My Own Miracle

We see and hear every week from clients that are having success eliminating the urge to pull and conquering trich using targeted amino acid therapy. Just last week, I spoke with Jessica (name changed); here is her story in her own words:

“I believe I actually started “pulling” to a very minimal extent as a teenager.  I loved to find the really coarse, kinky hairs to pull out, but then I was able to stop.

Around 2005, I had an increased level of stress at my job, so I guess I soothed myself by pulling, but I still had some control over it, so it wasn’t obvious to anyone but my husband.  Just to note, I’ve always, until 2005, thought of my head of thick reddish brown hair as one of my best features.

As my stressors increased (from 2005) so did my pulling.  I had surfed the net long and hard, dismissing some treatments as too involved or difficult to access due to their being in another area of the country, or seeming like a gimmick.  Then, early this year (2011), I found articles about Dr. Chad and amino acid replacement therapy for trich.  I took a few days to read everything about it, also finding other sites to verify it, had my husband read some of the material, checked out Dr. Chad on the Madison BBB (Better Business Bureau), and then made my first phone appointment.

Once I spoke with Dr. Chad the first time, I really allowed myself to have hope that this therapy could work.   After starting the supplements, I noticed within a week that I was much less restless at night, and I was sleeping better.

After my second phone appointment with Dr. Chad, I was noticing that I would start pulling, but it was more out of habit than anything, and I would question myself, “Why am I pulling, I don’t feel the compulsion to pull”  and most importantly, I could stop.  I found that it helped to keep my hands busy during that time, so I did a lot of needlework.

Now that I am a few more weeks into treatment, I can happily report that I no longer have any compulsion to pull, though occasionally I will pull a hair or two out of habit.

My hair is growing back in very nicely; even my husband checked it and seemed pleased.  If you are looking for a wonderful treatment for your trich, you have very little to lose by trying Dr. Chad’s therapy.  It’s easy, based on sound science, and very effective.  Dr. Chad and the amino acid replacement therapy have been a Godsend to me, my own miracle.”

Jessica’s hope turned into her “own miracle”. She wanted to share her story in the hopes that others may benefit from it. If you or someone you know would like to stop pulling once and for all, please look around this site and do whatever research you need to. Once you are ready, give us a call and we’ll get you started; you can eliminate the urge to pull, and we can help you do it.

Better Sleep and No Compulsion to Pull!

I just got off the phone with another client that has had fantastic results using amino acid therapy to address her trichotillomania. This client’s experience provides a great illustration of the far reaching effects of neurotransmitter imbalances and how quickly a person can find relief once they are rebalanced.

First, some background. This is a woman in her mid-40s, we’ll call her Tracie; she had pulled off and on for many years, but started pulling uncontrollably in 2004 when she was finally diagnosed with trichotillomania. However, she had a number of prior imbalances that most likely led to, or at least exacerbated the neurotransmitter imbalances that led to the compulsive urge to pull.  Tracie was diagnosed with depression in the mid-80s and started medication to address it. About 10 years later, she was diagnosed with major depression and fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and put on more medications. She was also experiencing extreme pain, diagnosed with arthritis and given heavy doses of pain killers. Finally, just last year, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Just today Tracie confided in me that she has experienced gastrointestinal (GI) distress since she was a child. She also mentioned that she was a very restless sleeper and never slept through the night or felt rested.

The reason all this matters is that every one of these conditions and treatments has an adverse effect on neurotransmitter levels. Most people know that depression is thought to be due to imbalances with a neurotransmitter called serotonin. What most people don’t know is that the medications used to treat depression actually make the underlying neurotransmitter imbalances worse over time. This makes it nearly impossible for people taking these medications to get off of them and they may feel worse and worse – unless they begin a program using amino acid therapy to address the underlying neurotransmitter imbalances.

Once more, FMS and pain are also related to neurotransmission. In our clinic, we have seen remarkable remissions of FMS and dramatically increased pain tolerance and reductions in perceived pain with properly balanced amino acid therapy. It has been shown in the literature that chronic pain often induces depression; this is due, at least in part, to the neurotransmitter imbalances that occur due to chronic pain, which then lower the pain tolerance, exacerbating pain, thus creating a vicious cycle pain inducing more pain.

Furthermore, chronic gastrointestinal disorders often cause neurotransmitter imbalance. This is thought to be for two reasons: 1) malabsorption of nutrients and 2) exaggerated loss of serotonin due to inflammation of the GI tract. The GI tract is where about 90-95% of the body’s serotonin is stored. Chronic GI distress can cause the body to ‘dump’ these stores, creating imbalance; GI imbalances can also be caused by neurotransmitter imbalances. In particular, recent research is suggesting that Crohn’s disease may be due to serotonin toxicity due to defects in neurotransmitter transporters in the gut. What’s exciting about this is that clinical experience also shows that reestablishing proper neurotransmitter imbalance using amino acid therapy can cause a complete remission of the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

Lastly, one of the latter stages of neurotransmitter imbalance is sleep disturbance and insomnia. The sleep cycle is regulated by melatonin. This compound is created from serotonin, a process which is regulated by another neurotransmitter called norepinephrine. Again, you can see that imbalances in these neurotransmitters will lead to sleep issues over time.

So what did Tracie experience? Well, she had quite a bit of nausea when she first started on the amino acids. This is very common in people when their serotonin levels are very low. This is because the gut is so depleted of serotonin that it converts the amino acids into neurotransmitters right there in the gut rather than putting them into the circulation where they can reach the brain, which creates the experience of nausea. The solution – go slower. So, we adjusted her dosages to allow her body the time it needed to absorb and utilize the amino acids properly.

The result: as soon as Tracie got up to the original recommended starting dosage, she noticed she was much less restless while sleeping and that she actually slept through the night a few times. Her husband also noticed, as he too was now able to sleep through the nightJ. And what about the trich? Tracie stated that after about 2-3 days on the recommended dosage she had absolutely no compulsion to pull, although she did catch herself pulling a few times out of habit. However, unlike before, she could now catch herself and stop pulling and not think about it (or obsess over it) again.

What can we learn from Tracie’s story – lots of bodily and mental functions are impacted by neurotransmitter balance. However, the solution is quite simple: reestablish proper balance. Tracie did it and has eliminated the compulsion to pull with the ‘side benefit’ of better sleep. She’s so happy that we are now going to work on her other health imbalances to reestablish optimal health and function.

Tracie’s story is not uncommon – reestablishing proper neurotransmitter balance can cause dramatic positive changes in your life, and quick. We have helped 1000s of people regain their health and their lives using amino acid therapy and we’d love the opportunity to help you.

86% Success Rate with Trich

photo credit: FindYourSearch

I was just asked by a client what our success rate was in working with people with trichotillomania. I knew it was high, but I couldn’t give her a definitive answer, so I crunched the numbers and found out. We have an 86% success rate with helping people with trich eliminate the urge to pull. That is an exceptionally high success rate, and the reason for it is that we help identify and address the underlying reason that causes most people with trich to pull – and that is neurotransmitter imbalance.

You can find out more by looking through this site. If you have a question or comment, don’t hesitate to ask.

Dramatic pictures of how M. is beating trichotillomania

This guest post to stop pulling hair out is one of the most powerful testimonials we’ve ever received.  It’s from “M.”, who asked us not use her real name.

When M. first came to us, she didn’t have any hair.

This is her after 1.5 months on the program.

This is her today, after 6 months on amino acid therapy:

Here is M.’s story:

Life with Trich started for me around age 8.

My family was not very understanding and thought I was misbehaving and used to spank me, restrict me, and punish me for pulling my hair. They even went so far as to cut off all my hair and made me wear it really short stating if I didn’t want hair and would not stop pulling than I would not have hair. (see old pictures from school particularly 5th grade)

I was often mistaken for a boy and that was very painful to me.

My childhood was not the happiest because I was an outcast in my own family and really had no support or understanding. I felt alone and different enough without this added burden and thus created a very high anxiety level that I feel I maintain to this day.

I can not sit and enjoy a movie I HAVE to keep moving often times getting up from dinner to switch the clothes over in the washer or to load the dishwasher…really anything I can find to do.

I think if ADHD had been a diagnosable condition when I was in school they would have had me drugged. It might have happened anyway if my parents had understood that I could not stop pulling my hair, as it was I was responsible and something was wrong with me.

Being a survivor (had to or I would have never made it through life) I overcame by hiding my problem with hair styles and being careful where I “picked” so socially I was accepted in school. It helped that I was very athletic and friendly. I moved to Georgia the middle of my Junior year and by the time I started my Senior year was wearing a full wig.

I could not hide it with hair styles anymore. I am not sure if it was the stress of the move or that I had accepted that I was weird and trying to change was not going to help, either way most of my hair was gone.

This was also around the time I found out there was a word for my behavior “Trich”. I brought the article to my mom (dad had left by then) and she took me to a physiatrist with the articles.

I took IQ tests, personality test, etc and became his Guinea pig. He did not know anything about this condition and wanted to learn and I was his source. He put me on Prozac which I took for about 2 weeks. It made me nuts…I could not keep a thought in my head for more than a second and could not shut down my mind and rest at night.

I lied to everyone and told them I had cancer and guess what I eventually did. Then I felt like God was punishing me for lying and gave me cancer because I was using that as my excuse.

When I was undergoing treatments for the cancer I still picked. I just started picking other areas because I no longer had hair on my head. I continued using cancer as an excuse though my adult life saying that my hair never came back because the pores were closed due to the wigs I wore.

I was married for over a year before my husband ever saw me without my hair. He and everyone but one person still believes that my hair never came back after Chemo. I avoid having my family around my friends, kids and ex-husbands family as much as possible because I never want them to slip and spill the beans about why I really have no hair. It is extremely stressful maintaining the lie and lifestyle.

My life has always been and lie and I have always felt alone. I have a hard time making myself vulnerable and keep walls up, so no one can hurt me. I think my control issues, sanity issues stem from the Trich.

Once I know that there was a name for what I did, I researched and learned all I could about the illness. I used that information as my crutch whenever I felt all alone and weird. I really think learning that others have this issue helped me accept myself to a degree. This was my coping mechanism. I tried everything that came out, enrolled in all types of therapy and in secret have been looking for help since age 17.

I have finally found help in Dr. Chad and the Natural Path Health Center. I am doing well under the Amino Acid therapy. I sometimes feel anxious about when the shoe will drop and the treatment will no longer work. What will I tell everyone then, when my new found hair disappears. As time progresses I worry less and less about that. I am a worrier either by nature of as a mental side effect of all of this.

This is all so new to me and I am not sure how it will affect the rest of my life. What issues will lessen, what traits are mine and which ones are situational?

If I seek help for some of my issues will I find they are my issues or can therapy help reduce them now that the “trich” is managed.

All I know for sure is I am having the time of my life riding roller coasters, learning to scuba dive, swimming, riding with the windows down. I am going to try skydiving, a motorcycle ride, and more.  All things I never allowed myself to do before because of my wig. I might even be able to open myself up to have a true relationship where I can be completely honest and not push him away because he was getting to close and might find out my secret.

Trichotillomania relief for Lacey and hope for her son

photo credit: Preston Kemp

Say hi to Lacey.  She’s another example of how balancing neurotransmitters helped a trich sufferer stop pulling hair out.

Lacey has been using Dr. Chad Oler’s approach to rebalancing neurotransmitters.  She was referred to us by NeuroAssist.com.  “I research treatment for Trichotillomania every so often to see if there have been any breakthroughs in treatment,” she said.  “Last time I was surfing the internet, I found NeuroAssist’s website and was referred to Dr. Oler because he does phone appointments.  There were no providers in my state.”

She feared trichotillomania would be passed on to to her son

After suffering from trich for 28 years, Lacey was desperate for a change – and not just because she wanted the pulling to stop for herself.  She also was thinking about the health of her son.

“I had constant and uncontrollable urges to pull my hair,” she said.  “At times of stress or fatigue, the urges would get worse but they were always there.  I’ve pulled for 28 years with no end in sight.

“I’d read that it could be passed along to kids and I was determined not to enter my 40s with this, and also not to pass along the ‘behavior’ to my 4-year old son.  That would have been my worst nightmare!  But, I could not stop no matter how hard I tried to wish or pray it away.”

Different approaches to help stop hair pulling – none worked

Lacey had tried many different approaches in the past.  “Conventional meds did not work,” she said.  “I also tried hypnosis and that did not work either.”  After a brief phone consultation with Dr. Chad, she decided his approach sounded right.

She’s been using Dr. Chad’s approach since June 22^nd, and the results have been amazing.  “The urge to pull is gone.  I am not trying to undo a 28-year habit, but I can stop myself now if my hand wanders to my head.  I really feel I am cured and I feel optimistic that I can control trich through supplements and diet.”

Lacey now has renewed peace of mind.  “The best part is that I know I do not have a mental illness now – a weight has been lifted,” she said.  “And I know that my son will not inherit trich, because if he has a neurotransmitter deficiency, we can address it right away.  This is a miracle!”

How we helped C.P. stop pulling hair out

photo credit: John Mee

We like to publish our success stories, not only to prove the efficacy of our approach, but also to offer hope to trich sufferers.

The following comes from C.P.  We helped C.P. overcome her inability to stop pulling hair out, as we do with all our trichotillomania cases, by restoring balance to her neurotransmitter levels, thus reducing the urge to pull.

Unable to stop pulling hair out since she was in 1^st grade

C.P. writes:

I’ve been on a program with the Natural Path Health Center for almost a year. After following Dr. Oler’s recommendations, I have almost no urges to pull and my hair has almost all grown back; the only urges I have are when stress gets really high, but I can deal with those. more »

She found a way to stop pulling hair out

photo credit: Handolio

The “stop pulling hair out” testimonials we receive are encouraging for anyone who has suffered through trichotillomania.  This particularly case was extremely uplifting, particularly because of the severity of the client’s affliction, and her inability to stop pulling hair out. more »