What to Do for Hair Loss due to HCG Diet?
Some reports that they experience excessive hair loss after taking HCG diet. If does this kind of diet causes hair loss problem, will the problem go away on its own or is there anything you can do to regrow the hair? Don’t be panic – the good news, losing many hairs due to lifestyle factors such as crash diet is reversible condition!
HCG – what actually is it?
It stands for human chorionic gonadotropin that is naturally produced in pregnancy. During pregnancy, this kind of hormone is made by placenta (cells of placenta). The main goal of why pregnant women need it is to nourish the fertilized egg that has implanted to the wall of uterus [1].
Human chorionic gonadotropin can be detected in early pregnancy. Even many home pregnancy tests use the existence of this hormone to catch the early signal of pregnancy. It can be detected in urine about 12-14 days after fertilization (conception).
Typically, it reaches its peak level about 8-11 weeks after conception. Then it gradually decline for the remainder of the weeks of the pregnancy.
What actually is HCG diet?
We know well that human chorionic gonadotropin is needed in pregnancy, but what is the correlation between this hormone and weight loss? Actually, the idea comes from the effect of raised human chorionic gonadotropin in triggering some symptoms of pregnancy.
In pregnant women, this hormone may play a key role in causing feeling nauseated and vomit. And these symptoms may also affect the appetite.
Some odd rules are used in this kind of diet. For instances, you need to restrict calories and eat only one bread, one fruit, one veggie, and one protein for each meal. You are also suggested to not eat much, only take 2 meals (lunch and dinner) a day.
Even several years ago, the diet did not recommend exercise. But nowadays, this suggestion is not recommended. Instead, you need to have moderate exercise and do it regularly along with the diet!
The most challenging may come from the extremely caloric restriction. It is the reason of why many experts believe that HCG diet cannot provide a permanent weight loss result! Moreover, it also can be the reason of why some people who take this kind of diet experience excessive hair loss.
In general, this diet combines the caloric restrictions and the use of human chorionic gonadotropin to help suppress appetite. It suggests you to take not more than 500 calories a day while taking human chorionic gonadotropin for several weeks [2].
How does this diet work?
Since it can cause a dramatic weight loss at short time (about a pound per day), some experts don’t recommend it! In fact until now, it is still not approved by the FDA. Furthermore, it is difficult to keep the weight lost off after the diet [3].
So far, there is still no clearly answer of how it works! The interesting fact is the weight loss may not come from HCG. Instead, many experts believe that weight lost comes from the extremely restriction of calories.
Some companies claim that their HCG product can help reset the metabolic rate. But so far, studies found that there is no direct link between this hormone and weight loss.
However, though HCG may not directly affect the weight but it may help improve the way of how you lose weight.
Some people report that their appetite after taking HCG reduces. If this hormone does help reduce feeling of hunger, this can be a key point. With less appetite, you can reduce your calories intake comfortably.
But does this hormone really suppress appetite? The answer is still unclear. However, some experts say that the raised level of HCG in the blood stream may take the appetite away!
Furthermore, this hormone can act as an agent that can trigger the body to produce more hormones. As well we know that weight gain is often associated with the hormonal imbalance (such as hormone deficiency). And in fact, food cravings or appetite changes are often present in the few days before period.
Unfortunately, there is still no primer guideline on how to dose human chorionic gonadotropin for weight loss. As a result, many times the use of this hormone is based on Simeons Protocol (this protocol uses random dosing of prescription hormone) – and some experts doubt the effectiveness of this method [4].
In addition, there are some types of how to use HCG to lose weight such as with sprays, pills, or drops. But actually, the only one that works is with injection – any other way cannot be strong enough to effectively increase the level of HCG in the bloodstream.
Remember that the dose of injection is so crucial. Therefore for best result and to keep safe, it must be taken only with prescription or under medical supervision!
What to do for hair loss due to HCG diet?
Hair loss is one of possible side effects. Other problems that may occur from this kind of diet include constipation and even gallstone (a serious health problem that often ends with surgery for the treatment) [5].
As mentioned before, the hair loss due to HCG diet is usually temporary. As well we know that the cause of hair loss can play a key role for the prognosis of the hair to grow back. And fortunately, diet is changeable factor.
The impact of diet to the health of your hair will occur several months later. Many times, the impact of crash diet in causing hair loss occur about 3-6 months after losing excessive weight (losing more than 6.8 kg or 15 pounds at short time) [6].
