Dr. Henry Cheng & Christine Cheng
Have you noticed more hair on the floor when you vacuum your home lately? Are you now able to see your scalp between hair bundles? These are the subtle signs of insidious hair loss. Don’t wait till you go bald. You can do something to slow down the process if not grow your hair back. The first step you want to take is to have a doctor check your thyroid function. If blood tests come back normal and yet you have symptoms of low thyroid activity like lack of energy, weight gain, loss of memory, dry skin, etc., then you can take a supplement called Thyrosol® (Metagenics) to enhance the efficiency of your existing thyroid hormone. Do not take this until you confirm you have normal thyroid functions. Silica (horsetail herb extract), biotin, and zinc are known to promote hair and nail growth. Innate makes a supplement called Innate Skin Hair & Nails® that contains a combination of vitamins, biotin, silica, sulphur, zinc and a long list of herbs and anti-oxidants that promote the metabolism of skin follicles. Dosage is one to three capsules a day. You can start with two a day, increase to 3 if necessary, and decrease to one when the condition improves. Some people take Diatomaceous Earth for healthy hair and nails because DE is a rich source of silica and calcium. There are various shampoos and conditioners designed for hair restoration. Some of them contain the Chinese medicine He Shou Wu which literally translates to “Mr. Ho with the dark hair”. Others contain alcohol and heat producing herbs to stimulate circulation. There is a line of products that I have found reasonably effective called M ‘n’ T Nutrient Shampoo/Conditioner. This line of products contains hydrolysed collagen and other ingredients that nourish the hair follicles. They have a pH that will not damage your hair. When you get into the shower, wet your hair, apply the shampoo, leave the shampoo on while you shower your body, and rinse off the shampoo. Apply ample amount of conditioner and massage it into the scalp. Leave it on. Only if you find it too sticky would you lightly rinse out. Towel dry; do not blow dry your hair. When the hair is air dried you will find the leave-on conditioner fairly silky and appealing. For the high risk and already bald areas, rub some Mega-Tek Rebuilder Cream on and leave it there. The Rebuilder Cream contains various ingredients to promote hair growth including hydrolyzed keratin protein, marine protein, alantoin, amino acids, mucopolysaccharides, etc. Interestingly all these products were originally developed and used in horses and show dogs. Horse owners and dog owners saw the remarkable results and they tried it on themselves. I remember about 25 years ago one Vancouver newspapers had a front page article with a photo of a cowgirl holding a bottle of horse shampoo. The text talked about horse owners using the show-horse shampoo on themselves with great success. For your daily grooming, try not to use chemicals on your scalp, do not blow your hair with the hair-dryer, use gentle grooming tools, and avoid strong and direct sunlight. Eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. You need adequate high quality protein, calcium and mucopolysaccharides in your food to form the keratin shaft of your hair. Supplement your mucopolysaccharides intake with Recovery® that contains glucosamine, MSM and anti-oxidants.
Some people have very thin, brittle, ridged, scaled nails, and their nails hardly grow back after they are being clipped. These people can also take Innate Skin Hair Nail. As well they can rub the Mega-Tek Rebuilder cream over the nail and into the nail bed. If your nails are grey and black you need to see a doctor because you may have fungal infection of the nails. Like the skin and the scalp, your nails need to be clean and free of diseases in order to grow. Again, animal products like the horse hoof grower Hoofmaker have been used by people to grow their nails for the past 30 years. Hoofmaker is not as strong as Mega-Tek Rebuilder. Being less costly, Hoofmaker has been used by many ladies as a hand cream as it improves moisture and suppleness.
Christine Cheng is a registered pharmacist and Certified Natural Products Advisor and Dr. Henry Cheng is Natural Health Products Consultant at Pharmasave Downtown Cloverdale.
