Iron and Hair Loss the missing link?

[Soren]

So I´ve been on the hair loss train for about 10 years now, my hair went from thick, waves and dark in my 20s then at 24 it suddenly became frizzy, light and thin and began to fall out.

Since then I have experimented with nearly every method one can think of to regain my hair with the exception of Propecia and DHT lowering substances.

I did low level laser therapy buying myself a custom helmet, scalp massages, thyroid, vitamin A, lowering cortisol, massages, derma needling, minoxidil, stem cell therapy etc. Basically everything only seemed to slow my hair loss and improve the quality of my existing hair. The last thing I did was a minoxidil product called Adegen which did seem to help my hair to a degree but very little regrowth.

Recently i came across something which I had dismissed but now having examined my history and what i believe caused my hair loss I believe that it is possible that an Iron deficiency was a contributing factor.

I know that this forum in general has a very cautious/negative view of Iron because there is the danger of having too much iron which causes problems and I was very much of that opinion but the following has caused my opinion to change and at the very least give be open to the possibility of supplementing iron.

My hair loss started after about 2 years of intermittent fasting and large amounts of exercise. Well it just so happens that fasting is one of the quickest ways to crush your iron levels
Effect of short-term food restriction on iron metabolism, relative well-being and depression symptoms in healthy women and it can be very difficult and take a very long time to recover. Exercise also depletes iron a great deal. At the same time that my hair started to fall out i discovered Ray Peats work and started eating carbs and stopped the fasting and reduced (but did not stop) the intense exercise. This meant that i quickly came to actively try avoid excess iron with the exception of animal sources and while those are good sources of iron if you are already extremely low in iron just eating liver once a week or having a few desiccated liver tablets is not going to be sufficient to recover your iron levels.

A few other things to note that make me think Iron is one of the primary problems for my body and thereby my hair loss. I developed angular chelitis (the drying and cracking of the corners of your mouth) multiple times which i believed was due to a deficiency in vitamin B2 but when I supplemented with B2 it did not seem to do anything to reverse my angular chelitis. Well one of the reasons that B2 helps fight angular chelitis is it is necessary for the proper utilisation of Iron.

Low iron levels have also been shown to elevate prolactin which is strongly associated with hairloss.
Iron Deficiency Alters Serum Prolactin (high Prolactin)

Iron is also essential for thyroid to function another key aspect of healthy hair growth.
Iron is essential for ability of thyroid hormone to function

Finally there is a trichologist i found who claims that he sees many clients who have tried every typical hair loss treatment and seen no results but then did an Iron panel and they were found to have low Iron, he says this is more common for women than men but it also happens a lot in men and in his own hair loss journey he found low iron to be a big factor.

Here is a link to his video on Iron and hair loss


I am going to get my ferritin levels tested and depending on what they are begin supplementing heme Iron.

 

[sunny]

Interesting, thank for the video link. I have also been thinking about low iron causing thinning hair.
I have been eating some grassfed uswellness meats bologna and oranges at lunch every day for a year.
It brought my serum iron from 66 to 95.
Ferritin from 18 to 48.
Saturation went from 19 to 32 (I had high previously, a bit over the top range. I think it was estrogen related).
Iron binding capacity from 345 to 296.

I have thining hair, weirdly mostly from the middle of my head down.
I have not seen hair increase yet with the increased serum iron.

I think those are ok iron numbers, but not positive.

 

[Mossy]

I have thought about this recently, a potential need for some to have more iron. What made me think of this is that I crave black olives. Coincidentally, I do have receding and thinning hair.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

Anecdotally my girlfriend takes iron and believes it has helped her thin hair.

Iron deficiency is real. Just very rare in the US context in which Ray lived.

 

[Mossy]

Anecdotally my girlfriend takes iron and believes it has helped her thin hair.

Iron deficiency is real. Just very rare in the US context in which Ray lived.

I think it was Ray, or maybe someone else, who said woman may need more iron due to the fact that they menstruate and release iron in the blood.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

I measured my ferritin and iron levels this month and they increased, compared to previous years. And have no idea why.
I sometimes eat beef with fruits(grapes, grapefruit), maybe the Vitamin C is increasing my Iron absorption.
And also chilled with the Aspirin this year.

My hairloss has seem to have stopped. Obviously, I can’t prove that it was the increase in ferritin.

Ferritin is 121 ng/ml. It was way under 100 before
Serum Iron is 116ug/dL

 

[Soren]

Anecdotally my girlfriend takes iron and believes it has helped her thin hair.

Iron deficiency is real. Just very rare in the US context in which Ray lived.

Its definitely rarer in the US but one of the reasons why i think it has increased is extreme diets; veganism, vegetarianism, fasting. The fact that there are many things we consume in the west from our water to PUFAs and everything in-between that limit Iron absorption and inhibit correct iron utilisation.

 

[Soren]

Interesting, thank for the video link. I have also been thinking about low iron causing thinning hair.
I have been eating some grassfed uswellness meats bologna and oranges at lunch every day for a year.
It brought my serum iron from 66 to 95.
Ferritin from 18 to 48.
Saturation went from 19 to 32 (I had high previously, a bit over the top range. I think it was estrogen related).
Iron binding capacity from 345 to 296.

I have thining hair, weirdly mostly from the middle of my head down.
I have not seen hair increase yet with the increased serum iron.

I think those are ok iron numbers, but not positive.

One of the things that the author of the video i shared points out in other posts is that for many simply increasing iron will not be enough (particularly with male pattern hair loss) but without sufficient iron other treatments such as minoxidil, scalp massaging will be a lot less effective.

He also says increasing vitamin D, and Zinc is very important in line with discussions on hair loss extensively put out on this forum. Most on this forum have espoused the benefits of zinc and vitamin D but iron has generally been argued as a negative understandably because Iron in the presence of PUFA is clearly unhealthy.

 

[Soren]

I measured my ferritin and iron levels this month and they increased, compared to previous years. And have no idea why.
I sometimes eat beef with fruits(grapes, grapefruit), maybe the Vitamin C is increasing my Iron absorption.
And also chilled with the Aspirin this year.

My hairloss has seem to have stopped. Obviously, I can’t prove that it was the increase in ferritin.

Ferritin is 121 ng/ml. It was way under 100 before
Serum Iron is 116ug/dL

Vitamin C increases the absorption of Iron.

 

[sunny]

One of the things that the author of the video i shared points out in other posts is that for many simply increasing iron will not be enough (particularly with male pattern hair loss) but without sufficient iron other treatments such as minoxidil, scalp massaging will be a lot less effective.

He also says increasing vitamin D, and Zinc is very important in line with discussions on hair loss extensively put out on this forum. Most on this forum have espoused the benefits of zinc and vitamin D but iron has generally been argued as a negative understandably because Iron in the presence of PUFA is clearly unhealthy.

My D was low, 32. Improved from previous year. Job interferes with getting sun- I get 30 min at lunch, but only on face, arms, lower legs. Did not use calcirol during summer, started back up for winter. Eat beef and weekly oysters- not sure about Zinc status. I drink minimum 36 ounces of raw milk daily.

 

[trance]

Sorry guys, more cope. Women have lower iron levels and less hair loss

 

[hierundjetzt]

Vitamin C increases the absorption of Iron.

That's what he said...

 

[sunny]

Sorry guys, more cope. Women have lower iron levels and less hair loss

Women's hair loss is generally different than mpb. As a woman, I have generally thinning hair as I age, with it being less thinning on top, but weirdly more thinning in lower part of scalp. It could be age, thyroid supplements (no thyroid, I have to take them), vitamin d, iron, etc.

 

[golder]

@Lokzo had a really useful experience with this. Could you let us know how you safely raised your ferritin Lucas?
My last blood test my ferritin had dropped by like 30+% since using aspirin/antibiotics/blood donations and my hair had thinned a very noticeable amount. Extremely concerning, I’ve dropped taking those but I now want a way to raise my ferritin back up without supplementing iron. For whatever reason plenty of red meat isn’t raising it and I have no idea why. I hope you get some answers here :)

 

[geusterman]

Testosterone causes hair loss. When a guy gets prostate cancer the doctor put him on antiandrogens and his hair improves. So bald is sexy!

 

[maillol]

With iron it's important to understand hepcidin which controls cellular iron efflux. High hepcidin means low serum iron and vice versa. Hepcidin is raised by anything that raises IL-6 or in simpler terms inflammation, this includes iron itself.

Serum iron and even ferritin are poor indicators of tissue iron. If your tissues are loaded with iron you will be in a state of inflammation and there is a good chance blood results will show low iron. Consuming high iron foods or supplements will raise your hepcidin, lower your iron and temporarily give you a feeling of relief. But this iron is all being put into tissues somewhere where it will eventually cause problems.

Substances like aspirin, caffeine and vitamin C lower hepcidin. This opens the door that allows iron to be released from cells, this is a common reason why many people struggle with these things.

I wish iron was easily lowered by exercise and fasting, if it was it would be a very easy solution to iron overload but it isn't. Even moderate iron overload requires several pints of blood to be removed. Exercise does increase inflammation so could give a misleading low iron blood test.

Personally I think hair loss is most likely caused by high tissue iron or a fungal infection which also wouldn't be a problem if iron was low. It's possible that anemia could cause hair loss but I'm on Peat's side that this is rarely caused by low iron. I've experienced this first hand when donating blood and I was borderline anemic before the donation so the nurse was hesitant but when she tested my actual iron it was above normal.

I'm not trying to shoot you down but I've been down this road and it's a long road back. Be very careful with iron.

 

[Jamsey]

Ray is very clear in his stance on iron. It would help if you guys actually read his work and the existing forum threads before posting a topic that’s been discussed here many times before. Iron supplements are not the solution to your hair loss.

Iron Deficiency Anemia

The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia is 2 percent in adult men, 9 to 12 percent in non-Hispanic white women, and nearly 20 percent in black and Mexican-American women. Nine percent of patients older than 65 years with iron deficiency anemia have a gastrointestinal cancer when evaluated. The...

www.aafp.org

“Men and nonmenstruating women lose about 1 mg of iron per day”

“Absorption can increase three- to fivefold in states of depletion.”

Iron's Dangers

Ray Peat

raypeat.com

“There is a remarkably close association between the amount of iron stored in our tissues and the risk of death from cancer, heart disease, or from all causes. This relationship between iron and death rate exists even during childhood, but the curve is downward until the age of 12, and then it rises steadily until death. The shape of this curve, representing the iron burden, is amazingly similar to the curves representing the rate of death in general, and the rate of death from cancer. There is no other relationship in biology that I know of that has this peculiar shape, with its minimum at the age of 12, and its maximum in old age at the time of death.”

“Iron deficiency anemia does exist, in laboratory situations and in some cases of chronic bleeding, but I believe it should be the last-suspected cause of anemia, instead of the first. ”

 

[Risingfire]

Testosterone causes hair loss. When a guy gets prostate cancer the doctor put him on antiandrogens and his hair improves. So bald is sexy!

LOL! false

 

[sunny]

Ray is very clear in his stance on iron. It would help if you guys actually read his work and the existing forum threads before posting a topic that’s been discussed here many times before. Iron supplements are not the solution to your hair loss.

Iron Deficiency Anemia

The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia is 2 percent in adult men, 9 to 12 percent in non-Hispanic white women, and nearly 20 percent in black and Mexican-American women. Nine percent of patients older than 65 years with iron deficiency anemia have a gastrointestinal cancer when evaluated. The...

www.aafp.org

“Men and nonmenstruating women lose about 1 mg of iron per day”

“Absorption can increase three- to fivefold in states of depletion.”

Iron's Dangers

Ray Peat

raypeat.com

“There is a remarkably close association between the amount of iron stored in our tissues and the risk of death from cancer, heart disease, or from all causes. This relationship between iron and death rate exists even during childhood, but the curve is downward until the age of 12, and then it rises steadily until death. The shape of this curve, representing the iron burden, is amazingly similar to the curves representing the rate of death in general, and the rate of death from cancer. There is no other relationship in biology that I know of that has this peculiar shape, with its minimum at the age of 12, and its maximum in old age at the time of death.”

“Iron deficiency anemia does exist, in laboratory situations and in some cases of chronic bleeding, but I believe it should be the last-suspected cause of anemia, instead of the first. ”

I don't see anyone talking about iron supplements.

I drink alot of milk, and over time my iron numbers are decreasing. I started eating more beef, which increased my iron numbers.
Do you know of recommended values?
Ray said sat % at 25 is good. Mine was there, but fell to 19 last year. Last year I was at 66 for serum, 18 for ferritin, 19 for sat %.

"Low ferritin means low iron stores. Whether that means lower inflammation is not always clear but testing CRP and ESR would tell you that. In general, the lower the ferritin the lower inflammation since iron plays such a prominent role in inflammatory reactions." - Haidut

 

[Soren]

Sorry guys, more cope. Women have lower iron levels and less hair loss

I´m not saying that iron is the only factor for hair loss but it may very well be a contributing factor. Many maladies in the body it can be just one thing that is out of whack or lacking that can cause a whole host of issues and even if you fix other problems such as low vitamin d etc if you´re missing just one element it can be an uphill battle. I personally think based on my own experience that I am likely low in iron.