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20790871 tn?1507161421

Hair falling out

I am a healthy 20 year old female. I am a former collegiate long-distance runner; I stopped running competitively a few months ago, but still run and workout regularly. I noticed that shortly after I started college (2 years ago), my hair stopped growing completely. It used to be long and thick, but over the past couple years it has become very thin and damaged and simply doesn't grow. In addition to this, I have also been getting acne on my jaw and neck-which I didn't use to get. It is difficult for me to pinpoint what could be causing this because a lot of things in my life changed when this issue started occurring. My diet changed, I lost a bit of weight(down to 6.4% body fat), my training intensified, and I started two medications for depression (Lexapro and Wellbutrin). I gained the weight back after I quit competitive running, but the hair thinning persists. Another thing to note, I have never been an illness-prone person, but lately I have been getting sick a lot and have had several infections over the past few months. I recently got my blood tested because I have mono(which has hit me hard), and aside from the mono and white blood cell count (low neutrophils and high lymphocytes-presumably from fighting off the mono), everything was normal. My ferritin and thyroid tests also came back normal. I have a regular period and healthy diet. I've tried researching Lexapro and Wellbutrin side effects, but didn't find much on hair loss associated with these medications. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
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1530171 tn?1448129593
Your extremely low body fat level has likely lead to some serious health complications!

I think the lower safe threshold for female athletes is around 13%.
It has definitely affected your hormonal system, since hormones are cholesterol/fat dependent.

Your depression is a natural complication of this low-fat environment and artificially remedying with anti-depressants will only make things worse!

Your tests for the thyroid are flawed and inadequate!

You need a comprehensive stress profile, preferably a saliva test which measures 4x cortisol and DHEA-S.
As a reference only, visit BioHealth labs website for more details.

Your thyroid function could be compromised but your blood thyroid tests would not show this, because you likely have elevated reverse T3 (not tested for), and while circulating blood thyroid hormone levels are fine, you likely have a functional deficiency because of thyroid resistance (it does not enter the cells).
In such cases it is NOT recommended to treat the thyroid as usual.
Treating the adrenals first is imperative! Stressed adrenals would explain the hair loss./thinning and perhaps the acne.
If needed, a minimal dose of T3 only like Cyromel, as a trial might be OK., but you should ask for free T3 and reverse T3 testing, to confirm.

Organ shrinkage occurs in low fat environments as lowered immune and brain function.

Endurance athletes do better with medium to high fat diets , composed  of 32%-40% fat, the ideal level for not compromising their immune function.
Endurance exercise puts very high stress on the body by producing high levels of oxidation (free radicals)

Also metabolizing and processing fat-soluble vitamins
A,D,E,K would be compromised.

Your running would NOT be affected, as a matter of fact it would be improved with a higher fat diet!
Don't buy into the low-fat myth any longer.
Just choose high quality fats in your diet, and see a good Functional Medicine Doctor to help you restore your health!

I'm an exercise "Buff", cycling-swimming-cardio-weights,
but also a semi-retired holistic health practitioner and I have managed to achieve a perfect balance for myself (and for many others as well).

Should you have any questions, I'm only a couple keystrokes away.

Best wishes,
Niko
Helpful - 1
1 Comments
Thank you so much

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way off the beaten track!, BC
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