatively add choline for re-growth. But I confirm that the inositol alone has been enough to stop my hair loss. Just waiting on noticeable regrowth now.
Thanks for the update Beemm!
That study you posted is one of the rare positive findings on this topic I've seen in.. forever. lol.
I am taking several grams of Inositol a day now (about a week in). I am doing over 6grams a day, probably 10g or so.
Also I'm taking 600mg /day of D-Chiro-Inositol.
Beemm,.. interesting to note, Inositol is an effective treatment for women PCOS in terms of treating the disease and there's many reports of hair thickening/shedding stopping.
It reduces androgen levels significantly in women with PCOS (testosterone/DHT/etc).
There is some emerging evidence women with PCOS and males with MPB may be linked:
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To study the hormonal profile of men with early AGA and to evaluate if early AGA in men can be considered as the phenotypic equivalent of PCOS, the associated risks of which are well known.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:
This case-control study was conducted from January 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015, in a tertiary care government hospital. Fifty-seven men aged 19 to 30 years presenting with patternedhairloss were recruited as study participants. Thirty-two age-matched men with no evidence ofhairloss were recruited as controls. Men who had any established endocrine disorder, diabetes mellitus, or cardiovascular disease and those who took any oral medication or hormonal treatment forhairloss were excluded from the study. The serum concentrations of total testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), luteinizing hormone (LH),follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, fasting plasma glucose, and insulin levels were measured. Insulin resistance (IR) and free androgen index (FAI) were calculated and compared with age- and sex-matched controls.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:
The primary outcome was to measure the clinico-endocrinological profiles (LH, FSH, SHBG, DHEAS, and testosterone levels) of men with early AGA and to compare it with the PCOS profile; the secondary outcome was to establish a relationship between this endocrinological profile and IR.
RESULTS:
Compared with the 32 controls, the 57 participants with AGA showed significantly increased mean (SD) levels of testosterone (24.61 [7.97] vs 20.57 [4.9] nmol/L; P=.04), DHEAS (3.63 [2.19] vs 2.64 [1.49] g/mL; P=.02), LH (7.78 [3.19] vs 4.56 [2.01] mIU/mL; P<.001), and prolactin (14.14 [9.48] vs 9.97 [3.12] ng/mL; P=.01) and decreased mean levels of FSH (4.02 [2.69] vs 5.66 [1.93] mIU/mL; P<.001) and SHBG (35.07 [11.11] vs 46.41 [14.03] nmol/L; P<.001). The mean FAI and LH/FSH ratio were was also increased in the AGA group. These hormonal parameters resemble the well-known profile of women with PCOS. The mean (SD) insulin levels did not show any significant difference between the cases and controls (6.34 [3.92] vs 5.09 [3.38] IU/mL; P=.07). There was no statistically significant association between hormone levels and AGA or IR grade severity.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
Men with early AGA could be considered as male phenotypic equivalents of women with PCOS. They can be at risk of developing the same complications associated with PCOS, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, IR, cardiovascular diseases, and infertility.
On 6/30/2016 at 11:10 AM, Beemm said:Mike, have you noticed a stop to your hair loss too? Inositol has been a lifesaver for me. I've recently introduced collagen as well to see if it speeds up the hair growth.
Too early to say... I wanna give it some time before I comment.
Here's a visual for all of you. I'm attaching a photo of CB how much hair I was losing in the shower before starting inositol and then after starting. As you can see there is a huge difference. I brush my hair in the shower so it's normal for me to lose some hair but the hair loss I was getting before starting inositol was TOO MUCH! Also, I was previously losing like 80 hairs everytime I styled my hair with a flat iron. Now, I may lose 7 hairs. A huge improvement.
On 7/5/2016 at 10:36 AM, Beemm said:Here's a visual for all of you. I'm attaching a photo of CB how much hair I was losing in the shower before starting inositol and then after starting. As you can see there is a huge difference. I brush my hair in the shower so it's normal for me to lose some hair but the hair loss I was getting before starting inositol was TOO MUCH! Also, I was previously losing like 80 hairs everytime I styled my hair with a flat iron. Now, I may lose 7 hairs. A huge improvement.
Can you post pictures of your hair?
I did post a photo. Did it not show up? Anyway, I've had to lower the dose of inositol to 3-4 grams a day because it was messing with my hormones. If you're a man, be careful as high doses can possibly lower your testosterone. Now that I've lowered the dose I notice one or two strands coming out every few hours. But Nothing alarming.
11 hours ago, Beemm said:I did post a photo. Did it not show up? Anyway, I've had to lower the dose of inositol to 3-4 grams a day because it was messing with my hormones. If you're a man, be careful as high doses can possibly lower your testosterone. Now that I've lowered the dose I notice one or two strands coming out every few hours. But Nothing alarming.
How did you feel it was messing with your hormones?
This is a documented occurrence in females with PCOS, but not in males, FYI. Although it's very possible, I'm just stating it was never revealed to lower testosterone in males in a clinical setting.
If it does lower testosterone in males, this is probably how it works to reduce hair loss. Lowered testosterone > lowered DHT > less hair fall, theoretically.
I am getting a blood test tomorrow for testosterone + free testosterone, and I've been dosing Inositol quite high (6g+ day) so we'll see...
Well I really don't know for sure if it lowers testosterone in men. I was just stating that as a possibility. I'm a woman so I have not looked into this. But I know many men take high doses to treat OCD and anxiety with no bad effects so I guess it's just best to follow up with your doctor to be sure.
As for how inositol at high doses was messing with my hormones, I was getting my period at random times and I also noticed a few pimples near my mouth. This is an area I do not normally have break outs and seems hormone related.
This morning I flat ironed my hair and I was worried lots of hair would fall out since I have lowered the inositol. But again, I barely lost any hair. Maybe 7 strands or so. And right now as I ran my fingers through my hair not one strand came out. So maybe my body has now accumulated enough inositol to keep me from shedding at the lower dose. There was another poster on this site (I forget her name). She too took inositol to stop B5 hair loss. It ended up helping her hormonal acne and after a year, she came off the inositol and her hair did not start falling out again. I'll see if I can find her post.
19 minutes ago, Beemm said:Well I really don't know for sure if it lowers testosterone in men. I was just stating that as a possibility. I'm a woman so I have not looked into this. But I know many men take high doses to treat OCD and anxiety with no bad effects so I guess it's just best to follow up with your doctor to be sure.
As for how inositol at high doses was messing with my hormones, I was getting my period at random times and I also noticed a few pimples near my mouth. This is an area I do not normally have break outs and seems hormone related.
This morning I flat ironed my hair and I was worried lots of hair would fall out since I have lowered the inositol. But again, I barely lost any hair. Maybe 7 strands or so. And right now as I ran my fingers through my hair not one strand came out. So maybe my body has now accumulated enough inositol to keep me from shedding at the lower dose. There was another poster on this site (I forget her name). She too took inositol to stop B5 hair loss. It ended up helping her hormonal acne and after a year, she came off the inositol and her hair did not start falling out again. I'll see if I can find her post.
Thanks Beemm.
Sorry, thought you were a guy previously.
Please let me know if you find that post.
Will be interesting to see if Inositol will help my hairloss since I'm a guy.
I think so far, so good.
FYI, I did see some men complaining of lowered libido on high doses of Inositol on another forum.
Thanks a lot for sharing this Beemm, it's great to see a new development.
The whole B5 hair loss thing is quite strange that it mostly effects men and in a MPB style fashion, why would it also induce hair loss in women? I guess women do also have thinning hair as they age too though.
I'm pretty skeptical about whether this is going to hep everybody, especially men but it would be awesome if that's the case. If it does indeed just lower DHT though, that could explain the results. Nevertheless I'll give it a try too.
I wonder if you need to take b5 along with inositol to get it to stop.
In the other thread there was a theory that taking a huge dose of b5 and then cutting it out cold turkey was the problem. Apparently there were people that avoided the hair loss by tapering it down. I'm not sure how true that is. But he theory was that cutting it cold turkey messed with your b5 levels and b5 is actually needed for healthy hair. Something like that.
Perhaps we can organize some trials. As in some people just take a specific dose of inositol for a few months and some people take it with a small dose of b5 and take pictures of their hair on a weekly basis and write entries based on what they observed. I also wonder if there are tests you can take for b5 levels.
It it truly feels like the doctors we go to or the derms really don't have proper solutions for us since this hair loss was induced in such a strange way. We can figure out this solution but we need to organize some sort of trials with a decent number or participants and I think we'll be able to figure this out. Perhaps we can create a subreddit on Reddit because this website is pretty poorly designed. What do you guys think?
Guys, I've lowered my dose of inositol even more to see what would happen. I only take 2 caps a day (total 1300 mg) in the morning and hair is still not falling out! I'm seeing less obvious scalp gaps so maybe growth is starting to happen. Because I'm a girl, it's easier for my to just part my hair a certain way and hide the bad spots. To confirm, my hair loss was mainly in the front/top and above temples. Similar to male pattern baldness. Anyway, if you try the Inositol, have patience. It does work.
On 7/17/2016 at 5:26 PM, phillyeagles91 said:I wonder if you need to take b5 along with inositol to get it to stop.
In the other thread there was a theory that taking a huge dose of b5 and then cutting it out cold turkey was the problem. Apparently there were people that avoided the hair loss by tapering it down. I'm not sure how true that is. But he theory was that cutting it cold turkey messed with your b5 levels and b5 is actually needed for healthy hair. Something like that.
Perhaps we can organize some trials. As in some people just take a specific dose of inositol for a few months and some people take it with a small dose of b5 and take pictures of their hair on a weekly basis and write entries based on what they observed. I also wonder if there are tests you can take for b5 levels.
It it truly feels like the doctors we go to or the derms really don't have proper solutions for us since this hair loss was induced in such a strange way. We can figure out this solution but we need to organize some sort of trials with a decent number or participants and I think we'll be able to figure this out. Perhaps we can create a subreddit on Reddit because this website is pretty poorly designed. What do you guys think?
I agree, but for now, please get on Inositol at around 5-10g a day!
We need as many people as possible testing this.
Do what you want. Beem is getting results at a lower dosage (although she is female).
I am using 5-10g a day of Inositol. I don't see many (if any) hairs on my hand when running fingers through hair currently. This includes when rubbing in hair serum vigorously.
I am noticing a bit of bloat, possible signs of bit of weight gain, possibly due to lowered testosterone but this is too premature to say for sure.
http://inositol-powder.com/inositol-and-hormones/
According to this link, it does lower Test in men, too (we already know it does in women).
Inositol and Testosterone
Inositol is known to decrease testosterone levels in both men and women, which can be counter-intuitive when it comes to either getting pregnant or building muscle. Not only does the serum total testosterone decrease by over 50 percent, it also is known to decrease serum free testosterone by almost 28 percent. The amount of testosterone lost within the body can vary a little bit person to person, but there is no doubt about the significant decrease that is seen in levels after Inositol is started. Typically, the highest decreases occur in people who are taking over 4,000 mg per day, which is on the low side of an average treatment-related dose.
IF the theory of accelerated hairloss on B5 is down to androgens or increased androgen expression/sensitivity, it would make sense why Inositol works to help combat B5 hairloss. (B5 gets adrenals pumping to boost androgens... Inositol sort of does the opposite).
Again this is VERY preliminary analysis and results... remains to be seen if this is the 'cure' we're all looking for, but so far it's looking good.
Big thanks to Beem for discovering this 