Compounding Hair Loss Pharmacy

Minoxidil can stimulate hair growth and reduce high blood pressure. Zenith compounding pharmacy can fill your prescription in a form that works for you.

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Minoxidil compounding pharmacy

Minoxidil is a medication that can stimulate hair growth and reduce high blood pressure. The pharmaceutical works to promote hair growth by increasing blood flow and stimulating the hair follicles into their active phase.

The medication, which is the active ingredient in Rogaine, was introduced initially as an anti-blood pressure drug. But after it had been in use for some time doctors found it accelerated hair growth. This led to the development of a topical formula for hair growth, firstly for men, and then for women.

A Minoxidil compounding pharmacy can assist to provide this medication, in line with a prescription from your doctor, in a form that works for you. This may be in a certain dosage or without some of the additives or preservatives used in manufactured pharmaceuticals.

What is Minoxidil?

Minoxidil was developed as tablets to treat severe hypertension in the 1970s, a condition for which it is still used. But when doctors noticed their patients’ hair regrowing, researchers created a formulation of topical treatments for androgenic alopecia, sometimes called male-pattern baldness.

It was available as a 2 per cent solution for about 40 years. In the 1990s a 5 per cent solution was also developed. As a prescription medicine, it can be compounded by pharmacists with additional training. They can put together formulations in non-standard ways.

When researching treatments for baldness, people often also come across the compound finasteride. This also works to manage hair loss and promote growth by impacting the hormones responsible for the hair changes. Instead of being a topical liquid, however, it comes as a tablet.

Why do people use Minoxidil?

People use Minoxidil to manage hair loss. This can be a distressing condition that impacts people’s social interactions and overall quality of life through lower self-esteem and lower confidence. It can affect up to 80 per cent of men by the age of 80 years . It can also impact about 50 per cent of women throughout their lives through the condition female-pattern hair loss . Sometimes people have patchy or diffuse hair loss as the hair follicles become smaller.

Hair loss emerges due to generic factors and the impacts of hormones, and progresses over time. Check with a doctor if hair loss is sudden, as it can be a symptom of other illnesses.

How does Minoxidil work?

Minoxidil is a chemical compound that is mixed with other inactive ingredients to increase the solubility for the medication. It works on hair follicle cells to enhance hair growth and reduce loss. This occurs through its function as an arterial vasodilator that changes the cell membrane, which may allow for the increased activity in the cells.

Researchers believe minoxidil increases the anagen phase of hair development - which is the period when the hair shaft is growing - and there is also an increase in the size of the follicle.

The medication works while you keep using it, but when you stop, hair loss will resume within 12 to 24 weeks .

Compounded Minoxidil

Minoxidil compounding pharmacies can formulate medications, in line with a prescription, to leave out potential allergens or non-active ingredients. Off -the-shelf Minoxidil contains ingredients that may help the delivery of the active ingredients, but they may impact some people negatively, or cause unintended side effects.

Pharmacists who have additional training can compound the active ingredient for individual requirements.

Minoxidil foam and other formulations

Minoxidil comes in a variety of formulations. As well as a topical liquid, it can also be made as a foam that people apply to their scalp. An oral minoxidil, taken as a tablet, was the original medication used as an anti-blood pressure treatment.

One study from India noted the liquid formulations led some people to experience dermatitis - skin itchiness, dryness and flaking - as it contained the additive propylene glycol . This was added in order to make the formulation as a liquid but caused hypersensitivity in some people.

The foam was free from propylene glycol and was effective in reducing contact dermatitis.

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