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The
staff at Wellness Alternatives understands that stopping and reversing
your hair loss is important to you. All you want is your hair back. The
most common information on the cause of hair loss found on the web
relates to the thyroid, excess DHT, “androgenic alopecia”, and PCOS. In
reviewing this information, it appears that each of these is separate
and disconnected. We found this information confusing and it must leave
you feeling hopeless.
The Hair Loss Program
Our challenge is getting women to understand the complexity of care
required to manage hair loss appropriately. The appropriate treatment of
hair loss is much more complex than using thyroid or hormone
replacement. Many factors and systems are involved in the patterns
associated with hair loss. These factors include: liver detoxification,
estrogen metabolism, thyroid and gut function, insulin sensitivity,
adrenal function, testosterone synthesis, enzymatic activity associated
with hormone function and the feedback loops involved with the pituitary
and hypothalamus.
We hope to give you the information you need to tie up the lose ends of
what you have heard and make sense of what is happening to you and your
hair so that your excessive hair loss can be slowed and regrowth made
possible.
Contributing Factors to Hair Loss
Insulin Resistance and Hair Loss
Insulin resistance plays a major role in a vicious cycle that alters
female hormone metabolism towards androgen dominance.
Androgen
is the generic term for any steroid hormone that stimulates or controls
the development and maintenance of masculine characteristics. They are
also the precursor of all estrogens, the female sex hormones.
Androgen Dominance may eventually lead into PMS, Polycystic Ovary
Syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, ovarian cysts and tumors. PCOS is the most
common female hormone disorder in menstruating women. PCOS is primarily
characterized by hyperandrogenism, insulin resistance and chronic
menstrual irregularities. Estrone is produced by the fat cells from the
conversion of the androgens. This type of estrogen promotes the storage
of fat around the middle. Symptoms of androgen disorders tend to appear
gradually over a number of years and range from mild to serious. They
include irregular periods, infertility, unexplained weight gain, fluid
retention, fatigue, mood swings, and acne beyond puberty,
hair loss, and
unwanted hair growth. Insulin resistance is associated with estrogen
proliferative cancers, acanthosis nigricans (darkening of the skin, age
or liver spots), increased cardiovascular disease and elevated
cholesterol / triglyceride levels.
Insulin resistance causes high cholesterol/triglycerides and sludge to
build up in the liver, which must be cleared to restore proper hormone
elimination. Cholesterol and triglycerides is a by product of your
body’s efforts to provide your cells with glucose. Only 15% of
cholesterol and triglycerides levels are related to diet. Androgen
dominance plays a role in the vicious cycles in its impact on insulin
resistance. Excess androgens increase levels of free fatty acids which
inhibit the liver detoxification and skeletal muscles from using
glucose. These metabolic pathways create a vicious cycle of elevated
insulin which is fed and feeds androgen formation.
Insulin resistance and androgen dominance seriously impair your body’s
ability to eliminate toxins, free radical and excess hormones. This
results in ever increasing levels in your body of the things that your
body is attempting to get rid of.
Hormones and Hair Loss
Insulin resistance creates a vicious cycle that shifts into androgen
excess and the androgen excess promotes insulin resistance. This vicious
cycle presents with elevated testosterone, elevated estrogen, decreased
sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), increased androgen production and
lowered thyroid function.
These sex hormones (testosterone & estrogen) circulate in the
bloodstream, bound mostly to SHBG and to some degree bound to serum
albumin. Only a small fraction is unbound, or "free," and thus
biologically active and able to enter a cell and activate its receptor.
The SHBG inhibits the function of these hormones. Thus bioavailability
of sex hormones is influenced by the level of SHBG. Decreased SHBG
increases the bioavailability and greater exposure to both estrogens and
testosterone leading to an even greater androgen response.
Thyroid
and Hair Loss
Much of the information on the web points to the Thyroid having
an influence upon hair loss. It does, but not directly. Hair loss and
thyroid issues often occur at the same time. Thyroid function is also
looked at as acting independently and not subject to other influences.
Looking at it from this perspective, thyroid function gets blamed for
hair loss. However, Functional Medicine recognizes that multiple factors
are contributing to the problem.
Thyroid hormones are activated in the gut, where inactive T4 is
converted to active T3. Gut inflammation will alter the conversion,
resulting in decreased T3 production. High Cortisol affects Thyroid
significantly in several ways:
-
TSH suppression
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Decreases the amount of T3 available
-
Increases the amount of Reverse T3, which is totally inactive and
irreversible by the body
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Creates T3 receptor site resistance
Estrogen Dominance increases Thyroid Binding Globulin causing:
Decreased thyroid hormones increases the quantity of circulating
fats in the blood including:
Insulin resistance will cause increased testosterone levels.
Increased testosterone levels will cause T3 resistance making a person
feel Hypothyroid. It is unlikely a person is hypothyroid without being
insulin resistant.
Why
Hair Loss?
This
hormonally induces hair loss which takes place when an enzyme starts to
convert the hormone testosterone on the scalp to its less useful
version, dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. DHT then attacks the hair
follicle, and shrinks it, even making it disappear entirely. Hair
becomes thinner and finer, and may stop growing entirely. This
conversion of testosterone to DHT seems to be sped up in some patients
with insulin resistance induced hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, and
may be the cause of hair loss that continues for patients, despite what
is considered sufficient thyroid treatment.
What causes Insulin Resistance?
Your
body’s structure is where this starts. Body workers, chiropractors and
physical therapists all talk about high shoulders and hips, muscle
spasms and posture. Very few can correlate this altered structure with
altered organ function. Recognizing that no part of the body can be
thought of as separate from the body, the staff at Wellness Alternatives
understands the affects of altered body structure on organ function.
Being truly – Wholistic – we view this altered structure as causing
internal stress. The altered structure compresses and twists the organs
just enough that their function is compromised. This stress causes the
adrenals to produce cortisol in response to this. Combined with the
external stress of daily life, taking care of kids and a job, more and
more cortisol is produced. While some cortisol is good, excess cortisol
thins the lining of the stomach and is the primary cause of
osteoporosis. The lining of the stomach is where stomach acid is formed
and the thinning of the lining results in lowered stomach acid.
The
food you eat must be chemically digested in order for you to absorb
nutrients and minerals. What happens to your hair when you dye it and
who ever is doing it gets the chemistry wrong? Bad things happen! The
food you’ve eaten cannot be digested and now begins to sit in your
digestive tract longer than it should. This is the same food you had to
have back in the fridge shortly after it was served.
Inflammation that occurs when food is not properly digested due to
deficient digestive chemistry is where hair loss starts breaking down.
Low stomach acid upsets the delicate balance that is necessary to break
down food for absorption. It is commonly thought that people have too
much acid. However, this is not what occurs. The lack of proper
chemistry causes the food you have eaten to begin decaying in your body.
This causes inflammation producing free radicals which begin damaging
your cell walls. These cells and the receptor sites for hormones are
also damaged. The cells then become resistant to the hormones that are
supposed to use these sites. The cells that produce 95% of the serotonin
and neurotransmitters responsible for your moods are located in gut. The
inflammation exhausts your serotonin reserve and you become depressed or
have mood swings.
Bacteria, yeast and Candida are now attracted to the buffet of
undigested food. Your immune system is now focused on attacking the food
that isn’t being digested and not on keeping the bacteria, yeast and
Candida in check.
Most
hormones are eliminated in the gut. The liver wraps up the hormones and
dumps them into the colon for elimination. Inflammation un-wraps the
hormones, which are absorbed back into your body, causing elevated
hormone levels, shifting you out of normal hormone ratios.
The
combination of the inflammation, poor liver detoxification and elevated
androgens/hormones leads you into Insulin resistance.
How
can it be repaired?
CRITICAL POINT ANALYSIS AND TREATMENT
Functional Medicine uses Critical Point Analysis which is achieved by
recognition of specific patterns of dysfunction that occur in the body.
Critical Point Analysis is a technique derived from the fact that in any
highly complex system there is a specific, critical point at which the
smallest input will result in the greatest change
We identify the patterns of dysfunction associated with hair loss
through a metabolic assessment questionnaire. Information revealed can
then be utilized to determine the course of treatment that would yield
the greatest change.
Blood tests would be used to determine anemia, liver detoxification, gut
function and insulin sensitivity. By understanding the patterns in the
blood test, we can influence hormone ratios through supplement
protocols. These protocols can also reduce stomach & bowel issues,
cholesterol levels, hot flashes and the risk of arteriolosclerosis and
diabetes. In some cases a saliva test would be used to determine hormone
ratios or adrenal function.
It takes six to nine months to repair and restore gut chemistry, achieve
liver detoxification and recalibrate the hormone metabolism listed
above. You must be healthy to grow hair. It is not until your body has
moved into the healing phase that hair re-growth will occur. You will
need to be patient while we guide your body to the healing phase
Most
often restoring proper digestive chemistry is the critical point to move
you into the healing phase. It involves using the “4 R” program –
remove, repair, restore, and rebalance. This does not occur over night.
However, significant changes can occur rapidly during the process. As
one piece of the puzzle is repaired, you may feel better incrementally.
All
these complex cycles must be corrected in order for your body and hair
to be optimally healthy. Wellness Alternatives understands how the body
falls apart and how that relates to hair loss. As you can see, hair loss
is a complex issue but can be restored through Functional Medicine.
Call Wellness Alternatives today!
636-227-4949
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