Acclaimed celebrity eyelash booster Lumigan now at rock-bottom prices from Medical Specialists®

In the past, women wanting longer, thicker more prominent eyelashes were probably put off by the high prices charged from certain websites for the wildly popular treatments Lumigan or Latisse. These products are so effective in fact that there are countless celebrity users and endorsers that include Brooke Shields, Claire Danes, Helen Mirren, Jenny McCarthy and Mandy Moore, to name just a few, and millions more around the world have been desperate to get their hands on the products to have luxuriously boosted lashes just like their favourite celebrities.

In fact, even The Telegraph published part of an interview with Academy Award winning actress Helen Mirren last year, where she sang the praises of Latisse. She said: “Quite honestly. I don’t really know what a beauty routine is. But I love beauty products, and I’m always trying new ones. One thing I consistently use is Latisse. It really works, and if your eyelashes look great, you can let a lot of other things be cr*p.”

Moreover, Danielle Lineker, model and wife of football legend Gary Lineker, offered beauty tips to The Mirror back in 2011 and spoke of the wonders of the eyelash booster. She raved: “This stuff really works!…It contains prostaglandin analogue that stimulates the eyelash follicles to grow hairs that are much longer, thicker and darker. I’ve had amazing results.”

Here is the great news…Medical Specialists® Pharmacy are delighted to announce eyelash booster Lumigan eye drops are now available to patients who want to grow longer and more luscious eyelashes. No longer will only the famous celebrities be able to afford the product, as Medical Specialists® – famous for its low prices – now offer Lumigan for the rock bottom price of just £49.95…Much more affordable than the £180 – £200 a bottle charged from other websites!

And to think all the hysteria from Lumigan has erupted by pure chance. Back in the early 2000s people suffering with raised pressure in the eye, for example in open-angle glaucoma, were starting to be prescribed the eye-drop solution Lumigan. The ingredient in Lumigan – bimatoprost – works by decreasing pressure inside the eye by increasing the drainage of fluid from the eye into the blood stream. Soon though, it was apparent there were some rather unexpected benefits from the drug.
During this period, eye doctors and their glaucoma patients began to notice a remarkable side-effect… longer, thicker, darker eyelashes were flourishing over time.

In disbelief at their wonderful finding, Allergan, the makers of the drug, didn’t hesitate to get Lumigan through the necessary clinical trials. Instead of focusing on glaucoma, they were now assessing the impact of Lumigan for a condition known as hypotrichosis – abnormally underdeveloped eyelashes or not sufficient to give you adequate or enough eyelashes.

Following FDA approval in 2008, the product was then launched with the name ‘Latisse’ and promptly marketed for its ground-breaking eyelash-boosting powers. After all, who doesn’t crave longer and lusher lashes? Boosted eyelashes have long been known to give us bigger and sexier eyes!
In respect of eyelash growth, bimatoprost, a synthetic analogue (mimic) of a naturally occurring chemical called prostaglandin, is also believed to be associated with hair growth, working to increase the length of the active hair growth phase.

You might be forgiven for being confused about Lumigan and the American branded version Latisse, and what differences there are – if any. The ingredients, concentrations of all the ingredients, and even the bottled it is supplied in, are all exactly the same. The only thing that separates the two is the packaging and the fact that Latisse is supplied with applicators.

Lumigan may have been first intended to treat glaucoma, but it is far from being the first occasion when a treatment developed with the intention of fighting a disease was later discovered to have other surprising side effects. Cosmetic Botox (also produced by Allergan) was initially used by ophthalmologists to suppress eyelid spasms, whilst Minoxidil (contained in hair loss treatment Regaine) was firstly used as an oral treatment for high blood pressure and erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra was initially concocted for treating high blood pressure and angina pectoris.

Lumigan eye drops could be used to combat hair loss

In the UK there are millions of men and women who are affected by hair loss. Although Male-pattern baldness is more common than female-pattern baldness, (affecting around half of all men at some point in their life), it can be a deeply stressing condition for both sexes and can often severely damage confidence and even impact on one’s social life.

However, there are numerous treatment options available to these millions of people in the form of Propecia and Regaine for males, and Dianette, Florisene  and Regaine for females. Today though, there is more hope for men and women around the UK who are losing their hair, after new research found that a side effect of the active ingredient in the eye drops ‘Lumigan’ may be utilised to create hair growth on the scalp.

Lumigan contains an active ingredient called ‘bimatoprost’, a type of medicine that is known as a prostaglandin analogue. Lumigan is usually prescribed for patients with ocular hypertension or open-angle glaucoma where there is increased pressure inside the eye. The bimatoprost works by decreasing the pressure inside the eye by increasing the drainage of fluid from the eye into the blood stream. If the pressure is not reduced then there is a great risk of damage to the optic nerve and then impaired vision.

One peculiar side effect though of the eye drops is the fact it can stimulate the growth of eyelashes, and now preliminary trials have already begun to see if bimatoprost can reverse the onset of male and female pattern baldness.

Lead scientist Professor Valerie Randall, from the University of Bradford, is a consultant to Allergan Inc which manufactures Lumigan. She says: “Bimatoprost is known to stimulate eyelash growth and is already used clinically for this purpose. We wanted to see whether it would have the same effect on scalp hair, as the two types of follicle are very different. Our findings show that bimatoprost does stimulate growth in human scalp hair follicles and therefore could offer a new approach for treating hair loss disorders.”

Androgenic alopecia is the most common type of hair loss in both men and women, and can strike in varying severity. The culprit for the occurrence of thinning hair is connected to hormones named ‘androgens’ and in particularly; dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This powerful hormone stimulates facial and bodily hair growth but has adverse effects on hair located on the head. It is believed that DHT initiates a process by which hair follicles begin to deteriorate over time and eventually stop producing hair entirely.

The promising aspect of the latest research is that it has been discovered that bimatoprost works on a quite different receptor that is unrelated to androgens. Prof Randall continued: “Even if the androgen receptor is telling the hair follicle to do negative things, the drug is telling it to do positive things.”
Bimatoprost has been applied to the living scalp tissue provided from donors undergoing cosmetic surgery. In merely a nine-day period, it was found that follicles that had been treated with bimatoprost grew a third more hair than untreated samples.

In addition, researchers discovered that follicles in a person’s scalp contain the same kind of receptors that respond to bimatoprost that are also in eyelash follicles. Prof Randall explained what this could mean for those who are losing their hair, saying: “This means that so long as the drug can be applied in such a way that it can reach the follicle, it should stimulate hair growth in patients.”

All that awaits now is the result of six-month long Phase II clinical trials, which are currently underway in the U.S. and Germany. The trials comprise of 220 men with male-pattern baldness and 172 women with female pattern baldness.  Comparisons will now be analysed, with some patients being administered a solution of bimatoprost on the scalp, some patients will be given an ineffective placebo, whereas others will be using the highly effective Minoxidil, the active ingredient contained in Regaine Foam and Regaine Lotion.