Comment by hoofpick on December 21, 2015 at 2:03pm

I have read that some have tried special diets that didn’t work. My diet has. I hate to call it a diet, because I am NOT on this to lose weight at all or jump on the latest diet craze. Let me go into more detail on mine. At the same time of my hair loss, I was having severe digestive reactions. I truly did not know what to think.  I was devastated that my long, thick hair I have had for 56 years of my life, was falling out slowly, at first, lots and lots of hair on floor and in shower also in my brush. Then when I ate food, I was having, hives, rashes, welts, swelling and burning in my body, sometimes trouble breathing. Lots of anxiety also. There were days I thought my whole body was vibrating.  I was afraid.  After three months of having/watching my hair fall out, the end of March 2014 what was left just fell out, leaving a few long thin strands. 

 

I had had lots of lots of stress leading up to this, I had lost a dear relative to cancer, watched him slowly die. At the same time our dog was diagnosed with cancer and we had to make the decision to put him to sleep. Then that fall I had a terrible fall off a horse, that fractured my pelvis in two places, near a artery, that every time I moved and I had to walk to help it heal, I was in terrible pain. After 5 months of healing from that the next spring we lost a horse and almost lost a second horse, they both had major surgery one survived and one did not. She had a long three month recovery (she is doing wonderful). Then my mother’s dementia got worse, she could no longer stay in her home that her and my deceased father built, we had to move her to Assisted Living and get rid of the home and contents. That was so hard to do. Then everything seemed to settle down.  Then the hair loss started, my beautician at the time said after the second month of hair loss, you need to go see your Dermatologist.  I earlier posted about all that. See earlier post.

 

After I started with my natural Dr., after all the tests came back, we knew where to start, everyone is different so this is my journey with this. I would be more than happy to post the tests and results.  I had many tests taken, one was the food allergy test, which I recommend like others on here have.  It takes all the guessing out, and if you are like me, all the reactions.  I was a mess when I started, all the things the Dr. tried had to be changed every other week, I made many phones calls to him with my new reactions.  My cleanse/detox was lots and lots of water, fresh fruits, vegetables, beans (white, navy, red kidney), fish not shellfish, no chicken or beef in the beginning, and it all had to be organic or wild caught fish.  Changing to Olive Oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil.  Seeds and nuts, raw only.  Almond or Cashew butters. I had to stay away from all dairy, eggs, Gluten, all grain with gluten, tomato sauces, corn, white potatoes, peanuts and peanut butter, soy which meant tofu, soymilks, all beef,pork cold cuts, bacon, hotdogs, canned meats, sausage, shellfish, meat substitutes. No sugar or artificial sweeteners, alcohol, caffeine, blk, tea, fruit juice, no dried fruits or raisins or prunes. I made lots of fresh fruit/vegetable smoothies(almond milk or cashew milk) and ate vegetables, learned to eat Salmon which I LOVE now.  I thought I ate not badly before, but I never hardly ate fish, maybe only Tilapia, which I loved and have now found you cannot find it wild caught.  I have learned the farmed fish are horrible for you. Just google it to find out if you disagree. Anyway along with adjusting to not having hardly any hair, it was cold!  I went into a deep depression about my food!  I lost a lot of weight, not meaning too.  But I learned to make fruit/vegetable smoothies, salad with Beans. Snacked on nuts. This detox/cleanse lasted me three months.  It was supposed to last 21 days. 

 

But I learned to eat differently, I kept a daily food journal to help with reactions, people tend to forget easily.  I slowly after that put chicken and turkey, lamb in my diet (organic). We grilled out on gas grill a lot. I had to stick with it too. This cannot and will not work if you cheat, my husband eats all pretty much what I fix for dinner, but he still eats his gluten snacks, bread, sugar snacks at home and eats whatever he feels like for lunch while out working/traveling.   I tell you at first I was not only depressed but a bear, I hated going to grocery store, the food bombarded me in every aisle. The other side I was sick and I didn’t have any choice.  Of course it doesn’t work for my husband because you cannot do it part way, it doesn’t let your body heal, all the inflammation and damage in intestines cannot heal because you continue to eat that steak with marinade or steak sauce with gluten. The cookies or quick lunch out.  It is not easy to do. I have been on this journey now for over a year. I have started to add certain foods on my long list of high reaction food in to see if I am healed enough to eat it again. I intentionally ate some gluten in a herb/chicken wrap and had a reaction.

 

It does work for me, I have learned to get healthier and because it’s not boxed, canned or frozen meals, I can make smaller amounts.  I have learned to eat a variety of different foods, not the same leftovers or take out weekly.  I learned to read labels in the stores. Try new foods. I do not have the cravings I used to have.  I loved potato chips. Pizza.  I can have them gluten free but as a snack.  Not daily. Whole Foods has become my go to for finding new ingredients I cannot find at our Kroger Marketplace.    I found you can order online for certain foods/ingredients. At Krogers you can go to fish counter and get whatever wild caught fish of your choice and get it seasoned put in a bag and sealed and take it home, pop it in oven and it’s fast food!! I can get a small box of almond milk at Kroger’s and take it to Starbuck’s and get my green chia latte.   I use my crock pot a lot. We grill out a lot.  Simple meals, with a vegetable, if you cannot find fresh vegetables I use frozen.  Yes the grocery bill is higher but instead of coming home with a full basket of boxed,frozen,canned meals we have a lot less food in cart, you don’t need to eat afterwards because you are full with good food. I joined a organic CSA this last spring.  Support your local organic farmers, I have a organic beef and lamb farm not far away.

 

Because I had to change my way of eating for health’s sake I learned it does work.  I can go on and on, about my bouts of what I thought were flu or food poisoning over the years. Thin nails. Lots of migraine headaches. Finally the finale of food reactions. The hair loss came along with it.  I was diagnosed with AA by Dermatologist it was a long two weeks waiting for the results.  I started reading all about TE, AA, AU and on and was frankly terrified while waiting.  I truly never knew about this before, I was the one who saw the scarves on heads or bald heads and thought CANCER. The fact that there was no cure or drug to fix this disease floored me.  I write on here about my experiences to help that person who is like me.  The food diet does work it may have to be tweaked to fit you personally. I suggest to read, read, read, and get a great Dr. to help keep you on track.   Again does (food //diet) have anything to do with the hair loss? Or my regrowth back?  I do not know.  If you do not try how do you know. It’s not a loss as you WILL few better in mind/body if you stay with the diet.  Since I did not know if the food allergies had anything to do with the hair loss or the stress, I chose to just wait it out with my hair as it was. I got several wigs, another learning experience; I went to a special salon where I did not have to sit out in the open.  They took care of my wig, colored my white hair so as it grew so it didn’t show white on the bangs or side burns in my wigs. I stopped having my nails done artificially, tanning.  I use gluten free/sulfate free products on my hair.  I use a little coconut oil on my hair. I am concerned about the hair color, but so far so good, it would be very white if I did not color it my natural color. I have read that is not bad and read it is bad, I asked my Dermatologist she said that it did’nt hurt your hair,like perms and hair straighteners do.  I just want to say the special diets do work if you stick with them, you cannot do it part way, it will not work.  The hair will do as it will, heal the one, maybe the other will come along.  I do know that my mother or her mother (my grandmother) did not have this disease.  I don’t know where it came from genetically. 

Comment by AnnS on December 21, 2015 at 2:51pm

A side note, I'm now on Methotrexate. Started 5mg last week, upped to 10mg this week. I will continue to post updates, but my husband is pretty sure I grew more hair in the last week.  The doctor takes photos about every 2-3 weeks. If I tolerate the 10mg (should know pretty soon, just took the second 5mg today) well, he'll take me to 15, which was the study's recommendation. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4155950/  It is an inexpensive medication ($18 for 6 tabs, 2.5mg each). But the bottom line is, we all have an autoimmune system that is out of control and whether you take/need a drug that suppresses it, or you approach it with natural healing (with some help!), it should put the disease into remission. The only problem is so many people undertake an elimination diet with no knowledge of what they should eliminate. 

Comment by Zimrie on December 26, 2015 at 9:55pm

There was one summer when I was using goat milk from someone living near me and as soon as they ran out of milk in the fall, I started to go completely bald.   I was under a lot of stress and also sleep deprived.   I can't prove that the lack of goat milk was part of the cause though.   This is sort of the opposite of what people are talking about here but just an observation I had.  

Comment by Bill_Andrews on September 30, 2020 at 4:46pm

Interesting information here! I have no problem with hair loss, but my wife has started a keto diet and she thinks that it somehow affects the hair loss. What do you think?

Comment by Joe Nyagah on September 30, 2020 at 4:55pm

Mainly the hair loss during the keto diet can be caused by to much stress and little protein. My sister went through such a stressful period when university exams and her desire to lose weight, that the hair loss frightened her a little bit. I was looking for some information about it to help her andenter site I found that she should take more vitamins. Yep, she was keeping tracking of her progress, counting macronutrients and all this stuff, but a strict low-carb diet can provoke such problems.

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