Alert: Millions Unknowingly Risk Baldness from Common OTC Medications!

United States: According to experts, normal prescription drugs and most of the over-the-counter remedies could be covertly contributing to hair loss.

Stimulants that have been consumed by tens of millions of people, such as anti-depressants, blood thinners, and anti-acne crèams, can lead to alopecia, which is the medical term for what most of us call hair loss or can cause hair follicles to shut down.

More about the news

Though genetics and aging cause baldness in men and women, five popular drugs quicken the process, according to Dr. Zain Hasan, an anesthetist based in Los Angeles.

The expert warned, “If you want to keep your hair, you wanna know about these five medications, and These five medications, if you don’t know yourself, I know you know someone that’s taking it,” Daily Mail reported.

What are these common medications?

First on the list was the antidepressant Wellbutrin, a prescription drug that elevates feel-good hormones in the brain to make for a happier person.

It has been established, however, that the drug can result in hair loss in both male and female patients.

A cross-sectional study published in 2018 that compared 1 million new users on nine popular antidepressants discovered that those taking bupropion – which is sold under the brand name Wellbutrin – had the highest risk of hair loss.

An expert mentioned that people have reported the side effects anecdotally online, mentioned it was “terrifying’ and left them ‘not even wanting to leave my apartment,”

Almost one in 1,000 patients developed the side effect (or 29,000 out of 29 million people that take the drug each year), Daily Mail reported.

Why hair loss?

There is also another reason that doctors suggest that the high amount of dopamine produced by the drug might wake hairs from their dormant state and stop developing further, causing hair loss in the long run.

Doctors also suggest that the dopamine surge caused by the drug may also trigger hair follicles to shift into the resting phase of their growth cycle, halting further hair growth and causing hair loss over time.

Furthermore, second on Dr Hasan’s list are some forms of retinoid medications that people use to manage acne, including Accutane or isotretinoins.

Saying that it was used by more than a million Americans annually, Dr Hasan noted hair loss was rarely associated with such drugs, and side effects mainly happen to those who take a higher dose of the pill.

A 2022 study investigating the side effects of isotretinoin included 565 people who received treatment for acne; 61 of those taking a high dose noted hair loss compared to 18 people taking a low dose.

It was demonstrated again that the patients were, on average, 22 years old.