RottenBrains

Apparently, most dandruff in humans is caused by the presence of a specific fungus (malassezia furfur). You may have noticed, for example, that the active ingredient in Nizoral is ketoconazole — which, when taken orally, is a systemic antifungal. You’ll notice the similarity to the name of omniprazole (Prilosec); they’re in the same family. Unfortunately, their similarities cause them to interact in a way that increases the chances of liver damage when used together. From what I’ve been able to find, the same sort of interaction occurs between ketoconazole and the popular histamine blockers used to treat heartburn and alergies (largely, the drugs ending in -dine). I’ve gone looking for research data regarding the interaction between H₂ blockers/proton pump inhibitors and topical ketoconazole before, but there don’t appear to be any such studies. After discussing this with a physician, the prudent course of action seems to be to avoid using them at the same time until such studies are made. Now, there are plenty of other active ingredients that have been FDA approved to treat dandruff (selenium sulfide, coal tar, salicylic acid, and zinc pyrithione). Unfortunately, most of these aren’t very effective. My understanding is that most, if not all, of these active ingredients simply mask the symptoms without having significant antifungal properties.

As usual, it’s llamas to the rescue. Researchers have discovered that llamas produce an antibody which specifically targets and kills malassezia furfur. The implication is that this discovery could be used to make a more specifically targeted dandruff shampoo that has much, much lower chances of interacting with other medication. I wonder if this could even lead to the developent of an oral dandruff solution…