My Hair Loss Theory: Iron

It's been a long road alone, but I'm relieved to have finally found people who are like me! That is: losing hair but passionate about curing the problem naturally. Over the past few years, I have spent hundreds of hours researching on the Internet and countless dollars experimenting with potential cures. So, oddly enough, I don't know what took me so long to find this website!

One thing I like most about this site is that you guys are not just accepting "genetics" as the reason for hair loss nor are you guys believing the DHT hype either. I also do not buy the testosterone argument simply because as you get older you produce less testosterone, yet you lose more hair.

So many men, of all races, and all across the world, have hair loss that I figured it must be something VERY COMMON and possibly very obvious. At first I thought it was a deficiency. However, after trying many supplements and diets, and reading about others on the Internet doing the same things, I came to the conclusion that perhaps it was not a deficiency, but rather an accumulation of something. This is what led me to believe iron is the problem.

I realize I'm preaching to the choir though. It seems many people on this site, like Espio, has come to the very same conclusion. You guys too know all the correlations between hair loss and heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high carb/sugar diet, alcohol, and gout. All of those have iron in common. Not only that, but women live longer than men and they are much less likely to get gout, diabetes, and cancer possibly because they lose iron every month. Woman also rarely experience significant hair loss until after menopause -- when they stop menstruation and therefore start accumulating iron.

Males, on the other hand, use iron to grow and then right after puberty they start accumulating it. This would explain why men don't start losing hair until after puberty. Apparently, once the human body gets iron, it does not easily release it. This is because iron is so vital to human life. During the cavemen times the men used to bleed a lot during hunting, and scientists believe this is why the body holds onto iron the way it does.

Apparently the Japanese didn't have hair loss until after WWII when they adopted a Western diet. Iron is everywhere in the Western diet. Not only in meat, but iron is fortified in all pastas, flours, and breads. For a field trip, I went to my local Bulk Barn as they display labels with the nutritional content of all the foods they sell. Almost everything had greater than 20% daily values of iron. From chocolate, to rice, to flours, to beans, to candies, to oats -- everything! Some chocolates and molasses had greater than 100% daily values! I believe food fortification has accelerated the hair loss phenomena tremendously.

I could go on, but I don't want this posting to be too long. I am no scientist, but my guess would be that too much iron interferes with zinc, copper, or manganese. Prague's calcium theory sounded interesting too.

In any case, what I wanted to ask is if anybody on this website donates blood regularly? Or perhaps you know some 30+ year old males who do? Or 30+ year old males with low ferritin and TIBC saturation levels and lots of hair?

Warren - Phlebotomy or using blood donation would be ideal. It's difficult for me because my veins are not easily visible so it would have to be drawn from my fingers.

Fortunately Ecklonia Cava tannins can convert iron in the blood from the ferric form (a pro-oxidant) to the more harmless ferrous iron. Lipoic acid protects against iron oxidation, so it's at least one angle of protection.

I believe the problem is not just limited to iron, but also in other areas (blood viscosity/coagulation , endogenous antioxidant reserves, thyroid function, gut microflora balance, etc.

Warren, if you go into a blood donation place you will see many bald men. Dr. Bill Sardi was one of the first people to get on the anti-iron thing, and he's going bald as well:



By the way, his webpage, www.longevinex.com has a lot of interesting info and a great video on over-mineralization of iron AND calcium. I don't remember Prague's theory on calcium but it is probably the same thing Sardi teaches about.

Yes you are right that the japenese had a low rate of baldness before the western diet, but it might of been because they got plenty of iodine for healthy thyroid function?

I think iron is one of the major factors though, as you have probably noticed vegetarians seem to have less baldness than meat eaters.

Espio:

When I first considered iron at the beginning of last year, the first thing I did was go to the local blood donors clinic. True enough, as you have already said, there were lots of bald men. So I dismissed the idea immediately and went on. But as I kept researching and thinking on the subject, I thought about iron again. For example, how many men at the blood donor's clinic have been donating blood regularly since they were young? That is donating at least the same amount of blood women lose in their monthly menstruations (10 - 80ml)? Bill Sardi himself too might have started de-ironing after he lost his hair. Who knows. This is why I am looking for either data or people who have been regular donors since youth.

As for iodine, I tried taking Iodoral, Lugol's, kelp, and kelp supplements. None have helped. If iodine was the problem, wouldn't guys like Dr. Brownstein have already cured hair loss?

As for vegetarians, I figured a lot of them eat carbs in lieu of meat. Especially pasta. Or even tofu. And all those things are high in iron.

In any case, like I said in my original post, I really think the cause has to be really common. Something that everyone is either eating, doing, or be exposed to. I live in Canada and hair loss is rampant, especially in Vancouver. In Ontario the problem is less as you still find many men over 35 with a full head of hair (not thinning at all). And the more and more I thought about it, if it's something that we're not getting enough of, then wouldn't we have solved the problem already? There are so many supplements and so many people like you and I experimenting with them. Whereas, if your body has too much of something, like iron, lead, mercury, etc, that would be much more difficult to cure.

Another advantage to donating blood is getting rid of excess platelets. Women not only have an advanatage of ridding excess iron, but also getting rid of older platelets. There is a 120-day cycle of platelet activity and the older these are the more inflexible they become. Reducing the numbers of older platelets further increases blood oxygenation and reduces hypercoagulation.

But again in my case, Ecklonia Cava is essential for me.

Warren, have you managed to have an affect on your hair by reducing iron levels, or is this just a guess you're making? Sounds reasonable to me, at least that iron levels could be contributing to hairloss, that is.

No I can't give blood because of a genetic issue! That's the irony as I am unable to test out my own theory. This is why I am posting here to ask others if they have done so.

One of my relatives donated blood for awhile and I never observed a noticeable reduction in the speed of balding.



With that said, I do believe iron may be part of the puzzle but much lower down the todem pole ... at least if you take lots of antioxidants, alpha lipoic acid, etc..

I've experimented with a lot of different theories of hair loss in the past and the closest thing I've ever come across for the reason for "my" hair loss is spelled out in the DKK-1 thread.

There is definitely something to it. My spider veins are definitely improving and my rosacea has also improved dramatically ... signs of Lp(a), fibrin buildup, etc.. My voice is deeper, easier to breath, I have more energy and I can think clearer under stress and of course benefits toward my hair and I believe regrowth but can't prove it.

Considering the prevelance of hypothryoid and it's association towards heart disease, Lp(a), etc. I would never consider dropping my high dose iodine. Also, considering with advancing age less that you have less enzymes to clear this fibrin, etc. I also am never going to drop Serrapeptase and/or Nattokinase (enzymes). I remember reading around 60% of senility in Japanse was caused by fibrin buildup in the brain. Lp(a) is also considered "genetically" determined, lol, as well as hypercoagulation as some people have an inability to remove excess fibrin while others produce fibrin too fast.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is IMO if all you're doing is supplementing with iodine to correct hypothyroidism I don't believe that would be enough to "reverse" MPB to a noticeable degree. You may notice benefits but you need to add more to your arsenal to "reverse" the previous damage. "IMO", you have to take high dose Vitamin C/Lysine (maybe Proline) to remove the already existing Lp(a) as well as Serrapepetase/Nattokinase. And then you have some curve balls thrown in to keep track of such as homocysteine, removal of heavy metals, possibly virus, bacteria, etc. to prevent fibrin as well as fatty acid supplementation to prevent Lp(a). The list goes on. lol. It's basically spelled out in the Lp(a) thread of what I believe is the reason for my hair loss and how to correct it. This has been one of the best routes I've ever taken next to LLLT and I've taken a lot of vitamins/minerals, etc. over the past 15 years.

In short, I believe my hair loss is very much connected to heart disease/artherosclerosis and correcting hypothroid is one route that needs to be taken to correct this.

hope this helps

Here's my take on it, which like others, I have deduced largely from personal experience.

I think estrogen receptors are key. My course of action, which seems to be working, is to use topical estrogen receptor antaganists: currently peppermint oil. Blocking DHT is the long way to ideally arrive at what the hair follicle needs: estrogen. Some of us are blessed with sensitive receptors that provide in themselves the optimum estrogen dominant climate in the hair follicle. Alec Baldwin for instance, who is a major alcoholic and not healthy; Elvis, who was addicted to prescription drugs; the list goes on. It is possible to be a perfectly healthy male with MPB. When i see a beautiful head of hair, i see an expression of estrogen. To wax philosophy, I'd say estrogen is the hormone that attracts and testosterone is the one that drives. Ideally, we have both hormones in abundance and our bodies express them accordingly. Unfortunately, for those with MPB, in the scalp, the estrogen receptors do not triumph.

In writing this, i am basically just mouthing off, so there are no pretensions to sound pompous and I aim to sound amateurish: in other words, I'm not looking to argue about this. If it sounds dumb, good.

I will add that there is a ton of conclusive research regarding estrogen and hair growth. And i think a wrong approach is compromising one's state of health to create estrogen dominance in the scalp.

Warren, that's a good point it would be nice if someone found some data on people who have been lifelong iron donors.

On the vegetarian thing, yes they get a lot of iron in veggies and pasta and stuff but it is non-heme iron so very little of it is absorbed. Also, with non-heme armor it is not absorbed if the iron stores are high, wheras heme iron will be absorbed even if you have high iron stores. So even if someone ate broccolli all day which is high in vitamin C and iron, they couldn't get iron overload because when their body has sufficient iron it will not be absorbed.

Vegetarians have about 1/4th the ferritin stores as meat eaters. Average for meat eaters is 160 (i forget the units), average for vegetarians is 40. And that is the reason wy their insulin sensitivity is twice as good.

jdp710:

I read your DKK-1 thread. Seems like you and I have very similar health issues:

• Hair loss
  
• Varicose veins
  
• High mercury
  

What did you take that reduced the varicose veins?

And did you say that you were able to stop the shedding? At this point, I would be most grateful just to stop the mass amounts of hair I lose each time I wash my hair! You said that you've been at this for 10+ years, but doesn't your hair stop shedding after awhile as you no longer have as much? One of my friends said that his hair stopped shedding now simply because he is pretty bald. Anyhow, please let me know what I could take just to stop the shedding. Please specify the dosage too. Thanks.

Gibson, so you are trying to increase estrogen around the scalp area by applying peppermint oil to the scalp?

Gibson wrote:Here's my take on it, which like others, I have deduced largely from personal experience.

I think estrogen receptors are key. My course of action, which seems to be working, is to use topical estrogen receptor antaganists: currently peppermint oil. Blocking DHT is the long way to ideally arrive at what the hair follicle needs: estrogen. Some of us are blessed with sensitive receptors that provide in themselves the optimum estrogen dominant climate in the hair follicle. Alec Baldwin for instance, who is a major alcoholic and not healthy; Elvis, who was addicted to prescription drugs; the list goes on. It is possible to be a perfectly healthy male with MPB. When i see a beautiful head of hair, i see an expression of estrogen. To wax philosophy, I'd say estrogen is the hormone that attracts and testosterone is the one that drives. Ideally, we have both hormones in abundance and our bodies express them accordingly. Unfortunately, for those with MPB, in the scalp, the estrogen receptors do not triumph.

In writing this, i am basically just mouthing off, so there are no pretensions to sound pompous and I aim to sound amateurish: in other words, I'm not looking to argue about this. If it sounds dumb, good.

I will add that there is a ton of conclusive research regarding estrogen and hair growth. And i think a wrong approach is compromising one's state of health to create estrogen dominance in the scalp.

Interesting article - applying the estrogen blocker on the rats skin brought back hair fast, applying estrogen kept them hairless.


Hormone blocker switches on hair growth - estrogen blocker helps grow hair on mice - Brief Article

Interestingly in the end one doc rasises this question:

...whether hair growth effects formerly attributed to androgens "might actually trace to estrogens converted locally from those androgens."

estrogen blocks body hair growth. not the case for the human scalp.

human studies abound that confirm this, but of course there will always be some that are contrary.

Currently, i am convinced of the above, but I refuse to hold the flag on this against the lunds who seek argument for the sake of argument.

I will add that I can see how low level estrogens can potentially raise DHT as the body seeks homeostasis (just a hack theory). And in this respect, I find soy to be a libido booster. This is why my approach is to apply topically.

So this guy has a lot of estrogen on his scalp but none on his chest?

u should be shot for posting that.

re-read my first post. note what i said about receptors.

just a personal theory. u don't like it: too fucking bad.

I have no issues with any theories - all what I did was asked if you are trying to do increase estrogen in scalp or not? then I linked an article that has some relevance in the next post - that's all.

I posted a link for vitamin D3 negatives last week , ppl debunked it - I am happy for it, ppl got a chance to discuss it and hopefully it cleared up the issue for not only me but others as well.

I am trying to understand the relationship b/w estrogen and androgens as it relates to our hair - hopefully that is not a crime...

Chill....

Gibson wrote:Here's my take on it, which like others, I have deduced largely from personal experience.

I think estrogen receptors are key. My course of action, which seems to be working, is to use topical estrogen receptor antaganists: currently peppermint oil.
.
.
.
I will add that there is a ton of conclusive research regarding estrogen and hair growth. And i think a wrong approach is compromising one's state of health to create estrogen dominance in the scalp.

Gibson, can you please elabprate what you're doing with peppermint oil. It mimics oestrogen doesn't it? If that's the case, doesn't it affect your libido.

Thanks.

It is 100% true that high estrogen / low testosterone block body and facial hair.
Billions of living examples of this on our planet ;-)

In general hormones are EXTREMELY powerful.
High doses of androgens and a woman turns into man! You can even not be able to recognize that someone was previously a woman.
This is how potent hormones are.

Thats why cortisol/stress contributes to hair loss.
Thats why men who have more vitamin D - which is truly a steroid hormone have generally much more body, facial and scalp hair.

HOWEVER! Hair on our scalps are poorly correlated to the amount of testosterone/estrogen.
The biggest proof are Asians- the lowest T levels while they have least problems with baldness.

Hair on the scalp seem to be very dependent on the amount of the most powerful hormome in human body- vitamin D. See Prince William head turning bald at 30! Most people who work indoors most of their time are likely to lose hair... and most certainly they will lose hair COLOR.

And many, many factors influence vitamin D levels:
- stress
- diet (wheat and dairy decrease vit D)
- lifestyle (you can have more vitamin D at the the North Pole than Equator just depending on how much time you expose yourself to strong sunlight AND and at what degree)

The amount of sunlight during the day has huge impact on how much other antioxidants and hormones you'll produce during the night: Melatonin, Glutathione, HGH.

There is only one reason and cure for every illness: to what degree you 're off with Natural way of living. Natural living means: a lot of sun, little stress, slow pace, ONLY natural food.
NO artificial,lab-made SUPPLEMENTS or VITAMINS! They can ONLY harm you!

i just donated blood and i definetely feel way more clear headed after doing it. honestly, not sure of the reason why. could be too much iron. they tested my iron and told me i was right in the middle of the scale. they said to donate you have to be between 35 and 55 and i was at 47. i dont know whre this is for ferritin levels as i see online readings talking about 100+, so this was some other scale.

did a little digging and found that iron and insulin resistance have a clear relationship.. people who donate blood have much better insulin sensitivity. could be a factor in hair loss for sure. i take dessicated liver everyday and eat beef.. so i will be donating every 2 months from now on. honestly, feel great after doing it.

Iron and insulin resistance.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Preliminary clinical and experimental results suggest that iron can modify hepatocytes' insulin sensitivity by interfering with insulin receptor and intracellular insulin signalling.
AIM:
To evaluate in vivo the influence of iron on insulin resistance and insulin release in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and in vitro the interaction between iron and insulin sensitivity by analysing the effect of iron manipulation on insulin receptor expression in hepatoblastoma HepG2 cell line.
RESULTS:
Insulin resistance evaluated by homeostatis model assessment (HOMA)-insulin resistance significantly decreased after diet, and a further reduction was observed after phlebotomies. Iron depletion by desferrioxamine increased by twofold the 125I-insulin-specific binding, whereas iron addition reduced insulin binding, similarly to cells exposed to high glucose concentration.
CONCLUSION:
Iron status affects insulin sensitivity by modulating the transcription and membrane expression/affinity of insulin receptor expression in hepatocytes and influencing insulin-dependent gene expression suggesting that increased insulin clearance and decreased insulin resistance may contribute to the positive effect of iron depletion in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16225476

here's another thought.. women tend to lose hair after they stop menstrating.. so they may have more iron buildup?

Iron loading increases cholesterol accumulation and macrophage scavenger receptor I expression in THP-1 mononuclear phagocytes.

Epidemiological studies have established that a high level of iron body stores is associated with increased risk of acute coronary heart disease. To explain this association, it has been proposed that iron catalyzes the production of highly reactive forms of free oxygen species, and thus, promotes low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation, a lipoprotein that plays a critical role in atherogenesis. However, few studies have provided evidence to support this hypothesis. In the present study, we determined the effect of iron loading of THP-1 mononuclear phagocytes on LDL metabolism. We demonstrated that iron loading of THP-1 cells stimulated conjugated diene formation in LDL in the culture medium. In addition, iron loading of THP-1 cells significantly increased cholesteryl ester accumulation in cells exposed to native LDL, suggesting that during the incubation of the cells with native LDL, the LDL became oxidized and was taken up by the cells. We further demonstrated that the degradation of 125I-oxidized LDL was significantly increased in iron-loaded THP-1 cells. Lastly, we demonstrated that iron loading of THP-1 cells stimulated scavenger receptor expression in these cells. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that loading of mononuclear phagocytes with iron leads to oxidization of LDL, increased cellular cholesterol accumulation and scavenger receptor expression, and supports the hypothesis that increased macrophage iron levels promote atherogenesis.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15798950

Atherosclerosis
Hardening of the arteries, also called atherosclerosis, is a common disorder. It occurs when fat, cholesterol, and other substances build up in the walls of arteries and form hard structures called plaques. Over time, these plaques can block the arteries and cause problems throughout the body.

FUUUUUUUUUUCK

THIS MAKE SO MUCH SENSE!!!!I MEAN WOW.

And i was trying to find out why my wounds where turning dark red/brown
after switching from meat diet to fruitarian and vegan stuff.
IT WAS THE BODY MECHANISM TO EXPEL accumulated iron.

After switching i noticed an immediatley positive effect on my hair.

Also i remember when on meat diet i tried something silly-self subision on
an intended scar.I basically poked a little needle under the scar to break the fibrous tissues.
And as it bled really bad, and did it and more times the next days,i felt so good,lik on ecstasy.

Brilliant post 10/10.

yup wrote:FUUUUUUUUUUCK

THIS MAKE SO MUCH SENSE!!!!I MEAN WOW.

And i was trying to find out why my wounds where turning dark red/brown
after switching from  meat diet to fruitarian and vegan stuff.
IT WAS THE BODY MECHANISM TO EXPEL accumulated iron.

After switching i noticed an immediatley positive effect on my hair.

Also i remember when on meat diet i tried something silly-self subision on
an intended scar.I basically poked a little needle under the scar to break the fibrous tissues.
And as it bled really bad, and did it and more times the next days,i felt so good,lik on ecstasy.

Brilliant post 10/10.

How often do you have wounds? You make it sound like it's a common thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQbYzBnrmrQ

ngb wrote:

yup wrote:FUUUUUUUUUUCK

THIS MAKE SO MUCH SENSE!!!!I MEAN WOW.

And i was trying to find out why my wounds where turning dark red/brown
after switching from  meat diet to fruitarian and vegan stuff.
IT WAS THE BODY MECHANISM TO EXPEL accumulated iron.

After switching i noticed an immediatley positive effect on my hair.

Also i remember when on meat diet i tried something silly-self subision on
an intended scar.I basically poked a little needle under the scar to break the fibrous tissues.
And as it bled really bad, and did it and more times the next days,i felt so good,lik on ecstasy.

Brilliant post 10/10.

How often do you have wounds?  You make it sound like it's a common thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQbYzBnrmrQ

Wounds from sratches.

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago --- take a look at the graphs presented. They will echo what Sanderson is stating:

http://web.archive.org/web/20120703000111/http://healthyfixx.com/28/donate-blood-for-your-health