Hair / Sleep / Water Weight

My Hair / Sleep / Water Weight Successes
Paula M. Kramer

I had problems with age related hair loss, insomnia, and water weight for decades.

No more bald spots, better sleep, healthier weight.

Hair

Recipe first, hair story second.

I read about this recipe in a magazine in 2013.

Below are the essential oils I use. I chose them after doing extensive online research about essential oils that are good for the scalp and encourage hair regrowth. Several other oils are possibilities. Do your own research to choose your own oils. Do a skin test beforehand just to make sure your skin isn’t sensitive to any of the oils.

Stir 5 drops of each essential oil into 1/2 cup shampoo.

Cedarwood
Lavender
Peppermint
Red Thyme
Rosemary
Tea Tree

Massage your entire scalp will while shampooing. I was my hair every other day.

It could be 6 to 7 months before you see results. I was certain my hair was thicker before the end of a year.

“Essential Oil Skin Patch Testing”
Aroma Web

Baldness From Stress, Illness, & Age

In case you were wondering, I never let anyone take photographs of my bald head or bald spots. Living with them was enough. I don’t need to ever see them again.

I first experienced hair in my early 20s from stress. After the stress ended, my hair grew back.

I started college at age 35. At the beginning of the last week of classes, I got sick. Because it was the last week of classes, I kept going to school. I was still sick through the week of finals. I was sick for a month and needed two months to recover. Doctors gave me three different diagnoses, so I’m not sure what I had.

Because I kept going to classes, I had a high fever for more than a week. High fevers lasting that long can lead to hair loss. I got sick at the beginning of May. By the end of May my hair was falling out. Since my hair is thick, people refused to believe me when I started saying my hair was falling out. I convinced them by running my hand through my hair. I would then show them the many strands of hair stuck between my fingers.

After two months straight of that kind of hair loss, I got desperate. I found a supplement to take that stopped my hair from falling out. My hair loss didn’t stop until I took the supplement in dangerously high dosages. Therefore, I am not going to reveal what that supplement was. I stopped taking the supplement as soon as my hair stopped falling out.

I lost so much hair that I forgot what my hair line looked like. Most of the hair I had left was at the back of my head. My hair was thin on the sides. I was bald in front. I had enough hair on top to have see-through bangs that sort of covered the front bald spots. I was so afraid of my bald scalp getting sunburned that I never went outside without a hat. I didn’t take any photographs because I never wanted to see my bald head again.

Within a couple of months, my hair started growing back. It grew in wonderfully thick. Three years later, I discovered that most of my hair was on a three year life cycle. Most of my hair had fallen out and grown back in within a few months. That meant that when the life cycle of all that hair was up, it all fell out within a few months. I didn’t have bald spots again, but I did have extremely thin areas where the bald spots had been. My bangs were see-through again because I had too little hair in front to have solid bangs.

For 11 hair cycles, I went through a thin year, a normal year, and a thick year, followed by a thin year, a normal year, and a thick year. For the first several thin years, I cut my hair very short. The former bald spots meant my hair was thinner in some places than others. During the early thin years, my hair looked best when it was very short. For my normal and thick years, I let my hair grow longer again. Over time, the period of hair loss lengthened into several months.

Around 2008, I realized my thick hair year was not quite as thick as it had been. I was experiencing age related hair loss. 2015 was another thin year for me. That year I had bald spots in front again. Age related hair loss on top of my three year hair cycle meant visible bald spots every third year.

Luckily, I read a short magazine article about essential oils that could reverse age related hair loss. I did research online about the best essential oils for hair and scalp. I also read advice about how to use essential oils for reversing hair loss. I put together the recipe above. The article said it would take 6 to 7 months for hair regrowth to appear. I waited until I was six months away from the beginning of my next thin year. I washed my hair every other day using the recipe and procedure above.

The year 2018 should have been another thin year with even bigger bald spots, but my hair was thicker again. No bald spots anywhere and my bangs were solid.

I used the oils in my shampoo only for a year because of my thin / normal / thick hair cycle. Since my hair was not as thick as it once was, I went back to starting the oil treatment 6 months before the beginning of my next thin year. However, my hair didn’t get as thick as I hoped it would

I now use my oil treatment for 6 months on, 6 months off. My hair is nicely thick again.

Recommendations

If you only have age-related hair loss, follow my 6 months on, 6 months off treatment.

If you lost a lot of hair at once and it grew back quickly, pay attention to the cycle of your hair growth and start the treatment 6 months before the beginning of your thin year. I waited almost 2 years to start my first hair treatment, and I’m glad I did.

If I lost a lot of hair at once but it didn’t grow back within a couple of months, I would wait a couple of years to see if I could identify my hair cycle. Timing is important to get thick looking hair throughout the hair cycle.

Sleep

I sleep much better since I started taking magnesium capsules and increasing my potassium intake from fruits and vegetables. Magnesium helps you get to sleep. Potassium helps you stay asleep or go back to sleep.

Research the different types of magnesium for your needs. Research high potassium fruits and vegetables for your tastes. I drink high potassium juices as well as eating the foods.

Start slowly with magnesium and work your way up to get the sleep results you want. Too much magnesium citrate can cause diarrhea. Too much magnesium also made me feel sleepy all the next day. I read that when taking magnesium for weight loss, you should take a dose in the morning and a dose at night. I experimented to find what worked for me.

At times, I still have trouble going to sleep or getting back to sleep. For those times, hazelnut with chocolate work best. I eat chocolate bars with hazelnuts, or chocolate muffins made with hazelnut flour. I found a chocolate hazelnut muffin recipe online. I eat 2 to 4 ounces of the chocolate bars. I eat 1 or 2 of the muffins. It could take a little while for the sleepiness to begin.

A friend of mine drinks this Sweet Dreams Smoothie containing magnesium, potassium, melatonin, and serotonin:

Sweet Dreams Smoothie
Healthy Smoothie HQ
October 9, 2012

I improve the quality of my sleep by listening to bird songs and river sounds in the late afternoon or early evening. Also on my sleep playlist is “Weightless” by Marconi Union. The song uses scientific theory to reduce anxiety. The playlist is more effective if I listen to it a few hours before bedtime. I listen while doing other things, including watching television.

Plus, I exercise daily. I walk. I alternate various kinds of aerobics during the week. I also do a few stretching, yoga, and Pilates exercises. Contrary to what I’ve read, late night aerobics help me sleep. The exercises release tension in my muscles, so relaxing is easier. I’ve done heart pumping aerobics during stressful times, then gone to bed and slept.

“Weightless”
Marconi Union
Official Video

Water Weight

I’ve lost water weight by adding taurine to my daily diet. Taurine works with magnesium and potassium to release excess water from cells.

“How Taurine Can Improve Your Health”
Michael Lam, MD, MPH
‘The Effects of Taurine on the Detoxification Circuit’
Scroll down to read the linked section.

“Taurine can be very helpful in rebalancing the detoxification circuit. This amino acid is a natural diuretic, which means that it can reduce fluid retention and tissue swelling. It does this by keeping potassium and magnesium inside the cells while keeping sodium out. Taurine is unique in that it acts as a diuretic without causing kidney damage. This is in contrast to other medications that act as diuretics, which actually cause damage to the kidneys and further complicate detoxification. Taurine might be used for fluid retention, which is very common in people with physical illnesses such as ovarian cancer, kidney disease, and heart failure. Taurine is also good for bloating and detoxification. Because it encourages the expulsion of excess fluid, it prevents the build-up of potentially toxic metabolic waste products. This will help to keep your entire system healthy, reduce the strain on the liver, reduce inflammation, and encourage balance in the whole detoxification circuit.”

Taurine foods include chicken thighs, turkey thighs, clams, scallops, mussels, and sardines. Chicken thighs are most effective for me, but only if I eat them for dinner. I don’t know why. Experiment with the taurine foods you like because bodies are different. I eat chicken thighs at least every other night.

If you buy brined chicken thighs or season the thighs with a mixture that includes salt, you might not lose water weight. The potassium / salt balance to avoid gaining water weight is 3 times as much potassium as sodium. You might have to increase potassium to lose water weight if you eat brined chicken with seasonings that contain refined salt. I use Redmond Real Salt every day and have lost water weight. It is unrefined salt so it comes with the magnesium and potassium that balance the sodium. I make most of my own foods from scratch, including mustard, catsup, barbecue sauce, salad dressings, seasoning mixes, and sauerkraut. I find recipes close to store bought versions online.

However, even when I make something with Redmond Real Salt, I drink or eat something high in potassium when I eat a high salt food, like sauerkraut.

Read what I wrote about magnesium in the sleep section above. Also read supplement labels. I tried a magnesium tablet that did not help release the water weight. When I read the ingredients, I discovered the mixture included sodium. Now I take only liquid capsules. Magnesium draws fluid into the bowel. I researched the best magnesium citrate for constipation. I take that twice a day, but I take the night time dose with decaffeinated black tea. Black tea can cause constipation. Taking the magnesium with the black tea cancels out both the diarrhea and the constipation. You will have to experiment for yourself.

My weight loss is slow and stress can stop the weight loss. My weight can fluctuate a couple of pounds. However, most of the weight stays off as long as I keep those three nutrients in my life. All the time I’ve been losing water weight, I’ve been eating chocolate, butter, and ice cream.

Another way to reduce water retention is to drink dandelion leaf tea, which is high in potassium. Dandelion root tea can cause diarrhea. I drink only dandelion leaf tea. The dandelion leaf tea can be a diuretic by itself.

Dandelion tea is also high in Vitamin K, so anyone who has to avoid Vitamin K will likely have to avoid dandelion tea.

My water retention is so serious that I have water in my inner ear and have to wear a hearing aid. When I eat, the sound of food crunching is louder than any other sound in the room. My hearing is split between outer hearing and inner hearing.

“Dandelion Greens – Health Benefits and Side Effects”
Parul Dube
July 7, 2022

Sometimes I Eat Salty Foods

I eat salty holiday meals and treat myself to pizza on special occasions. To cancel out the water retaining salt, I eat dried apricots and drink strong dandelion tea at the same time. Dandelion leaves also contain magnesium, which would make the tea particularly effective at balancing sodium. I know I’ve eaten enough apricots and drunk enough dandelion tea if I don’t get a thirst spike an hour or two after eating salty meals. Go for 3 times as much potassium as sodium.

I wouldn’t do this everyday because I don’t want to risk any side effects from drinking too much dandelion tea.

“Ask The Experts: The sodium-potassium balancing act”
Ross Carr
Healthy Food
July 2013

Losing Fat

You’ll lose fat more successfully if you know which foods are healthy for you. The articles below present slightly different information from the same study. I recommend reading all of them.

“Huge” differences even though people ate the same foods
Mary Brophy Marcus
CBS News
November 19, 2019

(You might have to search for this article by title. The link doesn’t always work, for some reason.)

‘Healthy’ foods differ by individual
Cell Press
Science News
November 19, 2015

Healthy foods are different depending on individual: study
Allison Vuchnich
Global News
November 19, 2015

A Surprise From Eating Cheese With Other Proteins

I used to need to eat in the middle of the afternoon. I got hungry.

My lunches have always been healthy. I make my own whole wheat bread, mayonnaise, mustard, and catsup. Protein choices include eggs, lean beef, pork, or fish. Every few days my lunch is beans, rice, and pasta with my homemade Italian salad dressing. I include some kind of vegetable and fruit in most of my lunches. I got hungry in the middle of the afternoon anyway. To stop the hunger, I added high fat, calorie dense, salty cheese to each lunch. I eat dried apricots with my lunches for the sodium / potassium balance.

Since I added 1 ounce of cheese to my lunches, 2 things happened.

1st, I no longer get hungry in the middle of the afternoon.

2nd, I started losing about a pound a month without changing anything else after being stuck at one weight for a while.

I’m not eating the mid-afternoon snack, but I did add more fat, dense calories, and extra sodium to my lunches, and I’m slowly losing weight.

Stress Can Still Have An Affect

Since my water weight problem started with stress, stress can still stop my water weight loss. A root canal set me back 2 months because I had to wait 6 weeks for the root canal appointment. Afterwards, I had to deal with an infection.

I remind myself every day to stay relaxed and breathe deeply. I also listen to relaxing music do some tai chi every day.

Relax in whatever way works for you.

Start with the information here and experiment to see what works for you.

Good luck with everything!

, 2023.