Unusual and excessive hair loss or dull hair is often a warning sign for a more serious medical condition and as such, must never be brushed off as a cosmetic issue. Hair is skin and it often shows the early warning signs of either an emotional or physical health problem. The hair can become opaque, brittle, listless and eventually fall and can even result in baldness. Natural healing methods and traditional Chinese medicine treat changes in hair as a sign of a more serious internal problem. Hair loss due to health issues can be reversed when treated promptly.

The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, JRSM, 1989 December issue, records a case of a 40 year old woman with chronic diffuse hair loss but without other symptoms. After six months, she suffered a severe attack of ulcerative colitis. On treatment, the hair loss ceased and had no symptoms for eighteen months. She had another attack of ulcerative colitis, foretold by a similar hair loss before any other symptoms. The pattern led doctors to recognize and prevent ulcerative colitis before an actual attack.

Crohn’s and Celiac diseases both manifest hair loss as one of the first symptom. In these disorders, an underlying condition prevents the body from absorbing nutrients, leading to malnourishment, and the hair is one of the first indicators.

In adrenal and thyroid gland disorders, hair loss is a first symptom. Untreated adrenal gland disorder can lead to Cushing syndrome or Addison’s disease. Early treatment can reverse the hair loss. Low or high levels of thyroid hormones cause hair loss and periodic thyroid checkups can prevent all problems with this hormone.

Autoimmune disorders, of which over eighty different types have been recognized, cause hair loss. The first signs include changes to the hair including dryness, color, brittleness, dullness and excessive hair loss. Kidney and liver problems often manifest hair loss. Chinese medicine considers the kidneys as the organ primarily responsible for the scalp. Chinese also believe that healthy kidneys provide great hair and weak kidneys show prematurely gray and thinning hair. Insulin problems causing diabetes also cause hair loss. Both iron deficiency and pernicious anemia cause hair loss.

All hormonal disparity causes hair loss. Women with polycystic ovarian syndromes always have hair loss. Candia albicans, a pathogenic yeast is known to cause several health problems including hair loss.
The fastest growing tissues in the human body are hair and bone marrow, therefore hair is extremely sensitive to any alteration in the body. All hair problems must be taken seriously and consulted before it becomes too late. There is nothing like early treatment for any medical condition.

These are some of the more common medical conditions in which hair loss can be a symptom. If caught early, there can be some measures adopted which will stall if not reverse hair loss.