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How To Stop Hair Loss With Hashimoto Disease

Can Hair Loss Be Stopped

What Causes Hair Loss With Hashimoto’s & How Do you Stop It? | Sara Peternell

I don’t want you to read this and start to get distraught or stressed out.

The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to suffer from hair loss forever if you have thyroiditis or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

While it can certainly be difficult to put your finger on the exact cause and type of hair loss you are suffering from, it is possible to stop that hair loss and even reverse it.

A big part of doing this, though, is ensuring that you have a physician who is properly trained and who understands the unique causes of hair loss in the thyroid population.

And this is why this information is so important.

The chances are actually fairly high that your doctor isn’t aware of these causes which means you will probably need to be an advocate for yourself.

What Ingredients To Look For In Hair Products

The question is can any shampoo or topical treatment really help with hair loss? Separate question, but related what ingredients in haircare products or color should we look for or try to avoid? Harsh chemicals, like the sulfates and the SLS that are detergents in haircare can be really tough on hairs like the scalp and the follicle.

So it would be best to avoid those which are found in a lot of the products, but not all of the products that you can find that the grocery store. And then of course there are a lot of companies that you can find online now who specialize in more natural products that don’t contain any of those ingredients.

On the same topic, also look for like parabens and fragrance and all of those different additives to also avoid for other reasons then hair loss, but just an added pitch there for self care and protecting your hormones. And then bleach, of course, anyone who’s using bleach or other harsh chemicals at the hair salon or from a box product, those can do damage.

It might not fall out at the root, but you’ll be dealing with those repercussions for many months to come. So always work with a professional with that as well. I feel like everyone’s trying to like a box bleach during quarantine. So no, I think that’s helpful. I think that answers the question that was.

How To Ask Your Doctor To Run Additional Lab Tests

And I have one more follow-up question. I know I hear from patients and customers sometimes about. Feeling like they’re asking their doctor to run certain labs or full blood work, that sort of thing. Do you have any advice, as a physician on how a patient can approach that with their doctor, if they’re getting pushback.

This was the thing you want to see your provider that you’re comfortable with. I think that if the provider is able to tell you why they think that test is not necessarily done, because yes, I’ll get that question too. Where do you think, let’s say it. X Y or Z. And I’m like no, because you don’t have any of the symptoms that are just because it’s on someone’s checklist of you should, everybody should get these questions.

That’s part of being in medicine and having that healthcare provider, relationship with your patient. But if you really feel like you’re getting that kind of pushback, You need to find that sounds terrible, but you might need to find a new provider or someone that feels that is collaborating with you.

It’s never, medicine, unfortunately, it’s not like fast food where you order something and this is what you get. Cause that’s not providing best care either, but you want someone to be able to explain to you why it’s not that. If they don’t think that’s it. So that needs to be an open communication discussion with you and your provider and that kind of relationship you need to gauge on.

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Find Out What Is Causing Your Hair Loss

For 3 years after getting off birth control my hair fell out in clumps. Constantly. After the first year or so my hair was permanently worn back in an ever-shrinking bun. I was desperate for answers, panicking, my Mom was crying over it when shed see me and doctors had NOTHING to say about it except, sorry hun, you look normal to me, nothing shows up in your blood, maybe youre aging?, give it some time, sometimes the pill has weird side effects, are you really stressed?, you know you could always just use Rogaine but for life, you cant get off it. WOW, THANKS.

I spent so much money on ridiculous products that burned my scalp or did absolutely nothing. I had it in my head that it was the hormonal imbalances or the PCOS . Finally, when a doctor confirmed it was Hashimotos . Hair loss is a major symptom of both hypothyroid and Hashimotos which I had persistently been asking to be tested for I will tell you right now, many conventional doctors and Endocrinologists do not test for this properly, if you suspect you have either of these, please do yourself a favor and go to a Naturopath, Integrative Medicine Doctor, or Functional Medicine Doctor. They will get you proper testing done, invest the money youre worth it.

Also, accept it might not just be one reason or another. Your body has A LOT going on and so do you, there are many factors that contribute to hair loss, figure out these contributing factors and get on them.

| PC: Danny Ospina

What Does Thyroid Disease

6 Tools I Used to Stop My Hair Loss From Hashimotos

Unlike male pattern baldness, the hair loss of thyroid disease usually involves your whole scalp and not just certain areas. So rather than a receding hairline or bald spots, it’s typical for all of the hair to appear sparse or thin. The exception is alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that sometimes occurs with thyroid disease, which does cause bald patches.

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Addressing Ferritin Two Ways

The last piece to my hair loss puzzle was dealing with my Ferritin levels. Adequate or inadequate iron stores in your body stem from a myriad of different factors. A few of them I will talk about here. The first is gut health. If your gut is in poor health and you have intestinal permeability then you will not be able to absorb the nutrients that you take in. Bone broth is one way to heal your gut as we talked about above. Secondly, Ferritin levels must be available in your body so you will have optimal thyroid hormone levels. Iron is a key nutrient required in the conversion of T4 to the active form of Thyroid hormone which is T3. If you are low in iron then your body will start creating Reverse T3 instead of T3 and your antibodies are likely to go up as well as your hair loss increase. Ferritin is stored in the hair follicle which is why your levels directly affect the growth of your hair.

After asking my doctor to test my Ferritin levels and discovering they were indeed VERY low, which is usually a symptom of Hypothyroidism and Hashimotos, I addressed the issue two ways.

The second way I simultaneously addressed my Ferritin problem was by supplementing with Iron Chelate This is the most absorbable form of iron available outside of whole food and it wont hurt your stomach or give you constipation.

Do you have any questions? What have you found to address your hair loss related to thyroid?

Autoimmune Related Hair Loss

According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, more than 50 million people in the U.S. have at least one autoimmune disease. They affect far more women than men and often start during childbearing years. The immune system is a network of cells and tissues throughout the body including bone marrow, the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, and white blood cells. These work together to defend the body from invasion and infection. An autoimmune disorder occurs when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys healthy body tissue by mistake. Autoimmune diseases causes many different symptoms throughout the body from mild to severe. Although the exact cause is unknown, several risk factors have been identified in some autoimmune disorders.

Family history:

Lupus and multiple sclerosis have been identified as having a familial risk factor. Inheriting specific genes can increase the likelihood of getting an autoimmune disease, however, a combination of genes and other factors may trigger it.

Environment:

Environmental exposure to sunlight and solvents, as well as viral and bacterial infections are linked to many autoimmune diseases.

Race or ethnic background:

Some autoimmune diseases are more common or have greater impact on certain groups. For instance, lupus is most severe in African-American and Hispanic people.

Gender:

Autoimmune Hair Loss

Autoimmune Disease Treatments and Hair Loss

Brief Overview of Autoimmune Diseases Associated With Hair Loss

Alopecia

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Your Thyroid May Be Causing Your Hair Loss: Here’s How

If youâre seeing more hair than ever before stuck in the drain or your hairbrush, you may begin to worry that youâre losing your hair. Hypothyroidism is a fairly common cause of hair loss, and hypothyroidism-related hair loss can also be reversible.

âA blood test to rule out thyroid abnormalities should always be a part of the diagnosis for hair loss due to medical conditions,â Abraham Armani, MD, a hair-restoration surgeon and hair loss specialist in Dallas, Texas, tells WebMD Connect to Care.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, it is normal to lose 50 to 100 strands of hair per day. If your hair is thick or long, a few dozen strands might look like a large clump, even if the number of hairs youâre losing is completely normal. But what if you are losing your hair?

Q: Could My Thyroid Condition Be Causing My Hair Loss

How to Stop Hashimoto’s Related Hair Loss (3 Types & 4 Causes)

A: Yes, it could. A lot of people with thyroid dysfunction shed hair.

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Common thyroid conditions such as Hashimotos thyroiditis and Graves disease are autoimmune disorders, which can sometimes result in hair loss.

The hair loss is typically reversed after your thyroid hormone levels are normalized. But this may take some time.

Its important to point out that hair loss may not just be caused by your thyroid, however.

Having one autoimmune disorder also increases your risk for having others, some of which produce hair loss:

  • Celiac disease can be associated with iron deficiency, which triggers hair loss.
  • Alopecia areata, a skin condition, causes hair to fall out, typically leaving round spots without hair.

And for women, menopause creates a low estrogen state that can thin the hair follicles, giving the appearance of overall hair loss.

If youre shedding hair, I would definitely tell your physician, who can determine the reason. Doctors can sometimes prescribe treatments to minimize or reverse hair loss.

Also Check: What Can Cause Rapid Hair Loss

A Final Word About Hair Loss

Stress can make you shed hair like crazy. Im speaking from personal experience, as well as the experiences of hundreds of my clients. What can you do to reduce the stress in your own life that might be contributing to hair loss? Taking time to care for yourself with yoga, meditation, journaling, or light exercise are all great options to help reduce your stress load. Here are some of my favorite strategies, that you can save or print for easy reference:

You might also consider supporting your stress hormones with adaptogenic herbs, such as those in Rootcology Adrenal Support.

I want you to know that there is help for your hair loss! I know how crushing it can be to deal with a symptom as difficult to disguise as hair loss, but there are so many avenues for you to explore that can lead to a huge shift in your current hair growth. As I began to get to the root cause of my own thyroid condition and make changes that restored health and balance to my body, the hair loss I was experiencing stopped. Start with the solutions that resonate the most with you and are easiest to implement, and note that it may take several weeks to see noticeable changes with any supplement, medication, dietary, or topical changes that you make.

I wish you all the best on your journey toward recovering a healthy head of hair!

P.S. Be sure to sign up to receive my Thyroid Symptom Hacker for more tips on overcoming hair loss!

Circular Hair Loss Patterns

The most common cause of hypothyroidism is Hashimoto’s Disease, which is an autoimmune disorder in which antibodies attack the thyroid gland leading to chronic inflammation. Studies show that having one autoimmune disease makes you more likely to develop a second.

A common autoimmune disease that results in unpredictable hair loss is alopecia areata. However, the pattern of hair loss from alopecia areata appears differently from hypothyroidism hair loss. The hair falls out in circular patches instead of evenly throughout the hair. Treatment for alopecia areata is different from that of hypothyroidism. Consult your doctor if you think you may be experiencing alopecia.

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How To Treat Hair Loss Due To Hypothyroidism

Problems related to the thyroid gland can cause some changes in the body. The most common of these problems are hypothyroidism disease. Hypothyroidism, known as the overwork of the thyroid gland, also negatively affects the hair. Hypothyroidism can disrupt the growth cycles of hair follicles. As a result, serious problems such as hair loss may occur. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment is important. Because how to stop hair loss due to hypothyroidism depends on the treatment plan. There is a relationship between the activity of thyroid hormone and hair health. Because the thyroid glands stimulate the hair and regulate the functions of the sebaceous glands. It also contributes to sebum production.

Preventing any imbalance in the thyroid gland can prevent hair loss. Therefore, appropriate treatment is required to prevent hair loss due to hypothyroidism. As it is known, people with hypothyroidism have sensitive, dry, and brittle hair. How to stop hair loss due to hypothyroidism is often explored. There are many treatment methods and recommendations to prevent hair loss due to hypothyroidism. These treatment methods and recommendations strengthen the hair. Thus, the hair will have a healthier appearance. Mesotherapy Side Effects

Hyperthyroidism And Hair Loss

Hair Loss, Hashimotos, Graves

The most common form of hyperthyroidism is an autoimmune disease called Graves disease and its not unusual for people with one autoimmune disease to develop another. This is the likely explanation for hyperthyroid patients developing the autoimmune disease Alopecia areata during which there are small, often circular areas of hair loss. In most cases this does not progress but in severe cases it can cause significant baldness .

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