My Hair Loss Has Made Me Ask - What Is Going On With My Body?

[Pointless]

Right now I take 2 mg three times daily. Or I take 2 mg when I feel that the last dose has worn off (and stress and negativity returns). 4 mg in one dose gives me the feeling that I'm about to have a cold so I think it's too much at once. I've never thought about using it topically.

I take 1 mg morning, 1 mg evening. Any more and I gain weight without any added benefit. I'm not sure about absorption or solvency, so I don't even know if it would get into the hair follicle.

 

[JDreamer]

So on Saturday I went and bought some supplements based on reading I had done with various Danny Roddy materials ..... specifically for hair, stomach, and mood. I forgot to purchase some iodine, but I ended up with the below:

- Vitamin A, Vitamin K2, Vitamin D
- Pregnenolone
- Multi-Mineral
- Betaine HCL with Pepsin

I got to say after two days of this stuff I'm feeling very different. I don't have a million thoughts running through my head at all times. Most importantly I don't feel tense at all, in fact very calm.

Working on creating a new mean plan to increase my caloric intake, carbs, and glucose.

 

[tara]

I'm constantly waking up multiple times during the night.

I feel like my body cannot relax, like it's in a constant state of tension/inflammation. I snap easily.

That would happen to me at times when I ate too little. More carbs amongst other things helped.

I've tried to describe this to others, but it feels like I don't get enough oxygen and my breathing is shallow. I should note that my sinuses have been terrible for the better part of the last 10 years. The inside of my nose feels inflamed all the time. I'm constantly having mucous build up in the lining towards the back - especially when I wake up in the morning. The cartilage in the front portion of the bulbous part of nose seems like some days it swells up.

This sounds like a feeling of air-hunger that might be related to chronic hyperventilation. If it is, then it might be worth trying a chin-strap or tape at night to help encourage the mouth to stay shut. Breathing too much tends to lower CO2 levels, increase swelling and mucous in airways, and can lead to feeling like not getting enough air. This is because CO2 is needed to get the oxygen to the tissues that need it.

This can seem counter-intuitive, but I've found that since I've got my mouth shut most of the time, including at night, and paid a bit of attention to getting my breathing more relaxed (including retraining diaphragmatic breathing instead of tense chest breathing), I seldom get a blocked nose, and occasional chest congestion seems to clear up much more quickly.

There might be other things going on with this for you, but this seems a possibility.

Starches can ... get absorbed into your blood causing blockages of capillaries.

Raw/dry-cooked starches - AFAIK, well-boiled ones don't do this.

 

[mayweatherking]

Hey everyone. First time poster. In looking around at this forum there appears to be some very bright minds among us and I'm looking forward to the discourse.

A little background on me. 37, Male, 5'11, and I fluctuate between 182-190 lbs depending on how consistently I'm getting my meals in (isn't always easy with work). My diet consists mostly of chicken, greens, oatmeal, yogurt, eggs, brown rice, and a little bit of peanut butter (cheap protein). I also drink two vegan protein shakes a day (25g/each). I will have a cheat meal or two on the weekends. I don't consume any alcohol during the week - only on weekends and nowadays that's mostly on Sunday Funday.

I'm not being treated for any medical issues. I had a bad case of mono in college. A long time ago a general practitioner suggested I had Gilbert's Syndrome due to my chronically elevated bilirubin levels. About 6 years back a nurse practitioner said it looked as if I had the antibodies for Sticky Blood (otherwise known as Hughes or Antiphospholipid Syndrome).

I should note that there was a stretch between 2003-2006 where I traveled for work. On those trips I would be putting in 13 hour days 6 days a week for 4 week stretches at a time. I was abusing energy drinks and coffee to keep going, then one day up in Seattle I became extremely ill (100+ degree fever, my body hurt, gums were bleeding, etc). I tried to work through it until one day I checked myself into a local hospital. Doc looked inside of my mouth and there was some kind of infection near my back left wisdom tooth. He prescribed me Penicillin 500V and told me to fly back home immediately to rest. My body has never felt the same and I often wonder if that infection went systemic.

Life is is very stressful and has been for a very long, unhealthy stretch of my lifetime. I used to combat it with weight lifting, but it seems like that's not helping me anymore. In fact I have had to dial down my workouts because my body doesn't recover well. I feel like I can't get out of first gear. I've gone from 5 days a week to 3. I'm athletic, but my muscles are not holding definition anymore. My face is getting so puffy, I'm bloated, and I've got the skinny-fat weight in my lower abdomen that won't go away. I haven't had restful sleep in as long as I can remember, which also doesn't help the matter. I'm constantly waking up multiple times during the night.

I feel like my body cannot relax, like it's in a constant state of tension/inflammation. I snap easily. I've tried to describe this to others, but it feels like I don't get enough oxygen and my breathing is shallow. I should note that my sinuses have been terrible for the better part of the last 10 years. The inside of my nose feels inflamed all the time. I'm constantly having mucous build up in the lining towards the back - especially when I wake up in the morning. The cartilage in the front portion of the bulbous part of nose seems like some days it swells up.

My hair has been shedding since 2008. It's been lacking body for a lot longer than that - but have always manipulated it with hair product. I'm now at a point where it's blatant diffused thinning and receding. I cling to cans of hairspray just to make things manageable with that ol' so dried out crispy look. I feel like my head won't stop getting bigger. It saddens me to see the state of it. The last shed I went through really did a number on the front and I've been in defcon 5 panic ever since. I was always the guy with cool hair and this may sound stupid - but my hair style is what propelled me out of being a shy introvert into somebody who was social and confident. Even when I had no money or struggling thru bad jobs - I had my hair.

At any rate. This is a call to arms for me, not just to try to salvage my hair but to get my body right. Any insight is appreciated. Below is the last hormone panel I had run, but it's from 2 years ago. My opinion is that if I didn't work out, my testosterone levels would be abysmal. There was a time back in 2006 my TSH hit 3.24.

Cortisol 21.5 (range 2.4-19.4)
DHEA-S 253.1 (range 138-475)
DHT 28 (range 30-85)
Estradiol 10.2 (range 7.6-42.6)
PSA 0.5 (range 0.0-4.0)
Progesterone 0.5 (range 0.2-1.4)
TSH 2.29 (range 0.47-4.68)
Free T3 6.67 (range 2.77-5.27)
Free T4 1.0 (range 0.8-2.2)
TPOab 8 (range 0-34)
Testosterone Free 12.5 (range 8.7-25.1)
Testosterone Total 342 (range 71-813)

First of all.. I'm going to warn you to be careful with a lot of advice you read here. Things like.. take aspirin, take vitamin A, take this, take that in order to change things.. Yes.. those are nice to help.. when you have the basics out of the way.. but I don't think you should be touching them until you are ready.. because yes, aspirin helps, but if you are all ready lacking calcium then what is it going to do for you.. nothing.. probably make you worse.. anyway i'm not going to go into specifics, but just hear me out

Your cortisol is high and your testosterone is low.. you know what high cortisol is telling me.. you are not eating frequently enough.. go to walmart and buy bananas or oranges and start eating them every half hour or something... anytime you feel any hunger whatsoever.. you need to eat some kind of sugar.. or else you are screwing yourself... the cortisol needs to go down.. it is right now inhibiting your thyroid.. your body shoots hunger to your stomach when you need sugar.. i would do fruit stuff right now though, like fructose, because if you have a shitty thyroid and dont have enough mag and calcium in your cells, you will have a hard time processing insulin and are going towards a more insulin resistant state.... eating stuff that gives you high insulin is going to hurt you in the short term beginning 100% if you are hypo right now.. get ready to feel the ITCH on your scalp if you start drinking milk right meow

you don't need cascara... you need to lower your cortiol... your cortisol being high is putting you into a stressed state... you know what happens when your cortisol is high.. your thyroid is inhibited... your magnesium then won't stay in the cells because it is lost... then your cortisol then can't even get processed.. your bowels are probably just in shock mode guaranteed

ok next.. you need calcium and magnesium and refuel them... you need the B vitamins and zinc and copper because they are lost in a hypothyroid state.. you all ready know you are hypo because your cortisol is high because you let your blood sugar drop too low... it's either from not eating often and your body goes too low.. or you eat protein and your blood sugar drops too far and you need some to do it.... B vitamins are in liver

when you eat sugar.. your body releases insulin.. insulin can go to the right place when you have the correct levels of magnesium and calcium in the body... you see though... you can't do that unless your thyroid is working... and cortisol is inhibiting it.

probably k2 is important.. vitamin D would be worthy to test and cholesterol will tell you if you have enough.. you need 200+ cholesterol, 50-60 vitamin D, and k2 helps you put the calcium where it should go.. egg shell calcium... i use magnesium spray as well... good luck soldier

 

[JDreamer]

First of all.. I'm going to warn you to be careful with a lot of advice you read here. Things like.. take aspirin, take vitamin A, take this, take that in order to change things.. Yes.. those are nice to help.. when you have the basics out of the way.. but I don't think you should be touching them until you are ready.. because yes, aspirin helps, but if you are all ready lacking calcium then what is it going to do for you.. nothing.. probably make you worse.. anyway i'm not going to go into specifics, but just hear me out

Your cortisol is high and your testosterone is low.. you know what high cortisol is telling me.. you are not eating frequently enough.. go to walmart and buy bananas or oranges and start eating them every half hour or something... anytime you feel any hunger whatsoever.. you need to eat some kind of sugar.. or else you are screwing yourself... the cortisol needs to go down.. it is right now inhibiting your thyroid.. your body shoots hunger to your stomach when you need sugar.. i would do fruit stuff right now though, like fructose, because if you have a shitty thyroid and dont have enough mag and calcium in your cells, you will have a hard time processing insulin and are going towards a more insulin resistant state.... eating stuff that gives you high insulin is going to hurt you in the short term beginning 100% if you are hypo right now.. get ready to feel the ITCH on your scalp if you start drinking milk right meow

you don't need cascara... you need to lower your cortiol... your cortisol being high is putting you into a stressed state... you know what happens when your cortisol is high.. your thyroid is inhibited... your magnesium then won't stay in the cells because it is lost... then your cortisol then can't even get processed.. your bowels are probably just in shock mode guaranteed

ok next.. you need calcium and magnesium and refuel them... you need the B vitamins and zinc and copper because they are lost in a hypothyroid state.. you all ready know you are hypo because your cortisol is high because you let your blood sugar drop too low... it's either from not eating often and your body goes too low.. or you eat protein and your blood sugar drops too far and you need some to do it.... B vitamins are in liver

when you eat sugar.. your body releases insulin.. insulin can go to the right place when you have the correct levels of magnesium and calcium in the body... you see though... you can't do that unless your thyroid is working... and cortisol is inhibiting it.

probably k2 is important.. vitamin D would be worthy to test and cholesterol will tell you if you have enough.. you need 200+ cholesterol, 50-60 vitamin D, and k2 helps you put the calcium where it should go.. egg shell calcium... i use magnesium spray as well... good luck soldier

Thank you. It all makes perfect sense to me and based on my symptoms I've long suspected the Thyroid-Cortisol picture you just painted. All I know is I don't want to feel like this anymore - in the stressed, tense state my body has been in for 10+ years running.

 

[JDreamer]

One of the things that's really bothered me over the last few years is how "puffy" I look. My face gets it really bad (especially on the right side) and my muscles are lacking the definition they used to have - even though as I mentioned I'm keeping up with my workout.

 

[mayweatherking]

One of the things that's really bothered me over the last few years is how "puffy" I look. My face gets it really bad (especially on the right side) and my muscles are lacking the definition they used to have - even though as I mentioned I'm keeping up with my workout.

Yeah i had the same happen to me too. I myself haven't have it all solved yet.. but I hope to soon. You should really get your prolactin checked, that would be a really good indicator of where you are.

 

[JDreamer]

So on Saturday I went and bought some supplements based on reading I had done with various Danny Roddy materials ..... specifically for hair, stomach, and mood. I forgot to purchase some iodine, but I ended up with the below:

- Vitamin A, Vitamin K2, Vitamin D
- Pregnenolone
- Multi-Mineral
- Betaine HCL with Pepsin

I got to say after two days of this stuff I'm feeling very different. I don't have a million thoughts running through my head at all times. Most importantly I don't feel tense at all, in fact very calm.

Working on creating a new mean plan to increase my caloric intake, carbs, and glucose.

So I thought I'd give another update. I've been consistently taking the supplements and I'm also eating a lot more fruit during the day. I've upped my carbs and usually get in 1-2 apples and a banana.

- Don't really feel the same concentration level I did when I first started the regimen
- My face seems very oily. This was a problem a few years ago, but it had been noticeably absent for a while.
- My scalp is starting to get acne again, it's itching, and the shedding has picked up a bit. As a side note I also stopped using Head & Shoulders w/Selenium Sulfide and started using Every Man Jack Thickening Shampoo + Conditioner. Not sure if the scalp issue has anything to do with it.
- My energy levels at the gym have been a lot better.
- I'm feeling a little more constipated - but I also haven't been taking my normal fiber supplement

The scalp thing makes me wonder if I have scalp foliculitis or seborrheic dermatitis.

 

[mayweatherking]

So I thought I'd give another update. I've been consistently taking the supplements and I'm also eating a lot more fruit during the day. I've upped my carbs and usually get in 1-2 apples and a banana.

- Don't really feel the same concentration level I did when I first started the regimen
- My face seems very oily. This was a problem a few years ago, but it had been noticeably absent for a while.
- My scalp is starting to get acne again, it's itching, and the shedding has picked up a bit. As a side note I also stopped using Head & Shoulders w/Selenium Sulfide and started using Every Man Jack Thickening Shampoo + Conditioner. Not sure if the scalp issue has anything to do with it.
- My energy levels at the gym have been a lot better.
- I'm feeling a little more constipated - but I also haven't been taking my normal fiber supplement

The scalp thing makes me wonder if I have scalp foliculitis or seborrheic dermatitis.

Yeah I know what you are talking about with the scalp itch. I massively brought mine down a lot with the following. First of all, how much gelatin are you eating? Everytime you eat muscle meat, you need to be eating gelatin with it or else it will cause a cortisol increase. I notice this for sure because my nipples will get puffy. You need to up gelatin a lot. Second, are you getting enough calcium? Calcium - phosphate need to be equalibrium. I know a lot of people talk about it, but you'd be surprised you might not be getting enough. Actually I guarantee you aren't getting enough if you have scalp itch. I think scalp itch is a direct result of not enough calcium and magnesium because they supress prolactin and I think taht's where the itch comes from. I think if you hit those two bases it will help you a lot. Eggshell calcium dog.. make some it's easy

 

[keith]

I second what Tara said about hyperventilation and mouth breathing, and just want to add that thiamine (B1) makes a huge, noticeable for me in improving my ability to breathe through my nose. I take 300-500 mg 3x per day for a total of 1200-1500. Start slow and work your way up, or you might get headaches. I was at 1500 for a while, but have backed down closer to 300, because less seems to be plenty now, but I used to need more for the same effect. If 3x per day is too much, there are fat soluble versions (allithiamine and sulbutiamine) that may be require less frequent dosing. I have tried the latter, which is cheaper, but think I prefer the plain B1, which may also be safer, since you don't store it for very long, so it would be harder to over do it.

I used to be pretty much unable to breathe through my nose, but now I pretty much never breathe through my mouth, and don't feel uncomfortable breathing through my nose.

 

[JDreamer]

Yeah I know what you are talking about with the scalp itch. I massively brought mine down a lot with the following. First of all, how much gelatin are you eating? Everytime you eat muscle meat, you need to be eating gelatin with it or else it will cause a cortisol increase. I notice this for sure because my nipples will get puffy. You need to up gelatin a lot. Second, are you getting enough calcium? Calcium - phosphate need to be equalibrium. I know a lot of people talk about it, but you'd be surprised you might not be getting enough. Actually I guarantee you aren't getting enough if you have scalp itch. I think scalp itch is a direct result of not enough calcium and magnesium because they supress prolactin and I think taht's where the itch comes from. I think if you hit those two bases it will help you a lot. Eggshell calcium dog.. make some it's easy

Well I'm taking Source Natural's Colloidalife Trace Minerals: ColloidaLife™ Trace Minerals

...... so Calcium shouldn't be a problem. I'm using two squirts of the dropper every morning with my first glass of water. I definitely need to go out and get gelatin then. I'm consuming at a minimum of 125g's of protein per day and have been so for like 10 years sans gelatin supplements. Funny you mentioned the nipple thing, it's almost like I have a chronic case of THO going on.

EDIT: So I just did some light reading on Gelatin. One of the articles also discussed tryptophan, which is a thyroid inhibitor. Ummm that's probably not good because half of my protein levels and diet are from eating chicken. I may want to re-think my protein sources.

 

[JDreamer]

I second what Tara said about hyperventilation and mouth breathing, and just want to add that thiamine (B1) makes a huge, noticeable for me in improving my ability to breathe through my nose. I take 300-500 mg 3x per day for a total of 1200-1500. Start slow and work your way up, or you might get headaches. I was at 1500 for a while, but have backed down closer to 300, because less seems to be plenty now, but I used to need more for the same effect. If 3x per day is too much, there are fat soluble versions (allithiamine and sulbutiamine) that may be require less frequent dosing. I have tried the latter, which is cheaper, but think I prefer the plain B1, which may also be safer, since you don't store it for very long, so it would be harder to over do it.

I used to be pretty much unable to breathe through my nose, but now I pretty much never breathe through my mouth, and don't feel uncomfortable breathing through my nose.

Duly noted. As I said before, one of my largest complains has been my shallow breathing and what feels like a lack of oxygen. It's never more noticeable than when I work out.

 

[tara]

Well I'm taking Source Natural's Colloidalife Trace Minerals: ColloidaLife™ Trace Minerals

...... so Calcium shouldn't be a problem.

I couldn't see on the linked page an estimate of how much calcium is in the recommended dose. The recommended dose is 1/2 tsp twice daily - ie 5 ml/day. If this is what you are relying on for your calcium, I'm dubious about it being enough. It would have to be a bout 1/4 calcium to be getting up any where near RDI. I don't think you can have anywhere near that much calcium dissolved in a tsp of water.

As I said before, one of my largest complains has been my shallow breathing and what feels like a lack of oxygen. It's never more noticeable than when I work out.

Do you mean shallow as in thoracic/clavicular, not deep into the belly, or shallow as in small amplitude? You may not do yourself any favours if you are pushing yourself harder in workouts that you can keep up with your mouth shut.

 

[JDreamer]

I couldn't see on the linked page an estimate of how much calcium is in the recommended dose. The recommended dose is 1/2 tsp twice daily - ie 5 ml/day. If this is what you are relying on for your calcium, I'm dubious about it being enough. It would have to be a bout 1/4 calcium to be getting up any where near RDI. I don't think you can have anywhere near that much calcium dissolved in a tsp of water.

Actually looks like I should be splitting up the dropper to one in the morning and maybe one at night. But I'm not certain of how much calcium is in there tbh, as it contains all important minerals. Perhaps I should supplement the Calcium separately.

Do you mean shallow as in thoracic/clavicular, not deep into the belly, or shallow as in small amplitude? You may not do yourself any favours if you are pushing yourself harder in workouts that you can keep up with your mouth shut.

Well again, my nasal passages don't feel nearly as open as they used to. When working out I notice I'm forced to do a lot of mouth breathing. In think about how I feel when I inhale, I definitely don't get a sense that I'm moving an optimum amount of oxygen into my lungs.

 

[mayweatherking]

Well I'm taking Source Natural's Colloidalife Trace Minerals: ColloidaLife™ Trace Minerals

...... so Calcium shouldn't be a problem. I'm using two squirts of the dropper every morning with my first glass of water. I definitely need to go out and get gelatin then. I'm consuming at a minimum of 125g's of protein per day and have been so for like 10 years sans gelatin supplements. Funny you mentioned the nipple thing, it's almost like I have a chronic case of THO going on.

EDIT: So I just did some light reading on Gelatin. One of the articles also discussed tryptophan, which is a thyroid inhibitor. Ummm that's probably not good because half of my protein levels and diet are from eating chicken. I may want to re-think my protein sources.

this is your calcium source.. this is not anywhere near enough. you know ray peat himself eats 5,000 mg of calcium per day? danny roddy does 3000mg a day. i need to take a lot of egg shell in order to hit these kinds of numbers. theres no way some little dropper has that... you are basically driving your prolactin through the roof right now by taking that.

yes chicken is bad.. gelatin is good for balancing it out... try some oxtails or lamb shanks... or beef with gelatin.. or fish with gelatin.. or eggs with gelatin... and egg shell calcium with all of those as well to balance the phosphate. :)

 

[tara]

Well again, my nasal passages don't feel nearly as open as they used to. When working out I notice I'm forced to do a lot of mouth breathing. In think about how I feel when I inhale, I definitely don't get a sense that I'm moving an optimum amount of oxygen into my lungs.

Can you tell if you usually breath by using your diaghragm or by using your chest? I found changing my long-standing habit of chest-breathing was possible fairly quickly with a little mechanical support, and made quite a difference, in addition to retraining nasal breathing.

I think both a stuffy nose and a feeling of air hunger often (but not always) arise from breathing too much, rather than too little.

If you really have some restriction preventing you from filling your lungs, maybe this can be retrained too? Maybe practising slow relaxed inhalations filling the lungs from teh belly up, and even slower exhalations emptying them from the top?

This is where I learned a lot about breathing from. It takes a bit to find the content amongst the ads these days.
http://www.normalbreathing.com/learn.php
This one is specifically about clearing a blocked nose.
Stuffy Nose Remedy - Get Rid of and Clear a Stuffed Nose in 1 Min

There areother places to learn about breathing from, with various techniques.

 

[mayweatherking]

the breathing issue is common with mpb.. you can read other hair loss forums have it too.. i think its from poor metabolim or something, or something like histamine being built up and not contained. i know because once i bought goat milk and i had a drink of it, and my nose was clear before and within 5 minutes it immediately ballooned up and i couldnt breathe through it anymore lol

 

[JDreamer]

this is your calcium source.. this is not anywhere near enough. you know ray peat himself eats 5,000 mg of calcium per day? danny roddy does 3000mg a day. i need to take a lot of egg shell in order to hit these kinds of numbers. theres no way some little dropper has that... you are basically driving your prolactin through the roof right now by taking that.

yes chicken is bad.. gelatin is good for balancing it out... try some oxtails or lamb shanks... or beef with gelatin.. or fish with gelatin.. or eggs with gelatin... and egg shell calcium with all of those as well to balance the phosphate. :)

Would explain the escalation in the hair shedding recently.

Man it's scary to think I was just trying to follow what I thought was a healthy diet when in reality I've been stressing my body out for the last 10 years or so.

 

[JDreamer]

I believe I mentioned in here that I have persistent sinus problem. Well it got so bad a few weeks ago that I finally went to see a doctor who informed me that I had a massive sinus infection couple with an ear infection (which was close to permanently impacting my ear drum). I've been on antibiotics for 12 days and interestingly enough my hair feels so much healthier, not to mention significantly thicker. The acne on the back of my scalp has also cleared up.

Hoping that this continues. I'm also dermarolling and using a topical that consists juiced green tea, coriander, and rosemary. Saw Bengamin Button's routine on here and plan to borrow from it, as well as add Taurine. I should also note that the weather is good enough to be out there poolside again. It's amazing how much better my scalp/hair is after 30-45mins of direct sunlight.

 

[Richiebogie]

Hi @JDreamer

What does your typical day's feed look like nowadays?

I found stress levels dropped when I replaced nuts, stir fried Thai, and peanut butter with lots of fruit.

Ray says that a sterile gut increases lifespan. Hopefully my coconut kills off a few bacteria!