Help for a newbie
Hi everyone,
I am new to the group and would like to share my story and receive
advise or ideas.
I am a 42 yo female in good health. My diet is not strict, actually
I’m not even on one but I don’t think that I eat very bad. My husband
and I cook all of our meals at home instead of going out. We try not
to eat too much fried foods but we do have them about once or twice a
month. Most of our meals are grilled, baked or boiled. We eat a lot
of baked fish or chicken, not much red meat. We don’t eat much sugar
and sweets.
I have had nice skin all of my life and good health. Three years ago
I started feeling feverish every single day, this feverish feeling
lasted for several months but when I would take my temp it was either
normal or a very low grade fever. I was always tired and felt sleepy
most of the time. Months later my hair started falling out by the
handfuls and my entire body and head would itch and burn. I would
notice small pimple like bumps around my hairline but they always
went away. My chest, upper back and the upper parts of my arms would
break out in light red blotches for no reason.
Frightened, I went to see an internal medicine doctor. He ran every
kind of test he could think of on me but every test would come back
normal. He ran tests to check my blood, and tests to see if my body
was absorbing vitamins, auto immune diseases, lupus, Aides,
hepatitis, hormone imbalance, cancer, you name it, and he even had me
do a cat scan.
After months of being put through test after test and thousands of
dollars later, he ran out of tests to give me. He was stumped as to
what was causing my hair loss and skin condition and he told me to
try and forget about it and to learn to accept my condition.
He then recommended that I go to see a dermatologist he knew, so I
did. This was a nightmare! I went to see the dermatologist and she
comes into the room holding her little clipboard and sat across the
room from me. She asked me the reason for my visit and I went on to
explain everything to her. The entire time she was looking at her
clipboard and never making eye contact with me. Finally she got up
and came over to me and shuffled her hand in my hair for a second and
said I had seborrheic dermatitis and she left the room and never came
back!
She never looked at my skin or my scalp and hardly asked me any
questions. My skin was very clear the day I went in for the visit and
all did was ruff up my hair so I couldn’t figure how she made the
diagnosis.
I went home and started researching my symptoms and her diagnosis and
found that I do not have the "classic" symptoms of this. Yes, I have
some of the symptoms but if you do enough research I also have some
of the symptoms of a hundred other things too.
Some of the symptoms with this type of dermatitis are, scaling,
oozing, flaking… I don’t have these symptoms. My head does become
oily but not to extreme.
I have now used up our savings in doing all of these tests and seeing
so many doctors and to this day I have not found help for my skin and
hair problem.
I have been on the lemonade diet and stayed on it for 5 weeks and I
couldn’t do it any longer. This didn’t help me.
I have taken the pb shakes that I found on cure zone site. I took the
shakes for several months and this did not help. I still take these
shakes once or twice a day just to make sure I stay regular and
because I have a lot of mucus in my body. I am very congested.
I have also done 5 liver flushes and have not seen any improvement as
of yet.
I am desperately seeking advice on how I can overcome my hair loss
and skin condition and if anyone might have any ideas as to what this
could be.
cjb
May 11th, 2005 at 5:49 am
Hi cjb,
I have had similar symptoms to you. I have been able to get rid of a lot by
using calcium ascorbate Vit C plus other supplements. But the low body
temperature and the hair loss I still have. Also have you had your water tested
for whatever they put in your water could be affecting your skin. My doctor saw
the pattern of where I had the excema and asked me how I bathed (shower) He was
an old experienced GP and he immediately he said it was the water. I had all
the itchy spots whereever the water would hit from the shower, back, neck,
upper chest, stomach, upper arms and lower legs. So now when I shower I dry
myself and immediately apply moisturiser cream all over. It has practically
gone away. Oh yes, and I found out there are at least 26 additives in our water
here in rural Australia. Most of them unecessary like fluoride and ammonia..
Plus the hair loss, low temperature and fatigue I found is caused by
hypothyroidism. It causes weight gain too. Do you have that? I often wake up
shivering and have to get up and get more blankets. I am always cold specially
in fingers and feet. Didn’t use to be like this. My hair has been thinning
dramatically since menopause. I have to do "combovers" like old men do. I had
tests done and the Doc said my thyroid was normal. But I found out from my
records kindly given to me by the clinic nurse that it is "slightly under
normal". Also they only did one thyroid test, not very comprehensive.
Hope this helps you search more avenues. I don’t want to go on their medication
so I’m living with this. I am however, going to try and get some kelp tablets
as the govt has stopped access to iodine of any sort. I used to be able to get
some great iodine throat lozenges from England through the local pharmacy and it
would nip sore throats and the usual cold, in the bud. Always worked. Then I
was told it was banned. Even the Pharmacist didnt know why. Now they have
banned kelp tablets too from pharmacies. But I can get it from somewhere else
for now. I wonder how long it’s going to be before they ban all our supplements
here? Not long I’m sure.
Jenny
May 11th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Hi Jenny,
Thank you for the reply and sharing your experience with me.
I have been tested for thyroid and the test came back in the low but
normal range. I was only tested once. My estrogen was normal but the
low normal was progesterone. I tried natural progesterone cream for
months that my doctor had recommended but that didn’t help. He had
also put my on a very, very low dose of thyroid medication to see if
this would help even though my thyroid showed normal.
I too now use a moisturizing cream when I finish a shower and it
helps my skin at little.
I don’t usually feel cold at night, sometimes but not often. I will
have to check out our water supply, that sounds interesting.
Have you found anything that helped with your hair loss?
I have been on so many cleanses but they are not helping my
situation. I wonder if I am doing the wrong ones. Have you tried any?
cjb
May 11th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Hi Alison,
Thank you for the welcome. Everyone seems really kind here.
I haven’t tried any new skin or hair products, I’m using the same
ones I have used for years and years. The doctor had asked me about
stress but lucky I am not under any stress.
I have seen 1 internal medicine doctor and 2 dermatologists. The
doctor has no clue as to my problem. The one dermatologist that I
spoke about in my opening post was a real nightmare and a waste of
several hundred dollars. SHe may be right and I have seb derm, I
don’t know. I never went back to see her after that.
I did find another dermatologist who use to teach medical students so
I thought he would be a real good one to go to. I went to him several
times (4-5)but I ran out of money to continue seeing him.
He didn’t do any tests on me but he had me save the hair that fell
out over the course of 4 weeks, each week in a different bag and then
he counted each bag to see how much I was losing and if is was
slowing down.
After checking my scalp and counting the loss of hair he came to the
conclusion that it would stop on its own. He said that I was molting
like a rabbit would but he didn’t know why.
This was almost two years ago and my hair loss hasn’t stopped, it
hasn’t even slowed down.
I had to stop going to him because all he ever did was monitor me and
I just couldn’t keep spending 400.00 for each visit just to be
told "let’s keep watching". These three words cost me well over a
thousand dollars with nothing in return, not even a diagnosis.
I agree on the allergies because my eyes itch alot and either my nose
is stuffy or it’s runny all the time.
cjb
May 12th, 2005 at 1:48 am
Hi,
No I haven’t done any cleanses, but I’ve been taking Biotin and Lecithin or
Choline. It’s been recommended on the HSI forum in a thread there. I think my
hair has improved a bit. It’s hard to tell as usually any supplements or
whatever are going to take a while and I have to be consistent in taking them
too (which I’m not very) Otherwise they aren’t going to help much. I know our
food is sadly lacking in many nutrients.. It all depends on the soil it’s grown
in when it comes to veggies. So I compost and mulch when I plant mine. Shop
bought ones won’t help much as they are helped along with artificial fertilisers
that may not have all the nutrients we need in our bodies.
Hope this helps,
Jenny