Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel podcast. I'm your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today, we are going to be talking about acne and it's correlation to other things. It's correlation to other health problems. We are talking about acne in particular because in my own situation, personally, before having alopecia, before having alopecia areata, before having multiple types of hair loss at the same time, which is very possible, I had before 10 years prior actually, issues and health concerns regarding acne. So much so where I was actually on accutane 5 different times in my life.

That should have told me right then and there that something was amiss. You know, just like my situation and maybe your situation too, right? I've seen multiple doctors and am trying to see what's happening with our hair loss. What's happening with our alopecia and how to heal it and how to get more answers and results. I found myself in the same loop, trying to find different dermatologists for my acne. Now, the acne started in my teens, I was a teenager, so of course everyone, you know, says: Oh, it's puberty, deal with it. It's puberty, you're just gonna have to live through it. And so, of course, I was using all the stuff that you would get at the store.

This parallels kind of the same situation that most people go through when it comes to hair loss. First thing you see hair loss and people are like: Oh, you need to start taking biotin, you need to start taking the hair, skin, and nails, you need to start doing minoxidil and rogaine, right? Same thing. I was at the pharmacy, I was at target, I was at different stores looking for acne medication, creams, you know, different cleansers, different lotions, all these different gimmicks, right? Lo and behold, I'm in my 20s and things clear up. However, in my late 20s, they get really bad. In my early 30s, they were getting really bad too. Lo and behold, I found out that my acne actually stemmed from an allergy, I was allergic from peanuts. This didn't come up in an allergy test. This wasn't something that my dermatologist, you know, thought of or gave me an idea about. They just gave me Accutane.

And at the time, this was, you know, over 20 years ago at the time. Accutane was so expensive that it wasn't covered with insurance. So what happened? I had to pay out of pocket and this was very expensive for me as somebody who was a teenager because my parents didn't pay for it. I was paying for it. Somebody in their 20s, you know, fresh out of college paying for Accutane. And again, 5 times being on accutane. For those of you who don't know, accutane is such a difficult and such a very strong medication, pharmaceutical, that women need to be on birth control at the same time. I wasn't, but you have to swear that you won't get pregnant. Why? Because should you get pregnant on accutane, that fetus would come out very, very deformed.

Let me go ahead and read to you the side effects. and cautionary issues with accutane. So accutane can cause many side effects, including dry skin, redness, peeling, sensitivity to sunlight, which I definitely experienced, especially around the lips. There was no chapstick that could help me with the lips because they were constantly peeling the eyes, feel dryness, blurred vision, difficulty wearing contact lenses, mouth is dry, inflamed, and you can also get sores on the inside of your mouth. Hair thinning, accutane causes hair thinning and other changes. The nails, they change because of the Accutane. Mood, depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide. Can damage the liver and can cause yellowing of the skin and eyes. Blood decreased red and white blood cell counts, which can lead to weakness and difficulty breathing the brain. Swelling that can cause headaches, vision changes and nausea, stomach pain, upset and bleeding, hearing, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, joint pain, muscle pain and fatigue.

Accutane can also cause serious side effects, including stroke, seizure, blockage of the airway, blood clot, infection, pancreatitis and birth defects, a lot of birth defects actually, it has a black box warning. Accutane was given to me like candy, and I only mentioned this because a lot of times our health journey as we're going through it, it may have hit a wall here for you with hair loss, but more than likely there's other things in your past for health that you've had to overcome or maybe that you are dealing with. In my case, I overcame the acne, I overcame the need for accutane. I also overcame and rejected low and behold, once alopecia came the idea that medicine or pharmaceuticals were the answer because as I saw in my own acne journey.

They did help momentarily, but then having to go back again and again and again didn't make sense. I actually found the culprit with my peanuts, right? I have a funny little story on how I realized that I was allergic to peanuts and lo and behold, it didn't come up in an allergy test, it didn't come up in a food sensitivity test because I'm not necessarily sensitive to peanuts. However, they do cause acne and that's the reaction that I get. Lo and behold, I found out one day when I ate some peanuts and within four hours, boom, all over my face, it looked like I was 14 all of a sudden when I was really 28 or 29. And so I knew right then and there: Ok, I'm allergic to peanuts. But then lo and behold, I. You know, started getting older and was experiencing other different types of acne too, which also led me to believe that an esthetician wasn't the way because I was actually getting these volcanoes around my neck and around my chin.

And I've come to learn now, of course, years later, that all this type of reactions, whether it's acne or anything else, eczema, psoriasis, hair loss, all of it are signals that our body is talking to us and we're not paying attention. All of it is something is going on underneath the surface and we're not hearing it, we're dismissing it, we're in denial or we're putting it out there on the back burner because it's not that important when in reality it is. And so our body talks to us on a consistent level. And so what I want to do is to go over a little bit about where you may be seeing acne because I've had clients, even in their 40s, have acne and all of these signs tell us something. You know, acne can come up on our upper cheeks on our chin in our jawline, which all right here on the chin and jawline is all hormonal, tips of the nose, which tends to be bacteria. You also have, on your forehead, which tends to indicate, of course, other areas like weekend digestion due to poor diet and stress, an oily T zone could also be a culprit, upper cheeks closely related to the foods you intake.

I would also say that if it's on your cheek, it could also be from your cell phone from talking on the cell phone. Tips of the nose creates an imbalance, disturbed blood circulation and imbalance in your blood pressure. So our face, our body, our skin is always talking to us, our hair, our health. And they say that you can tell someone's health by the nature of their skin and their hair, right? And you've seen those people with beautiful hair and beautiful skin. I get compliments actually all the time on my skin and on my hair because first and foremost, I'm older and I don't look it. But the second is that it's just so clear, even though I can show you pictures from before of my acne and it was absolutely horrendous, absolutely horrendous. If I had to compare my acne journey with my alopecia journey, obviously the alopecia journey was with a lot more of a struggle for me, but I will say in the same token, going out in public and having people not look at your eyes and be so focused on your skin and on those acne sores all over your face is also disheartening, is also unsettling, upsetting on an emotional level, on a mental spiritual level, because you're not being seen for who you are, you're being seen for a situation that your body is reaching out for help. And yet we can't help it.

And so in the same token with alopecia, you know, people are going through hair loss. I was going through hair loss and I couldn't help it. And maybe people noticed it, maybe they didn't, but I sure did. And that's all that matters. That's all that matters, is that you yourself, you notice something's wrong and we need to do something about it. You yourself, you notice that it's too much hair loss, that it's too much acne, that it's too much what have you, eczema, psoriasis, anything else that's going on. All these issues are very intertwined and they're linked on many levels. That's why when you have a skin or a hair issue, you go to the dermatologist, unfortunately, their route of healing comes through medications only or, you know, skin creams or this type of thing.

But again, if we're not getting to the root cause, the signs and the symptoms will continue to come up. Just like they did for my acne, with the 5 bouts of accutane, and just like, you know, they did with my alopecia, until I got to the root cause. And so this is where we actually see ourselves flourish after the fact after the healing because now I no longer deal with acne, and I clearly no longer deal with hair loss either. It's been more than 9 years alopecia free.

And so the thing is, it's like that alopecia areata that I experienced, no more, never came back. And that's even after postpartum, that's even after stressful times after a pregnancy at 40 after moving to 3 different countries in a year and a half span so we can mitigate this. And as I was telling somebody else yesterday, you know, life is like the ocean. There's always going to be a wave and another wave and another wave and it's up to us to learn how to write it, learn to ride that wave and learn to balance, right? As much as possible and keep our balance so that the hair, the health, the skin all shines together because it can.

I wanted to also share with you how skin health is closely connected to hair loss as conditions affecting the scalp like dandruff, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis and even eczema can significantly contribute to hair thinning and loss and can also damage hair follicles. Inside my program, I've seen numerous clients where in just a couple of weeks, their dandruff is gone, their dermatitis is gone, the little pimples on their scalp are gone, the inflammation is gone, the itchy burning scalp is gone. And these things can be gone with a personalized approach to changes of diet, lifestyle, and so much more that are affecting us individually on a personal note. And so just like maybe you're able to eat peanuts. I'm not able to because again, that would cause acne.

And so this is something to consider is that a lot of times these things are connected. The scalp inflammation, the dermatitis, the psoriasis, the autoimmune conditions, the non autoimmune hair loss as well. Scalp care is actually very, very interesting because only now within the last year and a half, do you see more and more products focusing on scalp care, focusing on scrubs, focusing on so many things and really, you know, those scrubs and specialty brushes, they're all nice and dandy, but you know, we've been living without them for so long that really they're, as I see them, another gimmick. Now what I would do for scalp care is to focus on certain washings. How often do you wash? Do you really need to wash? What kind of treatments are you doing? And also what kind of hair do you have? Because each hair type it's going to have its different needs and it's different types of care.

And so I go over this with you inside the Hair N' Heal program. There are so many aspects and factors that deal with scalp care, but hair care as well. And the thing is, it's like when you only take a topical approach, you only get so far. We really have to do an inside out approach to it so that it is just like your house, just like your car. It could be running. Well, it could be doing so much better and optimizing for the health inside and outside for your hair to shine for your hair to be its best. And in this case as well, your skin because there are definitely lots of cross intersections where skin and hair come together.

Going back to acne. Acne can be connected to hair loss, especially when caused by a hormonal imbalance. And so this is a certain way that we can, you know, kill many birds with one stone. Hormonal fluctuations can cause acne and hair thinning, especially during your 20s and 30s. And so I actually talk about this in my free training and also in my hormone and thyroid masterclass. We have free hormone and thyroid training that you can get right off our website, right at the top, go to alopeciangel.com and right at the top, you'll see the free training there.

A lot of symptoms that can cause this are cystic acne, which I experienced on the jawline, which can indicate excess androgen hormones. And so for those of you dealing with female pattern baldness or dealing with androgenic alopecia, you may want to be also very intuitive and inclined to look at this further. Because again, if we're having excess androgens that will, you know, connect the dots with our hairline as well. acne around the mouth, which can indicate excess androgenic hormones, estrogen or lower progesterone acne along the sides of the face or on the eyebrows, which can indicate a sluggish liver, irregular menstrual cycles, obesity, infertility, diabetes, you know, acne sometimes is much more than skin deep and so is the hair loss. This is why we need to look at. You in a holistic manner so that you can heal from the inside out and flourish and shine bright as you are destined to be.

I hope this podcast episode has helped you in learning more about my own situation because I know that when we start to look past or in our own past with our previous situation, even before alopecia, I'm sure we've come across some things that potentially could have led us to where we are today. And so I encourage you to give yourself a self assessment and see what other things are tied to you, to your health. And where do you want to improve? That's one of the questions that I ask always my clients. It's not just the hair loss. We always want to heal so many other facets of ourselves. We always want to get to that next level.

So start thinking about those goals. It's not just the hair growth, it could be something else. And understand and know that you can do it all with one program. And that's what I delivered with results inside the Hair N' Heal program. Learn more at alopeciaangel.com

Thank you so much. Take care.