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Please can you offer any advice?
Hello,
I'm new to the board. I hope you will respect my candor. I'm having a problem that is wrecking havoc in my life. Here it goes:
I did Atkins about five years ago. I needed to lose 10 lbs. It worked wonderfully, however my craving for bread came to haunt me and I sort of went back up to 118 lbs. I'm 5'2". I've always be an avid exerciser. SO getting of Atkins wasn't the worst thing, my weight has always been pretty stable. But Last year I dropped 10 lbs doing what I called a "modifed" Atkins: coffee, high protein (fish, red meat) and more coffee. I was running 35 miles per week. I never looker leaner or felt more self-confident.
Okay, here's what happened:
I was in a foul mood most of the time. I was angry and I had a hsort fuse. I was grouchy. My hair was also brittle and splitting at the ends. Then, I ran so much my hip began to hurt. Finally my husband (who is an M.D.) persuaded me to see an orthpaedic surgeon. Low and belhold I had a stress fracture of my hip. It was so painful, I can't even tell you. I hopped aroundon crutches. It was tourtour to not exercise. Anyway, about six months into this I developed bulima. I'm so ashmaed to admit this, but I was running, eating a can of tunafish, downing 12 oz of coffee and then, on occasion, throwing it all up.
After I was on crutches for 5 weeks I went to the hairdresser to get my monthly dye job (hence the name molecular blonde) and ALL OF MY HAIR BROKE OFF!!! I was in shock. It just fell to the ground. But I wasn't loosing it from my scalp, just about two to three inches from there.
Okay, to wrap up, and to add insult to inury, the orothpaedic surgeon found a mass in my belly during the MRI and whammo- I had a 5 cm endometrioma. I was still skinny and not eating well. Surgery was six hours, lots of blood loss. They took out my left ovary, fallopian tube and some of my right ovary. Four weeks post-op, I was in the shower and MY HAIR BEGAN TO FALL OUT IN BUNCHES. It was horrifying. In the weeks that passed my scalp became more visible. After three months and after visiting 3 top dematologists, the conclusion was that i have tellogen effluvium. This was at first a blessing: normally the hair grows back after six months. All three dermatologists said that the cause of my hair loss wasn't the diteing and exercise bulimia, but the surgery itself (?). They did their best to comfort me, but the outlook seemed very good. All my test for thyroid/testosterone abornomalaties were excellent. No rogaine, because they thought it would grow back.
It's been a year since the surgery. My hair stabilized in January, and I was so thankful. It was still thin, but at least it wasn't falling out. Then I began to run really hard again, and down lots of coffee and deny myself most carbs (after all, exercise/diet wasn't the problem, right?) and now my hair is falling out like CRAZY. I can't even tell you how bad it is: I gave a talk at work (I'm a molecular biologist) and all I worried about before the talk was pulling off the hiars on my lapels. It was awful- the hair is everywhere, in the shower, in my car. So I stopped running, tried to eat more carbs (i.e. good carbs) and eveno though I hate it, I onyl exercise once a day. My weight is excellent, 109 at 62 inches. I had my blood work repeated last week, and everything is EXCELLENT. No oituitary tumor, nothing.
Sorry for the length of this post. Here's the question:
Has anyone experience hair loss who severly restricts complex carbs and who is an insane maniac about running? I belive in my heart this is the culprit. I think it threw my hair back into telogen effluvium. I am so depressed, I don't even want to go out of my house. I feel like my beautiful chemically blonde hair is like that of a new born chick: thin and wispy.
I'm in therapy for the eating disorder and for the last year have been on heavy doses of biotin and iron.
Was it the dieting and exercise that cause my hair loss? Or was it that combined with the major surgery?
Anything you coupld possibly think of would be greatly appreciated.
Most sincere thanks-
- A woman who was desperate to have the perfect body.
I'm new to the board. I hope you will respect my candor. I'm having a problem that is wrecking havoc in my life. Here it goes:
I did Atkins about five years ago. I needed to lose 10 lbs. It worked wonderfully, however my craving for bread came to haunt me and I sort of went back up to 118 lbs. I'm 5'2". I've always be an avid exerciser. SO getting of Atkins wasn't the worst thing, my weight has always been pretty stable. But Last year I dropped 10 lbs doing what I called a "modifed" Atkins: coffee, high protein (fish, red meat) and more coffee. I was running 35 miles per week. I never looker leaner or felt more self-confident.
Okay, here's what happened:
I was in a foul mood most of the time. I was angry and I had a hsort fuse. I was grouchy. My hair was also brittle and splitting at the ends. Then, I ran so much my hip began to hurt. Finally my husband (who is an M.D.) persuaded me to see an orthpaedic surgeon. Low and belhold I had a stress fracture of my hip. It was so painful, I can't even tell you. I hopped aroundon crutches. It was tourtour to not exercise. Anyway, about six months into this I developed bulima. I'm so ashmaed to admit this, but I was running, eating a can of tunafish, downing 12 oz of coffee and then, on occasion, throwing it all up.
After I was on crutches for 5 weeks I went to the hairdresser to get my monthly dye job (hence the name molecular blonde) and ALL OF MY HAIR BROKE OFF!!! I was in shock. It just fell to the ground. But I wasn't loosing it from my scalp, just about two to three inches from there.
Okay, to wrap up, and to add insult to inury, the orothpaedic surgeon found a mass in my belly during the MRI and whammo- I had a 5 cm endometrioma. I was still skinny and not eating well. Surgery was six hours, lots of blood loss. They took out my left ovary, fallopian tube and some of my right ovary. Four weeks post-op, I was in the shower and MY HAIR BEGAN TO FALL OUT IN BUNCHES. It was horrifying. In the weeks that passed my scalp became more visible. After three months and after visiting 3 top dematologists, the conclusion was that i have tellogen effluvium. This was at first a blessing: normally the hair grows back after six months. All three dermatologists said that the cause of my hair loss wasn't the diteing and exercise bulimia, but the surgery itself (?). They did their best to comfort me, but the outlook seemed very good. All my test for thyroid/testosterone abornomalaties were excellent. No rogaine, because they thought it would grow back.
It's been a year since the surgery. My hair stabilized in January, and I was so thankful. It was still thin, but at least it wasn't falling out. Then I began to run really hard again, and down lots of coffee and deny myself most carbs (after all, exercise/diet wasn't the problem, right?) and now my hair is falling out like CRAZY. I can't even tell you how bad it is: I gave a talk at work (I'm a molecular biologist) and all I worried about before the talk was pulling off the hiars on my lapels. It was awful- the hair is everywhere, in the shower, in my car. So I stopped running, tried to eat more carbs (i.e. good carbs) and eveno though I hate it, I onyl exercise once a day. My weight is excellent, 109 at 62 inches. I had my blood work repeated last week, and everything is EXCELLENT. No oituitary tumor, nothing.
Sorry for the length of this post. Here's the question:
Has anyone experience hair loss who severly restricts complex carbs and who is an insane maniac about running? I belive in my heart this is the culprit. I think it threw my hair back into telogen effluvium. I am so depressed, I don't even want to go out of my house. I feel like my beautiful chemically blonde hair is like that of a new born chick: thin and wispy.
I'm in therapy for the eating disorder and for the last year have been on heavy doses of biotin and iron.
Was it the dieting and exercise that cause my hair loss? Or was it that combined with the major surgery?
Anything you coupld possibly think of would be greatly appreciated.
Most sincere thanks-
- A woman who was desperate to have the perfect body.
Thank you for your honest reply. I was throwing up a lot, but unlike you I never took any type of diet pill, not even Trim Spa. My program was: drink coffee, run six miles, drink a diet pepsi eat a small salad and that was that. I was throwing up perhaps three times per week. But now I have stopped completely (both running and throwing up) and I "just" do step class and spin. It keeps me trim, but not as thin as I was when I ran.
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