Progression-stage categories of hair loss

Hair falling out? Need hair health fast?

This might seem like a weird topic to talk about on a nutritionist’s blog site, however, this topic is based on personal experience. My natural reaction to hair loss is embarrassment.  The more I read, however, the more I realize I really don’t need to feel that way.  And so I became motivated to find the solution.

I’ve been told by some there are no real solutions and that I should just get some Rogaine for women and learn to live with it. “After all it is probably just genetic.” Arrgghhhh! Well, I relented and I did just that and it has seemed to help some. But I’m not looking for a Band-aid, I want to get to the root of the problem. No pun intended!

You see this problem with hair loss has been going on now for a couple of years and I’ve noticed it’s been increasing. My hair is getting thin enough now that the loss is noticeable to me. Fortunately, my curly locks help to hide it.

I saw my dermatologist today who very frankly recommended I take supplements of folic acid, biotin, and vitamin B12 which are known to support hair health. I knew these were important nutrients to consume and I do eat foods with all of these nutrients and take the Vitamin Code for Women multivitamin by Garden of Life.

When I questioned him about this, however, he said it’s very likely that I wasn’t getting enough of these nutrients.  And so, I searched for a pharmaceutical-quality supplement containing folic acid, biotin and Vitamin B12.  That’s when I found Garden of Life’s Raw-B Complex, a vegetable-based product that supplies each of these nutrients.  I was particularly pleased with the affordable price.

In my searching, I found a great article that I felt worth sharing that discusses the causes of hair loss. Click here to read the article.  What I learned is that there are many reasons for hair loss and that can include nutrition deficiencies, hormonal imbalances and menopause.

If you’re also having a “bad hair” day, month or year like I have, start by eating a balanced, plant-based diet that includes moderate portions of protein-rich foods — the more organic, the better. Avoid or limit refined foods with added sugar, saturated fats and high sodium. Drink plenty of clean water and give up the soft drinks. Reduce your stress and increase your exercise.

I’ve already starting taking suggested supplements and I plan to write more about this journey to solve my “bad hair” year in the near future. Stay tuned.

Lori Drummond, R.D., L.D.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The number of Americans with diabetes will nearly double over the next 25 years, rising from 23.7 million in 2009 to 44.1 million in 2034, according to a study by the University of Chicago.

In the same period, medical costs associated with treating the disease will triple from 113 billion dollars to 336 billion dollars, even without a rise in the incidence of obesity, according to the study published in the December issue of Diabetes Care.

“If we don’t change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population,” said lead author Elbert Huang.

The study said its projections, despite being significantly higher than other recent estimates, may be too conservative because they assume the rate of diabetes and obesity, a risk factor for the disease, will remain stable.

In 1991, scientists projected that the number of Americans with diabetes would reach 11.6 million people in 2030, but some 20 years before that date the figure is already double that.

The study’s authors acknowledge that obesity rates have risen steadily in past years, but predict that they will level out over the next decade and then decline slightly from the current 30 percent level to around 27 percent in 2033.

The US health program Medicare, which provides health care for older Americans, spends some 45 billion dollars a year on diabetes treatment for 8.2 million people.

By 2034, the number of people with diabetes covered by the program is expected to rise to 14.6 million, according to the study, with associated costs rising to 171 billion dollars a year.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) – Going nuts in your diet can be good for your health, according to a study published Monday, which showed that eating nuts helps to lower blood cholesterol levels.

People who ate an average of 67 grams (2.4 ounces) of nuts a day saw a 5.1 percent fall in total cholesterol concentration and a 7.4 percent drop in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) — sometimes referred to as bad cholesterol — concentration compared to no-nut eaters, the study showed.

People with high triglyceride levels who ate nuts saw a 10.2 percent fall in those blood lipid levels, said the study, which analyzed data from 25 trials conducted in seven countries, involving 583 men and women aged 19-86 with high or normal cholesterol levels.

All the trial data that were analyzed for the study compared nut-eaters to a control group that did not eat nuts. None of the participants were taking medication to lower their blood lipids.

Researchers led by Dr Joan Sabate of Loma Linda University in California found in the study published Monday in the American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine that the benefits to health were the same no matter what nut is eaten.

A person’s weight and baseline LDL cholesterol levels did, however, influence whatever benefits might be derived from eating nuts.

The higher the starting LDL-C, the greater the cholesterol-lowering effects of nuts, the study found.

And the lower a patient’s body mass index — in other words, if the patient was not overweight or obese — the greater the effects of nuts on lowering cholesterol levels, the study found, urging more research to determine why nuts are less effective in lowering the blood cholesterol levels of obese people.

A person’s diet also played a role in the effect nuts have on blood cholesterol levels.

Consumers of Western diets, which are high in saturated fat, got more benefits from nut-eating than those who already ate a healthy diet, high in monounsaturated olive oil, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables, the study found.

And there’s more good news: the data analyzed for the study showed that the benefits of eating nuts remain with us for a long time; that nut consumption appears to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes; and, in spite of their high fat content, nuts don’t necessarily make us fat.

“Research has shown that frequent nut consumption does not lead to weight gain,” said the study.

“Increasing the consumption of nuts as part of an otherwise prudent diet can be expected to favorably affect blood lipid levels… and have the potential to lower coronary heart disease risk,” it concluded.