My hair recently fell out and I didn’t know the cause.

So I went to the doctor.  He diagnosed me with alopecia areata.  He told me that no body knows the cause of alopecia areata and the treatments might not be effective.  He wanted me to start with some steroid injections into my scalp.  I was so nervous to try that because I’m scared of needles.  The thought of having to get 10 injections in my scalp scared me.  I ended up saying that I would have to think about it.

My gut was still telling me that it had some thing to do with my diet or some thing that I wasn’t getting.  I asked the doctor to have my blood drawn.  I’m so glad that I asked because of the results.

The blood work came back and I am low in iron and critically low in my vitamin D levels.  I was expecting the low iron levels because that runs in my family.  I wasn’t expecting the low vitamin D levels.

I did some research on low vitamin D levels.  I also looked at the foods that I was eating.  Most of the foods don’t have any vitamin D at all.  Vitamin D is gotten from the sun, fish, or fortified foods.  I found this article that was very interesting:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-deficiency-symptoms

The article states that some of the symptoms of low vitamin D are fatigue, hair loss, and getting sick often.  The only symptom that I had was the hair loss.  I didn’t feel fatigue and I wasn’t getting sick often.  I was taking care of myself so my body had to get my attention some how and that is why I believe that my hair fell out.  My vitamin D level is a 9 and the normal is between 30-100.  The doctor told me that my low vitamin D may be the cause of my alopecia areata.  He told me to start taking supplements.

I’m glad that I said no to the steroid injections.  It may have worked but that would have just been treating the symptom and not the root cause of the problem.  The root cause is the low iron and low vitamin D levels.

Through this whole situation I have learned that every thing happens for a reason.

Because my hair fell out, I went to the doctor to see what was going on.  I got my blood work done.  Then I did some research and found the cause.  It also taught me that self care and self love are important.

Self care and self love starts with the food that you put into your mouth every day.  The food effects your mood and energy level.

I remember my life coach, Karlee Fain, gave me an action step to do about a year ago.  She just wanted me to be aware of how I felt after eating.  I was to do this for 2 weeks.

I noticed that after I ate my doughnuts, cakes and fast foods, I would feel very tired.  I would also feel sad.  After I ate vegetables, smoothies, and healthy food, I would feel energized and happy.  After that exercise, I decided I wanted to feel energized and happy.  I still eat some junk food but not anything like I was doing.  Now when I’m feeling sad, I recognize that it is because I ate some junk food.  I am trying to get rid of junk food completely from my diet.

I want to challenge people to do the same exercise that I did.  Just start to be aware of how you feel after you eat food.  You might start to notice a pattern.

If you want to connect with me, visit my other website, http://www.joyfulnurse.com.