Why Does My Hair Fall Out If I Don't Take Glycine Daily?

Ravenslore

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I'm glad I figured out I can take Glycine daily to stop my hair loss, but I want to know why. I have other health problems that I might be able to get some traction on if I could figure out why I need so much Glycine.

Thanks in advance for reading this. I really appreciate having this forum as a resource.

I have two leads, but I don't know enough to research them effectively:

1) I found out the glyphosate RoundUp can replace glycine in the cells, kind of like how other halogens can replace iodine in the thyroid. So, it could be related to that. But the problem is that I don't think I have much exposure to RoundUp. I've been gluten free, organic, mostly grain free since 2007. My diet is mostly eggs, goat cheese, oranges, carrots, coffee with cream and sugar, marmalade and potatoes. I avoid PUFA like the plague. I do not eat or even like foods that have grains in them.

2) My mother has polycythemia. My research into this congenital "blood cancer" shows that one of the genes responsible causes cells to "drop their collagen." That would require constant collagen supplementation.

I treat myself like I have this since I can see some of the symptoms (joint pain and abdominal tenderness) if I don't get blood tests regularly. (I avoid doctors as much as possible because I've had a lot of malpractice experiences, but I do get blood draws for thyroid levels.) Blood draws are a treatment for polycythemia. But the other symptoms are fatigue, headache, weakness, dizziness and bruising and I NEVER get these. I do have a high hematocrit if it's been a long time since my last blood draw.

What could be causing me to need so much more Glycine than other people, and what other health issues could be connected to that?

I want to figure this out because maybe the answer can help me lose weight. I walk every day. I have a very balanced diet that never goes over about 1800 calories a day. I do yoga and meditate for stress. I take a good B complex with niacinimide. I take magnesium glycinate in the morning with my gelatin supplement, 8 drops of estroban and 12 drops of TyroMax. At night I take calcium. I get plenty of healthy natural salts.

My weight has a PCOS-like distribution where it's almost all in the torso. I'm 40 years old, female, 5'5", 215 lbs, and that is a very stubborn weight that isn't affected much by any lifestyle or exercise changes. It's been like this for years. I can only lose weight with extreme fasts, and I'm not doing that again.

I don't think it can be an infection. I've been on courses of antibiotics a few times this year for sinus infections after colds. I ended each course with a bifidobacterium and sacharomyces boullardi supplement for a couple weeks.

My sister has most of the same problems. Between us we've had tests and experimented with different hormonal supplements in the past. I don't have any recent ones, but when we started all this we had high androgens, normal progesterone and low-to-normal estrogen.

Neither of us experience any of the mood swings associated with PCOS, estrogen or serotonin problems. We both have exceptionally calm, logical, detached personalities. We're never tired, depressed or cranky. None of the descriptions of any disorder I've researched makes sense for either of us.

It's so confusing. I actually feel great almost all the time. I'm happy; I feel good. I take excellent care of myself consistently. But I LOOK like I have serious problems. Why?
 

Whichway?

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Do you know which particular type of polycythemia your Mum has, or you think you have that causes your cells to drop collagen?
 

lampofred

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Low calcium excess fat oxidation is my guess
 
OP
Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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I will research that low calcium thing. I eat a lot of goat cheese... but maybe not enough. My sister put my diet into her nutrient calculator and told me my calcium is only adequate with supplementation and that's the one supplement I don't take religiously because it sometimes upsets my digestion. So I will look into that.

@Whichway? My mom has Polycythemia Vera. I didn't realize there were other kinds.

If you look under causes in this link: Polycythemia vera
it shows it's a problem with the JAK2 and TET2 genes. In that section each of those gene names links to a short description of it.

I will have to dig back through and find out where I learned that one of these abnormalities causes shedding of collagen.

The weird thing is that I seem to have exceptional health in all the things I'd associate with collagen. My sister and I both heal very quickly and do not scar. I've even gotten scarifications as body art and they heal without a trace. I get a lot of tattoos and my tattooists are shocked how quickly they heal, and it seems like I feel pain differently even. I have a very high tolerance... or maybe I don't feel it much at all. I could swear that most areas of my skin have no capacity to feel pain.

I get very bad acne at my jawline whenever I have even a small amount of PUFA, but it also heals without a trace within 2 - 3 days. I never ever bruise. I haven't ever had a visible bruise. Our skin is very firm and "tight" compared to other women. We never have any trace of cellulite even with the excess weight. Whenever I have physical contact with women their skin feels odd to me because it's so squishy. I'm assuming that's because my sister and I have the high androgen thing. But maybe collagen abnormalities are involved.

Also, when I heal my skin kind of flakes. Like the first day a flake of skin will form and the next day that will come off and there will be no trace of the wound. It seems like my skin thickness grows quickly. I have to exfoliate a lot.. my nails are very thick and strong and grow fast. My hair grows really fast, even when it's falling out. Even when I lose a lot every day it's still thick. My sister's hair is incredibly thick and long. The only way I can tell how much hair I'm losing is that I get a thick "halo" of shorter hairs.

I don't know if any of that could be attributed to abnormalities in these genes. These are all characteristics my sister and I share that we don't have in common with any of our female friends.
 
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Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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I have read Hair Like a Fox, but not since right after it was published. I've learned a lot since then. I'll read it again.

ANd I love Haidut's articles. Thank you so much for finding these for me.
 

baccheion

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Post a picture of the fat distribution (or one from online that's similar).

Love handles, back fat, stomach fat (vs. visceral fat), arm/tricep fat, etc are associated with insulin issues. See pictures of women with insulin resistance. Cortisol with visceral and hump fat.

Are you full-figured, top heavy, or bottom heavy in addition to torso fat? Just the latter alone?
 
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Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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Post a picture of the fat distribution (or one from online that's similar).

Love handles, back fat, stomach fat (vs. visceral fat), arm/tricep fat, etc are associated with insulin issues. See pictures of women with insulin resistance. Cortisol with visceral and hump fat.

Are you full-figured, top heavy, or bottom heavy in addition to torso fat? Just the latter alone?

I couldn't find a graphic that looks like me or my family so I had to make one. I took this graphic with 4 body fat distributions and I combine some into a 5th one. This 5th one is like every woman in my family. My grand mother, her sisters, my mother, her sisters, my sister, my cousins. All have this body type:
Screen Shot 2020-04-26 at 2.48.57 PM.png


We all are like size 6-7 from the waist down and about size 14-16 from the waist up.

We don't have much back fat, and absolutely no fat in the buttock area.

We all have slim-regular arms and legs that stay very muscular even without exercise. We have huge calf muscles. I think that's because we all have restless legs and twitchy toes constantly.

The areas that are fat are firm with no cellulite ever. We all are very strong with excellent endurance. We don't really have cravings. We all (except my mother) find it easy to stick to any diet we choose. Changes in diet don't seem to impact the weight distribution... no diet changes we've tried so far have improved anything except acne.

We're all generally happy and patient with no mood swings. .. highly logical.

But we all have thyroid problems which we take replacement for. My sister and I use TyroMax and Estroban. We used to have bad acne, but we don't since we quit PUFA a few years ago.

Thanks for your input.
 

baccheion

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I couldn't find a graphic that looks like me or my family so I had to make one. I took this graphic with 4 body fat distributions and I combine some into a 5th one. This 5th one is like every woman in my family. My grand mother, her sisters, my mother, her sisters, my sister, my cousins. All have this body type:
View attachment 17589

We all are like size 6-7 from the waist down and about size 14-16 from the waist up.

We don't have much back fat, and absolutely no fat in the buttock area.

We all have slim-regular arms and legs that stay very muscular even without exercise. We have huge calf muscles. I think that's because we all have restless legs and twitchy toes constantly.

The areas that are fat are firm with no cellulite ever. We all are very strong with excellent endurance. We don't really have cravings. We all (except my mother) find it easy to stick to any diet we choose. Changes in diet don't seem to impact the weight distribution... no diet changes we've tried so far have improved anything except acne.

We're all generally happy and patient with no mood swings. .. highly logical.

But we all have thyroid problems which we take replacement for. My sister and I use TyroMax and Estroban. We used to have bad acne, but we don't since we quit PUFA a few years ago.

Thanks for your input.
So it's like visceral fat? First instinct pushed toward saying cortisol, though it could be like the liver guy. Cortisol doesn't go with muscular limbs. Stress among women tends to increase androgens. Do you have stretch marks?

Protruding stomach is also related to bloating. And to ascites (water/lymph/fluid retention), something associated with the liver type above.

Ever had a DEXA scan or something else that can assess the composition of that area? Any labs to check levels?
 

lvysaur

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We all are like size 6-7 from the waist down and about size 14-16 from the waist up.

We don't have much back fat, and absolutely no fat in the buttock area.

We all have slim-regular arms and legs that stay very muscular even without exercise. We have huge calf muscles. I think that's because we all have restless legs and twitchy toes constantly.

The areas that are fat are firm with no cellulite ever.

In my unscientific opinion, you sound like you have androgen or adrenal problems.

All those symptoms--no lower body fat, lack of cellulite, hairfall, sound very androgenic. Cellulite is a female trait, men don't get it. I also benefit tremendously from consuming glycine hairwise, as well as mentalwise (I'm a man). It calms me, more or less. I've noticed that men have far more problems with "over excitatory" states.

Is your hair fall in an androgenic pattern or diffuse? Is your pelvis very tall? Do you have hip dips? I find both of these things are somewhat correlated to an adrenergic state. My own hips can remodel after reaching a more inhibitory state.
 
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Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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I’ll have to come back and answer these questions tomorrow when I have more time but the mention of cortisol made me think I should mention a crazy thing that happened last week.

I took a pregnenalone supplement thinking it would increase progesterone. But instead it started my period (which I rarely ever have, only maybe twice a year.) The bleeding was so severe that the first two days I had cold extremities, shaky hands, rapid heart rate, heavy breathing. It was many times more blood than the worst period I’ve ever had. I thought I might have to go to the ER. But I happened to have a bottle of progestene (haidut’s progesterone) and I just kept taking more each time it got intolerable. Finally after five days it’s getting down to normal.
Obviously my body did NOT make progesterone from that pregnenalone. Is that a symptom of something too?
 
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Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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Is your hair fall in an androgenic pattern or diffuse? Is your pelvis very tall? Do you have hip dips?
I think I kind of do have "hip dips" the top of my pelvis on the sides is where the fat ends dramatically. I just never noticed because I have a muffin top above that.

My hair fall pattern is definitely diffuse. It's just as fuzzy in the back when I wear it up as the front.

I have a lot of whiskers I have to pluck on my chin, neck and jawline, so I think the androgens are a thing too.
 
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Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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Do you have stretch marks?

Protruding stomach is also related to bloating. And to ascites (water/lymph/fluid retention), something associated with the liver type above.

Ever had a DEXA scan or something else that can assess the composition of that area? Any labs to check levels?

None of us have had a Dexa scan. We do have stretch marks. I haven't had lab tests done in a while and I'm going to get those so we can look at that. Sorry it's taken so long to reply. We got some done on my sister. I'll attach them to this. Her diet is a little different than mine. She eats a lot of red meat because she's near a good source of locally raised grass-fed beef. For this set of tests she hadn't taken Estroban in quite a while and I always take that because it seems to have a positive impact. Also, her hair doesn't fall out, but she is often in the ER for anaphylactic shock.. usually from exposure to yellow #6, but we haven't found all the causes. And the sodium is low but she eats plenty of natural salt. Our family had always craved a lot of salt.
tests2.jpg
tests1.jpg
 

Frankdee20

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Isn’t Glycine needed to make collagen ? Maybe that has to do with hair ? Idk
 

Ableton

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Isn’t Glycine needed to make collagen ? Maybe that has to do with hair ? Idk
fibrosis is mainly a collagen build-up. on the scalp, that means hair loss.
minox has anti-collagen properties, which are part of what makes it work.

I doubt it has anything to do with collagen
 

accelerator

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I'm glad I figured out I can take Glycine daily to stop my hair loss, but I want to know why. I have other health problems that I might be able to get some traction on if I could figure out why I need so much Glycine.

Thanks in advance for reading this. I really appreciate having this forum as a resource.

I have two leads, but I don't know enough to research them effectively:

1) I found out the glyphosate RoundUp can replace glycine in the cells, kind of like how other halogens can replace iodine in the thyroid. So, it could be related to that. But the problem is that I don't think I have much exposure to RoundUp. I've been gluten free, organic, mostly grain free since 2007. My diet is mostly eggs, goat cheese, oranges, carrots, coffee with cream and sugar, marmalade and potatoes. I avoid PUFA like the plague. I do not eat or even like foods that have grains in them.

2) My mother has polycythemia. My research into this congenital "blood cancer" shows that one of the genes responsible causes cells to "drop their collagen." That would require constant collagen supplementation.

I treat myself like I have this since I can see some of the symptoms (joint pain and abdominal tenderness) if I don't get blood tests regularly. (I avoid doctors as much as possible because I've had a lot of malpractice experiences, but I do get blood draws for thyroid levels.) Blood draws are a treatment for polycythemia. But the other symptoms are fatigue, headache, weakness, dizziness and bruising and I NEVER get these. I do have a high hematocrit if it's been a long time since my last blood draw.

What could be causing me to need so much more Glycine than other people, and what other health issues could be connected to that?

I want to figure this out because maybe the answer can help me lose weight. I walk every day. I have a very balanced diet that never goes over about 1800 calories a day. I do yoga and meditate for stress. I take a good B complex with niacinimide. I take magnesium glycinate in the morning with my gelatin supplement, 8 drops of estroban and 12 drops of TyroMax. At night I take calcium. I get plenty of healthy natural salts.

My weight has a PCOS-like distribution where it's almost all in the torso. I'm 40 years old, female, 5'5", 215 lbs, and that is a very stubborn weight that isn't affected much by any lifestyle or exercise changes. It's been like this for years. I can only lose weight with extreme fasts, and I'm not doing that again.

I don't think it can be an infection. I've been on courses of antibiotics a few times this year for sinus infections after colds. I ended each course with a bifidobacterium and sacharomyces boullardi supplement for a couple weeks.

My sister has most of the same problems. Between us we've had tests and experimented with different hormonal supplements in the past. I don't have any recent ones, but when we started all this we had high androgens, normal progesterone and low-to-normal estrogen.

Neither of us experience any of the mood swings associated with PCOS, estrogen or serotonin problems. We both have exceptionally calm, logical, detached personalities. We're never tired, depressed or cranky. None of the descriptions of any disorder I've researched makes sense for either of us.

It's so confusing. I actually feel great almost all the time. I'm happy; I feel good. I take excellent care of myself consistently. But I LOOK like I have serious problems. Why?

Never heard of glycine for hair loss. Do you still take gelatin or bone broth? How much glycine keeps your hair from falling?
 
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Ravenslore

Ravenslore

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Low calcium excess fat oxidation is my guess

I started adding calcium carbonate powder to my morning supplements and when i got to almost triple the recommended dosage it started helping A LOT. It's improved my fat distribution a little bit already and my hair loss a ton. It's well below what I'd previously considered the minimum amount of daily hair loss for me. I'm going to stick with this and see what happens. Thanks for making that comment. I'd never heard of that.
 

accelerator

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I started adding calcium carbonate powder to my morning supplements and when i got to almost triple the recommended dosage it started helping A LOT. It's improved my fat distribution a little bit already and my hair loss a ton. It's well below what I'd previously considered the minimum amount of daily hair loss for me. I'm going to stick with this and see what happens. Thanks for making that comment. I'd never heard of that.

How many mg or grams is that?
 

Andy316

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1300 mg at this point. I was already taking 200mg of magnesium glycinate daily, so it's in addition to that now.

Are you still taking Glycine, or only calcium carbonate? Has it only stopped hairloss or do you see more hair growth now? Thanks
 

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