Real problems caused by sudden thinning skin :(

[Hoppi2]

Hi, first of all I want to say thank you for providing this service in advance, this is something that is very important to me and I would be so happy to see it solved and put behind me :)

Basically, around last August I had a pretty significant and undesirable skin change, which happened only in the space of around 4 days or so. My skin basically went from being very healthy and young-looking, to more wrinkly to the touch, more stretchy, it looks thinner, kind of even looks paler. I have no idea how this happened.

To give you an idea of myself, lifestyle and background, I am a 25 year old guy, have been stressed on and off for about 5 years, was smoking lightly at the time of the skin change and eating a fair amount of gluten and dairy (all of these I have now stopped or cut down drastically on). I have been taking hydrolyzed collagen, hyaluronic acid and some other things like grape seed extract recently with little or no visible results. I suspect I may have a thyroid issue, as I do have quite cold hands and feet, light headedness and a few other issues, but my doctor was sure my thyroid was ok. Since the skin change I have also been losing hair in the normal male pattern, which has been very unpleasant.

I really hope you have some idea what might help me, as this has been a very unpleasant experience :(

Thank you,

Mike

[Hoppi2]

Hi sorry I never replied sooner, that reply was helpful :)  I have actually spent a long time evaluating my condition and believe that an egg intolerance and possible wider digestive problems accompanied all of this about 14 months ago and continues to this day! I'll post about it in the section about digestion :)

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
The skin changes can be due to dry skin or hormonal changes. The thinning of hair can be due to male pattern baldness, hormonal imbalance or telogen effluvium. It is nonscarring alopecia characterized by diffuse hair shedding, often with an acute onset. Treatment consists of medications like Minoxidil, surgical approach(hair transplantation) and improvement in diet.


I suggest you to get an evaluation done from a dermatologist. It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.