Hair Loss in Women By Meghna Thacker, NMD Healthy hair is what every women wants. A woman is almost terrified to experience hair loss. She may deal with any other health problem better but will get completely stressed out if she begins to lose her hair. And that turns into a vicious cycle since stress will cause more hair loss. In my practice, I have found that causes of hair loss in women vary based on their age, health condition, hormone levels etc. Let me share with you my experience. Diet and Nutrition: This is a no-brainer. One needs to eat a well balanced diet with adequate protein, fresh fruits, and vegetables. I can talk about diet in length but for this topic let’s just say that an undernourished person will experience hair loss due to lack of adequate protein and nutrients in the diet. Low Iron Levels: is frequently a cause of hair loss in women. I always like to check Serum Ferritin (most specific test for iron) levels in all my women patients. Vegetarian women tend to test lower on this. I correct iron deficiency with a supplement that has iron in form of ferrous succinate which is easily absorbed without causing constipation. The nice part is that this supplement also has Vitamin C that facilitates iron absorption along with folic acid and Vitamin B12 that help blood building. PCOS: that is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This is a very common condition in women that often goes undiagnosed. There is no specific test that can diagnose this condition but putting symptoms together can point towards this diagnosis. One of the symptom is hair loss. What happens is the ovaries are prone to forming cysts that produce higher Testosterone hormone. This testosterone gets converted to DHT or Dihydrotestosterone which causes hair loss, acne, increase in facial and body hair. I use Saw Palmetto as herbal medicine to block this Testosterone from converting to DHT and preventing hair loss. Low thyroid levels: Usually one of first sign of thyroid disorder can be hair loss. Too much or too little production of thyroid hormones, both can cause hair loss. I run a complete thyroid panel including TSH, FT3, FT4, T3, T4, thyroid antibodies to evaluate thyroid function. Many times thyroid disorders go undiagnosed because a patient comes and tells me that “My doctor ran my thyroid test and said it was normal but I am still struggling with all these symptoms, can you please help me?” Most frequently in these cases when I look at what tests were run for thyroid it was only the TSH and because that came back within range patient was sent back without further evaluation or treatment. I have had a good success treating thyroid disorders in my clinic using natural thyroid medications. I look at the blood tests as well as patient symptoms and then come up with a treatment plan. Low Estrogen Levels: in my women population who are closer to menopause and post-menopausal, frequently the cause of hair loss can be the drop in estrogen levels. I test them for their hormone levels and treat them with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as needed. Each patient is unique and they need an individualized approach and treatment. Thus there are many different reasons for hair loss. There are also temporary times when a woman will shed hair, for example post pregnancy or while following a diet plan to lose weight. The most important part is to find the cause of the problem and treat it appropriately. I love to do what I do because it is always fun and challenging to find the cause of the problem and then put together a treatment plan to help the patient individually, holistically and most of the times naturally
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:49:41 +0000
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