Hair loss is pretty pedestrian if you ask the pharmaceutical industry. You see, they have it all figured out. Inhibit the manhood-promoting hormone, dehydrotestosterone (DHT), and you stop hair loss. 

The pharmaceutical drug Propecia is based on this very concept. Also called finsasteride, Propecia cripples the 5-alpha reductase enzyme that produces DHT from testosterone. 

So, how effective is this approach? Let's trek over to propeciasideeffects.com and ask the gentlemen suffering lifelong erectile dysfunction about it. They have some interesting things to say.

Like all diseases of civilization, hair loss pathylogy is rooted in the dysregulation of the hormones within our bodies. High DHT, which is public enemy number one to the pharmaceutical industry, is a symptom of the body going metabolically awry and not the sole problem. So what do we do? Do we take a drug to fix the problem? Do we rub goop in our hair every morning? Do we take fifty designer supplements with each meal?

All of these questions can be answered with a resounding no.

Hair loss, if not too far advanced, can be halted with a little know-how and determination. Let's go over the key players in what some have dubbed "the hairpocalypse"... Okay, only I have dubbed it the hairpocalypse.

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Is there anyone reading that has not experienced the pure dread of waking up in the middle of the night with a knot in your leg that feels like the size of a basketball?

My experience is as follows:

Cramps weren't around during the day time, but loved showing up at 3-4am. Waking up - gasping for air - I would grab whatever leg was spasming and immediately leap out of bed to my feet. I would describe the pain as having felt like someone jabbed a knife in my calf and began to twist.

My nightly routine to counter these attacks was to hobble around for 10 minutes until they were gone. Once the cramp finally did go away, it was a toss up if I would wake up again from another cramp. It sucked.

Until now I thought this phenomenon was just part of the acclimation period to a very low carbohydrate diet (VLC) or carnivorous diet. My goal for this post is to garner some thought on the idea that cramps are related to a much bigger problem, a lack of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid).

Hydrochloric acid (HCL) is secreted in response to the food we eat, specifically protein. HCL in large is responsible for the energy intensive task of breaking down protein as well as promoting the absorption of many key vitamins and minerals. HCLs other duties include maintaining the acidic pH of the stomach and warding off bacteria, fungi and pathogens.

When we're low in stomach acid we're opened up to bacterial overgrowth, lowered resistance to infection, and high probability of nutrient malabsorption. If that wasn't bad enough, when the stomach lacks acidity, food will not be emptied into the duodenum for further digestion. Half digested food is now sitting in the stomach, fermenting, causing inflammation, stress and potentially causing acid reflux symptoms.

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A few forum members have pointed out that very low carbohydrate diets cause an elevation in reverse T3 (inactive T3 thyroid hormone). Apparently this is the reason everyone MUST EAT 50 grams of carbohydrates a day.

I will state here, I am not an expert and I don't pretend to be. My point of interest is that zero-carbers have a high success rate. The proclaimed crashing of the metabolism due to elevated rT3 does not jive with the real life results. I also reject the idea that low-carbers need to take thyroid pharmaceuticals to be healthy.

Here is a snippet of the study that's being tossed around.

Starvation has a profound effect on thyroid function, causing a decrease in serumT3 concentration and a reciprocal increase in rT3 level. These changes are due to aselective inhibition of the 5’-monodeiodination of iodothyronines by peripheral tis-sues. Reduction in carbohydrate intake rather than total calorie deprivation appearsto be the determinant factor. These alterations in thyroid function are believed to re-duce the catabolic activity of the organism and thus to conserve energy in the faceof decreased calorie intake. Chronic malnutrition is accompanied by similar changes.Overfeeding has opposite although transient effects.

But wait, there's more.

To evaluate the effect of caloric restriction and dietary composition on circulating T3 and rT3 obese subjects were studied after 7-18 days of total fasting and while on randomized hypocaloric diets (800 kcal) in which carbohydrate content was varied to provide from 0 to 100% calories. As anticipated, total fasting resulted in a 53% reduction in serum T3 in association with reciprocal 58% increase in rT3. Subjects receiving the no-carbohydrate hypocaloric diets for two weeks demonstrated a similar 47% decline in serum T3 but there was no significant change in rT3 with time. In contrast, the same subjects receiving isocaloric diets containing at least 50 g of carbohydrate showed no significant changes in either T3 or rT3 concentration. The decline in serum T3 during the no-carbohydrate diet correlated significantly with blood glucose and ketones but there was no correlation with insulin or glucagon. We conclude that dietary carbohydrate is an important regulatory factor in T3 production in man. In contrast, rT3 concentration is not significantly affected by changes in dietary carbohydrate. Our data suggest that the rise in serum rT3 during starvation may be related to more severe caloric restriction than that caused by the 800 kcal diet.

What we have here is two seemingly good studies, in complete opposition of each other. The later was specifically conducted with individuals eating a zero carb diet.

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Updated on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 5:19PM by Danny Roddy

The single biggest hurdle I had to leap through to begin my carnivorous adventure was the fear of "low-carb induced hypothyroidism". When I began to explore research on the subject, I hit a brick wall of alarmist forum posts and erroneous pub-med articles of varied importance. But the consensus was clear, you must consume dietary carbohydrates to keep your thyroid healthy.

Over the years I learned to listen to my body and it was clearly telling me to restrict carbohydrates. I finally gave in, managed to ignore the fear mongering of conventional wisdom and dropped carbohydrates completely.

The question however is still valid.

Does a carnivorous diet positively or negatively affect the thyroid gland?

There isn't much data pertaining to the thyroid health of subjects who ate close to or a completely carnivorous diet, so I'll be dipping into ketogenic diet and fasting research. The difference being that a ketogenic diet consists of about ~50g of carbohydrates a day with the remaining calories coming from fat and protein. From here on out I will use the terms "carnivorous diet" and "ketogenic diet" interchangeably since in all likelihood they aren't much different.

First lets explore the reasons why we want a healthy thyroid. Here is a quick overview of the functions this butterfly shaped gland performs.

• Metabolic Rate - When people say "metabolism", they might as well be saying "thyroid". Within the endocrine system, the thyroid along with the adrenal glands are the biological engines that ultimately direct our hormonal metabolism.
• Setting Proteins - The thyroid can increase and decrease the rate of protein degradation.
• Creation of Thyroxine (T4) - The thyroid produces a couple of different hormones, the most important being T4 and…
• Creation of Triiodothyronine (T3) - T3 is the metabolically active version of T4. T3 is responsible for the thyroids metabolic influencing affects while thyroxine (T4) is considered to be a storage form of T3 waiting to be converted into T3 by the liver.

A carnivorous diet is very similar to the metabolic state the body is in when fasting. Without discussing too much of the technical jargon, a carnivorous diet will lower blood sugar, lower basal insulin, decrease inflammation, balance hormones, reduce oxidative stress and support the immune system. Fasting is the only other method that can match the incredible health promoting effects of a dietary decrease in carbohydrate consumption. The downside to fasting being that you have to eat sometime

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It seems that Vegan Roulette is the most active article on this weblog. That being the case I wanted to add more about my experience and explain why veganism, for health reasons, is lowest on the totem pole in terms of adequate nutrition. I do so candidly because I wish to deter anyone on planet earth from trying something like this. My loss is your gain.

About two years ago, Takota headed to up to San Fransisco to play a small gig. Like all van rides during that time, I was impatiently waiting to arrive, so I could search for a grocery store. The realization of being vegan on the road is that there's nothing to eat. I did not eat sugar or highly refined carbohydrates, so finding "raw" fruits and veggies was extremely difficult, if not impossible. I often found myself fasting for a good portion of the day; when I was eating it was usually a plain McDonald's side salad with whatever fruit I could find.

When we arrived at our destination, we unloaded the trailer and were told to take our equipment down to the basement where the stage was. We looked at the steep flight of stairs, let out a collective groan, and started to unload the trailer. It was a struggle trying to get my 120lb frame to bare the weight of my bass equipment. After a couple of close calls, Brett, our guitar player, noticed my valiant effort, and told me he would handle it. It was truly pathetic, I sat on the sidelines and watched the rest of the band take in my equipment. I just couldn't do it.

So how does a 155 lb. male get sucked down to 120 lb. with chronic fatigue & extreme weakness? From what I've put together, a couple of reasons:

• Lack of dietary building blocks of testosterone and other key hormones
• Low amounts of superior dietary nutrients zinc, fat, cholesterol, and protein (animal)
• Excessive amounts of vegetables and fruits (read:sugar)
• Low overall calorie consumption

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