I thought you might like a little extract from the forthcoming Hormone Plan today, so here’s a bit I just wrote about hair loss, a subject I get asked about a LOT!
A Note on Hair Loss
from the new Hormone Plan (coming soon!)
One of the most common symptoms I get asked about is hair thinning or hair loss in women and, happily, you can normally get regrowth once you’ve established the cause and fixed the problem. In men, regrowth is not that likely, sadly, as the problem is usually at least partly genetic.
The most common cause of hair thinning and loss in women is actually PCOS, although everyone automatically thinks hypothyroid.
The trick is to work out what might be your trigger:
If it is male pattern (androgenic) hair loss, you need to get the male hormone levels (testosterone, androgens, DHEA, DHT) back under control and it should regrow. That usually looks like hair receding from the forehead or from the top of the crown. Studies suggest massaging your scalp and using shampoos made with rosemary and grapeseed extract really helps because it seems to block the action of the DHT on hair follicles.
If it is because of a drop in oestrogen, progesterone or thyroxine (in hypothyroid), once you start to get those controlled better, it will likely thicken up again. This looks like thinning along the parting, usually. A big clue that it is hypothyroid is losing the outer third of your eyebrows too.
Another common cause is a combo of low blood sugar and low blood pressure. That means less blood flow and therefore nutrients getting to the extremities, including the scalp, so improving oxygenation and blood sugar control should help. If your blood pressure is lower than 120/80, it could be an issue for you, especially if your nose, hands and feet feel colder than they should, your nail beds look pale and you have fungal toenails – all clues of poor blood flow.
Another common cause of poor blood flow to the scalp is iron deficiency, so do check that out too.
Or, you can have an autoimmune attack on the hair follicles, with the main trigger for that being gluten.
Of course, it can be all of these things combined, but usually one is prevalent.
I’ll add this to the Alopecia Factsheet in the A-Z too, where you’ll find other causes and ideas to help. If you need to test hormones, I’ve recently reviewed the best ones and you can see them here: Women’s Health Tests and Men’s Health Tests. There’s actually a ton of info on those new pages there so do check them out.