Comments on: The Microbiome and Hair Loss: A Scientific Review [2021]

By: Jasper

Jasper — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 09:26:50 +0000

Hi there Rob, hope you have had a great day.
I was driving home today and I was thinking about the microbiome connection to hair loss and also a load of other things too as there seems to be so much over lap between all sorts of illnesses.
So today I was thinking very it’s possible that a gut full of the wrong and/or overgrown bacterial colonies would take a lot of sugar to sustain themselves and its most probable that they would use our bodies blood sugar to stay alive.
I figure if this is the case, this could cause a whole load of problems for us and may even contribute to certain kinds of diabetes and hormonal problems.
I also wondered whether infestations of unfriendly microbiome, the kind that can influence our hormones could potentially drive our bodies to suit their own agenda and again, could be contributing to all sorts of hormonal issues and inconsistencies.
Things like hormonal and blood sugar fluctuations that appear to be totally random and out of the blue may be in part, the result of microbiome driving our body the way it wants it to be run.
If it wants more sugar, our blood sugar and insulin levels get altered to suit them and at our detriment.
Insulin resistance and Sugar cravings or “a sweet tooth” maybe another way it shows up when our blood sugar has been consumed by these things in high amounts.
I’m sure this has been well discussed else where but I hadn’t thought about it before.
Any thoughts???

By: Ni

Ni — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 09:08:56 +0000

Your work is great as always,Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.
We can even add apple cider vinegar to this theory
I think that those who consume apple cider vinegar and see hair growth is because the stomach environment becomes acidic and there is no room for bad bacteria and Candida fungi

By: Rob English

Rob English — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 21:03:22 +0000

In reply to JR. Thanks JR! I actually picked up Joel Greene's book two months ago (a member had recommended it to me during a video call). I haven't dug too deep into it yet – and I actually put it down because I was a bit annoyed with a few of the product pushes at the end of each chapter. In any case, I'm certainly planning to dive back in soon – as I always love learning more about others' perspectives.

By: Rob English

Rob English — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 20:57:08 +0000

In reply to Josh.

Thanks Josh! It’s probably worth mentioning that gut dysbiosis is likely connected to telogen effluvium, and that telogen effluvium can accelerate the balding process if it occurs in regions of pattern hair loss (AGA). This is because hair follicle miniaturization – the defining characteristic of AGA – occurs as a single step-process after a hair sheds and during the generation of a new hair follicle. In other words, anything that leads to temporary hair shedding – stress, gut dysbiosis, hypothyroidism, nutrient imbalances, seasonality-related changes, etc. – has the potential to feed into this miniaturization process and progress AGA.

The irony is that shedding is also required to see hair regrowth – as these hair follicle dermal papillae cell clusters need an opportunity to degenerate, regenerate, and resize larger (which generally just occurs after shedding).

In any case, it’s totally possible that your IBS-related symptoms contributed to the acceleration of AGA. This is why a multifactorial approach is so important: i.e., targeting both AGA-related causes (androgens, scalp environment, etc.) + hair shedding-related causes (IBS, gut dysbiosis, etc.).

Best,
Rob

By: JR

JR — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 14:15:06 +0000

Thanks for your in-depth article. I highly recommend Joel Greene’s book, Immunity Code as a starting point to restoring immune balance in the gut. This is a fantastic 3 part series that is incredibly insightful.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:38:31 +0000

Fascinating and in-depth article. I’ve been wondering about this connection. Last year I developed IBS out of the blue which has become a chronic issue. During this time I have noticed a loss of density over my scalp and the hair strands in general grow finer. I can also feel a short stubble-like hair on the scalp beneath the longer hair wich never seems to grow past a few mm, as if the hair cycle is disrupted. Maybe this is merely MPB progressing, but it just seems strange considering a year ago my hair density was thick despite having stablized and fairly minor temple recession. I was also losing hair from the sides above the ear when the IBS was at its worse, but massaging above/behind the ear seems to have helped that, but it does make question if IBS and gut issues somehow accelerated the process as my balding pattern has been very slow and gradual up to now.