My own Experience with hair loss

Hi guys !

I spend some time to read this forum and I had to post something to explain my situation. That could be interesting for you.

I struggle with hair loss since 2017, I tried everything that could be possible to find my own solution :
- Finstaride, dutasteride
- Minoxidil
- Ru58841, Spironolactone
- All the natural stuff (saw palmetto, nettle root...)
- PRP, LLLT
- Microneedling
- Topical Mix of onion, garlic juice and ACV (Never again )
- Scalp massage and Hairguard stuff
-...

I had success with :
- Ru58841 + fin at first
- topical/oral fin with oral minoxidil

But when my hair stopped to shed and regrow, I always had to stop because of adverse effects on heart (High blood pressure, running heart), pressure on chest and kind of brain fog. Fortunately, I never had any sexual sides. My body doesn't tolerate 5AR inhibitors (even zinc is complicated, I tried zix but same sides) or minoxidil anymore. As long as I don't touch those drugs, my heart is ok but still have a little bit of high blood pressure (13/9) on morning.

So now, I had to find other ways to solve my issue, more natural. Even if I was brainwashed by Kevin Mann and his love for Finasteride.

I started to spend some time on the Ray Peat Forum and this one.

Now, I have made my own regimen :

- Scalp Massage (with the grow band of hairguard, I still have it ha ha)
- Taurine (5g ED) + Glycine (9g ED) (I will reduce to 3g and 5g)
- Tocotrienols (100 mg ED)
- Vitamin D (5000IU) + Vitamin K2 (mk7) 200μg ED
- MSM 3g ED
- Niacinamide 1g ED + P5P 40mg ED (I will change for a complex of vitamin B)
- Oral castor oil, 1 tea spoon (around 1.5mL) ED
- Trans-reveratrol 500mg ED (Will stop that because of Ray Peat's work)
- Will start in 1 month stabilized Alpha R-lipoic 200mg ED + L-Carnitine 2g ED (Carnitine is my exception, I know that Ray Peat is against that. It raises Nitric oxide, and it's against thyroid).
- Pura d'or's famous shampoo (even if there are natural 5ar inhibitors here, my body looks to be ok with that) and Ketoconazol shampoo
- I try to avoid PUFA as much as I can (no krill oil, very few olive oil...)

I started that regimen 2 months ago. Currently, I still lose some hair, like 50 a day (it was around 120 without anything). I noticed that my hair is a bit thicker and bulb is getting bigger on falling hair. My skin is getting more mosturised and softer.

I consider to add probiotics (like 1 month every year), microneedling, oral coconut oil and baking soda if necessary.

I wanted to thank you guys (especially CS) for all the knowledge you provide on this forum.

If you have any questions, suggestions feel free to ask.

Thought I would comment on the Ray Peat mention. Because of many popular notions from these inferences by Ray Peat are not validated, but are more of constructs.

In other words, it seems that every year or so, more and more of what was thought to be true is either found to be in error or just a matter of missing information.

So for example, I've been using Acetyl-L-Carnitine for over 15 years. Has it compromised my thyroid? No.

Also, elevating nitric oxide...There was a time when I had concerns over this, but later realized it wasn't a binary (ones and zeros, yes or no) condition, but more of a physiological matter.

While I'm at it....I have taken a lot of iodine, and yes Peat is/was wrong again.

He was just missing information and to be fair, Ray Peat is/was working with what he bad within a certain lens.

Then there's another thing....I've also taken a form of EFA's or essential fatty acids (omega-3) for well over 15 years, and has that compromised my thyroid?  No, in fact, this is critical for prostaglandins (PGD2) for example, which is one of the make or break hair conditions.
I had spoken to probably at least 30 to 50 people via consultations who had mentioned Ray Peat as an influence to how they were eating. Did it help? Doubtful entirely. That said, he's probably half-correct. He blames PUFA's (Polyunsaturated fatty acids) for impaired glucose signaling. So Ray Peat's answer to that is to limit PUFA's, and worry less about sugar and fruit, etc. This has not played out well for many....of course we are all different on how macronutrients are dealt with--a subject for another time.

Perhaps Ray Peat was too thyroid focused. I am of the opinion that the entire hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
is a lot more important.  

Other limitations are that like most researchers, etc. assume that what was taught in university is/was beyond reproach.
However, at least in my case, there's been a lot of "un-learning" so many things I once believed or wrote about
are no longer valid, because of paradigm shifts.

For example, the work of Harold Hillman MB, BSc, MRCS, PhD, and others through the basic rigors of the scientific method do not support most of the biology taught, and many of the concepts are just constructs and not much more that unproven theories.

So, then we are left with trial and error, since it's not reliable to through various sciences based on constructs.

All that said, personal experimentation goes a long way.

Hello CS,

I admit that I base my opinion on peoples experience's and the Danny Roady's book "hair like a fox". I am pretty new in Peat regimen and in your regimen. Yeah, your right on one point, there's a lack of evidence on Peat's regimen.

About Prostaglandins, I use oral castor oil to increase PGE2. I thaught about using 500mg of Krill oil ED, but I am not sure about it. You know why haha ! I may try latter for 4 months.

About Nitric Oxide, I do not really understand because I like meditation. Isn't it supposed to be good ?
I read on scientific literature that nose breathing increase Nitric Oxide and humming (like Tibetans monk) can increase 15 times the NO. I admit that I'm surprised NO can be bad as well.

When you use one product, you have to compensate with another, so I guess when you use iodine, if your regimen is healthy, no problem.

But I think you will agree with that : It's important to often make some blood check and being sure that hormones are in good range. Even if you eat PUFAs, increase NO, serotonin...

I just have a question : why don't you use Taurine / Glycine ?

Thanks for your time and response, it's very useful to me.

Jean-Guy wrote:Hello CS,

I admit that I base my opinion on peoples experience's and the Danny Roddy's book "hair like a fox". I am pretty new in Peat regimen and in your regimen. Yeah, your right on one point, there's a lack of evidence on Peat's regimen.

About Prostaglandins, I use oral castor oil to increase PGE2. I thought about using 500mg of Krill oil ED, but I am not sure about it. You know why haha ! I may try latter for 4 months.

About Nitric Oxide, I do not really understand because I like meditation. Isn't it supposed to be good ?
I read on scientific literature that nose breathing increase Nitric Oxide and humming (like Tibetans monk) can increase 15 times the NO. I admit that I'm surprised NO can be bad as well.

When you use one product, you have to compensate with another, so I guess when you use iodine, if your regimen is healthy, no problem.

But I think you will agree with that : It's important to often make some blood check and being sure that hormones are in good range. Even if you eat PUFAs, increase NO, serotonin...

I just have a question : why don't you use Taurine / Glycine ?

Thanks for your time and response, it's very useful to me.

All points good I think you've raised here.  On an aside, Danny Roddy used to post on a forum I was a member of prior to starting this forum in 2008. So we had a bit of dialog back and forth there, and he was quite transparent over his influences. Which, I happened to disagree on some of them.

So in other words, one could say he was reviewing other's research, rather than personal research.

In his book, he mentioned my name in the beginning (misspelled), but no matter, I like to stay more hidden. It's interesting that now days, he has a youtube channel and there was an interesting back and forth between his group and Bart Kay. This has nothing to do with hair loss, however it does relate to other subjects not too far removed from hair loss.

I'm sure Bart Kay would agree that he had lost his fair from his once "standard diet."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hocneFobp8

So on the PUFA's I would agree that say vegetable oils, seed oils are not good generally, they increase clotting factors and MMP-9. However there is a notable exception, and that is a variety that can be extracted without oxidation and that's not a well known process (it's "colder" than 'cold pressed'), so the heat does not exceed 85 degrees F on some varieties of organic seed oils.

Nitric oxide is more complicated as mentioned before, there's different types that are expressed and other co-factors/influences so make it "good" versus "bad."

Nitric oxide contributes to cutaneous vasodilation and endothelial function, that's a generally a good thing for hair.

So on iodine, because of the conventional teachings of it and what it does, it's based on experimental rat research where conclusions were misinterpreted.

To make matters worse, conventionally trained clinicians use tests that are misleading the iodine relationship.

For example TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is a pituitary hormone and while the first 6-months of iodine usage in the "higher" doses will elevate TSH, it is not clinically significant.

In other words, when clinicians observe an elevated TSH, they assume the thyroid needs to produce more thyroid hormone, but this elevation is transient, and will normalize after 6-months, as it's seeking an equilibrium.

However, 1 out of 100 or so people will get some of those wild, uncomfortable effects from higher levels of iodine, and this supports the claims made by those who warn against using it....but there's a reason for this.

If someone is taking a thyroid suppressing drug (and there are many, including SSR's, estrogen pills, etc) and they are both selenium and magnesium deficient, then there's a perfect storm for a high risk event when using therapeutic doses of iodine.

Last, but not least, taking 100 times the "Rats, Drugs and Assumptions" (RDA) of iodine level improves the ability to produce iodinated lipids, which act to prevent the excessive hydrogen peroxide generation that some physicians think causes thyroid issues. It's from at least in part, lack of iodine, not too much.

On the Taurine and Glycine question, my diet contains adequate amounts and since I do not eat any grains (for the most part), there's less chance of glyphosate contamination to reduce those levels.

Nice to see you participate in his work. I was surprised that your website / forum was difficult to find out, I understand now. I found it on other forums.
Only motivated people will discover your work.

I like the man, but I really think it's a very difficult way of life to keep his hair. I like food too much to start Peating. I think that a lot of people have the same issue.
Even if the way of treating hair loss is very complex, there are 2 things that are very important : Is it efficient and how difficult is it to apply ?

I don't know this Bart Kay, but now that I am not on the "finasteride wave" anymore, I really believe that hair loss is health related. This BK has very nice hair ... He doesn't look very healthy to me. Hard to believe an unhealthy man about health.

About PUFA, Here you're saying that oil could be good with the good extract process. I was trying to understand if some oil could be good for health. Coconut oil is one of them, but is Krill oil so bad according to peatarians ? I know you will say, "of course it's not".

There are different kinds of NO, I still need to dig on it to understand what is good and what is not. I can't believe meditation is bad. If NO is good for blood flow, How bad could it be for health ? If you increase blood flow, do you increase oxidation of the body ? If yes, I guess that your regimen (Resveratrol, ALA, ALCAR...) can really help avoid bad effects of NO.

About Iodine, I know it's very good for thyroid, I didn't know some people were saying it could be bad. But what I know is that TSH should be keep under 1.5 mlU/L and the less, the better. So, if your diet helps you keep low level, iodine is no problem, especially if you can use it on long term.

So on iodine, because of the conventional teachings of it and what it does, it's based on experimental rat research where conclusions were misinterpreted.

Thanks for your answer about Taurine / Glycine. Do you speak a bit about your diet somewhere ? I would be curious to have some information about that. The only thing I interested about is Peat and Glucose Revolution by Jessy Inchauspé (French woman who wrote a book in English about how to control glucose, very interesting).

I'll shed some light on the NO (Nitric Oxide) aspect, this sort of stuff hasn't been discussed here in probably a decade.

So a quick story on this, like others I had mixed concerns about nitric oxide before I understood its role and forms in the body. Generally it was considered a good thing to have more available nitric oxide, however at least in my case, there was a time when it seemed bad.

Nitric oxide when the body is not healthy, can elevate prolactin levels and cause some inflammation on the scalp. However, there are different states of nitric oxide, such as eNOS and iNOS.

eNOS (endothelial nitric oxide synthase) and iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) are two isoforms of the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS) that catalyze the production of nitric oxide (NO) from the amino acid L-arginine.

The key differences between eNOS and iNOS are as follows:

Expression: eNOS is expressed primarily in endothelial cells, while iNOS is induced in a wide range of cell types, including macrophages, neutrophils, and smooth muscle cells, in response to inflammatory stimuli.

Regulation: eNOS activity is regulated by calcium-dependent mechanisms, which means that it is activated by an increase in intracellular calcium levels. In contrast, iNOS activity is induced by pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), which activate transcription factors that promote iNOS gene expression.

Function: eNOS-derived NO plays a crucial role in regulating vascular tone, blood pressure, and platelet aggregation, as well as other physiological processes such as angiogenesis and neurotransmission. In contrast, iNOS-derived NO is primarily involved in immune and inflammatory responses, such as killing pathogens, and causing tissue damage in some diseases.

Timing: eNOS generates NO in a basal or constitutive manner, producing low levels of NO continuously, while iNOS generates NO in an inducible or high output manner in response to inflammation.

In summary, eNOS and iNOS have different expression patterns, regulatory mechanisms, and functions, with eNOS being constitutive and responsible for normal physiology, while iNOS is inducible and involved in immune and inflammatory responses.

So, then there is the "why" of nitric oxide dark side.

In my case, probably vitamin D deficiency, because this can reduce the expression and activity of eNOS in endothelial cells, leading to impaired vascular function. Also, low vitamin D levels have been associated with increased expression and activity of iNOS in immune cells, which can contribute to chronic inflammation and tissue damage.

Furthermore, vitamin D supplementation has been shown to increase eNOS activity and improve endothelial function, particularly in individuals with low vitamin D levels.

More on this:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8747125/

So on diet....that's a personal journey for people. Suffice to say, I fixed my hair issues over a very long stretch of time, while eating mostly what I wanted, just ensuring the supplements and other factors were available.

That said, hair loss is much bigger than diet. It's about what the dentist did....or didn't do (if the diet was inadequate early on), sleep quality and maybe dozens of other things, just depends on what.

So my diet now is not too relevant but it's probably pro-hair...which is carnivore with pizza once a week. That said, carnivore was unheard of mostly until now and wasn't part of the diet when recovering hair.

The "Peatatarians" are missing big puzzle pieces of information. I'll mention just one: Sugars in various forms
increase the hoarding of iron.

Pizza is actually a pretty nutritious food. It covers all the food groups....grains (crust), dairy (cheese), protein (meat), veggies (tomato sauce and peppers, olives etc) and even fruit (pineapple). You can't go wrong with pizza.

Olives are actually fruits...even tho they dont taste like it. Mushrooms are a better veggie choice than olives on a pizza. And I imagine anchovies are a healthy choice too to put on your pizza if you don't mind the salt.

shaftless wrote:Pizza is actually a pretty nutritious food. It covers all the food groups....grains (crust), dairy (cheese), protein (meat), veggies (tomato sauce and peppers, olives etc) and even fruit (pineapple). You can't go wrong with pizza.

Bingo!

I'll expand on this....in the last 20 years, so many people would say...."wait, pizza?" as if it's not a health food.

So the exceptions are microwaved, processed pizza found in the frozen section and the real cheap stuff might have
partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and all the preservatives that can compromise gut function.

When you buy restaurant pizza, those ovens commonly used in traditional pizzerias, can reach temperatures of 700-800°F (371-427°C) or even higher.  So process generally nullifies some of the gluten effects. In other words, there's a big difference between uncooked wheat and highly cooked wheat.

Then there's the idea that glyphosate that very well could be found in the pizza dough may degrade in high temperature cooking:

One study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, found that cooking food at temperatures ranging from 302°F to 347°F (150°C to 175°C) for 20 minutes resulted in a 15% to 30% reduction in glyphosate residues.

Another study conducted by researchers at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands found that baking bread containing glyphosate at temperatures ranging from 356°F to 464°F (180°C to 240°C) for 20 to 40 minutes resulted in a 70% to 90% reduction in glyphosate residues.

Anyway, the science isn't entirely sorted here, but some degradation of glyphosate is better than none.

Then there's the pizza sauce, the oil from the cheese and pepperoni will mix with the high-heat tomato-based pizza sauce to release the lycopene, which is much more potent when heated and mixed in with oils.

The other super food....saturated fat...the lipid we need to synthesize vitamin D and steroid hormones is found in cheese.

The medical/dietitian/death-care cartel has designed most of the advice via government sponsored (food manufacturer bribed/lobbies) to lie to the public over the last 70 years on the healthiest food in existence.

They've conned an entire generation of people to buy margarine in place of grass-fed butter, partially hydrogenated seed oils in place of lard, beef tallow, etc. This has caused a derangement of facial symmetry, so that dentists can ruin our oral cavity with primitive methods that destroy health, and subsequently improve the chances of male pattern baldness.

shaftless wrote:Olives are actually fruits...even tho they dont taste like it. Mushrooms are a better veggie choice than olives on a pizza. And I imagine anchovies are a healthy choice too to put on your pizza if you don't mind the salt.

My bad. Mushrooms aren't veggies either lol. But they should be!