L-Arginine & L-Lysine supplements, getting bad shedding. Hurting instead of helping?

[LukeJ]

L-Arginine & L-Lysine supplements, getting bad shedding. Causing hair loss?

I have been slowly loosing my hair over the past few years and have been on Rogaine and Nizoral for over a year. I started L-Arginine 500mg 2x a day over a month ago and my hair has been shedding like crazy since. I added in L-Lysine last week and it just seems to add to the problem. These supplements are suppose to increase human growth hormone levels and help with hair. The million dollar question is, is this good shedding for regrowth or hair-loss. Anyone else get bad shedding with these supplements?

I have searched in the forum but didn't find anyone talking about shedding with it.

 

[LukeJ]

After being off L-Arginine for about two weeks and my shedding has dramatically reduced in the past few days, the hair strainer I use to keep track of my hair loss in the shower only has a few hairs in it per shower compared to clumps before. So it is pretty clear that L-arginine is causes hair loss for me.

 

[massa]

How exactly can an amino acid cause your hair to fall out ? I don't get it. If anything it should be good for your hair .

 

[LukeJ]

How exactly can an amino acid cause your hair to fall out ? I don't get it. If anything it should be good for your hair .

I think it comes down to Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) which L-Arginine boost blood serum levels of IGF-1. Higher IGF-1 serum levels have been linked with balding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgenic_alopecia#Hormonal_etiology
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10827403
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10025745

L-Arginine also increases Human Growth Hormone (HGH) but I have only found data that says HGH helps with hair growth.

There are also a few studies showing IGF-1 helps hair growth but from my understanding that is when it is measured in the skin and hair follicles, not free blood levels and with them using topical creams to apply IGF-1 directly to the hair follicles so that may be the distinguishing factor and when out of balance messed up the system. In one of the studies listed above they found it was the ratio of IGF-1 to IGFBP-3 that mattered suggesting if IGF-1 is increased without IGFBP-3 it can cause balding. Either way the difference for me was dramatic, two weeks after stopping L-arginine my hair stopped falling out in mass.