The 6 Things That Increase The Odds Of Female Hair Loss

This is a quick summary of a VERY IMPORTANT Q&A session with Dr. Sara Gottfried, who is at the cutting edge of preventive health for women. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and MIT- and is both deep into the research as well as deep into her own practice.

This is a summary of the 6 things that increase the odds of female hair loss. Something that a majority of women experience at some point in their lives! If you have questions or comments, PLEASE make sure to ask.

“30 percent of women in their 30′s have significant hair loss, and 50 percent of women starting in their 50′s. This affects a huge number of women, and it’s the silent epidemic where women are trying to get help and they’re basically being offered Rogaine” -Dr. Sara Gottfried

#1: Low Iron and Low Ferritin Levels

There’s a number of ways to measure this. You can ask your doctor for a blood test, where you measure your iron and you measure your ferritin. Ferritin is the most sensitive way to measure how much iron you have running around in your body.

Not surprisingly, because you’ve heard this mantra from me before, when it comes to iron, you don’t want too much and you don’t want too little. When it comes to the numbers, I can give you some general information about that. You want a ferritin of around 70 to 80 to hang on to the hair on your head. When it’s too high, that can be a problem, and when it’s lower, that’s an issue.

You want a ferritin of at least 40 to be able to create new hairs to replace the ones that you might have lost. Those are some general numbers of ferritin. Of course, I’m oversimplifying. There’s other things that can affect ferritin besides your iron levels. But that’s a general guide.

#2: Thyroid Function

Doctors now measure something called Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Level (TSH). According to Dr. Gottfried “if your thyroid is totally normal, ideally your TSH is somewhere between about 0.3 and 2.5. In fact, there’s a number of endocrinology groups who agree with that. If you want a more optimal range, I even like to run it a little tighter. I like to see it between 0.1 and 1.5. I just find that women feel their best, they’re able to have that sense of buoyancy with their mood, their hair stays on their head, they feel like they can really serve on whatever calling they have, when their THS is in that range.”

#3: Dramatic Changes In Your Hormones Generally

Pretty much every hormonal change can cause hair loss. That’s one of the reasons why women increase their hair when they’re pregnant and then lose it when they’re postpartum. After they deliver their baby and their estrogen and progesterone levels go down to zero from being sky high, that triggers hair loss. Dramatic hormone shifts can cause hair loss.

#4:  Insulin Resistance

Insulin is a fat storage hormone. It does a number of things to the body, including causing increased belly fat. But if your cells become numb to insulin. If you have insulin resistance, it also increases your chance of hair loss. Big changes to your diet can really help turn this around!

Look at your fasting glucose. We want that fasting glucose to be less than 87. Otherwise there’s a big chance that you’ve got a problem with insulin resistance

#5: Autoimmune Issues

This is a broad subject, but according to Dr. Gottfried there is a link between auto-immune issues and hair loss. So if you have skin issues, joint pain, swelling etc- this is often correlated with hair loss.

#6: Really High/Low Testosterone

Conclusion: Those are the most common causes of hair loss. The list is actually quite a bit longer, but that’s valuable just to help people get into action.

Dr. Sara Gottfried’s Observations On Hair Loss In Women

Hair loss is a scarlet letter of accelerated aging — and taps into women’s deepest fears and ambivalence of growing old and less relevant. And here’s the worst part — the solutions currently on offer are unpalatable and patronizing. Forty percent of my patients report hair loss, but they never report it neutrally — they’re furious.

They feel conventional doctors offer no effective answers or treatments. Rogaine? Propecia? Please. We are obsessed with making symptoms rather than addressing the root cause. Hair to a woman is in a different category than the rest of the body. Hair is like breasts. Women have powerful emotional and psychological attachment to boobs and hair, and I totally get it. Nothing says aging like female hair loss.

As discussed earlier in this article, hormone imbalance is the top reason I’ve found for hair loss in the past 20 years of taking care of women. Here are the worst offenders: thyroid, cortisol, testosterone, and insulin.

Here are some of the questions that I get from my patients at my clinic:

What Do I Do When I Start to Lose Hair?

My answer here is that you improve what you manage. This is tangible – something you can manage (and would be well served to start) like your stocks or retirement portfolio.

1. Part your hair in the middle and take a photo with your smart phone. add to your dashboard.
2. Get your doctor to order the crucial tests, (which we go into in the call I just did with Jackie.) Stand your ground. Ask to be referred to an expert in hair loss, usually a dermatologist.
3. Start the lifestyle tweaks you can do before seeing that doc. Things like reducing coffee and alcohol are biggies, and I go into detail in the call with Jackie.)
4. Wash your hair less. Treat your cute hair follicles with a white glove. i wash my hair twice per week (and used to wash it daily which traumatizes your fragile follicles).
5. Manage your blood sugar – cut out the white stuff. Insulin resistance is a top reason for increased hair loss.
6. Check to see if your iron is low. Iron is like cortisol — you want it not too high and not too low. Serum ferritin is the most sensitive indicator, and you need a ferritin level of 70-80 to keep your hair of your head. You need a minimum of 40 to grow new hair.

Does Being Overweight Lead to Hair Loss?

Yes. Insulin resistance leads to hair loss in women. Being insulin resistant, weight loss resistant- these are all things which help lead to hormonal and nutrient imbalance which fosters hair loss. If your weight loss plan does not address these hormonal imbalances, you will not get to the root cause of female hair loss. For example, Weight Watchers does not address hormonal imbalance as part of its Points System.