<p>greatskater, thank you for chiming in and welcome to CC. I suppose nothing can be ruled out, but Simvastatin is low on the list of culprits mostly because I had been taking it for 8 or 9 months before the hair loss started. Plus, it has dropped my cholesterol so dramatically that even if we knew for sure that it was causing the problem, I think my doctor would tell me to buy a wig!</p>
<p>beawinner, I will add iodine to my list to ask the doctor about. But again, the hypothyroid was mild, and has now been treated. Even if it’s not perfectly optimal, it has significantly improved, while the hair loss has not. This is one more reason the endo and I are both fairly convinced that thyroid is not the source of the problem.</p>
<p>mspearl, When I got home with my first dose of thyroid medication and read the insert, I almost cried – most common side effect: hair loss! Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place! But that tapers off after 2-3 months, and I’ve been on it for 5 months now, so we don’t think that’s the problem. The older women in my family do have thinner hair, although not the kind where you see lots of shiny scalp – just normal age-related thin. Plus, my hair loss was a very sudden onset, not gradual at all. I don’t want to start Rogaine unless there’s no other explanation and no other choice. I don’t want to add Biotin quite yet, because I recently started with the Spironolactone and I don’t want to confuse the effects. But I definitely will ask the doctor about it if this new Rx doesn’t work.</p>
<p>Along those lines, it’s possible to have hair loss due to eating too much fish - enough to induce mercury poisoning. This is especially true if the fish eaten are deep water fish such as tuna or yellowtail. Salmon have less mercury. A woman I know at work, who is a big sushi lover, began to lose her hair and was eventually diagnosed with mercury poisoning. She had to back off on the fish eating to get it to grow back.</p>
My aunt is having this problem. In addition to hair loss on her head, she also had the lashes from one of her eyebrows fall out. She sees a dermatologist for this autoimmune problem & is receiving cortisone injections. The eyebrow is beginning to grow back.</p>
<p>Alopecia areata does not usually cause diffuse hair loss (although it can- its then called alopecia totals)- it tends to be patchy round nickel to quarter-sized spots and it occurs gradually. A more common cause of diffuse hair loss is called telogen effluvium. The scalp hairs normallyslowly cycle out of growing and resting phase so that at hair is lost every day but replaced by new hair.</p>
<p>When a hair follicle dies, a new one underneath starts to grow and a couple months later pushes the old hair out of the scalp. If someone undergoes a physiologic shock (severe illness, childbirth is a common cause) a larger than usual proportion of the hairs go into this resting phase and several months later they all get pushed out by the new, very small and fine hairs growing out. Ask your dermatologist about this- he/she has undoubtably already considered it but they can tell you whether this is a possibility in your case since your hair loss seems more acute.</p>
<p>" I’m wondering whether you eat fish frequently. There has been a study, at least one that I recall, that connects hair loss, fingernail ridges, and numerous other maladies we suffer with with a lack of iodine. Hypothyroidism is a sure sign you are lacking apparently. I started taking Lugol’s solution a month ago and have begun to notice smoother fingernails along with better energy. Interesting. "</p>
<p>I find this topic interest\ing and in particular the above post
i recently read an article about how many Americans do not have sufficient levels of iodine , and one culprit is elimination IODIZED salt from the diet…not kosher , sea or other designer salts but just plain old table salt</p>
<p>My mother and grandmother both went thru hair loss ( mother still since she is alive and well ) Though she doesn’t suffer from high cholesterol or high blood pressure , her doc tells her to not eat salt or many other foods…drives me nuts she chooses artificial margarine over butter whn she uses so little of it anyway
Also , since she is 81 , she was raised in the generation of getting her hair " done " once a week…I could never get by on that…hair is straight and is flat and greasy if I skip one day of washing</p>
<p>My father died last summer, and my mother experienced stress hair loss. It wasn’t obvious to her until it started growing back. She’d noticed what seemed like unusual amounts of hair in the shower and in her brush, but she didn’t have any visible thin patches. When it started to grow back, she noticed a line of thickness advancing along the length of her hair.</p>
<p>I have a cousin (55) who is almost bald due to, according to her (rheumatologist?), an autoimmune disease called Sarcoidosis. Her hair began falling out in patches, and now she has vast areas of total baldness, punctuated by areas of fine, thin fuzz. She wears wigs.</p>
<p>When my D was 21 she had a very high fever for a few weeks. She started to lose her hair about 4-5 months later and was completely bald within a few months. It grew back.</p>
<p>Nope, the last time I had anything beyond a minor cold was a bad flu in Jan. 2008. That did involve high fever, but that couldn’t possibly be causing this current issue. </p>
<p>Like alot of people, my life is filled with stress, and has been for years and years. But nothing unusual that I can think of in the 2-4 months leading up to onset. </p>
<p>I’m focusing on that period because my gyn said that hair behavior reflects something that was happening about 2 months prior. The hair loss began very suddenly, in about March 2011. Literally within a week, I went from normal shedding to maybe 3 times normal shedding (I’m guessing at that; I haven’t actually counted).</p>
<p>Although you may not think your present cholesterol medication is at fault, you may want to try another cholesterol medication (there are several ) to test the hypothesis.<br>
I know the theories are that such effects would happen within the first few weeks of taking a drug and so that shouldn’t be the cause BUT…I would take the proactive route and see if that were true. It can’t hurt at all and you can always return to the original medication with no ill effects.</p>
<p>The Spironolactone seems to be working. A day or two after my last post, I noticed very little hair in the shower drain, and that has continued for almost a week now. It’s not quite down to the level of normal shedding, but this is the least hair loss I’ve seen in 9 months. I’m beginning to hope! </p>
<p>I see the dermatologist again on Monday, and will ask him how frequent shampooing/cheap shampoo affect hair loss, and about Biotin. Will report back.</p>
<p>My experience with hair loss was that iron supplementation was helpful, even though my iron levels were normal. Not sure what the mechanism is, but it was a dramatic improvement once I started the iron. Glad the spironolactone is helping.</p>
Interesting, I was thinking about starting a thread about hair loss in young men and what they could do about it. I won’t try to hijack this thread, but it reminds me to get to it. My kids have no chance, genetically.
First, are you sure you need that cholesterol medication now? Seems like they have changed the guidelines, and allow a lot higher number than they used to, before they recommend medication.
Also, I think the worry about cheap shampoo is BS. Oh, if you just buy this expensive shampoo (with the same ingredients, for $50 more), your hair won’t fall out? Honestly, I don’t buy it.
Maybe you totally want to stay away from Rogaine? I had heard that once you start using it, if you stop, the hair loss increases quickly. I’m not sure if that’s true, but something to think about.
Have you had a full battery of blood tests (sorry if I missed where you addressed that). Not just thyroid, but the entire list of them? Are you out of the norm for any of them (or your normal range)?
As far as heredity, have they ruled out alopecia? My grandmother had it, figure it’s coming my way, so I’d better learn about it. But it sounds like they can determine that.
I am not sure if menopause has been mentioned. I also have no idea of your age.
However, my beautician is going through a similar thing and is quite worried. Her
internist had little information and her labs have come back just fine.
She is going to see her OB/GYN and see about an FSH and other hormones regarding
menopause. She is early 40’s.
My D had a similar situation due to an extremely stressful semester abroad. Her hair loss lasted
about a year. I did read that you cannot pin point any particularly new stressful events, though.
I wish you the best and that you get to the bottom of things.