Philadelphia, Penn. - Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania have discovered a drug that when combined with a gel, helps stop unwanted hair growth, thus eliminating the need to shave.
It was found that cidofovir, commonly used to treat eye infections, significantly reduced hair growth during a study involving sixteen men with beards when combined with a gel and applied on the skin in a three percent dose.
“Eflornithine, the only prescription topical agent approved in the United States for female facial hirsutism [excessive hair growth], has only a 32 percent success rate... therefore, additional topical treatments effective in preventing hair growth are needed,” according to scientist Joy Wan and her team, reports the Daily Mail.
Therefore, the dose level needs to be adjusted, however, when given in too strong of doses, subjects experienced nausea, headache, fever and a drop in white blood cells.
Further trials regarding the drug will continue before it is perfected, as researchers found the gel to be “...safe and well tolerated. But we did not observe total alopecia hair loss as was previously reported and the treatment dose and duration may have been insufficient to trigger this effect.”
No comments:
Post a Comment