David Sinclair allegedly uses finasteride and this might be one reason he looks young.
I got a blood test of testosterone of 193 just two days ago. I wonder what happened, the only changes were (1) taking statins, (2) taking estriol.
#1: Microdosing finasteride to age more gracefully (?)
David Sinclair looks very young for his age. The guy is 54 but looks like 40. Many people (and even he himself) “claim” that this is due to his intake of resveratrol and NAD-concoctions. Bullshit. The guy has been taken finasteride for decades, which is probably the primary reason behind him aging so gracefully.
A friend of mine who noticed incipient alopecia with 25, has been on finasteride (0.25mg) for about 15 years. He is now 42 but looks about a decade younger than he is.
Ashton Kutsher also aged incredibly well in his 30s – presumably/partly due to him taking dutasteride for hair loss. After coming off, he seems to have aged quite a bit.
Similarly, people with long-standing hypogonadism often look much younger than they are. Conversely, people on TRT seem to age incredibly fast – and fat redistribution may not be the whole story.
DHT not only drives hair scalp hair loss, but it leads to accelerated skin aging due to a number of mechanisms which ultimately come down widespread changes in gene expression. These effects include maturation of hair follicles, pore size and sebum production, and elastin breakdown.
Next to body composition, the skin and its appendages (e.g., hair) are the primary things we can see of another person and therefore are our predominant guide to judge someone’s age.
As a simplification, estrogens (particularly estradiol) keep the skin firm, elastic, and youthful, whereas androgens (particularly dihydrotestosterone) do the opposite.
Back in November/December, I was on TRT. During this time, I noticed small hairs growing in my biceps area. I am quite a non-hairy person and the excess virilization worried me. I jumped on a microdose of finasteride (0.05mg per day – so 1/20th of the recommended dose for hair loss) and the hair growth caused by TRT mostly reversed over a 3-4 month period. This was fascinating to see. I tested my blood levels of DHT and at this dose, they were at around 400 (range: 300-800).
In terms of side effects, for the first two weeks my erections were weak and my nipples puffy. This worried me but I am glad I stuck with it. Thereafter, no (noticeable) side effects for me. Libido and erections are as good as ever.
Initially, I also felt and behaved subtly “less manly” but I am not sure how much of that was in my head. Anyway, changing neurosteroids and DHT levels surely has at the very least a subtle effect on my neurocognitive and emotional functioning but hard to say how large that effect is. So, I think that it was not exclusively in my head.
All the fear-mongering around post-finasteride syndrome did indeed scare me. However, I figured that in case of worrying side effects I could just taper off (cold-turkey withdrawal is associated with PFS). Furthermore, a dosage of 0.05mg per day is unlikely to cause permanent issues (I may be wrong in this regard).
Given the effects of DHT on the visual aspects of aging, from now on, I plan on using a microdose of finasteride to age more gracefully.
The small reduction in dopamine levels due to AR being highly expressed in the ventral tegmental area can be managed with ultra-low doses of rasagiline.
This is an experiment I am currently running and just as with other experiments, the outcome is uncertain. As of now, I have been on a microdose of finasteride for 4 months and things look good. However, it could very well be that I´ll stop using the finasteride at some point.
The thing I am mostly scared about is a potential flare-up of pubertal gynecomastia – which I am monitoring closely (with some raloxifene on hand). On a genetic level, estrogen and androgen receptors have somewhat opposing effects in some tissues. The reduction in DHT tilts the balance between androgens and estrogens towards estrogen signaling, thus causing gynecomastia in some people.
Just as with everything else in life, there are tradeoffs. In this case, I am reducing some of my “manliness” (though probably subtly) in favor of better skin aging, not developing excessive amounts of body hair, preventing hair loss (which I currently have no signs of), and a large reduction in my risk for prostate cancer (my dad had a total prostatectomy last year).
I will write an article about my thoughts on 5-alpha reductase inhibitors soon.
