Hair loss and changes to fingernails

[DokaGirl]

According to MEpedia, hair loss is an occasional symptom of ME:

https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Hair_loss

Like @BrightCandle, I had some initial hair loss, adding insult to ME injury.

I had already been hypothyroid for a decade before the ME, so was taking meds, and my thyroid blood tests were fine.

 

[MeSci]

I suffered hair loss in about 2015-16, 20 years after developing ME. Quite large amounts were coming out, which was rather alarming! It eventually stopped, and I just lose normal amounts when I brush or wash it now.

 

[boolybooly]

Well done Prof Jason. Good job.

My scalp hair was not affected but if you will pardon me mentioning it, for the sake of medical accuracy, my pubic hair definitely was and thinned a lot, was falling out at one point and became permanently less in number, lighter in colour and finer in texture and that was in my 20's after onset at 22 ish in 1986.

Also my finger nails became weak and split a lot more easily, marked with heavy ridges along the axis of growth and corrugations across it, which was not the case before ME but has been ever since.

 

[MeSci]

I think that my fingernails are better since taking quite high-dose calcium. I take a gram a day, plus magnesium and other things.

 

[Lou B Lou]

Thank you to the authors for this.

But a point about hair loss.

The article says those with ME do not experience hair loss, but those with Long Covid do.

Early on with ME, I had hair loss.

Yes, I had significant hair loss in the early years of ME.

 

[boolybooly]

I think that my fingernails are better since taking quite high-dose calcium. I take a gram a day, plus magnesium and other things.

I am glad that works for you.

My fingernails seem to improve a little with biotin supplements if I can remember to take them. I do remember biotin was one of the things marked as showing deficiency in the analysis of Witney Dafoe's and other's metabolomics by his father Prof Ron Davis.

At the moment, post covid with possible longcovid, I find calcium supplementation difficult, as it appears to encourage migraine like episodes of vasoconstriction.

 

[Mij]

I had a lot of hair loss from a relapse after having M.E for 11 years. My free T3 (thyroid) level dropped below normal so that might have been an issue. My hair eventually stopped falling out after 2 years and I haven't had any major hair loss since.

My nails are another story. I've had vertical ridges since the onset of M.E. I've tried supplements but nothing helps.

 

[MeSci]

I am glad that works for you.

My fingernails seem to improve a little with biotin supplements if I can remember to take them. I do remember biotin was one of the things marked as showing deficiency in the analysis of Witney Dafoe's and other's metabolomics by his father Prof Ron Davis.

At the moment, post covid with possible longcovid, I find calcium supplementation difficult, as it appears to encourage migraine like episodes of vasoconstriction.

I wonder if that's an issue of differentiation between types/causes/even genders?

I became really ill on biotin - perhaps permanently but at least pretty long-term.

I also very rarely get migraine.

 

[ahimsa]

Yes, I had significant hair loss in the early years of ME.

I also had hair loss in my first year of illness.

But it was more of large amount of hair shedding all at once rather than permanent hair loss. My hairdresser pointed out a lot of new hair growth when I went in for a haircut some time later on (weeks? months? don't remember).

 

[Yann04]

I think I’m developing hair loss and I think it’s due to ME. (I’m only 20 and there isn’t much history of significant hair loss in my family).


(my hairline used to be straight in the corners and now it forms a sort of inward circle)

I guess in general me being very severe was bound to have other effects on my health. I wonder if it’s vitamin D deficiency linked with being in the dark all the time. I take a weekly vitamin D pill as perscribed but I wonder if that isn’t enough.

(Because vit d deficiency is linked to hair loss).

 

[Trish]

If you're well enough to have blood tests, it might be worth being checked for nutritional deficiencies.
I take a daily general multivitamin and mineral as a precaution against deficiencies. No idea if it does any good.

 

[Yann04]

Thanks @Trish

Annoyingly, I am well enough to have blood tests once in a blue moon, but I am not well enough to have blood tests at 8am. I “sleep” from 11pm—1pm and anything much shorter than that leads to significant PEM. Unfortunately the nursing service in my area only does blood tests at home in the early morning.

 

[Chandelier]

https://www.firstpost.com/health/post-covid-hair-loss-recovery-tips-india-ws-e-13967459.html/

​

Post-Covid hair fall haunts Indians: Doctors decode the long-term shedding crisis​

Post-Covid hair loss caused by telogen effluvium, affecting millions in India. Experts explain the role of stress, nutrition and inflammation, who is at risk and how early medical intervention can restore hair and confidence.​

Months after recovering from Covid-19, many Indians are confronting an unexpected and deeply distressing after-effect, persistent and excessive hair loss.
Dermatology clinics across the country continue to report a steady stream of patients alarmed by sudden shedding that begins weeks after infection, long after other symptomshave faded.

Doctors say the phenomenon, linked to the body’s stress response, inflammation and nutritional depletion during illness, surged during successive waves of the pandemic and remains one of the most common post- Covid complaints.

Even though post-Covid hair loss is typically reversible, delays in recognising the condition, mixed messaging and mounting anxiety have convinced many patients that the damage is permanent, bringing focus to how stress, poor nutrition and systemic inflammation disrupt the body’s natural hair growth cycle.

 

[perchance dreamer]

I only had significant hair loss once, many years ago at culinary school. I took the basic course, which was either 4 or 6 months. I had no idea then that culinary school is like boot camp and that chefs would scream and insult us. They weren't all like that, but our head chef was.

I started losing a good bit of hair and figured it was probably from large amounts of cortisol constantly coursing through my veins. My doctor prescribed a non-refillable beta blocker, and things got much better. I stopped panicking all the time, and the hair loss stopped. I never took a beta blocker again after that course. Now I have non-pharmaceutical tools for anxiety, but at the time, I needed to calm down fast.