Do you stand in the shower, holding clumps of your hair, thinking to yourself “there’s no way this is normal”?
Many women experience a time in their life where they aren’t sure if they should be worried about the hair accumulating on their bathroom floor, or their pillow, or any surface in their homes really. It’s tough because we are supposed to lose hair everyday – this makes room for new hair to grow – but when do you say “this is too much”?
Signs that your hair loss may be a bit more than your normal daily shed:
There are lots of areas in your life you’ll want to assess if your hair is coming out.
For starters, are you eating enough protein? Our hair literally is protein. We need to give our body the building blocks it needs to make more. So if our diets are low in good quality protein, our hair might suffer.
Here are some lab tests we always run when a woman feels like they are losing their hair.
There’s no discrimination here – if you feel it’s falling out too quickly, we look into it. It can be an extremely difficult emotional experience to feel like you’re losing your hair, so it’s better to know up front if anything is off.
#1. Thyroid Testing
If your thyroid isn’t functioning well, you’ll start to lose your hair, amongst a slew of other symptoms. We will check:
The Thyroid Foundation of Canada estimates 1 in 10 Canadians suffer from thyroid dysfunction and 50% of these people are undiagnosed.
That’s insane.
If you’ve had your thyroid checked before and told “everything is normal” but still feel tired, cold, overweight, and oh ya, you’re losing your hair, you need to check it again with a functional medicine practitioner. 4 out of those 5 lab tests are likely not being run and it’s crucial to rule out any thyroid dysfunction to see them all.
#2. Dyhydrotestosterone – DHT
Testosterone is turned into DHT in our bodies, in men more than women. If the enzyme that makes DHT is running a bit rampant, you’ll get symptoms of high DHT like acne, facial hair growth, and head hair loss.
#3. Zinc
Zinc is an interesting one, because it’s actually linked to hypothyroidism and DHT when it comes to hair loss. If you do the testing from #1 and #2, but don’t notice any change once you start treating, it may be because your zinc deficient. Zinc is important for our hair, skin and nails and we are often deficient because our food is grown in zinc-deficient soil.
You do not need to suffer with hair loss – it’s time we got you some answers.
If you’re interested in learning more, book a discovery call with our clinic coordinator.