Hello all,

I seem to be losing my hair. I eat an 80% raw diet. I do drink coffee with equal or splenda (been working on trying to be 100% for two years, but I'm not perfect by any means). I try to get all my protein and greens each day. I shoot for ate least 40 grams of protein in my fitday profile. I know it's about amino acids and not protein, but I do think it is important. I eat fruits in the morning with a green juice, fruit or salad for lunch, some fats for afternoon snack and dinner which is usually not all raw (some fish if I can say that here, if not I apologize). So, does anyone know what is wrong with me? My nerves are on edge. I have alot of responsibility at home (I take care of my grandmother and I'm 28 and have been doing this full time for about 2 years, I worry alot about paying the rent and her health so my nerves aren't good and mix that with coffee and I realize how bad it is for me) I'm scarred because my hair is failing out at a rapid rate and I feel it getting thinner in the front and back. I'm only 28 and single so this worries me (vainity I know). Does anyone have any advice? I want to fast on water for a day and then green juices to get my digestive system strong, I have chrones disease on top of this, I was lead to raw for healing and absolutely love it. I'm afraid that fasting will hurt my body and situation more, but then at the same time I think it would heal me. I'm so conflicted, torn and scared. Can anyone help me? Has anyone been in this situation? I also had a very very rough upbringing and tons of stress as child, I won't go into details, but I've had a very very hard life. I'm happy and content for the most part now and have learned to live with the pain in the past and let it go. I just want to get better and enjoy life. And this all started happening maybe a year ago. I didn't think anything of it, I've always had very thick hair, but now I see it's adding up.

Hi Lizard,
Two thoughts come to my mind immediately. Splenda is chlorine-based and according to Dr. Mercola it's highly toxic. You might want to try to wean yourself off of it. Secondly, if you have Chrohn's and you are not on a very specific healing diet, that might easily explain the hair loss and nerves, etc. I would suggest getting in touch with Dave Klein, who healed himself of either Chrohn's or colitis early in his life and specializes in helping people with these problems to heal. He's also written a book about healing Chrohn's and colitis-- I think you can buy it from Amazon or on his website.
Best of luck to you-- I'm sorry you're going through these afflictions.

Sharrhan:


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Thanks Kwan for your kindness. I do have Kleins book, I'll revisit. For some reason I must admit I'm afraid of giving raw my all. Do you know why I would be scared? I know I should know, but I'm just nervous about it I guess because its so different and when I was 100% I got very very thin and everyone made comments to me that made me very insecure. I just don't know how to get past that.

I would also encourage you to give up the equal and splenda immediately. Please, throw it out. In the meantime until you give up coffee, you could sweeten your coffee with liquid splenda. it's an extract from the stevia plant so at least it's somewhat natural, and not toxic like the others. If you want to go one better you can get powdered green stevia, but you may not care for the tiny particles in the coffee.

I'm sure you know coffee is unhealthy. It doesn't give us energy but it causes us to burn our stores up faster via adrenaline, and can even lead to adrenal fatigue. In addition it dehydrates us and speeds along digestion (poo) causing us to perhaps absorb fewer nutrients.

Are you for sure getting enough calories? Enough rest? 80% raw? What are your non-raw components? Hopefully nothing [else] which would aggravate the Chrohns. Like kwan suggested I would work on healing the Chrohns if possible, sounds like you could be having a nutrient absorption issue.

Good luck to you

Could be hypothyroidism which causes hair loss and on a raw diet iodine levels can be pretty low.

any other symptoms?

"I got very very thin"

I've had hair loss related to stress which generally rebounds when the stress is reduced. I've read on this site that hair loss can lag a stressful event by several months, being underweight a possible stressor, imo. We had a body fat % thread a while back and I think it's a good thing to check.. being able to "pinch an inch" here and there one easy way to roughly monitor it.

Fit day is great but like other calculators doesn't track iodine. I take supplements to cover a few such nutrients.

I used to sweeten my coffee, eventually liking it black, not too much or too late in the day, hopefully.

Lizard
I got the same problem, there's hair everywhere and I'm getting thin hair at the top-sides of my head. I also got Chrons and manege it with a paleolithic diet (trying to have high carb), while I'm slowly transitioning to more raw.

The baldness runs in my family so when I'm around 30 years (I'm 24) I should be looking like my father.

But I also believe that it can be stopped or reversed if you give the body the chance.

Then again, when I ate 100% raw for almost 4 years (high fat, tho) I was very thin and didn't lift weights, working for 14 hours a day, having a baby and a wife at the time. The stress was noticeble after 2 years. I also could see if people ate 100% raw food, sadly on how emaciated they were. Specially on their faces, and on my face and body.

So, this time, I'm going to eat according to Dave Klein and then follow the 811 lifestyle and lift ALOT of weights to build muscles. I'm 183 cm and always stay still on 60 kg on a raw food diet without excercise so this time I'm aiming on 20 extra kg of muscles.

Lizard,

Please stop using the Splenda and Equal IMMEDIATELY--they are extraordinarily toxic(another one of those, how was this junk ever approved? things). Also, the panic in your post is palpable and understandable. Your life seems very stressful. Please consider looking into EFT:

[www.mercola.com]

Follow the links in the article to learn how to do it.

EFT, or something like it, like yoga, may give you a sense of control over your life, and that will help you immeasureably.



I wish you peace and speedy healing.

Thank you all!!!! The support here is very comforting and calming to me. I don't have any other symptoms. I think its a relapse in time from when I was only 86 pounds. I felt good, but was not eating enough variety. Living and learning the hard way sometimes but at least I'm learning. I'm cutting out the artifical sweetners 100%. I never want to touch them again! I think all the stress in my life is causing it as well. I do track my nutrients on fitday and have a kelp spice thing at home that's raw that I'll sprinkle into my day which has a crucial amount of iodine in it. I just can't thank you all enough for your support. My mom died when she was 37 from breast cancer but I remember her hair being full and beautiful. I've seen pictures of my father and he's balding but he's also another story so I don't look to him for anything. THanks again all!

Aspartame and Saccarine (sp?) are POISON. I'm glad you stopped taking those into your body. You'd be better off smoking a pack of cigs a day BTW, artificial sweeteners are known to cause hair loss, in addition to other health related problems. [www.askdrhull.com]

Are you male or female? How rapidly are you losing the hair? Is it going in clumps, evenly distributed or concentrated in one area? The solution depends on the cause. Are you sure it's stress? Could it also be genetics? If so, just cutting splenda and nutrasweet aren't going to cut it. You may want to see a dermatologist experienced in hair loss treatment. If you are male and and looking for an inexpensive treatment regimen, recommend saw palmetto supplements (DHT binder) and over the counter Minoxidil from Costco (5% for men, 2% for women). If it is just stress related, it will probably go back. If it isn't, the sooner you intervene the better. Depending on your budget after diagnosis, there are approved laser light treatments that help to stimulate the hair follicles that seem to have some validity. [www.hairmax.com] Best. [blog.americanhairloss.org]

Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2010 06:41PM by pborst.