Is hair loss a concern for you?

I speak to a lot of ladies who come to us with a double whammy of unexplained weight gain and thinning hair – and they are sick of it! They say it feels like they won’t have any hair LEFT if it continues!

Sometimes the reason for it is a genetic issue, other times it’s a treatable imbalance with your hormones that can be helped with correct diagnosis and treatment.

Thyroid conditions can cause hair loss

This is how your hair grows:

1. Hair starts growing at the root in the bottom of your hair follicle on your scalp.
2. Your scalp’s blood vessels feed the root, creating more cells and making your hair grow.
3. Hair pushes up and out through your skin. It passes through oil glands that help keep it soft and shiny.
4. Hair grows for a while but then falls out as each new regrowth cycle begins.

When hormone production is disrupted, specifically of hormones T3 and T4, it affects other processes in the body. This includes the development of hair at the root. Hair falls out and may not be replaced by new growth, resulting in thinning across your scalp and other areas such as your eyebrows.

You naturally lose between 50 and 100 hairs from your head each day. If normal hair growth is interrupted by low thyroid hormones, hairs aren’t being replenished, and a uniform hair loss may occur.

Hair thinning and baby hairs at the temples is a medical sign of a thyroid imbalance.

When the thyroid is treated, the hair will regrow, which is a great sign that the treatment is working.

With treatment, hair growth may be noticeable within several months. Be aware that the new hair growth may differ in colour or texture from your original hair.

Bald PATCHES

Bald patches are usually more serious and come from auto-immune issues. But they often present with thyroid disease.

Alopecia is an autoimmune condition often seen with thyroid conditions. It causes patches of hair loss in more discrete areas. Over time, though, this condition may cause baldness. Other autoimmune diseases that may lead to hair loss and are often linked to thyroid issues include polycystic ovary syndrome and lupus erythematosus.

Treatment Options

If you have serious balding, you need to go to a GP and then a specialist to get a proper diagnosis. Once that process is done, we can work alongside your specialist to help bring the immune system back in balance and assist overall health and vitality.

If you have hair shedding, hair loss at the temples, and thinning eyebrows, then our clinic can help – because that is sounding like a thyroid symptom.

It is also beneficial to incorporate a topical treatment at the same time as correcting your hormones. There ate some great natural treatment out there that use herbs to stimulate circulation of the scalp, and include nutrients to feed healthy hair growth.

Other factors to check are nutrients

These nutrients will all cause hair loss if you have a deficiency OR an excess.

• vitamins B-7 (biotin) and B complex
• zinc
• copper
• iron
• vitamins C, E, and A
• coenzyme Q10

Thyroid tests for healthy hair

Sub-optimal thyroid conditions are not picked up with standard testing through the GP. If your tests are coming back ‘normal’, it’s time to get more sensitive testing done to explore the reason. A FULL thyroid blood test tells us how well the thyroid hormones are working, converting, and interacting.

Sub-optimal thyroid hormone slows everything down. One of the first signs is excess hair shedding and weight gain.

Thyroid hormones are also dependent on some key nutrients that we get from our diet, such as iodine, selenium, zinc, iron, vitamin D and b vitamins, so testing these is also needed to create a personalised treatment plan.

It starts with a call with one of my team… we would love to help you with your health and wellness goals!