TRANSCRIPT

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Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast: Awaken to Hair Growth. I'm your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today I am so excited to be talking about nails, nail growth, aging, what these look like, how this pertains to hair loss and so much more. So stick with me.

For those of you who are watching on YouTube, you may see that I'm wearing new glasses and yes, it's that time of age where I am needing some light reading glasses and I love them. I feel good of course, because you can see things more clearly, including my nails, my cuticles, and all these things that are needed for up close viewing. I did want to mention that it comes with a heavy heart that my husband is currently traveling back to the Netherlands to where we used to live. For those of you who don't know, I lived in the Netherlands for about 5-6 years, maybe a little bit more than that. That's actually where also my son was born, when I was 40 years old. And he's there, he's gone back, he's being recognized and given some accolades and whatnot.

And so in going back to our previous home, previous country home, I should say. A lot of memories, a lot of people who we used to talk to, frequent and know about, and the first thing he tells me and gives me is like this long laundry list of people who have new cancer diagnoses who have MS, who have Hashimoto's, who have multiple things health wise going on. It broke my heart to hear all these things this morning, and it's really with a heavy heart that I am reflecting on these wonderful people who were part of our life, for a good amount of time in one capacity or another. It also puts a spotlight on how important health is.

For those of you who have hair loss right now, or for those of you with a child with hair loss, this is a warning sign. It is the check light engine that you need in order to take action. I say this because it affects how we see ourselves in the mirror. It affects how we feel about ourselves and how we outwardly work conduct our relationships, go to school, how we do our hobbies or don't do our hobbies, how we choose to swim or don't choose to swim, how we choose to leave our house on a windy day or not. It's quite crippling when you have hair loss, but it's also quite crippling when you have other health factors.

Sometimes I see where people are neglecting themselves, pushing things underneath the rug and then finally doing something about it when it comes to their hair growth or hair loss. Sometimes even it's taken them months, years, decades to reach out for help or to get the, actually the correct help, I should say. The road to hair growth is a little misleading with all the misinformation that's out there, and then also with conventional medicine, not really doing much for us either. And so, the situation here is that yes, I have a heavy heart and I'm also reflecting on the healthcare systems abroad, and it really highlights my own frustration with living in Europe with the healthcare system here, with the universal system that really takes inventory of every penny, euro, and budgets, everything, but treats people last.

You can find this in so many other countries. It's not just the Netherlands where I had my own experience with that, but now I see my friends and people who I know are experiencing that as well. And so this is a situation again, that brings me back to how priceless our health is, how priceless our hair is, and this is really a sense of urgency, a call to action that I'm telling you to do something about it now. The sooner the better because it's not gonna get better on its own, it's not gonna get better with medications. There's multiple layers to this, multiple factors to this, and this is why I cover all the factors, all the layers. I also include worldwide testing because this can be avoided. We can prevent these things, but I think the first step to all this is taking back the control and understanding that this is in your hands and not in somebody else's hands.

And so I think that's the key, a key first step if. You want resources, we have tons of free downloads for you. We have free trainings coming up. You need to be on our email list so that you can be given these free trainings, the links and the replays and anything else that you may need. I also offer free consultations, and so. This is actually really important for you to move the needle, get going, and start your healing process sooner rather than later. Because I will tell you, it doesn't get better on its own. It doesn't get better, trying a gazillion things. It gets better with a strategy, with a strategic approach where you can. See exactly what's going on. Look under the hood because this check engine light is not gonna turn off anytime soon until you look underneath the hood and really do a full inventory of what's going on. And that's what we do here at Alopecia Angel.

So today's topic is nail growth, and sometimes marketing magazines beauty industry, sometimes it's our doctors and anyone else who likes to chime in and give their 2 cents. ' cause that's what it is, it's 2 cents about aging and about how this affects our hair and how this affects our nails. And yes, there are some statistics, but you don't have to be a statistic. Yes, there are potentially some correlations, but it doesn't have to be that way for everybody. I'm a great example of this, but so are my clients. I'm in my mid 40s growing an inch of hair a month, an inch, and that's a lot. Yes, that gives me more frequent visits to the hairstylist, but that's okay. And I'm grateful for it because I'd rather be growing more than not growing at all, staying stock stagnant or just the opposite with tons of hair loss.

Nails are a preview and a window to our health, just like our skin, just like our hair. If you see somebody on the street or if you know of somebody with the hair loss, or this could be even yourself with maybe potentially bad skin or even nails. These are warning signs. These are like that check engine light that I like to use as a reference for, your car, but it's really for your body of like things not working the way they should be. And so take a look at your nails now and describe, do they look healthy to you? Are they yellow? Are they breaking? Are they jagged? Are they clear? Are they growing? Like how often do you have to cut them? How often do you have to. Either give yourself a manicure or go get a manicure. How are you know? Are they smooth on top? Do they have ridges? All these things tell us something.

So let me give you some quick statistics. So nail growth slows by 50% over a lifetime, making it reliable indicator of overall aging and metabolic health. Did you hear that? Metabolic health. These are things that we can modify and improve and optimize. We can upgrade this area so that your nails are healthier, your hair is healthier, everything is healthier from the inside out, aging nails, and if you allow them to age right, become brittle, yellow, thickened and dull due to changes in keratin structure, decreased blood circulation, and of course deficiencies. If you have poor circulation or a metabolic issue like hypothyroidism, your nails start to grow slower, develop bridges, and lose the visible half moon shape at the base called the lunula.

When the lunula fades or disappears, it can be a sign that your body isn't getting enough nutrients or oxygen to support healthy nail growth. This is something also that I'm always looking for. I'm always looking at nails. I'm always looking at hair and skin. All these things, again, as I mentioned, are indicators to your current status of health, lifestyle choices play a significant role in this. And we can also enhance the nail health and slow the signs of aging. Aging is gonna happen, but the thing is there's a big difference between your number age, your cardiovascular age, between the health of your internal system, age and everything else.

Fertility as well is a sign of how healthy you are and how healthy you're not. But just because let's say you're in menopause and the ability to have full fertility or procreate isn't there, doesn't mean that you're not healthy. It's a different life cycle. But it is definitely another factor to take into consideration because again, everything can be optimized, and think of this like a garden. I'm in the midst of growing my garden, i'm in the midst of having my seedlings come out. I'm in the midst of, trying to figure out where I'm gonna plant my watermelon, my acorn squash, and so on and so forth. And at the same time, every vegetable or every fruit or vegetable that I choose to plant or herb does better in certain circumstances and does worse in other circumstances.

And so you can try and error this in your garden, but you can also see exactly and understand how this happens naturally. And so this is part of the situation when we're looking at our health in general, when we're looking at our hair, our skin, and our nails all together.

In a 1979 study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, they examined the rate of nail growth and how this declines over a person's lifetime and what this means for aging. The link between aging and nails. Researchers found that they followed linear nail growth of 192 women and 79 men, ages 10 to a hundred to determine how aging impacts this biological process. The findings revealed a consistent and predictable decreased nail growth speed over lifetime with a clear connection to overall physiological aging and metabolic slowdown. Nails grow faster when you're younger. The study found that human nail growth reaches its peak in the late 20s before gradually slowing down at the rate of 0.5% per year. By the time a person reaches 100, their nail growth has declined by roughly 50%.

Now this is average. I know if you're listening to me, you wanna be above average, and this is why you are listening to me. So we can get the healing, so we can get the hair growth, so we can get the nail growth, so we can get all of our systems ramped up, optimized and at a higher level because this is possible for you.

So one striking aspect of the study was a discovery of long-term nail growth cycles. So just like hair growth cycles, we also have nail growth cycles. Researchers observed alternating seven year periods where nail growth either slow gradually or decline sharply. Showing that aging is not a simple linear process, but follows a rhythm influenced by deeper biological mechanisms. And just with that, the hair cycle's also very similar. It has a growth phase. A pause phase, a drop off phase, and it cycles every so often. Environmental lifestyle factors play a role, also diet. The study found that nail growth rate responds to changes in temperature. So when temperatures drop below 32 degrees Celsius, which is 89 degrees Fahrenheit, nail grew at a rate of 2.0 millimeters per week when skin temps drop to 16 degrees Celsius, which is 60 degrees, growth plummeted per week.

Chronic conditions play a role as we know. Conditions that impair your heart, that impair circulation, also create slower nail regeneration. Even minor infections reduce nail growth, highlighting how the body prioritizes vital functions over non-essential processes. And so this is also an understanding for you to understand what the hair is. If there's other areas that your body needs to heal, it's gonna prioritize that over your hair growth. And so it's really looking at this in a holistic aspects so that we can get you to the finish line for both hair growth, nail growth, and beyond.

Your daily activities and habits also influence nail growth. No surprise there because it also influences your hair growth. It also influences, your mobility. It also influences your quality of life, and that's the biggest takeaway here is like the quality of life. Is directly correlated to your hair growth, to your nail growth, to all sit systems being optimized. Activities that contribute to faster nail growth include typing, playing the piano, using hand tools were associated with slightly faster nail growth. The researchers hypothesize that movement and circulation enhancing activities help sustain healthy nail regeneration. Your nails reveal more than age. And so this is key because sometimes, when you look at somebody, you're looking at their face, their wrinkles to see how old they are.

I will say, as somebody in their mid 40s, I always get compliments on my skin, also the hair, but all my skin because I don't look my age. I have health trackers that tell me my biological age is one age, but then my biometrics on the inside showcase that I'm 7 to 10 years younger on the inside, and this is definitely possible to happen. And so imagine, so let's say, you're 50 years old, so your body on the outside is 50, but your skin, your hair, your heart, your muscles, everything can be and feel and look, be measured at 40. That's huge or at 30 even. And so this is great because then you are truly upgrading your health from the inside out on all different levels.

And then really you're tracking this and there's ways to do this, and we teach you all inside the Hair N' Heal program. You can go visit my website, alopecia angel.com to learn more about that. Nails weaken as a part of aging. The findings highlighted how nails progressively weaken, change color, and develop bridges as part of the natural aging process. Additionally, the study identified nail disorders that become more prevalent in older adults, such as fungal infections and brittle nail syndrome. Common denominator. The research found that 98 out of the a hundred participants exhibited at least one noticeable nail change. The most common included dull, pale and luster, less appearance affecting 73% of the group.

Other changes in nail health among the elderly examples include increased brittleness, thickening of the nail plate, and the development of prominent ridges. Surprisingly, many participants were unaware that these changes until they were actually pointed out that the nail health often goes unnoticed despite its clear connection to aging and overall wellness. I'll tell you with my time and struggle with alopecia, I actually did notice a big change in my nails and it was actually an ugly change, so to speak. My nails were uglier, they were very brittle and, but even before alopecia, they were also very brittle, they weren't as strong, they were breaking off, they were tearing off and I developed ridges.

The thing is, it's like when the hair started coming in and when I, the healing started happening, it actually took my nails longer to have that full cycle. So for example, at the same time I remember I went hiking, this was back in Colorado. I was hiking and and I had bruised my big toe and it had gotten black and it got so black where it actually fell off, but it took a full year for that toenail to come back in. And in the same way, it took like a full year for the nails to actually come back in and for those ridges to go away. You could see it like incrementally, little by little that the nails were, growing and, getting cut, growing, getting cut, growing, getting cut. But then, it took more than a year, just about a year for that full cycle to happen, for you to have, or for me to have, I should say, a full nail bed, a full new, beautiful nail versus the old, ugly one that I had.

So just like a snake sheds their skin and just like you can heal from alopecia. The healing of the nails can happen. And granted it might take a little bit longer than the actual hair process for sure. Because that nail process is extremely slower than the hair process. In the Hair N' Heal program I see people start to develop hair growth in 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks, whereas the actual nail process of regenerating completely would take over a year. So that gives you an idea of what's going on. A shift happens also in the nail composition. The study revealed that calcium levels and aging nails increased while iron levels decrease. This imbalance affects nail hardiness and flexibility making them more prone to cracking and splitting.

Additionally, the nail bed, the tissue beneath the nail plate undergoes changes with age, including blood vessel thickening, and reduced elasticity. These structural shifts contribute to slower nail growth and a greater likelihood of nail abnormalities. There's tons of different nail abnormalities. I've seen them in my professors when I was in college. One of them had almost clubbed at the end of each nail. It was almost clubbed where it was really rounded, really thick and yellow, and she had short nails, but every fingertip was clubbed. Whereas, if I look at mine, they're not. They're just normal nails, normal fingertips. And so this is something to consider.

According to the researchers surface texture changes were another major concern, which was brought on by different factors, underlying deficiencies. They created pronounced ridges from the base tip to the nail. Additionally, 33% of participants experienced rough nails, had transverse ridges, horizontal indentations, 15% developed laminar splits where the nail splits and peels apart, which is what I had. If you ever noticed deep grooves or peeling, your nails are likely losing essential structural, temperature fluctuations affect nail health as well. The researchers theorized that repeated cycles of hydration, dehydration, exposure to harsh soaps and chronic ni and chronic deficiencies contribute to this fragility, aging thickens, nails.

There's a condition that thickens the nail plate and also can be observed in 23% of the participants. This issue was most common in the toenails, particularly the big toe. Where pressure and reduced circulation contribute to excessive buildup. Thickened nails are more difficult to trim, often leading to discomfort and an increased risk of fungal infections. So how to strengthen and restore aging nails? Well, a couple of ways. First, the Hair N' Heal program, this is where you're upgraded from the inside out on all areas, not just your hair, but we focus primarily on the hair of course.

Improve circulation to your hands and your feet, so you could start playing the piano, maybe playing ping pong or other hand nail, finger type sports or elements. Maybe start using more hand tools if you'd like, maybe start doing DIY projects, maybe crocheting, nitty, these types of things where you're using your hands on a regular basis and your fingertips. This creates more blood flow. Support your nails with the right nutrients. Prevent nail dehydration and structural damage. Avoid certain foods that can contribute to weakened systems, address other underlying metabolic issues, and really.

Keep metrics. Keep metrics and start looking and analyzing yourself more and start noticing differences. I think that's a big takeaway and I started noticing these differences during alopecia, maybe not so much before, but understand that every aspect of our health is trying to tell us something. Our body is a beautiful god-given machine and it's telling us and it's speaking to us. Sometimes it's a whisper and sometimes it's yelling and sometimes it's shouting, and sometimes it's the biggest fire alarm you've ever heard. And so we need to pay attention to the whispers, just like to the fire alarms. And so this is really necessary, but only you know your body and these changes.

And again, if you need extra help, support, we are here to help and support you. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Please rate and review our podcast and we'll talk to you next time. Take care.