Iron Absorption And Women's Hair Loss--reprint from HairSite's Women's Forum unedited

Hi Michelle and Megan, I found this forum page in October 2001. I specifically remember your names. I was looking for anything on hairloss. I had been losing my hair since about May of 2001. It came on gradually and wasn't really aware of it at first until many months later when I stopped to think that I had never really lost hair like that before. By that time I had lost a substantial amount. I have pretty "big" hair and so, of course, many of my friends didn't even notice. but I did. I was really scared it wasn't going to stop. 

My hair is much stringier now but I am patient as I am no longer losing hair in the shower. (only about 10 hairs or so now- which I'm sure is about "normal". As well I now have new 2 inch shorties sprouting up all over). So, I will tell you how this worked for me- I found your forum site and learned more than my DR. knew( and for that I thank you all) My doctor is great and very supportive- sometimes they just don't know everything and that is where we help each other. 

So I had a ferritin test done- mine was about 40 (November 2001) What I soon realized from reading your forum page was that many of you seem to be on such large doses of iron that what seemed to be the common factor in all of them was your inability to ABSORB the iron you are taking. That sent me on an all out search on the internet for something else going on in the body that would hinder iron absorption. 

I started to find some things that made sense for me. There seems to be from what I found some correlation between the acidity/alkalinity(PH) of the blood, the acidity/alkalinity(PH) of the stomach and finally iron absorption. What led me to this search was at the same time as the hair loss I had been experiencing some major acid reflux- coming up my esophogus and washing over my vocal cords- it fatigued my voice and was very uncomfortable - so I went to my doctor and he gave me prevacid and the problem subsided. 

So- because I was dealing with the whole acid reflux thing it caught my attention when I started seeing info about pH level of the stomach and iron absorption. Apparently as the production of Hydrochloric acid (HCL) in your stomach decreases several things happen: the effectiveness of digestion decreases (causing burping/belching and gas-due to undigested food particles "spoiling". hence my burping up of stomach juices ) as well as decreased absorption of nutrients (iron, as well as others) Iron initially likes an acidic environment to be changed to an absorbable form of iron. So then my search led me to why my hydrochloric acid production might be low. 

That brought me to blood Ph. Your blood PH typically likes to be slightly alkaline- now most of the foods I typically have eaten are acidic foods. And most of the foods in the mainstream American diet are acidic. Now if your first thought is- "oranges are acidic" type in "alkaline diet" on the Yahoo search engine and find out why the foods you think are acidic may not be. You see- they test a foods alkalinity/acidity by burning the food product. The ash that is left is tested and found to be either acid or alkaline. The reason they do this is- burning the food is a similar process to digestion. 

So you are left with the ph of the food after digestion which is what ultimately effects blood PH. SO- ---If your blood PH is too acidic (possibly because of the foods you eat) ---your HCL level decreases in your stomach, ---which in turn lowers your absorption of nutrients (IRON) SO- that's what I found and this is what I did- I went on a 90% alkaline diet (you can find them on the internet- type in "alkaline diet" on Yahoo and then when the sites come up check out "Acid-Alkaline food list for a healthy diet" its a good one. Some of the food lists conflict slightly from one site to another but I just did the best I could) 

I waited about 2 weeks then I went on Floradix, iron+herbs. It is a product I find in health food stores. It is a liquid iron imported from Germany and manufactured by Salus-Haus. I was told that it was in a very bio-available form by the lady at the health store. Just means it is readily absorbable by your body. It also has in it the important B vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12. As well it has Vitamin. C which helps us absorb the iron. The third thing I did was to also get on a multivitamin capsule (not tablet) which has zinc, copper, biotin and some of the other vitamins that seemed important to being female! The last thing I tried was taking HCL supplements and found it just made my stomach burn I didn't notice any improvements so I went off of it. 

So- my hair stopped falling out about a month later. I was on the mostly alkaline diet for about a month. Now I just try and watch that my diet is more balanced by filling it with more of the alkaline types. I eat much less meats and dairy and flour products. I take the recommended dose of Floradix and it works terrific- I only very occasionally get constipated in which case I will just skip a dose. Oh yeah! my acid reflux is gone and I don't need any more Prevacid or prilosec. 

Good luck to you all. I look forward to hearing if this works for any of you. Just do your own research. I got my info from many different sites on the internet and kept comparing to find where the information was consistent. I typed in , iron absorption, anemia and hairloss, alkaline/acidic foods and diets, blood PH, blood Acidity/ alkalinity, nutrient absorption and blood PH. every combination imaginable I kept typing in. I don't know how scientifically accurate what I have shared with you is - I just know that I kept coming up with the same information over and over that seemed to support itself. It feels really amazing (empowering) to have figured this out for myself and hope you find it valuable too. I'm just a girl who was losing her hair and put all the pieces together. I was so touched by all your letters I had to come back and share. I haven't had my ferritin tested again but will in the next several weeks and will let you know how it went. 

Thanks for readin' luv Heidi

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