Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Want to actually GROW YOUR HAIR? The science of a whole-body approach to tackling HAIR THINNING with Dr. Brianna Diorio

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Check out Nutrafol.com to learn more about Nutrafol's drug-free formulas to support hair thinning with a whole-body approach.Dr. Brianna Diorio and I dive deep into the science of hair growth and thinning. Here’s what we cover:00:14 - Introduction03:13 - Normal hair growth cycle (and what happens during hair loss)05:12 - Pregnancy hair changes07:02 - Postpartum hair thinning08:32 - Perimenopause, menopause and hormonal hair thinning11:34 - How stress affects hair13:38 - The gut microbiome and our hair16:27 - Myths & Facts on Hair Growth20:28 - Nutrafol’s key nutrients for hair27:32 - Do these natural remedies work?35:18 - My top nutrition tips for preventing and stopping hair thinningCheck in with today’s amazing guest: Dr. Brianna Diorio of Nutrafol@briannadiorio@nutrafolReferences:https://www.novonordisk.ca/content/dam/nncorp/ca/en/products/Wegovy-product-monograph.pdfhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23097268/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24472635/https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/19/11904https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378517323010517https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374631028_AQUACOL_-_Comprehensive_clinical_evaluations_of_the_aesthetic_enhancements_on_skin_hair_and_nails_through_the_administration_of_marine_collagenhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36627816https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25836392/Disclaimer: The content in this episode is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is never a substitute for medical advice. If you’re struggling with with your mental or physical health, please work one on one with a health care provider.If you have heard yourself in our discussion today, and are looking for support, contact the free NEDIC helpline at 1-866-NEDIC-20 or go to eatingdisorderhope.com.  🥤 Check out my 2-in-1 Plant Based Probiotic Protein Powder, neue theory at www.neuetheory.com or @neuetheory and use my promo code BITEBACK20 to get 20% off your order! Don’t forget to Please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review! It really helps us out. ✉️ SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTERS ⤵️Neue Theory newsletterAbbey's Kitchen newsletter 🥞 FREE HUNGER CRUSHING COMBO™ E-BOOK! 💪🏼 FREE PROTEIN 101 E-BOOK! 📱 Follow me! Instagram: @abbeyskitchenTikTok: @abbeyskitchenYouTube: @AbbeysKitchen My blog, Abbey’s Kitchen www.abbeyskitchen.comMy book, The Mindful Glow Cookbook affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3NoHtvf If you liked this podcast, please like, follow, and leave a review with your thoughts and let me know who you want me to discuss next!

It's quite the cycle because you're stressing about stress and then you're like, and I already don't feel like myself. My body looks different. I harmonically feel different and now my hair is spinning and shedding. Welcome to another episode of Bite Back with Abbey Sharp, where I dismantle diet culture rules, call out the charlatans spinning the pseudoscience, and help you achieve food freedom for good. Today's episode on hair health is sponsored by NutriFull, and is super top of mind for

me as I have been very open about my own experience with sudden and significant hair thinning starting last fall. Likely triggered by a very stressful time in my life, compounded by the fact that female hair thinning just kind of runs in my family, it kind of felt like I woke up one day to a widening part and long strands of blonde hair everywhere I looked. It was traumatic to say the least. For so many women, myself included, our hair is deeply woven into our identity and how we express ourselves. It's not just hair, it's something we've grown up caring for and connecting to who we are.

So of course it's going to feel disorienting when our hair starts to suddenly change. Thankfully, I knew to act really fast, taking the advice of my dermatologist, a trichologist, and my family doctor. And I basically threw everything at it, with a combination of all the best evidence-based recommendations, including Nutrifol, which my doctor recommended as a supplement backed by research and clinical trials. And after about five months at it, I'm happy to say that it's been working. My hair is visibly growing, and my shedding is seemingly back to baseline.

Joining me today to talk about hair health is Dr. Brianna Dioro, who is the director of product education at NutriFull in addition to being a certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and holistic lifestyle coach. Brianna and I are going to be talking about why women are prone to hair thinning during certain stages of life like postpartum and menopause. We're going to be discussing the role of stress and the gut microbiome on our hair. We're also going to be doing a little myth-busting on hair health hacks and we're going to be talking about optimal nutrients, diet and supplement suggestions for supporting hair growth. A quick note that if you're experiencing

hair thinning or changes, definitely speak to your doctor to determine the cause and appropriate treatment. My protocol isn't appropriate for anyone but me since everyone's health is going to be unique. Also if you're not already I would love if you would subscribe to Bite Back so that you get a little notification in your app when a new episode comes out. And also, if you could leave me a little comment and review, it really does help me out. Alright, let's dive in. Well thank you so much for joining me, Brianna. This is great. Thanks for having me on, Abby.

I'd love to start the week chatting all things wellness and hair and nerding out. Love it. Yes. Okay. So even under circumstances where our hair is like visibly consistent, we're not losing hair, we're not like growing crazy amounts of hair, it is actually always in like this state of flux. We're shedding with regrowth.

Can you kind of explain a normal cycle of like a hair follicle? Absolutely, it's interesting because obviously you want the hair cycle to keep cycling, but I don't think people are aware that our hair follicles cycle through pretty much three main phases. So the first phase that we have is something called the antigen phase,

which is basically our active growth phase. And this can last anywhere from two to seven years depending on things like, yes, your genetics on some phase, but also health, hormones, and then lifestyle factors, which I'm sure we will touch on today. What's interesting is about 85 to 90% of your hairs that is on your head are in the growth phase at any given time. So ideally, you know, your hair should be growing. Then we kind of have our catagen phase. That's what comes next. And this is kind of a short transitional phase. It lasts about two to three weeks. And during this time, the hair follicle shrinks and then it detaches from the blood supply.

So it's kind of like your hair is getting ready to retire. And then finally after that, it goes into what we call the telogen phase. And this is where it is resting and then the shedding phase can occur as well. So the hair is not actively growing during this phase and it stays here for about two to three months. And so what's interesting as well is that

the hair cycle ideally is pretty balanced. There's always some hair that is growing, some that is resting and some that is shedding. But when something happens, again, like maybe we have a lot of stress going on in our lives, maybe we have changes to our hormones because of certain lifestyle things, like you've recently given birth,

you're going through menopause, this can kind of disrupt the cycle and then that can push more of our hairs into that resting shedding phase preemptively or too soon. Ah, yes, yes. And you kind of mentioned some of these seasons of life for a lot of women that can affect our hair. And so, often for me and for many other women,

it's pregnancy you know, pregnancy and then postpartum. Like a lot of women will experience their hair kind of like feeling and looking, you know, thicker and longer during pregnancy. Some even say like maybe the texture changes, like maybe they're usually straight hair becomes curly or curly goes straight. What's going on here? What's causing those changes? Absolutely. So during pregnancy, specifically, what we're having is higher levels of estrogen. And when we have higher levels of estrogen, this is keeping our hair in the antigen or that growth phase longer than usual.

So what's happening is fewer hairs are falling out, and so your hair is actually feeling and looking fuller and longer during that. So pregnancy essentially prolongs that anogen phase. And then progesterone a little bit plays a role as far as, you know, modulating oil production. But again, because during pregnancy you're having higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, after we are done with being pregnant, then we have this sort of drop off in estrogen and progesterone. And that is all those hairs that were kind of hanging

out in that growth phase transition together into that telogen or the resting phase and so about two to four months after delivery women typically will experience kind of this diffuse shedding or what they can call postpartum telogen effluvium and that's really quite alarming because you're like what is going on right now? This is a whole new cycle of my life and now my hair is thinning, I'm not sleeping and those are also other layered in factors that can play a role too. You're definitely more stressed than you've ever been. Being a new parent is extremely stressful.

So the cortisol part definitely also plays a role in hair shedding. We also know that after giving birth, your body has kind of gone through a hormonal marathon as well as a sense of nutrient depletion, right? Especially if you are breastfeeding, this is really important for things like iron and zinc, which are important for hair growth. And then there's a really good chance that your sleep cycles are going to be off. Even if your baby is sleeping through the night, there's just different changes that are happening.

So all of those can directly and indirectly impact what's going on not only with your hair health, but also that hair health cycle. It was so depressing. You know, like all women talk about this, like you feel like you're given a bone, you know, during pregnancy, like this one little nugget of like something

you can hold onto that like is great that you feel good about while all these other body changes are happening and you're struggling through it and then you have a baby and you're tired, you know, you're hungry, you're breastfeeding, you're sore and on the top of that you just like feel like the one thing that like represents like your femininity or your identity. It's just like they're gonna rip that away. And so it is emotionally such a difficult time for women to go through that. So it's quite the cycle because you're stressing

about stress and then you're like, and I already don't feel like myself, my body looks different, I harmonially feel different. And now my hair is thinning and shedding and that can kind of take a toll to your point on your confidence and then can sort of perpetuate that cycle. So it's absolutely a very real and normal thing that people go through.

So you're not you're not alone and I think that's important for people to hear. Yes. Okay, so I am finally done with the baby phase, no more breastfeeding, no more pregnancy. I'm 37. And so now I'm kind of starting to think about the next season of life that comes with hair loss, which is perimenopause and menopause. Is this like a similar hormonal pattern going on? Or like what explains this one? I always tell people to think about your body during menopause and perimenopause like a company

that's essentially going through a reorganization. What's happening is we have a lot of roles that are shifting. So things like our hormones, which we'll talk about in a second, estrogen, progesterone, and even testosterone, there's a lot of systems that also need updating. So our gut health can play a role in it. We might be having things going on with our muscle mass, our stress response, and then even just the way that our cells are communicating

with the natural aging process, right? Biological age versus chronological age. So if you want to keep your, quote, hair department essentially performing well, you have to support the whole operation. And what's interesting about perimenopause especially is that depending on what was going on with your cycle in your life and what was happening with your hormones,

perimenopause can last anywhere from two to eight years. So that can be overwhelming in itself. And you're just like, I don't even know what's going on, or I haven't been aware of my hormones. But as we're going into that perimenopause phase, we start to see estrogen levels decline, and we start to see progesterone levels decline as well. And again, these are two hormones

that play a role in our hair growth cycle. But what's also happening is we're seeing a relative androgen dominance. So things like testosterone are elevated relative to things like estrogen and progesterone. So that can also cause hair to thin, especially around the crown and temples. So as we see these levels kind of declining,

we can see shorter growth phases, meaning that your hair is not gonna grow as long and thick as it usually has. You're also gonna be in longer resting shedding phases, so it seems like you're essentially losing more hair than you're regrowing. And then again, because that testosterone piece and that relative androgen dominance

can actually miniaturize the hair follicle, and that can kind of shrink the follicle to make our hair produce thinner, weaker hair strands. So it's kind of like this cumulative effect of making the perfect storm for, again, kind of just similar to giving birth to a new baby, being like, okay, and now I'm going into this new transition, my body feels different, my hormones feel different, and now my hair looks different.

So again, it's overwhelming. And again, this can sort of perpetuate that cycle of stressing about stress worrying more and those other interconnected systems that are changing that we maybe haven't fully understood yet or gotten a grasp on yet. Yeah, no, you you totally nailed it. And I know I'm hearing from so many my friends who are more actively like, for sure kind of getting to menopause. And yes, it is so stressful. And so that was, you know, interesting that you brought that stress in all of these different shifts in the life stages that, you know, the stress specifically on its own is also playing a role in our hair. How does stress specifically affect our hair thinning? I like to always take a step back and say that stress has gotten really bad PR over

the years because all stress isn't bad. We need stress to live. It's really important. We don't want to totally avoid stress. We want to modulate stress. So that's always, I always like to preface that and give stress a little bit of love. But with anything with our health, right, the dose makes the poison. So when we are having prolonged periods of stress and long-term stress, this can impact our yes, HPA access,

but specifically things like our cortisol levels, which we now know can prematurely push our hair follicles into that resting shedding phase, causing your hair to thin and shed quicker. So again, in a frustrating manner, seeing your hair falling out becomes an additional stress and then here comes that cycle. So it's the cortisol specifically can shorten that antigen phase, so that active growing phase meaning your hair is not growing for as long as it should, and then it's prematurely pushing that hair into that telogen phase.

But what stress also does is it can impact those other interconnected systems directly and indirectly that play a role in hair health. Because I always say that stress is sort of that first domino that impacts everything else and how your body is responding. And depending on what your stress resilience is and how well you handle emptying out your stress bucket, that's going to affect people differently.

But that can also, of course, affect your hormones and what's going on with your gut microbiome and what's going on with your nutrient absorption. So you have to kind of look at the whole picture of how stress is directly and indirectly impacting the hair growth cycle as well. Yeah, and one thing that just came to mind right now for me was, what are the behaviors

that come as a result of that stress? Are we kind of eating less nutritious foods? Are we not getting the nutrients that we need to support good hair health? So that also kind of plays in. And you mentioned the gut microbiome, because again, this is affected by and affects the gut microbiome, right? We know that affected by and affects the gut microbiome. We know that the health of the gut affects virtually the health of every other system in the body, but how does it affect hair specifically?

Such a great question because you can't have a conversation today without talking about stress or the gut microbiome. It's just such a, it's an omnipresent part of, I think, every part of your health, which is a great thing. I always like to tell people that the gut, it's not necessarily the gut itself, it's the way that the gut works in the body because the gut is truly a modulatory organ. It does, yes, things like impact how we're absorbing nutrients and regulating our hormones and systemically affecting things like the inflammatory response and cytokines and all

of that, but it also plays a role on our immune function and hormone regulation, specifically for women as we change as well. We know our gut microbiome can change and we have something called the astrobalome in our gut, which is this kind of subset of bacteria that can play a role in how we process and metabolize estrogen. So that's a really big change that we see as we get older. But also, again, the hormone regulation from, yes, we actually will convert some of our thyroid hormones in the liver and the gut, estrogen metabolism there, nutrient absorption.

So we need to make sure that we're actually extracting and absorbing the nutrients that we're getting from the food that we eat. I always tell people, you aren't what you eat, you are what you absorb. So we want to make sure that we're getting things like our amino acids and our zinc and our B vitamins, all of that, because our hair follicles are really metabolically active organs. And so if they're not getting the nutrients that they need,

that's going to impact the hair cycle. And then also the gut microbiome plays a huge role on the systemic inflammatory response and the immune function response as well. And that kind of all ladders up to how our body on the systemic inflammatory response and the immune function response as well. And that kind of all ladders up to how our body is responding to the nutrients, to the hair growth cycle, the stress response, so on and so forth. So it's kind of really interesting because it plays a role in all those other, you know,

micro systems that directly and indirectly impact hair health. Oh, for sure. No, I really think that we're onto something in terms of us spending, having more research come out about the gut and really just trying to dive into understanding how we can support a healthy gut microbiome. Because like you said, it is so interrelated with literally every other health system.

And if we aren't addressing that, if we aren't kind of addressing that, if we aren't building that strong foundation, you know, everything else is just like putting a coat of lipstick, putting a band-aid on top. So really important to support gut health there. I want to go through some myths and facts if we can, because there's so many claims out there when it comes to hair growth. It's very hard to know what to trust. So I want to just do a little quick round here, just some myth-busting facts. Okay, so number one question, true or false or what the deal is, hair thinning is genetic

and can only come from your mom's side. That's a great myth, but that is false. So genetics from both sides of the family can influence hair health, and genetics is not the only piece of the hair health puzzle. So there's a lot of other factors, lifestyle factors, epigenetic factors like hormones, stress, nutrition, that all play a role, but genetics alone is not going to be the only factor. All right. Okay. What about can the right shampoo and conditioner grow hair? That is false. So I know this one's, this one's confused.

I've been duped. Yeah, this one's confusing for people. And I'll tell you why it's false. Because number one, yes, hair care and the product that we use is really important for supporting scalp health and your scalp microbiome, but you can't wash your way to thicker hair. What you have to do is address those internal root causes. And so you can think of things like shampoos and serums and all that kind of stuff as kind of like fertilizers for the soil, but they don't

grow the plant, which would be your hair on their own. They help to support the environment where growth happens, again because your hair is growing from the follicle. So we have to make sure that the scalp microbiome is in a good place. Yeah, okay that's really helpful. Regularly trimming or cutting your hair will make it grow faster or thicker. This one is also false. And you know what? I have thin hair. I have a lot of it, but I have fine hair. And I always thought that I was making my hair grow. Haircuts don't impact the follicle, again, where the hair growth is happening. Because again, our hair grows from our follicle, not from the

ends of our hair. So trims absolutely can prevent our split ends from going upwards and making our hair look unhealthy. So it makes our hair visibly look healthier. But they're not going to speed up the growth process, again, because hair is growing from the follicle. I feel like we were all raised by moms who got us to get our hair trimmed or cut by telling us this. And so most of us just never questioned it.

We were just like, yeah, that's what my mom said when I was seven. Oh, man. I had a couple of bad haircuts back in the day that definitely was not helping my mental health or my hair growth cycle. No, I feel like we were all there. Remember the mushroom cut? I mean, no child was doing well after the mushroom cut. OK, washing your hair too often can contribute to hair thinning.

This is mostly false, OK? Because if we are over washing with harsh chemicals that are in shampoos or whatever we're using, that can absolutely irritate the scalp. But washing itself isn't going to cause thinning. If anything, having a clean, healthy scalp is going to support hair growth because it's going to create that environment for it.

But over washing, you've got to just be aware of what is actually in your products. Yeah and that was something that was kind of shocking for me to learn because you know before I was experiencing hair thinning I was just always the only impression under the impression that like I should wash my hair as absolutely little as possible because you know like I didn't want to like pull hair out and I didn't want to like damage more and that would cause it to come out. But like when I actually looked at my scalp with a microscope, I was seeing like a lot of sebum on the roots that was, you know, probably also causing some, you know, scalp irritation and things like that. So I actually have

found that washing it more often has been really helpful. Obviously not over washing like you say, but there's a balance like everything. Dose makes the poison, I guess. Absolutely. Yeah, and you have to know your hair type as well. Again, if you have fine or thinner hair, it's probably gonna make more sense for you to wash your hair

almost every day or at least every other day. Again, cause you don't want those follicles to get clogged whether that's product buildup or whether that's your own sebum in your hair follicle, the same way that we do with our face. Right, exactly. Okay, so I want to talk about solutions at this point because you know you're the director of product education at NutriFull and I personally take NutriFull and I have basically since I started my kind of hair growth journey it It was recommended to me by literally every healthcare provider that I saw.

So it's obviously a well-respected supplement in the hair growth space. Can you talk a bit about some of the kind of key ingredients and how they work to kind of help promote hair growth? Well, firstly, let me ask you, what formula are you taking currently? I'm just taking the regular. The women's.

Yeah, the women's, yeah. Like not the vegan one and not the menopause one yet but maybe we'll shift in that direction at some point but right now I'm just gonna stick into the base system. No so I love that and I ask again because we do have different formulas yes that are going to target different key root causes based on your biospecific needs but also your life stage and lifestyle we talk a lot about that at NutriFull because as you grow and evolve and change, so do your hair health needs, kind of like what we talked about at the beginning of the show. But first things first, it's really important to understand the quality of your ingredients,

especially if it's something that you're taking every single day. So we do take great pride in sourcing standardized ingredients with the same potency in every serving to ensure that we are consistently targeting those key root causes with our formulas, again, that are going to help you with your specific, bio-specific needs. So a couple of what I call like our all-star ingredients that you'll see, and again, depending on which formula you're taking, there are different versions of what we have our BioBlend and we have our, you know, our patented Synergyne complex, but you'll see a lot of the same key players because again, we're always trying to multi-target those root causes, stress, hormones, nutrition, lifestyle

aging. So one of the ones that you'll see in our formulas is Ashwagandha, which is a really great adaptogen, again, because that's going to help to regulate cortisol and mitigate that impact of that stress that we know can negatively impact the hair growth cycle. We also have things like curcumin, which is really important as an antioxidant for targeting things like oxidative stress, but also supporting that immune response,

which plays a role in hair health. Saw palmetto is another one of our all-star ingredients as well, which is gonna help to balance that DHT. And again, that hormone, that is kind of that bully version of testosterone that can shrink the follicle and that can lead to thinning as well. And then we have some other things like, you know, your hydrolyzed marine collagen peptides that's important for hair structure. In our vegan formula, we have something called Maldavian dragonhead, which is a plant source of college that helps to produce collagen internally in the body and then we have some of your other supporting vitamins and minerals that are great for that what I call kind of

Like the extra credit so we have things like vitamin D and zinc which is important for follicle health also things like vitamin C Which is important for collagen production and the stress response. And so it's just a really nice again kind of formulation that we're targeting those different root causes, but we're also using those ingredients that are high quality, they're safe, they're efficacious, and sourcing the ingredients that you can trust because what you're putting in your body again every single day is really important. Yeah, no, I really do appreciate a supplement that has thought about the various causes and kind of really looked at the full spectrum

of what could be contributing to the symptoms of hair thinning. And so I really love that you've really thought about all of it and how these things intersect and work synergistically. It's a really, really thoughtful formulation. And I own my own supplement line. So I have very high standards and I'm a dietician.

So again, I know the importance of really thinking these things through. And I love that neutrophil is established enough at this point to have some clinical trials under your belt. Can you can you tell me a little bit more about, you know, Nutrifol's approach to clinical research and what's being found here? This is probably one of the things that I'm most proud of being at Nutrifol. You know, I have a PhD in integrative medicine. I'm a nutritionist myself. I mean, I'm a nerd.

I have all the letters behind my name. So research is a core principle for me and my personal ethos as a nerd. I have all the letters behind my name. So research is a core principle for me and my personal ethos as a person. And Nutri-Full does not skip a beat when it comes to science. So hair science itself is just fascinating because it's always evolving. And science in general is always evolving. And we have conducted over 20 clinical studies and counting,

including randomized controlled trials, which is, is again kind of that gold standard. So we are committed to yes, making sure that our research is staying aligned but simultaneously discovering new ways to kind of change the narrative around what's going on. And also because with hair growth, it can absolutely be challenging to measure. So when we are doing our clinicals, we're using a combination of different industry-led tools. So we have things like counting hair. So it's actually called like a hair count test to a pull test as well to actually evaluate

growth, the quality of your hair, how much is shedding, and then the texture. And then we're also again using some of these different, uh, you know, industry led kind of measurements to make sure that yes, you're visibly seeing things, but that there's also objective and subjective qualities as well. So they're standardized and validated measurements because we know that with anything, there's usually not one single measurement for hair health and hair growth. And so again, we have, you know, subjective self assessments.

We have expert dermatologists that are assessing hair growth. And so again, we have subjective self-assessments. We have expert dermatologists that are assessing hair shedding. Again, we're using things like the pull test, which is looking at our overall hair improvement. We're doing validated questions, a standardized wash test. So it's really cool, again, to see how we're actually measuring our results. And then also publishing what we find.

So we have been featured in 22 different scientific outlets, including 14 medical journal publications. So it's that idea of kind of like the proof is in the pudding. And we're also really exciting to say that yes, we have of course invested time and money, but we want to also change the conversation, the dermatological field. So we're really proud of the work and the research that we've done. Oh, I love that. I. I mean you know I'm also everyone that's listening to this knows I'm a I am a research nerd and so I could spend all day in the stacks just kind of like you know really getting into the nitty-gritty of research designs and what was found. So I really appreciate all the information that you have on the website. The website is so just like oh it's such a rich source of learning for folks. So I really love that.

Yeah, we have a whole clinical studies page on the website. That's amazing. If anybody wants to go to to go check out, you can go read all the studies. It's a phenomenal resource. It really is. It really is. Okay, so what about, you know, a lot of natural remedies that we hear about? Like, you know, we see these on TikTok, we see these on Instagram, wives tales, you know, feathers in law, all the things like putting egg on your hair, onion juice, rosemary oil, like castor oil, like there's so many things being thrown at us. Of all of them, are any of these things like worth trying or is this just like social media

mythology? I always tell people that these are like the metaphorical upgrades to your health house, right? It doesn't matter if you have a granite countertop and a gold plated toilet, if you don't have plumbing that works. So until you actually, number one, are addressing all those internal root causes,

which again is why taking something like a nutraceutical is really important, all those other things can be that kind of extra credit. They might support your scalp health, but they're not going to be a replacement for addressing that internal root cause imbalance. And again, it's you hear the analogy a lot of the times about like treating a plant.

You can water it and add things to the fertilizer in the soil, but if you're not getting to the roots, then that is not going to work long-term. So there is some research. I mean, Rosemary, there is definitely research on its supporting circulation to the scalp. Castor oil, there's also, you's also some of the fatty acids in there. I know eggs, some people will say because it's rich in protein and sulfur and there's

some biotin in there. Peppermint oil, same thing, circulation. But I would say with these things too, like with anything with our health, it's how consistent are we being, how much of it are we doing, and are we using that in place of the bigger picture, not seeing the forest for the trees. So there is some truth. I don't know how much it's moving the needle. And then I do believe that there is definitely a psychological component. So if it's something that's a part of your ritual, I think rituals are so important for anything with your

health. So if that's the thing, hey, when I'm taking my four a day nutraceuticals, I'm going to also then do a scalp massage, right? And so that habit stacking can be really important, especially for the physiological stress response and getting into the other habits that over time can kind of help you stack those wins. Yeah, I love that you said that. We talk a lot about habit stacking on this podcast

and for all sorts of different areas of health. And I think that's a really good point. And again, back to what I was saying at the top of this episode, so much of hair loss feels out of our control in some of these cases. When we've given birth, and we're like, oh, what do we do? And that stress response. And so habit stacking some of these things,

even if they're not going to move the needle like tremendously, is assuming that they don't do any harm in the process. You know, it gives you that like little bit of more agency and a little bit of a sense of control in this, which, again, like may have, you know, impact on the stress response and and just that that the cortisol and things like that. So I do see some value in adding these little things to your routine, even if they're not like the best solution, as long as it's not crowding out actual evidence-based solutions,

like what we just talked about. So there's a delicate balance there. Yeah, controlling the controllables. Yes, exactly. Yeah, controlling the controllables is so important. And again, anything I always tell people with things like this, it's not going to hurt, right? Like a lot of these things that we see, especially in the biohacking world, there's no quick

fix to anything with our health. Because if that was true, then none of us would have jobs. The industry wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry, right? So it's the idea that it's certainly not going to hurt. It's that extra credit that again, those metaphorical upgrades, but you have to have the foundation first and foremost, and then you can go and add those things in.

For sure. And then in our hair care products, cause we kind of briefly touched on this, are there any ingredients that we should either be looking for or that we should be avoiding? Like what should, any guidance on that? Absolutely. So again, because we've talked a little bit

about the scalp microbiome, it's really important for setting up that kind of environment, right? So we wanna make sure that we're doing things that set the microbiome up to make that great. So we wanna try to avoid things like harsh sulfates and alcohols, things that are gonna dry out the scalp. Parabens, so anything that's gonna be

this kind of preservative that can kind of long-term lead to brittleness and dryness. And then we want to look again for things like any heavy silicones. I know the verdict's kind of out on silicones because for some people they can make your hair temporarily feel smoother, but that buildup over time, especially if you have thin, fine hair, can weigh your hair down or clog the follicles again, especially if you're not washing enough, any of those sort of drying alcohols,

and then again, any of those kind of phthalates and things that are going to potentially have that downstream effect negatively. Conversely, on the other side, there are things that we can absolutely do to support, again, our microbiome. So we wanna look for things that are going to be natural oils, so things that are going to kind of provide some of that nourishment

and hydration, which is why you'll see people use things like argan oil or jojoba oil. But again, you have to make sure that you're not clogging the follicle too much. Right. So that's important. Also, some things that are going to, again, provide nourishment and strength to the scalp.

So anything that's going to be great, hydrolyzed keratin can be great for repairing hair damage physically. People will also use So anything that's going to be great, hydrolyzed keratin can be great for repairing hair damage physically. People will also use certain things that are going to protect the actual layer of your hair. So like a shea butter or even things like a vitamin E kind of thing for the scalp. So I think it's using a combination of that. And then I also really like things like, believe it or not, some certain botanicals and things

like caffeine has gotten really cool research over the years again for kind of getting blood flow to the scalp delivering some more of that oxygen and nutrients to the follicles. Amino acids are gonna be really great peptides to sort of strengthen the the hair shaft and support the scalp barrier. And then exosomes you've probably been hearing a lot about over the years as well. So exosomes are really great they're like these tiny little little vesicles and they carry kind of growth factors and signaling compounds that help kind of stimulate hair follicles. So I also love seeing exosomes in sort of a serum.

Yeah, I actually did some exosome treatments when I was kind of really in going through it and it was kind of, you know, like hyper stimulated the hair and really got it in there with the PRP treatments as well. So yeah, I have been kind of staying abreast on stuff like that. But ultimately it sounds like, you know, depending on the cause of the hair thinning, depending on your specific type of hair and your scalp health and if you have oily hair, do you have dry hair, like what are the concerns? This would affect the kinds of products that we should be focusing on. So it's obviously ideal if we can get some advice

from a professional wherever possible so that, you know, we're making the right choices for us and not just trial and error. And it's always hard when you throw everything at it and you're really not sure what is moving the needle. So ideally we have some help on board, so. Absolutely. And I think a lot of the companies now

are getting pretty good about that, about again, about, again, like gentle sulfate-free cleansers, making sure that there's not fragrances, things that you wouldn't have to have a master's degree to say, oh, I should probably avoid this. So again, it's really about taking that step back. We always say that internal approach first, and then

ingredients that we want to prioritize, and then things we want to avoid, but understanding that we want to create that healthy scalp environment. And so it is worth it to be picky about the products that you use, especially, again, if it's something you're using every day or every other day. Right.

This was super, super helpful. I love this. I could talk to you all day because I just, again, I love to dive into the nitty gritty science. And I love beauty science. I think it's just so fascinating. It's great to talk to women in STEM, especially when the knowledge benefits me. Yes, I love it.

But yeah, thank you so much for joining me. This was fantastic. Thank you, Abby, for having me. It was great chatting with you. I found that so helpful from a learning perspective, but also just like a much needed message of hope that hair thinning can be overcome. It's gonna be a long journey, yes, but we have so many different evidence-based tools in the toolbox and treatment options that we can explore. And one of those tools, of course, is diet. As with a lot of health hurdles,

hair loss often feels miserably out of our control. And while there will always be some aspects to hair loss that we can't control, focusing on fueling our bodies for hair growth may help us feel some agency in the process. So here are some general nutrition tips if you're looking to support healthy hair. Number one, break up with skinny talk. Extreme caloric restriction and rapid weight loss are major stressors on the body and as we discussed the spike in stress hormones can be a common cause of hair loss. This explains why recent emerging research has found an increased risk of hair loss in folks taking Ozempic, particularly in women and in those with more dramatic weight loss outcomes over 20% of their body weight.

Maintaining energy balance aka not under eating or going on a diet is always going to be safest for maintaining healthy hair and other tissues. But if you do want to lose weight, you'll want to ensure that you're sticking to a modest calorie deficit that encourages no more than 1% weight loss per week to avoid your body needing to dig into its protein stores from muscle and hair.

Which spills into tip number two, don't skimp on protein. Hair is mostly made up of a protein called keratin. Which spills into tip number two, don't skimp on protein. Hair is mostly made up of a protein called keratin, and protein foods provide the amino acid building blocks to build it. So getting enough protein is really, really important. Now while true absolute protein deficiency is very rare and therefore not something a healthy, balanced eater needs to worry too much about. If you're on any kind of weight management diet or calorie deficit, you need to put an extra emphasis on getting

protein on your plate. And that's because when you diet, your body will draw from its protein stores in places like your muscles and also your hair to make energy for other critical body processes. And while we don't have data on the exact amount of protein needed to optimize hair growth while like losing weight, we can basically apply what we know about maintaining other protein stores like muscle which is to aim for around 30% of calories from protein or at least 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram

of body weight. All protein is ultimately good protein for hair since any protein you eat will get broken down into individual amino acids to build different tissues plus a lot of protein foods are also rich in hair supporting nutrients like zinc, biotin, and iron. So aim to get around 20 to 30 grams per meal from foods like eggs, fish, beans, legumes, poultry, dairy, meat, soy, or complete plant-based protein powder like New Theory. And if you want a more targeted hair health boost,

the most evidence-based adjunct for hair is marine-based collagen. So research has found that regular supplementation with marine collagen, which is rich in the type 1 collagen that we find in hair, may help improve hair thickness, density and growth after six months of use. And while we are talking about protein, let's discuss a related and synergistic suggestion. Number three, up that iron. It is estimated that one in five adult women are deficient in iron, with two to

five percent experiencing full-blown anemia. And since iron is responsible for carrying oxygen to the hair follicles, not having enough on board is one of the most common causes of female hair thinning. No iron, no oxygen to keep those follicles healthy and alive. And you don't need to be full blown anemic and visibly depleted for this to impact your hair. As women, we should be having our iron levels checked regularly and speaking to our doctor or diitian

about supplementing if our levels are low. But generally speaking we want to focus on filling our diet with iron-rich foods and pairing them with sources of vitamin C to improve absorption. So some of the best sources of iron include animal protein, poultry, fish, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, spinach, pumpkin seeds, and fortified cereals. I actually just rediscovered cream of wheat, which was a cereal I used to love as a kid, which actually has almost half of your iron needs per day in one pack. So one of my favorite breakfasts right now is to mix it with some wheat bran and some hemp hearts, and then top it off with some fresh berries and nut butter to up the fiber, protein, and fats.

Tip number four, support your gut. As I have always said, the health of our gut affects the health of every other system in our body, including, as we've discovered, our hair. And while some forms of dysbiosis like SIBO may require targeted treatments like antibiotics, the most important thing we can do for our gut every single day is to eat more fiber. 90 to 95% of Americans are not meeting the 25 to 38 grams of recommended fiber each day. And I really do think that is a tragic stat, and one that if corrected could address so many health issues plaguing us today.

But fiber helps to support our gut and by extension our hair in a multitude of ways. The most obvious is that it promotes regular bowel movements, which essentially kind of clears out waste including harmful bacteria and inflammatory byproducts from the gut, which supports our hair by minimizing that systemic inflammatory state. Fiber also acts as a prebiotic or fuel for the beneficial bacteria, aka probiotics, to help them grow and flourish, which then crowds out the harmful ones through competition inhibition. These healthy microbes aren't just passive bystanders, they are actively producing beneficial byproducts that strengthen the gut barrier and further lower inflammation.

So see how the hair health gets tied in here? The easiest way to get more fiber is to simply eat more plants. Fruits, veggies, beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds are all rich in fiber along with various anti-inflammatory nutrients. Getting more probiotics, aka the good bacteria in your diet, can also play a critical role here since again, we want to kind of crowd out the bad bacteria with anti-inflammatory health promoting species in the gut. So we can find probiotics naturally in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, miso and sauerkraut,

but for a more stable, efficacious dose, we want to look for a supplement with at least a few billion CFUs of a specific strain, like the 5 billion CFUs of the bacillus strain probiotics that we included in new theories 2-in-1 plant-based protein powder. And the last tip here is to embrace healthy fats. As discussed, hair loss is often attributed to systemic or targeted inflammation. So we want to include as many anti-inflammatory foods in our diet as we can. We saw that with a lot of the unique herb spices

and antioxidants in neutrophils formula, but another critical source in the diet are omega-3 fats. Very early research suggests that supplementing with omegas may help to improve hair density and diameter and reduce the shedding phase of the hair cycle. And our best food sources often offer other hair promoting perks. So fatty fish like salmon for example also gets us that marine collagen, vitamin D and iron we talked about. Walnuts will supply loads of zinc, copper, biotin, and vitamin E, and chia

seeds are loaded with fiber, iron, and protein. While we don't have a lot of research yet on these individual foods for hair health, it's safe to say that the whole food matrix that they provide can only help by reducing inflammation, supplying key hair nutrients, and preventing deficiencies. I hope this episode was helpful and something that you can pull up if and when you're ever struggling with hair thinning, whatever the cause. But a big thank you to NutriFull again for sponsoring this episode and for Dr. Brianna DiOrio for joining me. Signing off with Science and Sass, I'm Mabie Sharpe.

Thanks for listening.