Covid19 vaccine AstraZeneca and 5% Minoxidil for hailoss, any chance for clots?

[Christ89]

Hi everyone,
I have done the Astra Zeneca vaccine which is know to cause very very rarely clots.
I heared clots might travel from legs for example to the brain or lungs and cause serious issues.
By using Regain or rogaine or any other brand which has 5% minoxodil, do i incrase the chances of clot on the brain? Minoxodil increwses blood flow on the head, so does it make the situation more dangerous?

Thank you

[Paxiled]

Just wondering, if the connection hasn't been studied how will the doctor know?  These vaccines are experimental medicine in that we're in a humongous crisis and we need to beat that crisis more than we need to worry about anything else right now and I am way pro vaccine because of that and have gotten mine and encourage everyone to get theirs pretty much as a duty to humanity everywhere.  But again, they are all being used under emergency approval, and given the conditions we've been living under of isolation and not seeing doctors except for absolutely necessary things, is there any reason to have confidence docs would know the answer at this juncture?  I ask because the number of hypothetically blood thinning substances we regularly consume are mind numbing.  To name a few you are encouraged to stop two weeks before surgery, there's fish oil, which I would assume would theoretically extrapolate to eating a lot of fish as well but that's never mentioned, turmeric, ginger, bromelain, garlic, onions, quercitin, I mean, seriously, the list is really long.  They're really talking about supplements, but it would again theoretically apply to the foods as well if you eat a lot of it, wouldn't it?  Which raises the problem that a lot of warnings are theoretical rather than seen in real humans all that much.  I'd certainly want to know the answer to your question, but I'm certain nobody knows the answer.  We don't even know yet if the connection between the blood clots and the vaccine are real, because in every case the clots were concerning but still much fewer than are seen in the population as a whole absent a vaccine.  I think you raise a great issue that your doctor will probably give you a vacant stare about, but in time, when we have the time to really look at how these vaccines have affected the population, we'll know a lot more.  And that shouldn't give anyone pause about getting a vaccine, because that's also true with all the drugs we take even when they have gone through the entire approval process.  It still takes a decade or more to really learn what happens when a new drug is loosed on a large number of people, as trials are small and pharmaceutical companies lie about every product they produce, which is why they get fined so often and sued successfully so often.  It's just a cost of doing business.  Peace.

[Paxiled]

And I guess I would add, if you're truly concerned, the vaccine saves your life and Rogaine doesn't.

[Christ89]

Hi. Im not having second thoughts of the vaccine. Plus i only bought minoxidil (regain 5% as sold in the pharmacies in europe) on my own so i dont have a doctor who prescriced this to ask him.

[Christ89]

I worry about minoxidil transfering clots to my head from legs etc

[auntiejessi]

The thing is - we don't really know. Are you using the minoxidil already? If you aren't, maybe you can hold off for a bit so the chance for blood clots from the vaccine will pass, and then you won't have to worry.

Or ask a doctor who can address your specific risk factors, or a pharmacist, who might be able to give an educated guess. But it's really all a guess.

I'd say hold off on the minoxidil if you're worried. That can wait, the vaccine can't.

[Paxiled]

And I think Annie hit the nail a lot more on the head than I did.  I was referring generally to substances we commonly use that because they thin the blood allow the blood to circulate more freely, but blood circulates anyway and it is unlikely it would speed clots right to the brain or it would be doing that already, as clots are a common problem absent these vaccines.  It's not how it works.  As Annie said, exercise also speeds your bloodflow, so are you thinking of not exercising?  We also have to face a reality, which is that this substance you're taking doesn't work a whole lot.  It has minimal effectiveness at best, adding perhaps a small amount of hair even when it works for most people and it doesn't work at all for most people.  But as has been said by all 3 of us, Rogaine won't save your life and the vaccine will, so if you're concerned and probably can't get a doctor to answer the question at this point, just stop taking it, get your vaccine, and live a long life with a tad less hair.  Peace.

[AnnieBrooke]

The chances of having blood clots as a reaction to AstraZeneca are very slim, and the question of that vaccine interacting with specific regular medications people take, such as Rogaine, might not have been studied. If an interaction between the vaccine and minoxidil is even known, the person to ask about it is the doctor who prescribed the minoxidil.

[Christ89]

I am not worrying about interactions between them but about the possibility of minoxodil helping clots to move to my head.

[AnnieBrooke]

Well, if someone had blood clots move to their head (in particular) due to having taken minoxidil and getting an AstraZeneca shot, that *would* be an interaction between the drug and the shot. But your theory is not any more persuasive than if you asked if you stood on your head and the blood rushed to your head, or if you exercised a lot, or if you got really flushed, all the (supposed) clots from the AstraZeneca shot would go to your head in particular. The head isn't separated from the body, it's all the same bloodstream. (Also, if it helps, out of the tiny population who have had the clotting side effect, there are more women than men, kind of knocking down the idea that Rogaine would have had much to do with anything.)

Again, as you yourself noted in your first post, the chance is vanishingly slim of even having such a problem in the first place. Out of the millions of people who received the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines, a very, very tiny percentage even had the clotting problem and only a hundredth of that already very tiny number died. When the numbers are that infinitesimal, you have to wonder if the people who had the most serious cases had other medical problems, and/or if they were early cases where the doctors didn't know about this possible complication and didn't recognize what was happening. They know what to do for the problem by now, and doctors are alert to the possibility.

I agree with Pax that probably either because there simply isn't any research on this question or because your doctor doesn't know, it might be a waste of time to ask your doctor, but if you're really concerned you could call the question in. And as Auntiejessie suggests, if you're really worried, the simplest thing is not to take the Rogaine in the month when you get your shot, whether you've begun a course of treatment or not. The point is, your chances of getting Covid are higher than your chances of getting a clotting reaction to AstraZeneca, minoxidil or not. Don't let it keep you from getting vaccinated. :-)