Hair loss - vitamin A or excess iron possible cause?

[Oldisthenewblack]

My hair is falling out in (almost) handfuls at the moment and I'm so worried about it. It's been thin for a long time, but for the past few weeks it seems to be shedding more than ever: I hate even touching my hair as more leaps off my head with the slightest touch [panic]

My iron levels were low, though the doctor said they were 'normal'. I didn't think they were high enough, based on some research, so began to take more iron, along with L-lysine. I knew that iron was best absorbed with vitamin c, and so started taking it with two multivitamin tablets. Now...I'm wondering if this was the best thing to do as I've read that vitamin A can contribute to hair loss in some people. Does anyone know anything about this? It just seems that the excess hair loss has been happening since increasing the iron and tablets and I'm hoping it's not the iron that's causing it.

I'm sorry if this is a bit garbled, I'm just trying to get my head around the whole hair loss thing right now and there's so much to take it. I'm attempting to address one issue at a time and I'm all over the place!

To sum up: anyone know, or have any experience of vitamin A (or extra iron) causing hair loss??

[ChopperHopper]

Apart from hair loss do you notice any other symptoms? Has your GP done a full blood screen and checked your thyroid? Hair loss (along with other symptoms) can be a sign of thyroid issues.

[AnotherTimeMaybe]

Both my DCs and I are on extra iron and we don't have this issue

You do need to be careful with multivitamins though as each one will have it's own vitamin a and d and you don't want excess of those
Also multivitamins might have zinc and magnesium and these two don't go well with iron

Why don't you just have an orange every time you take iron and stop the multivitamins?
What's your iron levels out of interest?
Also do you take iron on an empty stomach for best absorbsion?

[Clarella]

I doubt you'll have been able to get your iron levels up enough to cause excess; it too me months of prescribed tablets to get to 130 from 50 and I think the max is around 200.

I was getting bad symptoms at that level due to having low thyroid and medication issues (another drug was interfering with it)

I agree to having another blood screen as hair can be linked to other things such as thyroid, possibly even vit b or very low d.

I took my iron tabs with a berrocca (or sainsburies - be careful as some have calcium which stops absorption) and then a later tablet with just fizzy vit c, and added vit d in the mornings.

B vits are water soluble as is c so you just see out excess. A and d are not o you need to be careful, however certainly for vit d you can and many thing should take quite a lot. Not sure upper tolerable limit for vit a but multi it's are usually quite low (rdas are relatively low) so doubt two would have caused such an issue.

I'd go back to GP

[Clarella]

Iron levels in my post are ferritin.

Good link to hair loss:
www.btf-thyroid.org/index.php/thyroid/articles/hair-loss-thyroid-disorders

[Oldisthenewblack]

Thank you for your responses. I spoke to my GP today and she mentioned something that had popped into my head a few days ago: had I been exercising a lot more recently? Yes, I have, as it happens. I've really upped my efforts in the gym in the past few weeks (as much as I can with ME anyway...). Mmmm...

Chopperhopper - yes, had a full blood screen a couple of months ago and everything was "normal". Had my thyroid checked too, and that was normal. Having said that though, my GP doesn't test for T3, which is an issue for me, as Thyroid UK says this is necessary. I'm going to look into getting it checked privately and I'll be SO brassed off it it turns out I have a thyroid issue. I don't seem to have any other issues. I'm tired a great deal, but again, as i have ME it's hard to know what to attribute to that and what's down to other issues.

AnotherTimeMaybe - my iron levels were initially 11 (range 11-307). I managed to get them up to 30, which is still at the very low end, so I'm not happy about that, hence my upping my tablets. From what I read, it seems iron has to be at LEAST 70 for hair to flourish. Yes, I'll take orange juice in future. I do try take it on an empty stomach.,

Has anyone noticed an increase in hair loss after a period of physical stress?