Epsom salt baths are alkaline - Hair is protein which doesn't like that; and Dust mites - gak.

Hair protein wouldn't like an overly acidic solution either. Essential Oil Dust Mite spray and 6 oils known to kill dust mites.

I had a couple questions about my somewhat offhand comment about my sudden hair loss. I took a photo of some of hair, but yuck. My inner censor says no, we should skip that. My remaining hair is really soft and silky, so life goes on.

I have a lot of cleaning to do. The last part of this post turned out to be an intensive on dust mites - yes, and YES, that is a problem area causing low level inflammation in my life.

Nutrients and other factors that might affect are included in the first half. Iron and biotin and being consistent with my other vitamins is likely a problem and way too much stress, plus smoking, and the dusty bad air and dust mite inflammatory issue. Epsom salt baths can make hair structure weaken rapidly if too alkaline, so a definite factor to adjust for. Adding apple cider vinegar, ~ 1/4 cup with 2 cups Epsom salt in a bath would put the ~ 8.0 Epsom salt to ~ 7.2-7.4 which is closer to body pH.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair.” In the fairy tale the suiter wanted to climb the tower and join Rapunzel at the top. Her hair was long enough and strong enough to let him climb up.

Hair is a sensory perception organ which helps us with balance and locating our position within three-dimensional space. It’s fun too. But it used to spread out farther when I spin. There are a couple hair pins on the bangs.

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, just posted about hair loss. I need to increase my iron intake and support my thyroid function in addition to having enough iodine, B2 and biotin. Oxygenated blood flow helps hair growth…so scalp massage would help then. Hair brushing feels nice once the knots are out.

Chris aldo says hair is a proof of having plenty of ATP, so more hair is generally considered attractive because it signals stored energy aka health. Magnesium is part of ATP so it also means plenty of magnesium then.

Losing Your Hair? Check Your Iron

My reply to one of the comments, with an addition:

Years ago, when I first got into the habit of Epsom salt baths as a weekly or more often thing, was to add apple cider vinegar to the water to adjust the pH to body pH. Epsom salt water is more alkaline than the body or hair. Hair is a protein which will dissolve in alkaline solutions.

I add a capsule of vitamin C powder currently, but I need pH strips to check the actual pH. If adding a bit of Borax, that is super alkaline. I would need to add ~ a cup of apple cider vinegar to make up the pH difference of 3 tablespoons of Borax. With Epsom salt it was more like a couple spoonful’s of vinegar was enough.

• * I did have a brand new package and checked this morning with one cup of Epsom salt in the bath. The vitamin C (1000 mg) made little difference. A couple spoonfuls of Apple Cider Vinegar did adjust it from ~ 8 pH to 7-7.4 pH which is closer to our internal pH. Hair is protein and will be partially ‘digested’ in an alkaline solution.

Essential oil directions said add baking soda and sea salt too and I’ve used that occasionally but never checked the pH - that may have been way too alkaline too. If the goal is to take an alkaline soak, then wear a bath cap maybe.

I also screwed up by not washing my hair twice or rinsing out the bath water, so maybe that was bad for it too.

But the biggest issue probably is my stress level, forgetting my supplements too much, and my marijuana smoking is bad for my skin and hair and respiration. I really should find my vape and try to cut back on smoke toxins.

Easier to write about health than to do it on a daily basis ;-)

Rosemary oil and Castor oil to promote hair growth

Another comment was about Rosemary oil for promoting hair growth and that is a tip someone else mentioned. The comment here ended up using too much - essential oils are very potent and need to be diluted. The other tip I heard was to make some rosemary tea with rosemary, about a cup and add a little rosemary essential oil to that. Put it in a spritz bottle and spritz it on your scalp.

Castor oil can also promote hair growth but it is greasy/sticky and I’ve only used that a little bit on my forehead. It does seem to work though so I may start applying some early in the day and take a bath later to wash it out.

Methylation support nutrients and detox of formaldehyde

The various weird diet and health issues I’ve been having and reading all those special diet books has left me a little unsure about what to eat and which supplements really are helping versus maybe are a negative. Once you have autoimmune and other chronic issues, life gets more complicated. Based on previous health flair-ups - I need to cut back on smoking and bad indoor air/dust maybe, and be more consistent about my methylation support - methyl folate and B12, choline, B2, B3, B5, biotin, DMG and B6/Zinc supplements. I need those daily for genetic reasons. Molybdenum and manganese and magnesium, and iodine also support mitochondrial function and the interconnected methylation/sulfation cycles.

Niacin flush

I have been mixing my 50 mg niacin powder in a batch of hot beverage - 3 mugs - but yesterday just put it directly in one mug, and WOW did I ever flush bright red, all over my arms and legs. I was cold though so it was kind of nice to be warm. I take the stronger versus weaker niacin flush as a sign that the body has more or less inflammation to get rid of - but that is just my impression based on my own use and patterns of health/flushing intensity. The higher doses do not lead to an even more extreme niacin flush.

Copper/zinc ratio matters

Being not sure if my high dose zinc was too much for my copper balance I had added a copper supplement to my vitamin boxes the last couple months, but maybe I don’t need the extra copper. Copper excess or lack isn’t directly linked to hair loss but hair loss can be a symptom seen with zinc deficiency. Excess copper can compete with zinc for absorption and transport within the body. Minerals have to ride on protein ‘taxicabs’ and different groups of similar minerals can use the same protein transporter/taxicab.

Photo by Yeshi Kangrang on Unsplash

Hormonal support after menopause? Wild yam progesterone cream and DHEA

DHEA is a hormone that can be made into testosterone and it can help older adults to continue making muscle tissue. I am not sure whether I should or should not take it or how much to take, and my intermittent use of it may also have impacted my hair. I have used a 25 mg supplement most of the time since age 35. It supports muscle development, and we stop making as much of the hormone starting around age 35. I did seem to retain youthful energy and muscle mass pretty well since age 35, except more recently, once I was fully into menopause things seemed to change. I also was using progesterone cream daily and try to still but have been very remiss about it.

A few months ago I had learned that too much DHEA may cause overactive sebaceous glands and an itchy scalp, and I have had that…so I stopped using the DHEA. But my fitness level seems worse, so I added it back….and the itchy scalp got worse again. I started taking the DHEA out of my vitamin boxes last week. However, smoking too much will make my scalp worse and can add to eczema on my eyelids. Formaldehyde toxicity can cause eyelid eczema as a symptom and I have had it before. Taking methyl folate helps to detox formaldehyde. Smoking less and clearing out bad air in the house reduces formaldehyde intake. Being less stressed does too, as we make formaldehyde internally when we are stressed. …. oh dear.

The dust/bad air in the house might also be a dust mite autoimmune issue which has been associated with Hashimoto’s autoimmune conditions.

Health is not always easy to reach, but it is nicer than being in pain.

Dust mite intensive -

- watching these particular videos is not necessarily my goal for you unless you are interested in the topic. They are where I gathered info about reducing dust mites in your home, so I’m adding them.

Dr. Parikh on dust mite allergens 101 - the dust mite itself or its fecal pellets are the allergen - asthma, eczema, itchy nose - one minute video. She suggests using dust mite proof covers for your mattress. Adding some PubMed info to that - our innate immune response reacts to quite a few proteins made by dust mites which are on the spider like micro-insect or in the fecal pellets.

• The Innate Immune Response in House Dust Mite-Induced Allergic Inflammation, (Wang, 2013)

That means that the dust mite reaction is not like an allergy to a food or bee sting that occurs after being exposed to the food or bee sting once. The innate immune response is geared to fight generally known to be dangerous proteins, which is how the coronavirus family is fought off within the nose with IgA antibodies. The dust mite proteins include some that are similar to human proteins and that might add more innate immune response or autoimmune response. Having adequate vitamin D metabolism helps our immune cells to be more tolerant to proteins that are ‘self’ or similar to self and less allergy prone.

The bigger picture view of that info is that dust mite ‘allergy’ is something 100% of humans have because it is part of our innate immune response (or 100% minus the CoV jabbed). That means it behooves 100% of humans to try to keep a cleaner home so our body’s defenses have less work to do from fighting an overload of inflammatory proteins entering through dry damaged skin or inhaled from dusty air.

Gross visual - dust made up of ‘fecal pellets’ from dust mites and dead dust mite bits. The dust mite proteins themselves are triggering to our innate antibodies and also may include some endotoxin which simply is toxic - again to 100% of us.

Why some people have more overt allergy symptoms likely has to do with vitamin D sufficiency or poor metabolic pathways and a system overloaded with too many inflammatory signals coming from too many directions - including the dust we touch or breath or sleep on.

A longer video with Dr. Nicholas Kolinsky recommends the bed and pillow protectors and also use of a cortisol nasal spray rather than only using anti-histamine allergy pills. *Cortisol treatments for allergies or autoimmune disease are temporary symptom relief - it suppresses the immune system and I cannot agree with that as a primary approach to long-term health. His medical approaches to treatment are allergy injections or pills and I have questions about those approaches too. Get your vitamin D level up is the key point to reduce allergy and autoimmune risk.

Dust mites like carpeting, old curtains, stuffed furniture or pillows and a higher humidity air. They can’t live at humidity levels below 40% but that would also be dry for our mucus membranes. Around 50% is comfortable. Keeping it below 55% is important to prevent mold growth, I think. Dusty bookshelves, stone or untreated wood that isn’t washable would also be hard to clean free of dust mites. Spritzing everything with a dilute Tea Tree oil spray could help kill dust mites on that sort of surface.

Our bedroom has a lot of dust mite friendly surfaces and tends to get humid from our exhaled breath. If you are waking up in the morning feeling more congested then when you went to bed, and it isn’t a pet allergy with a pet present, then it could be dust mites or mold sensitivity maybe.

• "Dust Allergies" with Dr. Nicholas Kolinsky, Dr. Bob Show Archives, (Youtube)

The next video is a review of products on the market aimed at getting rid of dust mites - scam or helpful? It also includes lifestyle strategies and home furnishings. The video is kind of a consumer protection video made by someone whose battled dust mite allergies most of his life. He said keeping the humidity level below 55% would prevent dust mite growth.

UV light for an hour (sunshine on the clothesline) will kill dustmites but not a UV light wand sold to use on your couch. Are you going to hold it there for one hour, move an inch over and hold it another hour, repeat endlessly…. No one is going to do that. He put that in the useless scam category. He is kind of funny.

Solid A+ for his incorporation of healthy foods, meditation, and time in nature for improving your defense against the allergy response to dust mites from within.

He also mentions removing any foods from your diet that are adding allergy issues for you. He also discussed the importance of skin lotion for making a healthier skin barrier against dust mite allergens but recommends commercial medical type products and methods overall. He does recommend using steroid creams cautiously as overuse leads to worse skin.

Other common-sense strategies he highlights are cleaning weekly, or hiring a cleaner to do that. A good vacuum yes with HEPA filtration, but not any UV light beaming vacuums because again - one hour to kill the dust mites. A HEPA filter and a room or house dehumidifier are gadgets in the really helpful or essential category and dust mite proof pillow, duvet, and mattress covers. Have two sets and sanitize one set in the freezer (takes five days to kill dust mites in freezing temperatures) and rotate weekly.

It is part of Japanese lifestyle, philosophy or custom, to live in simply furnished homes and to wipe all surfaces clean regularly.

A homemade vinegar spray might be useful for killing dust mites on curtains or hard to wash surfaces, but saturation is needed. Essential oils in the spritz might make it more effective yet. Decorative brick or untreated wood could be dust mite homes. All the clutter and decorations in the home and books are too. Minimalist style living and clean weekly sounds like a very sanitary way to live.

Making your own vinegar-based spray is worth it because the commercial things online look to be $35 a bottle and might contain ickier chemicals too.

“Five essential oils have proven useful in killing dust mites: eucalyptus, clove, lavender, peppermint, and tea tree oil.”

Natural Dust Mite Spray Recipe

• 1 cup of boiled water that has cooled

• 1 cup of vinegar

• 8 drops of eucalyptus essential oil

• 8 drops of lavender essential oil

• 8 drops of peppermint essential oil

• Get Rid of Dust Mites: Homemade Dust Mite Spray Tips (tipsbulletin.com)

Essential oils ranked in order of efficacy against house dust mites:

1. Clove essential oil - the eugenol content

2. Eucalyptus essential oil - 97% reduction in dust mites. The 1,8-cineol content is of value.

3. Rosemary essential oil - also has 1,8-cineol.

4. Tea tree oil - in a study comparing it with lemon and lavender oils, it was most effective.

5. Fennel oil - licoricey aroma and helpful against dust mites. Caution diffusing if pregnant people or anyone with epilepsy is in the home.

• Essential Oils that Kill Dust Mites (dustmitebuster.com)

C for average - he didn’t mention that we need adequate vitamin D to be less allergy prone in the first place. Neither did the other 2 videos.

• How To Get Rid Of Dust Mites - Allergy Tier List, Dust Mite Treatment (Youtube)

Dust mite allergy is degranulating mast cells and would add to histamine in the body leading to the itchy eyes and runny or congested nose. It activates NF-kB so any of the Nrf2 promoting foods that you tolerate would be helpful or some niacin, flush type, butyrate or a healthy butyrate producing microbiome in the colon, or pomegranate peel (it is part of the Nrf2 promoting group).

Less clutter, less dust, less dust mites, less dust mite feces….okay, life hands us challenges to teach us better skills and clearly, I need to improve my house cleaning skills - and decluttering skills. Minimalism though, not really me.

Dust mites are definitely a problem though - old home full of collectibles and old carpet and fabrics and wiring and papers and cleaning it will make my hands and arms itch and cause congestion. I need to wear a mask and just deal with it - using a HEPA vacuum and vinegar essential oil spritz for some surfaces and baking soda mixed with essential oils for the carpeting - then vacuum slowly and thoroughly - deep vacuum by just going over the same spot really slowly a few times (but not at an inch an hour pace, *the UV light vacuum went into the scam group along with dust mite filters for your nostrils and a dust mite ‘trap’ to put here and there around the house like for mice.)

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.

Reference List

(Wang, 2013) Wang JY. The innate immune response in house dust mite-induced allergic inflammation. Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2013 Mar;5(2):68-74. doi: 10.4168/aair.2013.5.2.68. Epub 2012 Oct 24. PMID: 23450108; PMCID: PMC3579094. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579094/