# Red Light Therapy: An Adjunct to Minoxidil | Dr Davin Lim

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Dr Davin Lim
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfz2P8hey4Q

## Содержание

### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfz2P8hey4Q) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00)

Hey guys, Davin Lim, board certified dermatologist. Today we'll be talking about minoxidil, how it's used, the various forms of minoxidil, including foams, lotions, as well as oral minoxidil. It's used for um hair loss, in particular, male and female pattern hair loss, as well as combination treatments that dermatologists frequently employ with minoxidil itself. So, minoxidil, what is it? Minoxidil is an old compound that actually first came about as an anti-hypertensive. In other words, used to control blood pressure. But what they found out 40 50 years ago was that this blood pressure medication had some side effects which is basically hair growth and hence the birth of ro gain or regain. So minoxidil itself works by increasing your hair count both in number. It reverses miniaturization of your hair follicles but also uh improves your hair density but also thickness and robustness of the hair follicle itself. How it works is in two methods. First of all it and most importantly it increases the longevity of your hair cycle. In other words your anogen. So your anogen is increased and hence you have more hair for a longer period of time. Additionally, it works by jettting out the old hairs. In other words, the hairs which are sleeping. So, reduces your sleeping time and increases your awakening time of your hair follicles. Guys, so the second part of this um video is the uh treatments that dermatologists employ that's based upon science to augment minoxidil itself. So while minoxidil is one of the best known treatments for hair loss, most patients actually get the best results when they combine it with proven therapies and that's where red light therapy comes in. This is the I restore professional, an FDA cleared atome device that combines lasers and LEDs to stimulate hair follicles. This device delivers a powerful 1,410 mwatt total output which is one of the highest available for any LED device, thus giving you the power levels comparable to incl clinic treatments. The design provides broad coverage with LEDs while the laser dodes deliver targeted intensity to the hair follicles themselves. That dual action is what helps promote stronger, denser hair growth. In fact, in clinical studies, I Restore Professional shows an 46% increase in hair count just within 16 weeks. Many users start to see visible improvements in hair thickness and fullness within 3 months. The treatment plan is straightforward. 25 minutes three times a week. It's non-invasive, drug-free, and dermatologist recommended, which makes it an easy, long-term option to complement minoxidil itself. So guys, if you're serious about maximizing your hair restoration results, the Eye Restore Professional is a proven scienceback tool to add to your routine. You'll find the link below, and don't forget to use the code Dr. Davin for a discount. So minoxidil itself comes in three main forms. The first form is the most wellknown which is basically minoxidil lotion. Um and you use that every night. So the instructions on the booklet will say 1 mil nightly but obviously you have to use that according to the area of which you're concerned about. So if you have a small area of balding then certainly use a smaller amount larger area more than 1 mil. There are two different concentrations both in Australia and overseas. Generally speaking, the 2% which is um uh marketed for female patent hair loss as well as the 5% which is marketed for male patent hair loss or androgenetic alopecia. Most dermatologists would tell uh even for females to use the five uh% because the 5% obviously is 2 and 1/2 times stronger than the 2%. And the results generally speaking for the 5% better. So when do you see the results from the uh lotion itself? It can vary. It can take up to 3 to 6 months before you see the results. One of the things which all your dermatologists will warn you that for early adopters, you will get some transient shedding of your hair which is basically your hairs um extending their life but also shedding all the hairs which are sleeping hairs. So when that happens, that's actually considered pretty good because um that's not a side effect. It's actually an expected effect because what that heralds is that the next phase of your hair cycle, which is your anogen cycle, is going to be longer, which means you're going to get more robust hair for longer period of time, hair loss. Now, we talked about

### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfz2P8hey4Q&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00)

um lotions. You also have what's known as minoxidil foam. Minoxidal foam is easier, it's more convenient, it's less messy, but it's also more expensive. So, which you elect to choose really depends on um your own preference, but they come in 2%, they also come in 5%. Just as a caveat, some dermatologists may prescribe that as a 7% or even an 8% and they may even prescribe that with things like, for example, tininoan in the solution itself. um there's no evidence that higher concentrations is better but higher concentrations will certainly give you that transient hair loss followed by that hair gain. Now minoxidil itself when it's applied to skin needs to be converted by an enzyme to form the more active um form of minoxidil. So in 50% of the cases if you're using it topically um it doesn't work as well because some patients lack or have a very low amount of those enzymes and hence minoxidil itself is not as effective as taken orally. So now we're into oral minoxidil. Oral minoxidil like I said is very old. It's well over four decades old. It's got a good safety profile. However, there's some side effects that you should be aware of. So what's the dose? Generally speaking for females it's between 0. 5 milligrams all the way up to 1. 5 sometimes two milligrams. The problem with taking oral minoxidil is that in some cases for females at least it works too well and what you may suffer is what we call heretism. In other words, excess hair growth in unwanted areas such as facial hair. Not too much of a problem for males but females a bit of a problem. So female doses very different. 0. 5 mg all the way up to 1. 5 millig. You can go higher if you don't have any side effects. For males, generally speaking, the recommended minimum um daily dose is 2. 5 millig. It's got to pay be taken daily because the halflife of minoxidil is short. Typically uh between 12 to 23 hours. So minoxidil ideally it's a once a day dose. Now side effects for it. Side effects varies. If you're talking about topical minoxidil, um that's very different. Topical minoxidil can have side effects. For example, irritation of your skin, dryness, eczema, skin irritation, flaking um as well as burning. Uh that's primarily due to the propyline glycol which is also helps to absorb the minoxidil into your scalp. So topical minoxidal side effects include absorption related side effects, irritant dermatitis less commonly um and allergic contact dermatitis. Tablets. Now tablets um generally speaking the side effect profile is pretty low. It's about 5% or lower. The most common side effect for tablets uh include swelling. Um so we what we call ankle edema. I'm on minoxidil. I do suffer some ankle swelling. if I try to push it above 2. 5 millig. So sometimes the rate limiting factor is actual the dosage itself. So we talk about swelling very rarely you can have syninkable episodes in other words lightaded headedness because remember it was first invented to decrease blood pressure and then very rarely things like migraines because can vaso dilate in other words um dilate your blood vessels and as a result you can have transient headaches with that as well. uh and then extremely rare things like your palpitations and uh gastrointestinal side effects. So overall in the scheme of things is still a very safe tablet to uh to use and to take. Now what happens when you stop it? When you stop it, unfortunately your hair loss reverts back to the original state. In other words, how you're originally going to be or your future uh if you weren't on minoxidil. you don't have that accelerated hair loss, but what happens is that over time you will shed hair and you're back to square one. So, it's no big deal. How much does it cost? Minoxidil itself is compounded and the cost will vary according to your country. It can be as cheap as 50 to 60 cents um US per tablet per day all the way up to two $2 to $3 depending on where you are. So, still in the scheme of things are very cost effective treatments. Okay guys, so if I can just to give a little breakout of how I actually manage my hair loss or try to preserve the amount of hair follicles I have now on my head. So what I do like I said I can use minoxidil but the maximum dose I can use is only 2. 5 milligs a day anymore and I get feet swelling which is bad. So for me, it's about finding another effective side effectfree treatment that's scientifically proven to increase or at least maintain my hair growth at this moment in time. And for

### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfz2P8hey4Q&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 12:00)

me, it is, believe it or not, it is using in at home devices. Yes, I've got access to a lot of lasers here, but lasers, they are timeconuming, they're painful, um, and they're messy. So, what I do myself is I use the I restore helmet. It's a proven LED device uh that stimulates hair follicles. And for me, it's a simple treatment because when I'm working on my laptop, when I'm catching up on my emails, it's a hands-free device. And I'm using it 25 minutes three times a week for both effective maintenance of my hair follicles, but also some regrowth, especially when I combine that with minoxidil itself. So guys, now that we discussed about um I restore and LED devices, what other ways can we use to uh increase the absorption of minoxidil? So another way is micro needling. Micro needling is not my favorite option. The reason being is that um it is more troublesome to perform. So you're using a needle, it's more painful. You've got risk of infection, risk of bleeding. So even though it's been shown to increase the absorption of minoxidil, you can increase the amount of side effects apart from infection and bleeding but also importantly skin irritation because when you're micro needling and applying topical minoxidil uh you can increase the absorption of minoxidil itself and remember it's got the propyline glycol which often causes scalp irritation. So certainly micro needling out there not my favorite outcome. We can also use lasers for example 1927 thium lasers. The downside about lasers is that they need to be maintained over a long period of time. So when you're looking at the costbenefit ratio compared to investing in something like I restore most dermatologists unless they are selling the lasers in their own practice will probably give you the advice independently to use light therapy at home and combine that with minoxidil itself. So guys, there you have it. That's an in-depth video on the use of minoxidil both but as a standalone but also as a combination with other devices that are employed by dermatologists. Guys remember that combining treatments with minoxidil will always give you a superior result compared to minoxidil itself. So most of us would advise combining um light treatment for example red light like I restore with minoxidil to give you a better outcome. So guys, you can use the code Dr.

---
*Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/43109*