3 nutrition factors that keep you from having beautiful hair
Brian Strickland 00:06
Hey everyone, welcome back to Nutrition Made Simple a video series where we take a look at natural health topics and we break them down into easy to understand and actionable steps that pretty much anyone can take. And on today's episode, I'm joined by Cady Kuhlman. She's the co-owner of Nutrition World if you didn't already know. And for the month of May, we're actually looking at some topics that cover more or less kind of some women's health essentials. And on today's episode, we're actually taking a look at hair health. And obviously, this is a big issue for a lot of women and men included. We all want natural looking really healthy hair. So we wanted to have a conversation with Cady, because I'm definitely not the most qualified person to speak on this topic. So Cady, to start us off, we had talked before and you you had kind of mentioned three factors to look for when it comes to having healthy vibrant hair and taking a natural approach. So can you talk about those?
Cady Kuhlman 01:08
Yeah, definitely. So I love to look at things from a holistic viewpoint, which means looking like at everything, so looking at how the person's diet is, how their nutrient levels are, how the person's choices of, you know, haircare items are. And so this specific topic, I like to look at three things like you mentioned, that is looking at nutrient deficiencies, checking to see how the person's thyroid is functioning, because thyroid has a big factor on our hair. And then lastly, looking at the types of haircare we're using. So, you know, a lot of chemicals are allowed in our haircare in the US. So I like to look at, you know if the options are toxin free or not.
Brian Strickland 01:48
Yeah. Awesome. So first off nutrient deficiencies. I'm unaware of like the specific things that we're supposed to be taking in to promote healthy hair growth. So let's, let's talk about that for a second.
Cady Kuhlman 02:02
Sure. So I like to give the analogy real quick of back in our great grandmother's generation, she could eat one orange to get the amount of daily vitamin C that was needed. In our generation, we now have to eat eight to nine oranges. So that just shows the nutrient deficiencies in our food compared to how they used to be generations ago. So if we're deficient in a nutrient, say, if we're deficient in a mineral like zinc, or a mineral like copper, and they are very important to be balanced with one with one another. Say we're deficient in iodine, all of these minerals play a key complex in how our hair has the ability to grow and be strong as it's growing. And so deficiencies of vitamin D, I have seen cause thinning of hair. So really, what I like to do is I like to make sure the person is on a good multivitamin and a multi mineral complex. And so you know, I love for people to obviously eat clean food. I think that's foundationally important, but I think it's impossible to get everything we need. So that's why we look at a really clean multivitamin and multi mineral to fill in the gaps of something that could be. And one of my other favorite little tips to just add into your daily diet is to not fear pink Himalayan sea salt. So don't fear sodium, don't fear salt. Now that may be a crazy idea for you. But sea salt actually contains 70 plus trace minerals. So where I mentioned the idea of getting minerals back into your your diet, salt actually contains the magnesium and the potassium and the iodine and the manganese and the copper and all these things. And so you know, when you have that balance around that sodium, then you actually create a health food by using the sea salt. And so I really encourage people to sprinkle that salt onto their food. And that's a great way to get those minerals back in.
Brian Strickland 03:50
Alright, so next, you talked about thyroid function in the thyroid is one of those areas where I think there's a lot of confusion surrounding it. It's one of the things that people have heard of, but they may not know a whole lot about. So when it comes to hair care, well, first let's talk about just what the thyroid is and how it functions. And then how that pertains to hair.
Cady Kuhlman 04:14
Yeah, totally. So the thyroid is really complex, as you just mentioned, there are so many components to thyroid. There's T4, T3, TSH, Reverse T3 and there are antibodies. So what that means is is is your body is going to produce a thyroid hormone that then has to be turned into the usable form that then has to be turned into another usable form. And so it's basically this kind of complex situation of, okay, can your body produce enough of the hormone but then does it have enough of those cofactors to turn it into a usable form? So that's why there's so many areas of thyroid that have to be analyzed because there's plenty of people that can produce enough hormone but maybe not make it usable. Or maybe they can make it usable but they haven't produced enough at the beginning. And so I love for someone to work with their their doctor or get bloodwork to see this. This is something I can just guess upon, you know, I want to know, actually facts through their blood work to see all of these numbers. But especially with women, if there is an underactive thyroid, they are going to have hair loss, they're going to have weakening of the hair follicle, they're going to have less signaling of their body to be able to produce new hair, new hair growth and all of that. So thyroid is very vital.
Brian Strickland 05:25
Okay, yeah. And this is slightly off topic, but my wife and I are expecting a new baby in the next few weeks. And I know like after birth, women tend to lose a lot of hair. So is there anything that they can do to not prevent it necessarily, but actually encouraged that hair growth?
Cady Kuhlman 05:41
Yeah, that's a great question. So I think that, you know, collagen would be a good option. It's safe for breastfeeding, and it's safe for the the mom and you know, really what's going on if after birth and while breastfeeding, you're just giving so much of yourself and everything to that baby. And I think collagen would be a great idea. And the last idea I have would be a rebalancing hormone formula by Wishgarden. They make a herbal tincture that has about six ingredients that helps rebalance those hormones. Because as unfortunate as it is natural to lose some hair after giving birth. The hope is, is that we fill in those nutrients and the mama stays on her prenatal to make sure she doesn't become nutrient deficient, like we talked about. So prenatal considering collagen and maybe that Wishgarden tincture.
Brian Strickland 06:27
Okay, awesome. Thanks for that.
Cady Kuhlman 06:28
Yeah.
Brian Strickland 06:29
All right. Lastly, champions and conditioners. Now, this is probably the easiest thing to change. But a lot of people are unaware of like, exactly what is in our household ingredients. And I know this is something you're really passionate about. I think just up front, I switched to a more natural shampoo. And one of the biggest things that I noticed was, it's not going to foam and like setup like your your normal shampoos, but we'll get to that in just a second. So in traditional or conventional shampoos, what are some of the the scary ingredients that we need to look out for?
Cady Kuhlman 07:04
Yeah, so phalates, triclosan, sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens, and honestly, there's a lot of things that can be hidden under different names. So it's really hard for the consumer to know, is this healthy, or is it not. And so I really always encourage people to go to a website, Environmental Working Groups, so that's ewg.org and actually go in and type your shampoo in, see, understand the ingredients within it. And if you don't want to go and dive in that deep, you can simply look at their rating system to see how clean they rate it. And that's a rating of toxicity is what it is. And so, you know, I think we all can resonate with like, okay, chemicals are bad. You know, like, we want to avoid things that that have these toxicities. But why? And so the why behind it is, is that those chemicals literally weaken the follicle, like, legitimately, every time the shampoo or the conditioner is going on the hair, that little follicle that's trying to stay strong and stay in the scalp becomes weaker and weaker as it's stripped of those natural oils. And so we especially if someone's already seen some hair loss, they're probably in a weakened state, we need to do everything we can to really nourish that hair to not get any weaker.
Brian Strickland 08:18
Yeah. Okay, that's awesome. Um, so just as excess information here, is there a particular brand or company that you like in particular?
Cady Kuhlman 08:31
Yes. There is a brand that I adore. It's Carina Organics hands down. As he mentioned before, it does not suds up as much as other shampoos on the drugstore, you know, aisles. But once you kind of get accustomed to it, and you see what it can do for your hair, and you see it restore shine, and vitality and volume and all that. I think you'll you'll fall to love it. And I think you'll be amazed when you turn it around. And you see that you can literally read every single name within the ingredients. Like I'm almost very weirded out by it because I'm like, Whoa, what's actually cleaning your hair in here. But it's nature. It's just it's foods and herbs and it's everything natural cleaning your hair. And so the coconut oil soap is the there's the actual cleanser within it. And I adore it. I my baby uses it. My husband and I use it. And there's different scents so it's not like you're going totally natural with no scents in there. It does have you know, some some good smells.
Brian Strickland 09:27
Is it tear free for babies?
Cady Kuhlman 09:29
So I couldn't call it tear free because the I don't know if you know, but the tear free. What makes something tear free is a numbing agent and so it won't have the numbing agent. So therefore if it did get in the eyes, it probably could burn a little and it occasionally does fall into my son's eyes a little bit. It's a quick wipe and water and he it's over with so yeah, and I do use they make a baby version and they make an unscented so that would be best option for those.
Brian Strickland 09:55
Yeah, that's really cool. All right, well, anything else you want to add?
Cady Kuhlman 09:59
I want add one more thing on the nutrient deficiencies so iron with females, that would be a big thing to check on. If you're still having a menstrual cycle, then oftentimes women could get a little bit anemic or low in iron or low in their stored iron, which is called ferritin. And that's another nutrient in our body that is required to produce healthy hair. So checking, you know, with your doctor on your thyroid, and your iron would be huge.
Brian Strickland 10:27
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you, Cady.
Cady Kuhlman 10:30
Thank you.
Brian Strickland 10:31
Hey, we hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out Be sure to like and subscribe for more content just like this. And we'll see you next time guys. See you.