Hi,
I haven’t been here for a long time. But to update:
Essentially I’m cured from the effects of finasteride. But the thing is, I’m no longer the same person. Where I was a highly distressed 21 year old sufferer, with pretty much every side effect imaginable, I am now an emotionally strong, happy, successful and healthy 37 year old. I still work as a full time doctor. I have returned here as I have yet more exams to study for, and I’m procrastinating terribly!
I have to start a new post here as Mew unfortunately ceased my thread under “members stories” section.
Succinctly, these are my thoughts/tips:, in no particular order…
- I don’t believe in the concept of “PFS” per se. I believe the term PFS should be labelled “enforced unhealthiness precipitated by finasteride” as the symptom list is too huge to actually place under an umbrella term, but yes, Finasteride catapaulted me in awful health.
- The only doctor who was of any benefit was Dr Greg Emerson. I follow his writings assiduously.
- As Dr Emerson proved, the main ways of reversing the effects of finasteride are as follows
- treat systemic parasites, yeast infections. You’ll find body temperature increases, thyroid status reverts to normal, and improved health ensues.
- Optimise zinc:copper ratio. Imperative. I take 20mg zinc each morning, 2mg copper at night. It took me many years of experimentation to get to these doses. I have pyroluria (a zinc losing/vit B6 losing condition) and therefore my need for zinc is higher than average. Note I was born with this ‘anomaly’ (!) and believe it made me more susceptible to finasteride effects.
- I take DHEA 25mg per day in 2 divided doses. I’ll be doing this for life as finasteride caused adrenal fatigue. Cortisol (product of adrenals) often recovers by itself but DHEA tends not to.
As DHEA aromatises into E2, I take anastrazole at about 1mg (one tablet) per week in divided doses. No sweat. This is a constant in my life and to be honest, DHEA is the youthful hormone, and I feel great. - I get as much naked sun exposure as possible. Check out the rise in T when you get sun on scrotum (? 300%)! Vitamin D is a must.
- I exercise and do yoga 4 times per week. Note lifting weights boosts T, especially lower body.
- I don’t have gluten or cow’s dairy in my house, although I enjoy a couple of beers every now and again, and eat what I want when I leave the house, in restaurants etc. I had a confirmed 4+ (maximum) allergy to wheat and cow’s dairy. These measures improved my health significantly.
- Other supplements I take;
-magnesium (loads)
-Vit B6 (to replace my Vit B6 losing condition as above)
- boron 6mg per day (a forgotten mineral)
- 5 grams fish oil per day
- MSM
- evening primrose (again, as Dr Emerson instructed me to…to treat my pyroluria)
- I’m also an “overmethylator” (or undermethylator, can’t remember which), and Dr Emerson prescribed me a compounded formula, which contains niacin, Vit E and other B vitamins.
- I drink freshly juiced beetroot juice and ginger every day.
My health status. Just to state the facts: I’m 37, very healthy, look great and feel great. Sorry, but it’s true. I’m not gonna mix my words and if sounds like I’m showing off, then I don’t mean to. I have a 21 year old girlfriend who is none the wiser about any past health issues, and yes, that means that my sexual functioning is excellent. Specifically, I get full strength erections whenever I want to have sex (which is normally on my terms), night time and morning erections, ejaculate is more copious than pre-finasteride (I actually feel better than when I was 19, although this is probably emotional). I don’t get spontaneous erections like I used to, or at least not full ones. But I can have sex for a couple of hours on end. Sexually I’m getting better every say, 6 months.
I’m lean and athletic and have the body of someone in my 20s.
To add, and this is the bizarre part; my head hair is returning. If I was to grow my hair, there’s be a thinner part at the crown, so I shave it and have a mini mohawk (which is quite shaved down).
What I conclude from the fact that my head hair is returning is that hair loss may well be a sign of underlying health abnormalities.
I clearly can’t say that one factor has been more important than any other factor, but the holistic approach as I detailed above has given me great health and weirdly, grown my head hair back (which I was never really bothered about since use of finasteride). I will say that many men here struggle with the concept that pathogens (parasites, yeasts etc) need elimination. My opinion is that this is a critical step.
I also believe that nothing will come out the research/foundation, or at least no cure. Not that the foundation isn’t well meaning. I guess the formalities have to be ticked off and the foundation is a formality. I genuinely believe the cure is as above, as I’ve highlighted in my recovery.
My whole aim was to make myself stronger than pre-finasteride. I think I’ve done this. I’ve worked so so hard. I refuse to lose.
Take care
-JN-