how do you stop the thinning hair from lyme? - Lyme Disease Message Board

Roman77 · 06-25-2005, 01:44 PM

Hi all...I am just a buch of questions today.

But over the past month and a half I have been dismayed to see that my lovely hair is thinning and falling out all over the place! I am only 28 and up until having this wonderful relapse of lyme I have not had any problems with my hair, well I guess not unless you count the dry itchy scalp and overall dry skin. But the hair itself was healthy, shiny, and soft now it is all brittle, dry, and oh so thin! I'm sure a lot of you have gone through this and I'm wondering is there anything that can help stop it or help it grow back?

I am not so worried about this being permanent, as my LLMD told me spefically that this is typical and will come and go along the way. Some times he said it will fall out for a few weeks, then it should come back and grow in again on it's own. But like always this i sjust a hardt hing to excpet.

What's out there that can help anything? Besides trying to super glue my hari to me head!

At least that way I don't have to watch it fall out as I brush it in the morning! Thanks for the advice as always.....

outinthe_woods · 06-25-2005, 04:29 PM

Hmmm, that's one problem I haven't had....could it be the possibly off-kilter thyroid that most of us Lymies seem to have?

Roman77 · 06-25-2005, 04:38 PM

You know...thyroid problems do run in the fam as it is. My sister and brother both have it. But I don't think I've ever had my thyroid checked??? Hmmm...what test is it called that would see levels of thyroid? I had tons of blood work done within the last 4 months, and have a list of it all. If I had a name to look for on the blood work I could see if I've had one done and what the levels were. Anyone know the name of the test? Maybe I'll do some researching and see what I can find. Thanks gerribear!

outinthe_woods · 06-25-2005, 06:15 PM

I'm heading into Brain Fog City after so many hours on the puter today, so I'll just say: add Free T3 and Free T4 to the regular T3 & 4. It was somewhere on the board today, but can't remember which post...sorry!

Kali M · 06-25-2005, 07:49 PM

For the thyroid TSH, Free T4 and Free T3 are really all you need. If the practitioner was looking for Hashimoto's Disease (which is hypothyroid d/t autoimmunity), s/he may also order antibody testing. There might be a possibility of having a T4 to T3 thyroid conversion problem (which is also another controversial area!). This was show up as a low Free T3 level regardless of a normal TSH and FT4.

HOWEVER, I have another thought on this matter. Hair loss is one of the symptoms I've seen listed in several Lyme books and on Lyme websites. My theory is that due to the chronic status of this disease, sex steroids (DHEA & testosterone) are lowered and eventually become deficient in both men & women. (My own DHEA-Sulfate level - the best one to test by blood labs - went from already slightly low at 2 years into my symptoms, to that of a 70 y/o woman only 7 months later. And I was only 36 y/o at the time. My testosterone went down to 20. And my Free testosterone was 0.3 when it should have been between 1.5-3.0. This last test is the most important measure for testosterone deficiency). DHEA is reported in medical literature to decrease in chronic disease (possibly d/t affects on the hypothalmic system? - adrenals).

I had very gradually increasing hairloss starting 1999. Finally realized in 2002 that I'd probably lost 1/3 of my hair volume. Barrettes were falling out when they used to be difficult to close. When I replaced my DHEA, the hair loss lessened. BUT, I would never advocate DHEA supplementation without knowing what your DHEA-S level is, and that takes convincing a provider to test you - and then having that provider be up on current literature and knowing what "normal" levels really are, since researchers are only know delving into a sufficient number of studies to gain pertinent knowledge.

Loss of DHEA and Testosterone in folks with Lyme would also help explain why some have decreased libido (coupled of course with all the physical problems & exhaustion d/t lyme). A body without testosterone also loses muscle mass.

Not suggesting that loss of sex steroids is the only reason some of these symptoms may exist in Lyme, but I think it's a very interesting thought.

Kali