Hi Dr Hagmeyer here and today I want to talk to you about something that affects millions of woman worldwide and most importantly something that can crush a woman’s spirit and impact so many areas of her life.

I’m talking about Hair loss. Of all the symptoms that woman can experience there is nothing quite as bad as hair loss. So in today’s video I want to share a couple of things that need to be considered when it comes to the cause of hair loss.

#1 is Whats causing your Hair loss. There are 5 reasons woman lose their hair we are going to review those with you.
#2 I want to specifically talk about the Hormone DHT and its implication in Hair loss and finally I want to share with you some of The symptoms one might expect to experience if they had High DHT levels- symptoms other than hair loss. These might be early warning signs that if you ignore them, down the road you might be losing your hair.

Dr Hagmeyer’s Top 5 causes of Hair Loss

#1 Poorly functioning Liver and Gut (GI system)
#2 High Stress levels or prolonged bouts of stress. Stress can throw a huge hormonal wrench into your hormone pathways. I wrote an article, not that long ago about stress and its impact on hair loss.
#3 An unhealthy diet- Let face it, diet affects everything and if your diet is not spot on, this is going to affects micro-circulation of nutrient delivery to the scalp, its going to affect hormones.
#4 Hormones (Sex Hormones and Thyroid hormones). I have done a video specifically on Thyroid and Hair loss and so if you are interested in this you can go back and watch that video- But let me say real quickly if this is your first video that you are watching, If you are experiencing weight gain, brain fog, heart palpitations, depression, anxiety, Fatigue, don’t settle for just a thyroid screening which your doctor may have already run and told you everything is normal- Get a full thyroid panel done, by visiting my Thyroid Treatment section, you can see the markers that you need to have done and well as where you want your levels to fall. So that’s enough on the thyroid-

but that does brings us to another hormone called Dihydrotestosterone or DHT for short. This is public enemy #1 for hair follicles. So what is this DHT?

If you look at this illustration- and I know this looks confusing- but stay with me here- On the right side of this diagram your going to see DHT. DHT is made when either Testosterone, Androstendione or androstenediol is converted into another hormone- specifically DHT.

These 3 hormones that all can get converted into DHT are all considered androgenic (responsible for male characteristics). As they get converted they become more androgenic. This is why women with increased levels of DHT may develop certain male characteristics. This doesn’t mean you are going to turn into a man- but you will become less lady like.

Some of the Symptoms you might experience include hair above the lip, a deepened voice, acne, you might experience irritability, infertility, cysts on your ovaries, breast size decreases, irregular cycles, and of course male pattern hair loss like you see in this picture.

A woman I just started working with described to me that for the first time in her life she has noticed that the texture of hair on her head had changed. Her sex drive was still good which made more suspicious that she had elevated levels of DHT. You see testosterone is what gives a woman her sex drive and libido.

So based on many of the hormonal symptoms she was experiencing when our tests came back were what I expected—— DHT levels were elevated, androstendione levels were elevated and elevated DHEA levels. This is common in more woman than you think, especially during perimeneopause.

So my point here is pay attention to your body!

Now…..I don’t want to make you into a hypochondriac but you need to be familiar with your body and what its trying to tell you.

These subtle symptoms, could be a red flag that you have elevated DHT levels and these early signs will give you the chance to be proactive rather than calling my office when you hair is coming out in clumps and your in tears and the stress of hair loss is perpetuating your problem.

So lets unpack this DHT a little bit more for you.

If you look at this illustration you can see that when hair follicles are exposed to excessive DHT for along enough period of time, the follicle begins to produce less hair and each successive growing/shedding cycle results in the production of finer and finer hairs. Eventually the hair is never able to break the surface of the skin it looks very thin because the follicles eventually become dormant.

So what do you do when this happens?
Remember what I said in the beginning of the video- there are 5 main areas that need to be investigated. Its not just running a test that looks to see if DHT is elevated but rather understanding all the other hormones that are also playing a roll. When ever you deal with hormones you need to understand more than just why they are high or low but rather look at the big picture.

Closing points

So in closing today’s video, a couple of takeaways I want you to remember….

#1- Hair loss has many causes- today we talked mostly about the Hormone DHT- but realize that hormone exist in a state of mutual balance. There are many others hormones such at T3 and T4 Hormones made by the thyroid, Cortisol levels and DHEA levels that are made from the adrenals, and then there is the health of Liver and health of GI tract to name just a few. If you have exhausted all these areas DHT should be on your radar if not already tested. Again think pubic enemy #1.

#2 If you do find an elevated DHT- the typical treatment is using something known as a 5α-reductase inhibitors- there are other natural means I would explore long before I resorted to these medications. These medications like Finastride, have a long list of unwanted side effects that often come with them so this may not be your best option.

#3 A natural 5 alfa reductase inhibitor that can be used and has shown quite a bit of research behind it is saw palmetto. This can be used in men or woman. again Saw Palmetto, acts on the the enzyme that prevents the conversion of androstenedione, androstenediol and testosterone into DHT.

How long does it take to grow your hair back? This all depends on what’s going on in your body. I have had patients start seeing a difference in about 4 months, and other 10-12 months- It just depends on the individual. Whatever you do, give it time and be realistic. Not every case of hair loss is the same

Well I hope you found value in today’s video, if you haven’t already subscribed to our you tube channel make sure you do that. Also, if you visit our website you will find over a 1000 pages of articles, videos and recipes dedicated to natural medicine and better hormone health.

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