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Hair loss with celiac disease is sometimes reported. While I’ve not struggled with hair loss in the 10+ years I’ve had celiac disease, as I’ve healed, my hair has gotten thicker and healthier. And with many clients complaining of hair loss when we first start working together, it’s clear to me it’s not a rare symptom to struggle with.
With our hair often being a huge part of our body image and self-expression, it’s understandable why hair loss is upsetting. In this post, we’ll be talking about why people with celiac disease might lose some of their hair and what they might be able to do about it.
I do want to note that this post will discuss hair loss and it’s risk specific to celiac, however genetics often play a role in this. This post and any other resource I create is never meant to diagnose or treat any conditions. This is for educational purposes only. If you have any questions, always discuss them with your healthcare team.
Before we get into why hair loss can happen with celiac disease, we need to understand what celiac is.
Celiac is a serious autoimmune disease that occurs in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine. When people with celiac disease eat gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and contaminated foods like oats), their body mounts an immune response that attacks the small intestine.
These attacks lead to damage to the villi, small fingerlike projections that line the small intestine, that promote nutrient absorption. When the villi get damaged, nutrients cannot be absorbed properly into the body.
This inflammatory response to gluten and related nutrient deficiencies can cause a wide variety of symptoms in people with celiac. From bloating, headaches, constipation, joint pain, bone health complications, infertility, weight gain, weight loss, and more.
This can start at any age, and occur in any body, as long as someone is eating gluten and has the celiac genes. If left untreated, celiac disease can lead to additional serious health problems.
Additionally, before we talk about hair loss and celiac disease, it’s important to understand what I mean by hair loss. Hair loss is when hair stops growing.
This is different from hair shedding, which is where you’re losing hair. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, it’s normal to lose 50-100 hairs a day but if you exceed that, you might have excessive shedding.
Learn more about the difference between hair loss and hair shedding at this website. For the purpose of this post, I’ll be talking about factors with celiac disease that contribute to overall hair health – including loss and shedding.
Now that we know what celiac disease is, how can it affect your hair? In summary, celiac puts you at increased risk for other autoimmune diseases that can impact your hair growth and it can cause nutrient deficiencies that impact your hair health.
First, celiac is an autoimmune condition. An autoimmune condition is where the body attacks its own cells. Celiac can sometimes come with other autoimmune conditions such as alopecia areata. This is when the body attacks the hair follicles.
In a 1995 paper, they found that alopecia areata may be the only clinical manifestation of some otherwise asymptomatic celiac patients. Meaning, gluten could quite literally cause hair loss in certain populations. The prevalence of this in the celiac population seems to remain unknown as of writing this.
Additionally, celiac can be linked to hypothyroidism (which if severe enough, has been linked to hair loss as well). Beyondceliac.org cites people with celiac to be at a 4x greater chance of thyroid disease like Hashimoto’s.
We’ll talk more about other autoimmune diseases and their impact on hair health later, because that’s not the only potential cause of hair loss with celiac. Another cause includes the inability to absorb and access nutrients essential for hair health.
This can happen because celiac disease can also often cause pancreatic insufficiency in which the pancreas is not producing enough digestive enzymes and thus, food can’t properly be digested.
Also in celiac, the villi and brush border of the villi in the small intestine get damaged which further impacts the absorption of needed nutrients.
Meaning essential nutrients like iron, folate, calcium, and vitamin D needed for overall health (including hair health) can be low in people with celiac. Potentially resulting in side effects like hair loss and shedding.
All of that to say, yes, celiac can cause thinning hair. The same things that affect hair growth can make the hair thinner from shedding or hair loss. These things include nutritional deficiencies, hypothyroidism, alopecia areata, and some other autoimmune diseases.
If you’re struggling with thin hair with celiac disease, be sure to consult your healthcare team to make sure nothing else is playing a role in it.
Now the big question is, can you reverse hair loss and shedding with celiac disease? The answer depends on a lot of factors.
If celiac-related nutrient deficiencies are causing hair loss, it can certainly be reversed. However, you’ll have to make sure you’re assessing and monitoring healing and nutrient status to make sure this happens.
If hair loss is caused by alopecia areata then it can be reversible. Especially if the alopecia areata was caused by a celiac reaction. However, this hair loss can also occasionally be permanent.
Hair loss from a thyroid condition related to celiac usually resolves once the thyroid condition is identified and treated.
Basically, if the hair loss is caused by celiac and you heal your small intestine, stop eating gluten, and address nutrient gaps and deficiencies, your hair should grow back.
But sometimes, your hair loss might not be related to celiac and in that case, it may or may not grow back depending on the cause. I’m holding space for the people who are struggling to regrow their hair or are facing permanent hair loss, as these can be very real realities for some and our hair can play an big role in body image.
If you’re unsure what’s causing your hair loss, connect with a dermatologist who might be able to help.
We briefly discussed the causes of hair loss with celiac above, some of which included autoimmune conditions people with celiac may be at higher risk for.
That said, while celiac can cause hair loss due to the autoimmune reaction and associated nutrient deficiencies, it’s important to understand that once celiac is managed if you’re still experiencing hair loss, it’s likely time to consider other causes with the help of a dermatologist or other specialist.
Other autoimmune conditions which may or may not be linked to celiac that are linked to hair loss include Hashimoto’s, alopecia areata, lupus, grave’s disease, psoriasis, and chron’s disease.
I share these other autoimmune diseases linked to hair loss not to tell you that you have one, but to help inform you when discussing your concerns around hair loss with your doctor. Especially if you have confirmed healing with celiac and your nutrient deficiencies have been corrected.
Autoimmune diseases aside, let’s talk about nutrient deficiencies with celiac that may contribute to hair loss. This can also be complicated by a gluten-free diet which can also easily miss out on essential nutrients vital for overall health, including your hair.
A review published in the Dermatology and Therapy journal on the role of vitamins and minerals in hair loss discussed the importance of different nutrients for health. While there’s a chance celiac can cause low nutrient status in most vitamins and minerals, I’ll be filtering out the most common deficiencies.
Folate is discussed in this paper to be one of the B vitamins that could play a role in hair health. It’s a coenzyme in amino acid metabolism and a deficiency can result in changes in you hair, skin, and nails.
Vitamin D is linked to hair health. It supports keratinocyte growth, which are the cells that make keratin which is vital for hair and nail health. If you’re not getting enough vitamin D then it may impair the health of these cells, thus, impacting your hair and nails.
Iron helps make hemoglobin in the blood, which delivers nutrients and oxygen throughout the body, including to hair follicles. If you’re low in iron, and thus not making enough hemoglobin, then places like your hair follicles may not be getting enough nutrients, thus causing a deficiency.
Zinc has been cited to support hair follicle health and while results of studies are mixed, if you’re low in zinc, it could impact your hair follicle health and thus, cause hair loss.
I identified some key nutrients that play an important role in hair health, but just because a nutrient wasn’t listed doesn’t mean a deficiency won’t have any implications on your hair health. Ultimately, the only way to know if nutrient deficiencies are playing a role is to get tested for them, address any found deficiencies, and see how your hair responds.
And if you need help with balancing a gluten-free diet to make sure your body has the nutrients it needs to support health, I teach you how to do that in the Celiac Nutrition Course. It’s a self-paced dietitian-led course that teaches you a flexible and simple framework to balance a gluten-free diet for healing without cutting more foods out. Learn more here.
Luckily, testing for nutrient deficiencies that may cause hair loss with celiac disease is usually simple. Most nutrient status testing involves a simple blood test to assess your nutrient status. That said, some nutrients require more involvement or specific panels.
If you’re unsure about your nutrient status or testing, be sure to consult your doctor and dietitian for clarification and assistance. I also do cover this in the Celiac Nutrition Course if you want to learn more.
There are many things you can do to help with hair loss from celiac disease. The two most important things are addressing the underlying autoimmune reactions (if it’s celiac, then avoid gluten) and addressing nutrient gaps and deficiencies.
To assess for nutrient gaps and deficiencies, a diet evaluation and nutrient panel will help with this. A diet evaluation will identify any nutrients that may be missing from your eating habits. A nutrient panel can identify any nutrients you may be low in that could contribute to hair loss.
A registered dietitian can help assess for nutrient gaps and deficiencies in both your diet and lab work. And your doctor may run nutrient panels and help you evaluate the safety of the supplements you’re considering. They both can help you monitor if you are healing your gut or what needs to be done to help that occur.
If you want to take a DIY route with nutrition, I’ve got a self-paced dietitian-led course that can help you evaluate your diet for nutrient gaps and give you more details on nutrient deficiency monitoring in my Celiac Nutrition Course. Learn more about the course here.
Additionally, talking to your doctor about the possibility of other autoimmune diseases at play is also important. They can monitor and run some tests to determine if anything else is causing hair loss and they can refer you to a dermatologist who can do an even more thorough investigation.
All of that to say, if you’re struggling with hair shedding or hair loss, I’m holding space for you. And I hope you find answers soon.