I'm positive the house is causing hair loss in myself and my 2 daughters. We moved to air force base housing in June 2005. The hair loss started in Nov 2006. My baby was born in Aug 2006 so I was told it was stress, weight loss or having a baby that caused the hair loss. It being my 5th baby, I knew it wasn't the cause. I always grew new hair, never had hair falling out all over the place. My 2 daughters started losing their hair. Because of numerous health problems in my family and the duplex family, we all moved to a hotel on base in May 2007. The duplex baby had stopped breathing the night before and our baby had breathing problems too so the base allowed us to move out until another\&quot;like\&quot; house was available. Immediately all health symptoms stopped. For the first time in 10 months, the baby didn't have to take daily steroid breathing treatments. All 3 females hair grew back even though it was stressful living in a small hotel with 6 kids and 2 adults and at one time we had 9 kids staying there. When another house was available, the headaches and concentration problems and hair loss started for me, the baby had a runny nose only in the house, and my daughters hair fell out again. A radon detector showed our house h\between 14.8 and 18.2. We moved back to the hotel for a month while they put in a radon reduction system. I'm told that removed VOC's also so I wasn't scared to move back. we've been back since Thanksgiving and the hair is falling out in the 3 females. For me, it's the long hair, the newest hair growth from Oct( less than an inch long) and the new growth from the summer at the hotel ( about 2-3 inches now). My daughter loses a brushfull a day. I'm told this house was tested for mold before we moved in. We've all had blood and urine tests. They tested my hair but I don't know what for and I know it's not for every possible thing they could test for because that's too expensive. They tested our water. 4 out of 8 had allergy testing. The baby is allergic to common mold. I'm allergic to grass in the summer. What else can it be? What tests can I buy or what medical test can they do. It's obvious it's the house and not the air force base because the hotel on base didn't make us sick and our hair grew back. This house was built in the 1950's and has a basement and 2 stories. IT's all wood floors. Since it's not just me losing hair, I know I'm not crazy like I've heard people here think I am. My kids are losing their hair. Other females on base have hair loss and live in old houses like us. I need to know if I will find the answer quicker medically or by concentrating on what's in the house. I'm at aa loss and have nowhere to go for help.<br /><br />Post edited by: Maff, at: 2007/12/31 21:12

Hello.

I saw your post and you seem at wits end. I do not confess to know everything but have seen a few odd things in my time. By any chance, do you live in an older house or one that is near a manufacturing facility, or was the property once farmland or something similar. The reason why I am asking I was wondering in addition to all the tests you have done on it have you had it tested for lead or has any of your family had a test for lead and other toxic metals?

familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/he...kids-family/617.html

www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip10016.htm

If you have questions, feel free to email me back.

Kim Kramer
Health Educator/Researcher
Health Education Information and Resource Services
(HEIRS)
www.heirs-online.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Yes, we've been tested for lead, mercury and arsenic by the base and I was tested for thallium by a doctor in town. Since my last post, I've noticed other changes. When I wiped water off my face, there were eyebrow hairs on my fingers. So now I'm losing eyebrow hairs if I just touch the eyebrows with wet fingers. The leg hairs are not growing in with the usual amount. First I thought I just skipped spots because the hairs are spaced so far apart. I stopped shaving for almost a month and it's crazy how little hair was coming out. You can see where the hairs used to come out but it's so few now, I can count them. I finally shaved the right leg and most of the left but left a section for this new doctor to see. Somehow a medical toxicologist heard about me and got someone to call me for an appt with him soon. He's retired army and is interested in us. Another new thing is I have to keep buying new brushes because something that looks like dust keeps getting stuck in it daily. It's not happening to my daughter's. It's not danderuff. My scalp is not flaky or red. When I got some off the bristles and squished it, it felt powdery and is a blueish color. It's light and fluffy looking in the brush. It really looks like dust but it's not. I tried keeping the brush in a cabinet and after brushing, the stuff is still there. I had to buy a new brush with bristles closer together for my decrease in hair and after brushing one day, the stuff was there. Sometimes after brushing, my head burns but I think that's because I can feel the hair being pulled out sometimes when brushing. I've put off trying for another child in case it's something that could harm a fetus but I can't wait much longer because of my age. If this toxicologist doesn't think anything is wrong and look at all our evidence, then I guess we won't wait anymore. I'm so tired of searching for answers and nobody believing us.

Hi Lisa,

You (and everyone else) needs to hear:

It's not in your head.

I'm not a doctor, but I'll scan the books for you.

The first impression that I got was for you to check Thyroid function. According to Lita Lee the thyroid is sensitive to toxins. I have seen women with low thyroid have hair come out in handfuls. If there is some chemical problem in the house (never forget mycotoxins are chemicals) and if they uniquely affect the thyroid then this might be a left-field explanation. A negative mold test doesn't mean that there is no mold. It just means that the molds THAT THEY TESTED FOR did not show up on the plates. I can't remember if it was in Sherry Roger's book or if it was offered at the Environmental Health Clinic in Dalls, TX where they had a special plate for collecting mold that had non-standard growth media and it had to be left in the collection area for a week or more.

Another reason that I flashed on Thyroid is when you mentioned your eyebrows. Eyebrows that fall out from the outside of your face first is another sign of low Thyroid.

What is shocking is how quickly this happens, especially after you were in remission.

Now, regarding Thyroid testing NEVER let ANY doctor just do a TSH test alone. IT IS USELESS. You need a TSH, T-3, T-4, and ESPECIALLY Anti-Thyroid Antibody test!!!!!!!

I don't believe there is ever a need for them to scare you into taking ANY dyes/drugs/injections of radioactive material to diagnose a thyroid condition. As far as I'm concerned that is simply a ploy to hurt the thyroid so that they can justify removing it. You will always be told the HALF LIFE of a radioactive medicine in weeks or days. It always sounds short but even the shortest duration of any of the drugs will still leave a few of the toxic molecules in your system for up to 50 years.

Another thing to consider is if the house has a basement. Some Bases used to do fire suppression drills where jet fuel was burnt and the chemicals from that process migrated in the groundwater to the basements.

Please keep us updated.

WOW! I have been searching all over the Internet and trying various ways on how to search for the exact same thing you listed here. Let me tell you why I searched and why I am responding. We recently lived in a town in the midwest. We lived in two different homes. Very close together. Oddly the animals started losing their fur. My hair loss became more and more noticeable. However I was diagnosed with a syndrome called PCOS Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome and one of the symptoms is hair loss. The kids started developing weird rashes. Husband was already in the process of losing hair but it came out more so in the two years in these two house. When we did go to the drs. they chalked up as allergies, stress and in my case to my syndrome. What was shocking is that the animals were losing their hair at fast rates. The vet told us it could be just allergens to the air or in the grass where we live. He said since dogs and even we humans are all from the west coast we are just not used to the environments out there. We tried to accept that be nothing else made sense but shouldn't we have gotten immune to the environments after staying there for 2 and half yrs? Well we got a puppy for my sons birthday born there in the midwest and raised and the same thing started to happen to him. All of our animals (we had 10 total) and us were itching, losing hair, some had sores and the kids developed rashes.

One morning i woke and my son was taking a bath and i smelled a horrible overwhelming smell of chlorine. I wander was it something in the water that the was caused by the plants treatment? It would explain why the animals lost hair more so then us because they consumed more of the water than us. We usually bought bottled water and only cooked in the tap. Was it something in the house? Ironically like you it used to be a military housing home back in the 1940's. The other house was next to the project area and could have very well been built for the military. Was it something in the walls? Well we recently moved from the home and now live on the west coast. With in days of arriving to the west coast everyone started clearing up. The animals grew all their fur back. Kids rashes disappeared. As for me well I still have my syndrome so I don't get a break but I am blessed my family is now away from it. It still erks me I may never know what it was. I could speculate it was this and that like was it radon gases but that shows no symptoms, was it arsenic in the pipes would have showed other signs if it was arsenic, to much chlorine in the water why wasn't there more people complaining besides us? I mean my mind runs in questions yet hold no answers. It is just good to know I am not the only one out there who thought her and her family were losing their minds.

Hi Dawnna,

I am always surprised on how quickly the body can heal when it is not poisoned.

Do you think you had the PCOS before you lived in those houses?

Everyone should keep in mind that many chemicals have no odor at all. Insecticides like Dursban and others that have been banned 50 years ago have a 30 or more year half life. Again, this means that half of the chemical is still there in 30 years at its active toxic level. In a California town they started getting DDT in the groundwater, but DDT was banned 50 years earlier. It took that long to get from the surface to the water table AND IT DID NOT DEGRADE IN ALL THAT TIME THROUGH ALL OF THAT GROUND!

It never ceases to amaze me that doctors can make pronouncements like Allergy with no clinical evidence for a claim. If you ever come up with clues please post.