When you move abroad, it’s probable you’ll drastically change your lifestyle and habits, in particular, your diet. In addition, you may well expose yourself to new and unfamiliar chemicals, pathogens, and pharmaceuticals, to name just some of the potential categories. Therefore, you may induce autoimmune disease symptoms!
Being a health-conscious individual; someone who plans their dietary intake, and avoids chemicals and unnecessary plastics wherever possible, around four months after moving from the UK to China I noticed I was losing hair in front of my ear, from my sideburn area. My eyebrows were also shedding, revealing small bald spots. My beard area, apart from my chin and moustache, had also moulted.
With some success in slowing male pattern baldness over the years, I was already armed with the analytical skills and hypochondriac mindset required to problem-solve this ailment. Therefore, I was determined to get to the bottom of my problem and halt or reverse whatever was causing my hair loss.
To begin with, I imagined (or hoped) that this would be a temporary problem. Maybe the shock and stress of moving abroad throughout the chaos of COVID-19. Perhaps I was using different chemical-based cosmetics, like sunblock. The change of diet could be the problem, I thought. Unfortunately, my hunch did not turn out to be correct. The severity of hair loss increased, and so I decided to adopt a system of logging and tracking all foodstuffs, cosmetics, lifestyle habits and so forth, in order to identify causes and effects.
The first path my research took me down, though, was chemical sunscreens. A plethora of FFA research connects chemical sunscreens to the disease. So I switched to zinc-based sunscreen.
My diet had changed dramatically upon moving. However, I thought that a short-term change in diet couldn’t do that much harm, especially as I exercise a lot and ensure that I consume a lot of vegetables and quality foods. Unfortunately, I was consuming a lot of ‘youtiao’, ‘youdan’, fried baozi and similar. These are all made from processed white flour and fried in processed, omega 6-rich oils: oils linked to autoimmune disease. Through halting consumption of all white flour and rice, sugar, and fried food, my excel sheet showed a direct connection between their cessation and the levelling-off of my FFA symptoms.
I believe that another factor that may well have exacerbated my autoimmune response; that is having taken a number of both mRNA and deactivated virus vaccines before and during my stay in China. The over-stimulation of my immune system may have increased the likelihood of an autoimmune response, initiated by consuming high volumes of processed grains and oils.
Moving to China throughout the covid pandemic also created stress. Cancelled flights, false alarms, quarantine on arrival and zero-COVID measures in China all exacerbated my stress levels, potentially compromising my immune system.
Unfortunately, the hair loss caused by Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia (and some other types of autoimmune disease hair loss) is permanent. In my case losing the sideburn and a small area extending to the ear can be disguised by growing my hair longer. I am also researching micro dermal pigmentation (MDP) to disguise the bald areas further. MDP is semi-permanent tattooing. Small tattooed spots look similar to hair follicles and tone in bare areas of skin effectively. The procedure does not require anaesthetic or healing time, and the results last for up to 4 years.
However, the above is my personal experience and everyone’s body and immune system is different. Therefore, it is recommended that you carry out your own structured investigation of your behaviour and lifestyle. You can do this using spreadsheets listing everything that you consume or use, tracked using dated weekly columns, thus tracking its effects on your body over time.
Sign up for our blog for regular updates