Losing Too Much Hair- Help Jeff!

[chayasara]

Jeff.

I’m losing my hair and I hope you can help. Here's the background.

I am a 50-year old female in excellent health. I have been a runner for about 15 years and have no health problems. Normal cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, etc. I take a multivitamin everyday. I am 5'1" and 103 lb and have eaten a healthy diet (low fat, high fiber, lean protein) for many years, although I went totally vegan about 4 months ago. Since then, I might have lost a couple of pounds, but nothing extreme. For the last month or so, however, I have been losing handfuls of hair. It is very upsetting. I'm wondering if there's something nutritional that could be causing this. I also find that I am tired and foggy-headed a lot of the time, especially on the days after I exercise. I run or do other exercise (biking, cross trainer) and weight training every other day and my routine hasn't changed in years.

Additional information- A couple of years ago, my blood work showed anemia (low Hb) so my doctor suggested a multivitamin with iron, which I took and after a month and my Hb went to normal. Since I had a hysterectomy 15 years ago, there is no source of blood loss for me and a colonoscopy showed all is normal in there. So, we don't know why I was anemic 2 years ago.

I have been on Synthroid for 15 years and have had normal thyroid tests since then, until last year when my doctor raised my dosage a little.

Anyway, I'm just upset about my hair. Can you offer any insight on this besides telling me to see my doctor. I will do that in August anyway, but don't really want to make an extra trip if I can tweak my diet to keep my hair.

Sorry for such a long post.

[JeffN]

I am a 50-year old female in excellent health. I have been a runner for about 15 years and have no health problems. Normal cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, etc. I take a multivitamin everyday. I am 5'1" and 103 lb and have eaten a healthy diet (low fat, high fiber, lean protein) for many years, although I went totally vegan about 4 months ago. Since then, I might have lost a couple of pounds, but nothing extreme. For the last month or so, however, I have been losing handfuls of hair. It is very upsetting. I'm wondering if there's something nutritional that could be causing this. I also find that I am tired and foggy-headed a lot of the time, especially on the days after I exercise. I run or do other exercise (biking, cross trainer) and weight training every other day and my routine hasn't changed in years.

Anyway, I'm just upset about my hair. Can you offer any insight on this besides telling me to see my doctor. I will do that in August anyway, but don't really want to make an extra trip if I can tweak my diet to keep my hair.

Hi,

I am sure this is very upsetting to you and I wish I had a definitive answer for you but I don't.

In general, many things can effect the rate of hair loss (as we are always losing/shedding some hair) including medications, diseases, nutrition, hormones (inlcuding thyroid), elevated stress etc. The problem is when we lose more then we replace.

Iron is one of the nutrients related to hair loss, but if someone was taking a multi-vitamin with iron in it, they are probably getting more than enough.

While I have no supporting evidence to document this, many have said that they have had a similar experience with a dramatic change in diet/lifestyle and it eventually passes and the feel their hair comes back in better than before.

Sorry, I can't be of more help.

In Health
Jeff

[chayasara]

thanks for responding, Jeff.