Preventing Telogen Effluvium

[kwaarrk]

Is it possible?
I've gained a bit of weight and I want to diet it off. I have no patience and I have to crash diet or I don't diet at all because my body reacts with the same negative symptoms (feeling cold, fatigue, grumpiness, slow healing, intensified body aches, etc.) whether I cut calories by a little or drastically; I'd rather get the suffering over with over a shorter time period. Don't worry, I'm careful nutritionally so I don't cannibalize my own heart tissue or anything, but it still sucks. The only (other) problem is I tend to lose hair both during and after diets, although this symptom is worse if I diet harder. I'm curious if anyone has found any method to prevent the body from shedding hair under these circumstances, either nutritionally or topically, or both. Maybe anti-stress/adaptogenic herbs internally and/or topically? Something that neutralizes cortisol maybe.. hmm.
Anyone?

[triumphator!]

I'd honestly suggest consulting with a doctor or nutritionist if your body reacts so severely to cutting calories. That way you can monitor your reactions and have a professional give you advice on the hair loss.

[kwaarrk]

I'd honestly suggest consulting with a doctor or nutritionist if your body reacts so severely to cutting calories. That way you can monitor your reactions and have a professional give you advice on the hair loss.

Thanks for the concern. I have talked to my doctor during a previous dieting period a few years ago, she ran some blood test and everything was in "normal range" except T3 hormone, but the T4 was fine and she didn't want to treat T3 only. The attitude here in Holland is basically "tough it out" with paracetamol unless you're obviously in need of emergency care. It keeps health care costs lower, and probably weeds out the malingerers pretty well, but does miss a lot of mild to moderately suffering people. But in any case, I'm apparently in no life threatening danger doing this, so I just want to reduce the risk of hair loss.

[lapushka]

Is it possible?
I've gained a bit of weight and I want to diet it off. I have no patience and I have to crash diet or I don't diet at all because my body reacts with the same negative symptoms (feeling cold, fatigue, grumpiness, slow healing, intensified body aches, etc.) whether I cut calories by a little or drastically; I'd rather get the suffering over with over a shorter time period. Don't worry, I'm careful nutritionally so I don't cannibalize my own heart tissue or anything, but it still sucks. The only (other) problem is I tend to lose hair both during and after diets, although this symptom is worse if I diet harder. I'm curious if anyone has found any method to prevent the body from shedding hair under these circumstances, either nutritionally or topically, or both. Maybe anti-stress/adaptogenic herbs internally and/or topically? Something that neutralizes cortisol maybe.. hmm.
Anyone?

I don't think you can stop hair from falling out in any way. I doubt that that's anywhere near healthy either.

I would not crash diet, or you will notice it in your hair, whatever you do, you can't mend this with something.

I'd try and get the weight off gradually by eating healthier, smaller portions, and doing it slowly, *then* your hair might not react. But it's up to you.

[ghost pisces]

Do you get enough iron in your diet? If you don't, it can make you anemic and make your hair fall out.

[Beckstar]

Short term extreme dieting will set your body up for long term problems. It's better to keep the extra weight now and put off problems later on.

[kwaarrk]

Do you get enough iron in your diet? If you don't, it can make you anemic and make your hair fall out.
Thanks for reminding me about iron. I was anemic for a while and I have some leftover iron pills, and come to think of it that was when the hair loss was worst. I'll get back on those pills.



So, yeah thanks for the concern everyone that is telling me not to, but I'm going to do it anyway. I have my reasons and some are health and quality of life related. Again, I'd rather suffer shorter than longer period of time, so small deficit over a long period of time isn't going to happen either. I've done my research on how to do it relatively safely, and the method I am using is used by doctors and patients in clinical and outpatient settings. If I have a bad hair time I guess I'll start over but I'll do what I can to prevent it. Or mitigate it, hopefully, anyway. I have a hunch it's cortisol related so I guess I'll start my reading there.

[ShahMat]

I totally understand how frustrating it feels when doctors ignore your symptoms because they are "not bad enough" to get their attention apparently, and since you seem very determined to cut calories drastically, I just want to suggest you make sure you get all the nutrients and vitamins you need, since I've noticed that event a temporary lack of (proteins/vitamins/iron especially) makes my shedding way worse

[akurah]

Thanks for reminding me about iron. I was anemic for a while and I have some leftover iron pills, and come to think of it that was when the hair loss was worst. I'll get back on those pills.



So, yeah thanks for the concern everyone that is telling me not to, but I'm going to do it anyway. I have my reasons and some are health and quality of life related. Again, I'd rather suffer shorter than longer period of time, so small deficit over a long period of time isn't going to happen either. I've done my research on how to do it relatively safely, and the method I am using is used by doctors and patients in clinical and outpatient settings. If I have a bad hair time I guess I'll start over but I'll do what I can to prevent it. Or mitigate it, hopefully, anyway. I have a hunch it's cortisol related so I guess I'll start my reading there.

People aren't going to advise you for two reasons:
1. We don't know
2. People aren't generally comfortable on advising on things that, when done incorrectly or unsupervised, can be wildly dangerous. I'm not saying you will be doing it dangerously, I don't know enough about how you are intending to do it--for all I know what you explicitly plan to do is perfectly safe. But on the surface, with as little info as provided? Yeah, it's a logical assumption to assume danger, and there is scientific backing to support the danger.

As someone who's lost over 100 lbs myself strictly through diet, I recommend consulting a nutritionist, regardless of how you choose to do it, or you will gain it back.

[kwaarrk]

People aren't going to advise you for two reasons:
1. We don't know
2. People aren't generally comfortable on advising on things that, when done incorrectly or unsupervised, can be wildly dangerous. I'm not saying you will be doing it dangerously, I don't know enough about how you are intending to do it--for all I know what you explicitly plan to do is perfectly safe. But on the surface, with as little info as provided? Yeah, it's a logical assumption to assume danger, and there is scientific backing to support the danger.

As someone who's lost over 100 lbs myself strictly through diet, I recommend consulting a nutritionist, regardless of how you choose to do it, or you will gain it back.

Hrm. I thought there was a chance someone on here may have a method or supplement that they used to prevent stress related hair loss. It seemed a logical place to ask, actually, given that is what telogen effluvium is. Stress can come from many sources. While giving health advice in general can be dangerous, I don't see the parallels here. I wasn't looking for dieting advice at all. Just hair loss prevention advice. I gave as little info as I did because this thread was not about diet, and I didn't want to make it about diet in particular, except nutritional support perhaps but that could also go for hair loss from other sources of stress. I hoped that someone here would have had something they know for sure helps, but that's okay.

Congrats on the weight loss! I've also let go of over 100 pounds, though the last 30-ish was from a one-two of pneumonia and strep throat that I caught a couple of years ago. I've gained back up a bit since and now I'm catching myself before it gets out of hand again.

So I've found some things in reading. Lots of herbs help with buffering cortisol/helping with stress.. ginger among them. This is good, I like ginger. Brahmi seems to also, it's a hair herb anyway and I'll be getting some scalp massage oil with that in it as well. Tea, lemon balm, and a few other things and general vitamin/mineral support (naturally). Gentle stress relief in general (meditation, baths, walks, whatever), and plenty of sleep were also recommended. So I have found things to try and to focus on on my own, and I'll continue reading.

[lapushka]

Hrm. I thought there was a chance someone on here may have a method or supplement that they used to prevent stress related hair loss. It seemed a logical place to ask, actually, given that is what telogen effluvium is. Stress can come from many sources. While giving health advice in general can be dangerous, I don't see the parallels here. I wasn't looking for dieting advice at all. Just hair loss prevention advice. I gave as little info as I did because this thread was not about diet, and I didn't want to make it about diet in particular, except nutritional support perhaps but that could also go for hair loss from other sources of stress. I hoped that someone here would have had something they know for sure helps, but that's okay.

Congrats on the weight loss! I've also let go of over 100 pounds, though the last 30-ish was from a one-two of pneumonia and strep throat that I caught a couple of years ago. I've gained back up a bit since and now I'm catching myself before it gets out of hand again.

So I've found some things in reading. Lots of herbs help with buffering cortisol/helping with stress.. ginger among them. This is good, I like ginger. Brahmi seems to also, it's a hair herb anyway and I'll be getting some scalp massage oil with that in it as well. Tea, lemon balm, and a few other things and general vitamin/mineral support (naturally). Gentle stress relief in general (meditation, baths, walks, whatever), and plenty of sleep were also recommended. So I have found things to try and to focus on on my own, and I'll continue reading.

Maybe if you use a caffeine shampoo? If you can get that in The Netherlands? Something with a DHT blocker in it. That might help. It's just topical, though.

I think the crash dieting will just burst through it all and nix the efforts, TBH. :shrug:

[kwaarrk]

Maybe if you use a caffeine shampoo? If you can get that in The Netherlands? Something with a DHT blocker in it. That might help. It's just topical, though.

I think the crash dieting will just burst through it all and nix the efforts, TBH. :shrug:

Thank you. I will do some reading on that also.

It's possible that it will indeed not be enough, but if that happens my hair is only APL at the moment if I'm being generous and almost all of it is damaged from bleach anyway. I've only recently decided to go back to growing long hair after a couple year dalliance with short'n'blonde and it was tempting even then to cut it all off to start over (though I look awful with very short hair so meh). If I lose some thickness of this bleached out stuff it's not nearly as big a deal as it would be if I had truly long hair. And from my perspective, if I drag this out over months, I could indeed have thinner, long hair. If I did start with nice long hair I'd probably put a lot more thought into it and play it safer. I just want to see if I can preserve what I can.

[akurah]

Nizoral has stuff in it that is also used as a hair loss treatment. We have a thread somewhere about thinning hair (a more general one). That one has a list of basically all the things the forum is aware of, and what little we know about the efficacy. I'd look there

[lapushka]

Thank you. I will do some reading on that also.

It's possible that it will indeed not be enough, but if that happens my hair is only APL at the moment if I'm being generous and almost all of it is damaged from bleach anyway. I've only recently decided to go back to growing long hair after a couple year dalliance with short'n'blonde and it was tempting even then to cut it all off to start over (though I look awful with very short hair so meh). If I lose some thickness of this bleached out stuff it's not nearly as big a deal as it would be if I had truly long hair. And from my perspective, if I drag this out over months, I could indeed have thinner, long hair. If I did start with nice long hair I'd probably put a lot more thought into it and play it safer. I just want to see if I can preserve what I can.

Can I ask how much you weigh, and eat? Because if it's more than enough to support you, then it might not have too disastrous effects on your hair if you crash diet, as long as your remaining food (what you consume everyday) is still *enough* to sustain a normal adult, it might not be as bad. IYKWIM. Wait. Am I making sense?

[kwaarrk]

Nizoral has stuff in it that is also used as a hair loss treatment. We have a thread somewhere about thinning hair (a more general one). That one has a list of basically all the things the forum is aware of, and what little we know about the efficacy. I'd look there

Thanks for the lead. I am reading that thread now and jotting down in Evernote. :)


Can I ask how much you weigh, and eat? Because if it's more than enough to support you, then it might not have too disastrous effects on your hair if you crash diet, as long as your remaining food (what you consume everyday) is still *enough* to sustain a normal adult, it might not be as bad. IYKWIM. Wait. Am I making sense?

I really didn't want this to be about diet... It's complicated. I'd pm you if I could, but alas not yet (I think?). I did very clearly overeat earlier this year from dysfunctional stress coping, but I found that I slowly gain (.25-.5kg/mo) on an average of 1800kcal/day almost entirely not junk/homemade/whole foods. I also have lipedema, which makes my legs swollen with fat and fluid, distorting my true weight so that's not really very useful for you without knowing all the history and whatnot. The diet is definitely not enough calories for a normal person - it's a PSMF / protein-sparing modified fast. A diet used for obese people (and others) to lose mostly fat while sparing as much muscle/organ/bone as possible, which is usually most of it. Hopefully some of that protein sparing is hair, but we'll see, and I have a lot of leads now to go on for further assistance there. :D

[lapushka]

I really didn't want this to be about diet... It's complicated. I'd pm you if I could, but alas not yet (I think?). I did very clearly overeat earlier this year from dysfunctional stress coping, but I found that I slowly gain (.25-.5kg/mo) on an average of 1800kcal/day almost entirely not junk/homemade/whole foods. I also have lipedema, which makes my legs swollen with fat and fluid, distorting my true weight so that's not really very useful for you without knowing all the history and whatnot. The diet is definitely not enough calories for a normal person - it's a PSMF / protein-sparing modified fast. A diet used for obese people (and others) to lose mostly fat while sparing as much muscle/organ/bone as possible, which is usually most of it. Hopefully some of that protein sparing is hair, but we'll see, and I have a lot of leads now to go on for further assistance there. :D

It's okay you don't have to say if you don't want to. ;) Anyway, good luck with it all, even if I don't particularly approve and find it quite dangerous. But you do you! :) :flower: