New and have questions

Hi all,
  I am new to the site and I have a lot of questions.  I read on some previous posts about hair loss and how it is probably related to thyroid level, but I wanted to know if any thal resons for female hair loss exist. Both my mother and grandmother have issues with hair loss and they are both thals.Any ideas? I am feeling very frustrated because doctors seem so uneducated about thal!!!!!  They either have to look it up to see what it is or they tell me there are no symptoms.  Obviously, just by looking at the previous posts there are plenty of symptoms.  My major ones are EXTREME fatigue, dark undereye cicles, hair loss(maybe due to thal), and depression.  Just hoping for some guidance and answers becasue it's very disheartening to be having all these issues and then get dismissed by docotors I go to.
I would appreciate any response!!!

Hi tkm :
  to the site ...
 i think it is the answer for the question about hair loss please read this :

for complete article here is the link below :
http://www.irondisorders.org/Disorders/TooMuchIron.asp

Too Much Iron
Too much iron in the body is called iron overload.

Symptoms of iron overload include:

 chronic fatigue
 joint pain
 abdominal pain
 irregular heart rhythm
 hair loss
 skin color changes

Organs cannot function normally with very high levels of iron. Eventually, these organs become diseased. The chart below lists some of the proven diseases caused by too much iron in the body.
 

i have faced this symptom ( hair loss ) of iron overload a couple of year ago , when my iron level were a little above 13000 .. .... so do keep checking your iron level as well ... hair loss also could be a reason of vit-B defieciancy...

as with other B complex vitamins, a deficiency in Vit B 6 can cause: irritability, ... depression, dermatitis, increase in serum cholesterol, hair loss

please wait for the other members to reply to your answer .... i hope they will help yo to understand it.. it wiill b good if you wait for the response of other members ...

BEST REGARDS
TAKE CARE
NICE FRIEND

I just wanted to say thanks for the post!  You mentioned in the quote that vit B deficiency can cause hair loss and dermatitis...my dermatologist says I have dermatitis and I am vegan.  I take supplements, but I may not be getting enough of the B's???!!!

Hi tkm :
hair loss is a symptom of both ( iron overload and iron defiency ) ...
soo ... find your one reason .. here is a link to an article about the " [bgcolor=#ffff00]Hair Loss? It May Be Iron Deficiency " [/bgcolor] ....
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/532546

during the search i found that almost 75% articles r  on this subject : Hair Loss? It May Be Iron Deficiency

here is another reason of hair loss : Hair Loss and Thyroid Disease

here is the link for the "Hair Loss and Thyroid Disease" article
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/symptomsproblems/a/hairloss.htm

soo .. find your one reason ....

best of luck
take care

Hi tkm,

Unless you have thalassemia major or intermedia, it is very unlikely that you would have iron overload, but being that you are vegan, B vitamin deficiency is very possible, especially B-12. Check this link to see if what you are taking compares. 
http://www.puritan.com/pages/file.asp?cid=21&cpid=498&pid=436    B vitamins have to be replenished regularly through diet or supplements, so if you don't get a lot of whole grains, supplementation may be necessary. Zinc and vitamin A also play a role in hair health. As Umair mentioned, iron deficiency can also be a cause, and thal minors can also be iron deficient just as anyone else. This can be determined by a group of blood tests called iron studies.

We hear so much about thinning hair in thal minors and it may be related to thal, but doctors never acknowledge this. I'm not sure why the medical community has been so quick to adopt the belief that living with chronically lower than normal hemoglobin levels won't cause problems, but hundreds of minors who have joined this group dispute this belief. Symptoms like yours are commonly reported and patients are usually left to try to find solutions on their own. Diet, supplements and exercise can all play a role in improving your health, and being vegan, you do need to pay special attention to your diet and make sure it is well balanced and provides adequate amounts of all vitamins and minerals. Read through the section on thal minor at http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?topic=1575.0  and also read the posts of other minors. Vitamin D and magnesium may be of some benefit in combating depression. A nice article about vegans and vitamin D can be seen at
http://www.vegansociety.com/food/nutrition/vitaminD.php

It is quite unlikely that you have iron overload as you are minor and not on Transfusion. Only Majors and transfusion dependent Intermedias have xtreme iron overload to cause hair thinning (My Ferritin touched 9000 and my hair is thick as bear fur ). It is unlikely you have that much iron on you from a veg diet. So it's probably a vitamin and/or mineral deficiency related if not thyroid one.

So, no need to worry about Iron studies. Andy gave you great links (trust him; as he must've done great research in this regard too just kidding ).

I hope healthy nutrition will cure your worries

So the bottom line is that first you have to balance your vitamin level. It's really hard to tell which vitamin, so it's best to take multivitamin and in the case of any thal (minor or major) it's best when it does not contain iron.

Here is one and it's quite unexpensive:
http://www.puritan.com/green-food-057/iron-free-green-source-tablets-006190

This will take care also of other posibble vitamin and microelement deficiencies that thal may have, as pointed out by Andy.

There are however two small issues in your case - you are vegan, so it's very likely you are vitamin B12 deficient (no meat in diet) and vitamin D deficient (no milk and fish in diet). I think you should ask your doctor to test for these vitamins. Don't forget to tell him that you are vegan. If you are really deficient, than the multivitamin mentioned above may be not sufficient to up vitamin B12 & vitamin D level, quite special measures have to be taken. Only after everything is OK with vitamins and there is no improvement you should look for another cause.