Episode 212: What You Should Know About Autoimmune Diseases and Hair Loss

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast. I’m your host, Johanna Dahlman. I’m so excited to be with you here today. We are officially in 2026 and things are moving along. So as of right now, I’m very excited to share with you that it’s been 4 full years that the Alopecia Angel Podcast has been running and we have over 200 episodes. It’s just very exciting to move into this new year with so much new content and new interviews and new success stories.

If you are new to the Alopecia Angel Podcast, I highly recommend starting from episode #1, which tells you my story, which tells you, how this all came about for me, the journey that I went through, and then how I healed naturally and successfully for over 9 years now. And also throughout the podcast and all the episodes, you can see all my science backed information regarding diet, regarding supplements, regarding fertility, regarding so many things, and including so many success stories that I love to share and the interviews that I have with clients. So if you are looking for inspiration, if you’re looking for news, if you’re looking for, the latest on alopecia, on hair loss of any type, come to me because I even touch upon men’s hair loss, I even touch upon kids and everything else. So there’s so much to learn, especially on the website as well. alopeciaangel.com, that’s where you can find free downloads and so much more information.

In today’s podcast, we’ll be talking about autoimmune diseases 101. The thing is like sometimes I see people and they have full on alopecia, areata, totalis, universalis, which is the autoimmune hair loss type. Alopecia areata, the bald patches where it could start either in the beard or on the head, on the scalp, and then it can progress to full baldness, eyelashes can go away, eyebrows. And then, versa is like full body full. Head full, everything. This can happen in women, children, men of any age, race, or ethnicity. This is what I had. I had alopecia areata and this is how Alopecia Angel was born.

However, since doing what I do, I also help women with various types of alopecia, even if it’s like female pattern boldness. And then lo and behold, they too also have an autoimmune disease. It could be IBS, it could be Crohn’s, it could be eczema, psoriasis, it can be lupus, it could be MS, multiple sclerosis, it can be rheumatoid arthritis. It can be actually multiple types of autoimmune diseases all together. So I wanted to give you a little snapshot of what this looks like in terms of autoimmune diseases, because maybe you have one and you don’t know it.

So I’m gonna go over symptoms. I’m gonna go over some statistics about it because a lot of times it actually takes years or multiple providers and doctors that you’ve been seeing to actually get diagnosed. Even if it’s thyroid, Hashimoto’s or Graves or something else, it’s not so clear cut. And unfortunately, practitioners aren’t on top of their game to understand: Hey, this could be an autoimmune disease. And so they like to say things that are not correct, irrelevant, and then just keep you on this hamster wheel of, feeling and thinking that you’re crazy when you’re not. And then of course, it encourages you and motivates you to keep looking for answers and keep looking and keep searching. But in all this, there’s a lot of time of course and resources that are, wasted in essence because instead of healing, you are actually, on this hamster wheel of trying to figure out what’s going on.

So autoimmune diseases happen when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues causing chronic inflammation. So with alopecia, this is hair follicles and creating hair loss. With, Hashimoto’s for example, it’s attacking the thyroid, so on and so forth. With MS, it’s attacking, joints, mobility ability to walk, and rheumatoid arthritis, same thing. It’s attacking itself. And so there are over a hundred different types of autoimmune conditions, including Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, MS, psoriasis, celiac disease, and so many more.

This affects over 50 million plus Americans and worldwide. You would have to look it up ever so slightly, but I know for alopecia it’s around 8 million. In the UK it’s another 6 million. In Australia, in Europe in general, it’s another 20 million, and so it does affect a huge amount of people. The thing is too, is that women are 4 times more likely than men to obtain and be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. And the other side of this is that once you have one autoimmune disease, 25% go on to acquire a second and a third. I’ve seen 6 year olds with 3 autoimmune diseases. I’ve seen ladies in their 40s and 50s with 3 autoimmune diseases. So again, age, race, ethnicity doesn’t discriminate.

And so when you are diagnosed with one, you want to move forward with quickness and urgency so that you are not one of these candidates to acquire a second and a third. Among the top 10 causes of death in women under 65 are autoimmune diseases. Rates are rising due to toxins, infections, issues of gut, stress and nutrient deficiencies, and a lot of these things. If not all of them can be controlled and we can actually control our outcome and heal and reverse many autoimmune diseases. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been alopecia free for over 9 years now, not one spot has come about, and that’s even at a, with a pregnancy at 40, that’s even after COVID, that’s even after stressful times, that’s even after life lifeing, this is even after moving to 3 different countries in 3 years, and so on and so forth.

So life can happen, but it still doesn’t have to affect you. And if you’re the type of person that’s on these vicious cycles of having highs and lows, and or in this case, let’s say hair loss and regrowth, or hair loss, and just staying bald or these cycles of coming and going, you can stop all that.

So here are some signs that you may have an autoimmune condition. So the hair loss, of course, brittle nails, chronic fatigue, that doesn’t improve with rest, brain fog or difficulty concentrating. A recurring low grade fever that has no obvious cause, unexplained weight changes, digestive issues, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, muscle weakness or pain, numbness or tingling in hands or feet, frequent infections or prolonged recovery, joint pain, stiffness or swelling, skin rashes or changes in skin, texture, color, mood changes such as anxiety, irritability, or depression, allergy like symptoms or food sensitivities or aversions, temperature sensitivity, feeling unusually hot or cold.

This is just a little snapshot of what that could look like and maybe, these are some issues that you’re looking at. So what to do? First, you would wanna see exactly what’s going on. I would say you can have a consultation with me, we can talk about your situation, especially if this is also a component of hair loss. You wanna start looking at triggers and aggravators, and this could look like so many different things, but anything from infections to allergies to of course diet and lifestyle, toxin, histamines there’s so much to really look.

This is why you really want a personalized strategic plan for you, because this is the only way that you will be able to not only reduce and eliminate completely your symptoms, but then also reverse and heal your situation to as much as possible. So core steps for calming autoimmunity. The thing is we need to address why this is happening and the factors that go along with it. We do absolutely want to address diet and lifestyle. This is the core premise of the Hair N’ Heal program that I offer where 90% see hair growth in less than 8 weeks, where if you have hair loss shedding of any type, this can decrease and go away completely anywhere from week one to week 6.

And so this is the beauty of really honing in to all the factors that pertain to you. Because, for example, if we had one full conference room of a hundred people, everyone had different types of alopecia or even the same type, all the factors would look somewhat different to each other. It’s never a one size fits all. I think this is the biggest takeaway is that with any situation, whether it’s hair loss, whether it’s an autoimmune disease or other, it’s never a one size fits all, and it truly needs to be personalized to you.

This is why, personally, I never went the medicine route. I never went the medicine route because. That’s exactly it. It’s a one size fits all. It’s: let’s put in these injections, let’s take these JAK inhibitors and let’s see what happens. The thing is, it’s there’s ramifications. There’s a lot of, negative side effects, and all these are listed on a free PDF on my website at the homepage. If you are curious to know hair products that cause hair loss or medications that cause hair loss or the ramifications of taking these steroids or cortisone shots, JAK inhibitors, etcetera. For me personally, I wanted to protect my fertility, and so this is why I chose the natural route, and it’s done me so well because it’s not only upgraded my health, but it’s kept me healthy throughout all the years past alopecia.

Alopecia is no longer something I worry about, or I’m concerned about, or that I even fear. I know it’s gone. I know it’s done, and I control my future. And so this is the empowerment that comes with understanding our own situation, our own triggers, our own blind spots, and what we need to do simply stated, you know what we need to do in order to get better. Just like anything else, if you’re looking to get a master’s degree, there are certain requirements that you need to do in order to obtain that. Same with a promotion, same with weight loss, same with anything else. You can quantify and have metrics for this. Understand exactly what boxes we need to check off and accomplish them. Once they’re accomplished, you get the results and it’s really that simple.

So yes, you wanna look at diet, lifestyle, nutrition. And so much more that we go into inside the Hair N’ Heal program. Of course, stress, hormones, thyroid, all these things are very important. Especially I would say for women over, 35, 40, but even before then, you could still have a thyroid issue. Even before then, you could still have hormone fluctuations and issues. And so these are things that as women, you also wanna be, top of mind about thinking about.

And so when it comes to testing, for example, we offer full functional medicine testing worldwide. This is one of the huge benefits of working with Alopecia Angel, working with me directly because you not only get the science, but you also get the testing, and you also get the research and the personalization in order for you to overcome your situation, see the hair growth and live your best life. So we also wanna focus on mitochondria and cellular repair and support that as well, because without that then we’re still spinning our wheels and there’s lots more to talk about. I do have a free training, it’s on the website right at the top hand, right corner. If you wanna dive deeper into how this process of diet and lifestyle personalization looks for you. This is where I have that free training.

But there’s a lot of things that. I wanna talk about in terms of misnomers with autoimmunity, and a lot of times people think that they just have to manage it. And really, I don’t believe that. I believe you can heal and reverse this. I know numerous people who have healed and reverse their Hashimoto’s, their Graves disease, in my case alopecia and in my client’s cases as well. The alopecia, the hair loss, the female pattern baldness, the alopecia universalis totalis areata. All of this you can put to rest and put, to sleep, as I like to say. The same with your eczema, your psoriasis, your dermatitis. It’s absolutely astounding what we can do once we start to learn how to support the body from the inside out. That’s truly what it takes. You need to really, be an investigative and have that expert eye to really look closely to your situation so that we understand our obstacles and our mistakes, so that we don’t have to repeat them over and over again.

When it comes to testing, I love testing because it’s a test and we’re not guessing. We actually have data to show and showcase what exactly is going on. Now, does everyone need testing? No, not necessarily. However, can you heal without testing? Absolutely. I myself healed without testing. However, if you continue to struggle. And let’s say for example, if you’re working with somebody already, a practitioner, or if you are trying to do this on your own, I will say if you’ve given yourself 3 to 6 months and still no massive results, then now it’s time to test. And now it’s time to really look deeper at your situation with potentially a guide. I will say I struggled for 3 and a half, 4 years with my alopecia, and it was because I didn’t have a guide.

It was because there was no personalization. It was because it was a lot of trial and error, and that can be very frustrating. It could be very obsessive. In my case, I was very obsessed with my situation. And thankfully, thank God it led to results. However, understanding more importantly, what was it that led to my results is huge. Because again, if we’re not learning from our lessons, if we’re not learning from mistakes, then we’re just gonna keep repeating them over and over. Does this make sense?

I do suggest if you do have any of these symptoms as I mentioned earlier, if you have already a known autoimmune disease. Then testing and understanding where that stands is necessary. And then of course, doing better. Because with the test then there should be a protocol, there should be a next steps and this is what we do for our clients inside the Hair N’ Heal program. So you definitely wanna look for inflammation tasks and autoimmune clues. You definitely want to, look at your environment, you wanna look at toxins, you wanna look at, immune markers, you wanna look at numerous things.

This can be very convoluted and overwhelming. And so this is why a strategic plan personalized to you is so key because, for example, not all tests are necessary. And then of course, you know what I’ve come across when working with functional medicine doctors is that they just want to throw everything to the wall. Test, test, and then see what happens. And, but that’s not strategic and it’s a lot of money and it’s a lot of time. And potentially, again, because it’s not strategic, we’re just trying to see what sticks when we throw everything to the wall, that’s also not the best way or the best approach in my opinion.

And so this is why I believe having the full consultation, having a full evaluation is key to understanding what exactly you need right now to move the needle. And from there we can take the next step and then the next step and the next step, and this is why I make this very easy and streamlined inside the Hair N’ Heal program, but if you have any of these potential concerns with autoimmune diseases, then I would say start looking into your next steps, grab a free consultation, I’m happy to help.

We have free consultations. We also have strategic consultations, and so you could find all this on the website. If you have any questions, let me know. Autoimmune diseases is something not to put in the background or sweep underneath the rug. This is a silent alarm to do something now. A sense of urgency is absolutely key because more than likely, you don’t realize it, but everything is connected. The hair loss you’re having, the autoimmune disease, maybe the tummy issues, all of this is connected. Your whole body is connected. It’s working like an orchestra.

And so once we start seeing what’s out of tune, what’s out of balance, then we can bring the whole body into balance. I hope this has helped you. I look forward to speaking to you next week. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email us anytime: hello@alopeciaangel.com.

Thank you so much. Take care.