In the past year or so, the underlying causes of my hair loss finally became clear to me: I have Graves Disease and Hashimoto's disease. Like lots of autoimmune problems, these cause my hair loss to suddenly ramp up, and it's HORRIBLE. Another distressing thing is that medication for thyroid issues made it even worse, and it didn't do anything about the underlying problems...so I am now trying something that is not approved by doctors - helminthic therapy - I have infected myself with a small number of hookworms. There is strong evidence that this can help train our immune systems to stop attacking our own bodies. It has been about six months and during that time, the shedding has calmed down (10 hairs in the shower vs 60!) Regrowth is minimal, but I can see hundreds of tiny hairs coming in on top. My other symptoms have also improved as have my seesawing T4 T3 numbers. (FYI - I have no problems with this other than 2 days of rash and 2 days of upset stomach a little later - allergies, fatigue, thick dry skin, eye pain, bloating have all decreased rapidly) This is not a clear path and you will probably not find a doctor who will approve or help with this, but I thought that someone else here might be considering this kind of therapy and would appreciate hearing some feedback about it. Something else that has also made a HUGE difference: I got a water filtering showerhead. It removes chlorine and heavy metals - brand is culligan - costs about $50 on ebay. It makes my hair and scalp SO much cleaner and thicker feeling. It had become thin, dry and sticky all at once, and even with the new hair, it was looking and feeling bad. This seriously worked from the first day. Baby steps and baby hairs!
