28 Yo Chinese Woman With Thinning Hair

OP
R

RisingSun

Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2018
Messages
324
@RisingSun just curious do you have these values:

serum uric acid
random urine uric acid

Mine are:

serum uric acid - 381; reference values are 131-458 umol/dL, which may look good, but optimal values per Dicken Weatherby are 208-351 (male) and 178-327 (female);
random urine uric acid - 18.16 mg/dL; reference values are 44-109.50; no optimal values available (Weatherby's urine analysis book ordered and on the way)

It's just a guess but I think that due to low excretion of uric acid through urine (which explains my high serum uric acid; above optimal levels), the uric acid is being excreted through the skin and the scalp. This may be affecting hair growth. I read in another thread that lactic acid activates stem cells of hair follicles; could uric acid be antagonizing these same stem cells?

I thought of this as I was looking into why my serum uric levels are high in relation to my high blood pressure. It has to do with having hypoxia in my kidneys, which would end up with lactic acid being produced as a result of using the anaerobic glycolytic pathway for energy. The lactic acid is said to antagonize renal uric acid excretion. I think both of them together causes uric acid to turn into a uric acid metabolite. This makes for crystallization, which makes the kidneys unable to excrete uric acid, and for lactic acid to be made unavailable for stem cell activation of hair follicles.

This uric acid angle also ties in with your observation of people in HK growing old becoming arthritic. The high intake of purine-rich foods leads to high uric acid levels. Living long lives because of the protection given by uric acid, but also suffering from arthritic conditions brought about by high uric acid crystallizing from an increasing acidic body.

p.s. It may very well be that as we get more Peaty, we would get to eat more foods that increase our serum uric acid - from fructose in fruits and from high-purine foods as in internal organs. That is all fine if our kidneys are able to excrete uric acid well. But how many people test their urinary uric acid levels? It's a low-cost test. It only cost me P395, or about $8.

If we know this, we can for a time work on improving our kidneys so it can return to excreting uric acid in normal, larger amounts. Succeeding in that, we can go back to such Peaty foods.

I completely agree with the uric acid / lactic acid conclusion, but not with the kidney diagnosis. My kidney function always reads good and doesn’t « feel off ».
I am more inclined to think of a liver issue that would cause high lactic acid, which correlates to my liver sending accute pinching pains several times a day.

I will try the liver flush next week and report
 

yerrag

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2016
Messages
10,883
Location
Manila
I completely agree with the uric acid / lactic acid conclusion, but not with the kidney diagnosis. My kidney function always reads good and doesn’t « feel off ».
I am more inclined to think of a liver issue that would cause high lactic acid, which correlates to my liver sending accute pinching pains several times a day.

I will try the liver flush next week and report
I was talking about my kidneys though. I wouldn't know your kidney condition, but if you're so sure about your kidney health, you don't have to take the random urine uric acid test.

It's only a lead, and may or may not help you.
 
Last edited:
OP
R

RisingSun

Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2018
Messages
324
I was talking about my kidneys though. I wouldn't know your kidney condition, but if you're so sure about your kidney health, you don't have to take the random uric acid test.

It's only a lead, and may or may not help you.

High uric acid is caused in 80% of cases by kidney dysfunction, so I assumed you were implying a kidney route to explore
 

yerrag

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2016
Messages
10,883
Location
Manila
High uric acid is caused in 80% of cases by kidney dysfunction, so I assumed you were implying a kidney route to explore
Maybe what I'm saying is that it's possible that even if you think your kidneys are 100% fine because you don't feel any symptoms with your kidney, there may still be something worth looking into. The kidneys are like a black box. We don't know what's going on inside. Often, people find out that something's wrong when it's already very wrong. Even if it's slightly dysfunctional, the kidneys could appear to be working fine but it's affecting you in ways that's not easily traceable to a kidney dsyfunction.

That isn't the case with me though. I'm highly hypertensive and although I know it's kidney-related, I was all along thinking that my high uric acid condition was protective and didn't mind it. But I now realize it wasn't high because the body is making it available to protect me, but it was because my kidneys aren't unable to excrete uric acid through urine in enough quantity.

I also have thinning hair. I'm making a guess here, I'd admit. But if my uric acid is high (but not gout high), and it's because my kidneys are excreting enough of it, I would guess that the skin and scalp are going to help excrete it. Otherwise, the serum uric acid would accumulate and it would keep getting higher. But this reasoning assumes that the excess uric acid isn't being excreted through the fecal route. So my thinking could be wrong. But let's run with that assumption and think if the uric acid coming out through the scalp could affect hair growth.

There's another thread (Regrow Hair By Stem Cell Activation) that talks about lactic acid being the activator of stem cells of hair follicles. If uric acid being released through the scalp pores would work against lactic acid in terms of hair growth, in the same way that lactic acid works against the excretion of uric acid in the kidneys (which is a probability I'm pursuing), then it would be worthwhile for you to find out if your renal uric acid excretion through urine is working well. If it's not, and you're interested in pursuing this angle, then you'd want to find a way to improve your renal uric acid excretion. And when you're successful, you could then observe your hair to see if it's benefiting from this change.

I don't know what you eat, but since you live in Hongkong, there's a much higher chance you're eating food that are rich in purines. And with that, a higher likelihood that you have higher likelihood in having enough uric acid, or even more. You mentioned old people with arthritis being common in Hongkong. The longevity that can be associated with having enough uric acid is a benefit, but with that comes arthritis, which could very well be linked to kidney's reduced function in old age. You're not old of course, but you are on your way still.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom