Hi all, looking for some advice again as I'm totally lost. 25 yrs old, hair is still shedding like crazy. seem to be a chronic diffuse thinner, approx 3 years now, lost about 70% of my hair.
things I've tried:
-eating excess calories (3000-4000k a day) I weigh 68kg, 5'10, and find this difficult, I just get fat as I am now.
-things I've tried to test for deficiency (usually each I tried in isolation for 3-4 weeks) have been: D, A, K, B1, B2, B3 ,B6, B7 ,B9, B12, E, betaine HCL (to test for stomach acid), magnesium, selenium, zinc, copper, iodine, t3, t4, t3 & t4, aspirin, cypro, gelatin, taurine. Have also tested multiple types of many of these, often combining.
- at all times, and currently, I make sure to eat 2.5 - 3k calories per day, aspirin 5 times a week, k2 every 3rd day, weekly vitamin D (plus weekly hikes, almost daily morning yoga in the sun), plenty of shrimp, milk, OJ, coffee, coconut oil, gelatine, daily taurine, and liver every two weeks.
Have pretty much been scouring this forum, matching symptoms and experimenting with anything to see if it'll help. my thoughts are that losing this much hair isn't normal, and that I've tried everything except the thing that works, but starting to think I may be in denial.
My temps are normal for this forum, its summer so my extremities feel toasty, at night under the covers they feel too warm, pulse however is around 60, and has been low all my life.
Thyroid seems to help but mildly. reduces the shedding if I take at least 20mcg of t3 per day, to the stage where its not excessive, but have maintained this dose for over a year now, with small amounts of t4 in the evening, but developed very uncomfortable thyroid swelling and pain. reduced the dose, and it seems to calm down. Am I making myself hyper? I was definitely losing more hair when I wasn't aware of possibly being hypo, tested for antibodies and all was normal. thyroid is seemingly not helping the shedding anymore and am scared about raising the dose.
blood tests wise, I've done most that are commonly recommended on this forum, nothing significant pops out, TSH was 1.3 when I first got concerned about shedding, before I found RP. now it fluctuates between 1 and 2. prolactin was low, have worked on increasing my cholesterol with low starch etc. albumin, CRP, testosterone, cortisol etc all normal.
my only leads are:
- my ceruloplasmin was below the normal range, copper mid range
- my transferrin saturation was quite high, but normal feritin
- my red blood cells are messed up because of a genetic, 'asymptomatic' blood disorder, thalassemia minor.
- - very high RBC, very low MCV, high RDW, not sure if somehow not enough oxygen is being transported to my extremities, my scalp is quite elastic
- - my bilirubin is high because of the high red blood cell turnover, apparently leads to gallbladder sludge, so I take taurine to help with bile flow.
any comments and ideas are highly appreciated !
things I've tried:
-eating excess calories (3000-4000k a day) I weigh 68kg, 5'10, and find this difficult, I just get fat as I am now.
-things I've tried to test for deficiency (usually each I tried in isolation for 3-4 weeks) have been: D, A, K, B1, B2, B3 ,B6, B7 ,B9, B12, E, betaine HCL (to test for stomach acid), magnesium, selenium, zinc, copper, iodine, t3, t4, t3 & t4, aspirin, cypro, gelatin, taurine. Have also tested multiple types of many of these, often combining.
- at all times, and currently, I make sure to eat 2.5 - 3k calories per day, aspirin 5 times a week, k2 every 3rd day, weekly vitamin D (plus weekly hikes, almost daily morning yoga in the sun), plenty of shrimp, milk, OJ, coffee, coconut oil, gelatine, daily taurine, and liver every two weeks.
Have pretty much been scouring this forum, matching symptoms and experimenting with anything to see if it'll help. my thoughts are that losing this much hair isn't normal, and that I've tried everything except the thing that works, but starting to think I may be in denial.
My temps are normal for this forum, its summer so my extremities feel toasty, at night under the covers they feel too warm, pulse however is around 60, and has been low all my life.
Thyroid seems to help but mildly. reduces the shedding if I take at least 20mcg of t3 per day, to the stage where its not excessive, but have maintained this dose for over a year now, with small amounts of t4 in the evening, but developed very uncomfortable thyroid swelling and pain. reduced the dose, and it seems to calm down. Am I making myself hyper? I was definitely losing more hair when I wasn't aware of possibly being hypo, tested for antibodies and all was normal. thyroid is seemingly not helping the shedding anymore and am scared about raising the dose.
blood tests wise, I've done most that are commonly recommended on this forum, nothing significant pops out, TSH was 1.3 when I first got concerned about shedding, before I found RP. now it fluctuates between 1 and 2. prolactin was low, have worked on increasing my cholesterol with low starch etc. albumin, CRP, testosterone, cortisol etc all normal.
my only leads are:
- my ceruloplasmin was below the normal range, copper mid range
- my transferrin saturation was quite high, but normal feritin
- my red blood cells are messed up because of a genetic, 'asymptomatic' blood disorder, thalassemia minor.
- - very high RBC, very low MCV, high RDW, not sure if somehow not enough oxygen is being transported to my extremities, my scalp is quite elastic
- - my bilirubin is high because of the high red blood cell turnover, apparently leads to gallbladder sludge, so I take taurine to help with bile flow.
any comments and ideas are highly appreciated !