My Hair loss experience and current progression in solution

25 yr old African America male diffused nw2, started hair loss at 19yrs old (receding), total hair loss wasn't noticeable or bothersome until about 23-24, have been eating healthy and improving my diet since 22, and started taking supplements just shy of 1 year ago. Hair currently holding without anymore shed, but no solid regrowth yet.

"Through all my research and present conclusion I believe MPB is the combination of a couple things:
A.) having the gene, or scalp biology (vascularity?) to have hormonally affected hair in the first place- probably makes up one third of men on the planet?
B.) vitamin:mineral deficiencies which prematurely give you under achieving bodily processes
C.) Excessive toxicity, or cellular damage
D.) last but not least hormonal imbalances. Low shbg

Time is limited so hopefully others will add in their comments. I only want to mention that there is no need to cut down on animal fat or red meat, however opt for grass-fed if you can.

Been meaning to mention that for anti-aging I do male BHRT of topical testosterone, dose not sure, a medium amount to address low T blood tests and I have no hair lose problems. I do attempt anti-aromatese with 100mg zinc and 1000mg of evening prime rose oil and commercial prostrate support formulas. I mention BHRT of Testosterone for anti-aging in a no-hair lose context so folks here don't shy away from one of the most effective treatments for keeping all endocrine systems working well. See an endocrinologist / anti-aging practitioner.

For lower inflammation saturated fats are your friend. As caustic commented grass fed meat is good, all the saturated plant fats like coconut etc are anti inflammatory and for coconut is pro-thyroid. Prior to "modern science" we lived without the modern diseases on saturated animal fats. Not to digress too far, but the commonly mentioned stat of average life span was 46 back then... Another statistical manipulation, if you remove death from war, farm accidents and childhood diseases average age is close to what we have today and death was not from cancer or heart attacks. The start of fat-o-phobia by largely Dr Campbell author of the China study has been widely refuted as a manipulated study. IE Eat like your grandmother.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/08/chris-masterjohn-criticism-of-the-china-study.aspx

Good luck, curt

Thanks for responses, I haven't permanently cut out red meat, up North the whole foods had Buffalo which I ate quite often, I just haven't sourced out any high quality red meat where I'm at now, and I lost my interest in cow, last time I had some was maybe November or December. I don't plan on ever becoming a vegetarian, I eat organic chicken and wild caught fish at least 3 days out of a week, and I'm also big on eggs.

Curt, Evening primrose oil is an anti-aromatiser? I got some of that a month ago for my girlfriend along with fish oil for her menstrual cramps, I didn't know it had that affect. Also I've heard outside sources of testosterone hinder your bodies own test production, but I did see a study saying it was given to older men and they did not experience hair loss if introduced when they are not in a bad insulin state, perhaps this was used along with an AR5 inhibitor. Not sure, but a anti aging practitioner sounds like the way to go, since hair loss itself is just a product of aging for the most part..

Any suggestions on naturally increasing testosterone levels without raising DHT. I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere though, I have tried maca before couple months ago. Experienced an increase libido for that month, but then towards the end of using it the affects died off, I didn't get more, probably will some day, just don't want to have to keep up with so many supplements.
I did zinc before too a yr ago but i think it was the wrong form of zinc; at any rate during the time i was taking zinc supplement last year I was going through a bad shed, that did end up recovering but idk how related. A lot of this Id prefer to get from food but this maxihair supplement I have says it contains 15mg zinc.

CausticSymmetry wrote:Time is limited so hopefully others will add in their comments. I only want to mention that there is no need to cut down on animal fat or red meat, however opt for grass-fed if you can.

CS,

I love red meat, and I don't avoid it. Though I think it can promote inflammation in the wrong environment, like those with MPB (my best guess is that this wrong environment is the gut flora). Those with MPB might have less regulatory cells due to a long standing dysbiosis, lack of nutrients (Vitamin A (!!!), Vitamin D, etc.) and other more secondary factors that have been discussed here before I think.

We have to compensate a lot with Omega-3s, probiotics and phytochemicals (all things already included in your regimen).

Please see:

http://thatpaleoguy.com/2011/08/20/nutrient-induced-inflammation-in-the-intestine/

From a practical standpoint, given that some people will clearly have a heightened inflammatory response to the absorption of long chain fats and, concurrently, not be able to deactivate the histamine produced as part of this process, it may be prudent to not overload their systems with large amounts of animal fats, in the first instance at least. They may need some remedial therapy – probiotics, increase in omega-3 intake, digestive enzymes, etc – in order to gain a large capacity to handle these fats (if they ever can). It is these individuals that may be better suited to a diet that contains leaner sources of meat, more oily fish, a higher intake of starchy root vegetables (with their prebiotic effect), and have the largest part of their fat derived from the non-inflammatory medium chain sources, such as coconut.

Interesting article. This won't be something thing to you, but it might give a deeper insight to people trying to decide what's the effect of food sources of AA and Sat Fat.

Dr. Art Ayers agrees that Sat' fats are healthy where there's no inflammation (gut flora).

Others: Don't get me wrong, I truly believe meat, specially grass fed (which I can't obtain, sadly), is generally healthy, but there are things to consider and are more complicated than Good/Bad.

For those interested in the PGD2 issue:

There is increasing evidence linking gut local inflammatory events with the intake of nutrients. Our recent studies, using the conscious lymph fistula rat model, demonstrate that fat absorption activates the intestinal mucosal mast cells. This is accompanied by a dramatic increase in the lymphatic release of mast cell mediators including histamine, rat mucosal mast cell protease II (RMCPII), as well as the lipid mediator prostaglandin D2 (PGD2).

This is the most important read for me re trying to apply abstracts of research to my own health protocol designs:

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

The questions that come to mind re your rat study are:

- what source of fats? Canola oil? They'd study with Canola or other industrial oil if they wanted to bias the end result to show fat in an unfavorable light.

- How much fat.

I think until more is known about the design of the study, all studies, we might be better served by taking the asserted finding in the abstract and reversing it,, we'd be more likely closer to truth.



good luck, curt

Mmm... interesting.

To add, I recently just picked up Natural Factors Multi Enzyme vegetarian formula from local health food store.
I got it because last week I had some stomach issues for the first time in a long time, think I had a stomach bug, but was having stomach pains after I ate stuff that I always eat.I got this plus ginger tea and apple cider vinegar and it went away and I'm back to normal.Also got some blood work done after that since it was free on my health insurance. I wish I could've gotten all my hormones and vitamin D levels tested but that would've costed...They said my cholesterol was low, but could've been because I ate significantly less those days prior to gettin test done due to stomach aches. My thyroid tested normal at least, though I didn't specifically ask what normal is in regards to the test. Should I have? Also any thoughts on this Enzyme product in link below, thanks.
ww.iherb.com/Natural-Factors-Multi-Enzyme-High-Potency-Vegetarian-Formula-120-Capsules/2655?at=0

We buy our own blood tests several times a year through LEF.org

http://www.lef.org/BloodTest

Same testing places, just rock bottom prices. The insurance companies/Drs have a racket going on. The co-pay you pay for tests actually is what the tests cost. The insurance co either gets a kick back then to the Dr or something.

I've done full blood tests both ways, insurance and through lef.org and I save a few $100 going outside the system!!

BTW, TSH is mis read and badly interpreted. A healthy TSH is below 1.0. I like mine in the 0.5-0.8 range. This WAAAY below the AMA/Dr norms of 3-5 being normal. There's so many walking undiagnosed hypo-thyroid folks out there because of this. A more thorough thyroid panel includes r-T3, T3/T4 ratio. Just TSH is hardly worth the cost. Clinical / symptomatic diagnosis is probably more accurate. Are your hands/feet cold? Thinning eyebrows and into the temples of your head? Very dry skin? Weight gain/can't loose it? These aren't definitive since these symptoms are apart of a broad range of aging/endocrine slow down...

I supplement with synthetic thyroid (levothroxin) and iodine (12-25mg/day), coconut oils etc to support the thyroid and down stream endocrine hormones.

curt

curt504 wrote:

Same testing places, just rock bottom prices. The insurance companies/Drs have a racket going on. The co-pay you pay for tests actually is what the tests cost. The insurance co either gets a kick back then to the Dr or something.

I've done full blood tests both ways, insurance and through lef.org and I save a few $100 going outside the system!!

BTW, TSH is mis read and badly interpreted. A healthy TSH is below 1.0. I like mine in the 0.5-0.8 range. This WAAAY below the AMA/Dr norms of 3-5 being normal. There's so many walking undiagnosed hypo-thyroid folks out there because of this. A more thorough thyroid panel includes r-T3, T3/T4 ratio. Just TSH is hardly worth the cost. Clinical / symptomatic diagnosis is probably more accurate. Are your hands/feet cold? Thinning eyebrows and into the temples of your head? Very dry skin? Weight gain/can't loose it? These aren't definitive since these symptoms are apart of a broad range of aging/endocrine slow down...

I supplement with synthetic thyroid (levothroxin) and iodine (12-25mg/day), coconut oils etc to support the thyroid and down stream endocrine hormones.

curt

Wow thanks I had no idea.. Well I dont know, if anything my metabolism is a little bit too fast, even though I am still at a health weight for my height, 5/8 - 150lbs. I used to be 155-160lbs but I cut back on meat and havent been taking my protein shakes lately which caused the weight loss since I'm a protein type. The outside corners of my eyebrows have always been thin, Idk if thats a sign, my temples are still fine just look like baby hair on the side of my face, been like that for a long time, the right side a bit less pronounced than the left side though. My feet and hands get cold sure but they are extremities and I'd have no way of gauging what would be normal. They dont feel abnormally cold, but I do like sleeping in socks... Skin isnt dry and my maxihair supplement has 225mcg of iodine in it from kelp ( not a lot) i used to take iodine in dropper form but i noticed it made my metabolism rev up and I was even hungrier so I havent taken any more from it... I will look into these blood tests

Ok I got something else to add.

So now its been a couple weeks since Ive added Natural Factors 5000 IU vitamin D w/ 200mg flax seed oil to my regime,
and I've also been making it a point to go shirtless in the sun and jog for a half a mile or so several times a week and my libido has
increased.. I am almost positive I've had long term vitamin D deficiencies with my complexion and below par sunlight I normally get,
and its nice to see its making a difference. Morning wood waking up with my gf is literally every day now instead of a couple times a week... Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'll test my vitamin D levels one day later on, I don't sense an urgency to do that yet. Ive also recently started taking organic Ginger Tea w/ lime for digestion, and it feels like it slightly increases circulation in my body, maybe something to check into..

Next month I've decided to add Ashwaganda to my regime and I've been looking into Ecklonia Cava since its valued highly here,.
I really like what I've been reading about the Ashwaganda though, so now I want to find the best quality and most effective sources of it. Any help with that, and thoughts on me adding this to my current regime. I hope that I am close to having everything that I'll ever need to keep up with for the results I'm looking for, I'm diffuse norwood 2A btw, hair is currently holding well though, Thanks...

So I just picked up some Ashwaganda root tea since it was pretty cheap.
http://celebrationherbals.com/products/ashwagandha-root.html

If this doesn't do much Ill just get the supplement next time.
It doesn't taste very good at all, I had to cut up a lime and put that in it with a little honey.
Anyone ever taken this in tea form? Ill give feed back if I feel like its doing anything, and still
debating on if I'm going to pick up Ecklonia Cava from somewhere or just save the money and ride out on what I'm currently taking
since hair has appeared to be stable for several months now. To be honest, with proper diet as a given, I feel like my stability could
be had with just the fish/krill oil alone possibly as I currently believe my hair loss was all inflammation, perhaps I
should just keep all my efforts in that direction... Curcumin, etc?

Btw the only supplements I've been taking every day are the krill/fish oil, all the rest I rotate between every couple days and try not
to take too much stuff all at once or else I feel weird. This makes everything last longer as well.

Quick note on the thyroid topic:

I supplement with synthetic thyroid (levothroxin)

Synthetic thyroid doesn't work for everyone. Synthetic thyroidis just the T4 hormone. T4 is the thyroid storage hormone. It converts into T3, which is the active hormone. But not everyone converts it very well.

Also, the thyroid gland is supposed to produce T1, T2, T3, T4, and calcitonin. Synthetic thyroid just has the T4. Natural desiccated thyroid (e.g., Erfa) contains the whole set.