Thank you so much for your hard work and for your articles! I’ve PCOS and androgenetic alopecia as a result of a nasty lifestyle and high insulin levels. However, I remember that my hairloss started after 1 month being in a keto diet. I don’t know if it’s related. As for insulin level and hormone inbalance, keto is the best option so far, however, how to mantain a lower insuline level in this diet without affecting thyroid functioning and cortisol? Not having a calorie deficit and reducing carbs would help in that case?

Hey Nadežda,

Thanks for reaching out, and thanks for asking for permission. Yes, please feel free to translate just this article, and post it to your community. Please include a link to the original article (this webpage) and the note that this article was originally posted on perfecthairhealth.com and has been translated 🙂

Best,
Rob

Hey Gernot,

Thank you. And to answer your question — it all depends on each individual. In general, as long you’re 1) nutrient replete, 2) not in a chronic calorie deficit, and 3) avoiding most allergens — diets should have very little impact on hair loss or hair growth. The book tries to outline a diet that covers all three bases for you — but the reality is that third point (allergens) changes from person-to-person.

You might very well tolerate oatmeal, quinoa, and/or brown millet. The only way to know for sure is through substitution diets and food testing (the latter of which can get expensive — $500+).

Best,
Rob

So I worked through your diet recommendations in the ebook and really try to follow them. However, I am a fan of oatmeal, quinoa and brown millet. Many people consider them to not contain gluten and additionaly quinoa isn’t even a real grain.
I am very curious to hear your opinion about these three foods.

Best,
Gernot

Hey Rehan,

Great questions, and the reality is that much of this is speculation! I think, by far, my biggest issue going low-carb was that I always felt relatively satiated, and as a result, I under-ate constantly. The end-result was 1) a decrease in thyroid functionality and an increase in hair shedding, and 2) the revelation of just how easy this is to do going low-carb.

It’s also possible that even outside the calorie deficit — I just wasn’t doing low carb right at all (as some commenters have suggested). But this is the problem with the term ketogenic / low-carb: everyone has a different opinion on how to do it “right” — and as a result, there will always be disagreements.

RE: fasts–

I’ve personally found that intermittent fasting with shorter daily fasting windows (10 hours on, 14 hours off) works well for me, but once I get into the 8 hours eating windows (or 24+ hour fasts), my symptoms of hypothyroidism begin to creep back up. 10 hours seems to be the sweet spot for me, and is something I’ve currently practiced for the past couple of years.

In terms of autophagy improving calcification or fibrosis — yes, absolutely. But too little autophagy — or too much — often has conflicting effects and can even cause fibrosis.

We don’t exactly know how to focus autophagy as a target for fibrosis of the scalp. However, under the right settings, autophagy is theorized to be a potential therapeutic target for liver fibrosis:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528272/

And ironically, TGF-B1 (which is a signaling protein associated with the induction of scarring) may, in turn, promote autophagy:

http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/25/12/2835.abstract

So there’s a very fine balance here.

Best,
Rob

I know this post is an old one but I hope you get to read this.

Are you absolutely sure it was the LOW CARB KETOGENIC that caused the elevated cortisol levels? That much training on low carb is going to cause issues since you are not replacing glycogen but still performing glycolytic work. Or maybe you did eat enough carbs but that much training on a calorie deficit will lead to elevated cortisol – hell that much training even on a calorie surplus is not conducive to hair growth, I think. I see you have mentioned DR DOUG MCGUFF on this site before so I am assuming you do not train that way anymore?

What do you think of prolonged 3 – 5 day fasts for hair growth? I have read that a very small amount of leucine can stop autophagy so even when you are on a very low carb ketogenic diet but eating breakfast, lunch and dinner you might not be getting all of the benefits. Do you think autophagy could help reduce calcification and fibrosis?

Thank you, Tom! I was waiting for someone to say this! Keto is a fat-based diet and Paleo is not. If the author/experimenter cut out most carbs but was not getting ample daily fats, of course he was going to be low energy, cold, even sick! The fats become the fuel in Keto. Without them your body has no fuel source. Most people do Keto incorrectly and then write it off, saying “it didn’t work”. When you are in full-on therapeutic ketosis with IF however, you feel like a god or goddess, superhuman even. That’s why I seek to coach people on proper Keto as most don’t understand how to get fully fat-adapted and make the switch!

Thanks for reading, Tom!

I’m realizing now — in the article — that I should’ve specified how often I ate fruits high in carbohydrates. I ate fruit very rarely, and often in small portions (for instance, half of a banana after a hard workout).

In terms of measuring ketosis — I used sticks once or twice, but mostly could tell through the sustained change in the way my breath smelled. I increased fat intake by the percentages indicated in the article, so was getting much more fat than I otherwise typically consumed during moderate carb paleo or vegetarianism/veganism.

With that said, the experiment was certainly far from perfect. The biggest takeaway I learned was that it’s incredibly easy to feel satiated on a ketogenic diet, and that for me personally, it led to consistent under-eating. I suspect it was both a combination of 1) inadvertent calorie reduction, and 2) the presence of this calorie reduction during ketosis — that led to my symptoms.

In terms of my skin clearing up — my hypothesis is that it was actually a gut flora die-off of both the good guys and the bad ones causing me inflammatory problems. But I’m happy to be wrong about this. I don’t eat processed foods, but I do notice that whenever I fast, my skin looks great a few days in.

Ketosis certainly works great for some people. I plan on trying it again, and also better tracking my calorie intake to prevent the hypothyroid cascade that can happen during ketosis + under-eating.

All my best,
Rob