360: Restore Your Thinning Hair the Traditional Chinese Medicine Way
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Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast, where East meets West in the world of medicine. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and here we explore how modern Western science and traditional Eastern wisdom come together to unlock the body's full healing potential. Each week, we'll dive into powerful tools, techniques, and approaches from both sides of the world to help you optimize your health and live with vitality. Let's bridge the gap between ancient practices and cutting-edge medicine. Let's get started.

Hello friends, welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Motley, and today we are going to have part two of hair loss. The first time we talked about the spleen and how infections such as mono or strep could lead to conditions such as hair loss, but this episode we want to talk about how the kidneys, the urinary system, can be directly related to hair conditions such as thinning,

excessive drying, and also excessive graying, or if your hair turns gray or white quickly. These are all signs and symptoms that the kidneys can be involved because the kidney essence, the strength of the kidneys in Chinese medicine is directly related to the strength of the blood. The stronger the kidneys means stronger the blood quality.

Now, the blood quality is related to the extension of the hair. What that means is, Chinese medicine, the hair is an extension of the blood. So, the stronger the hair, the stronger the blood, and vice versa. So, if you have blood that has sufficient amounts of minerals and vitamins and proteins, then in

the Chinese philosophy, your hair will show that because you have enough nutrients in the blood to allow for proper protein growth of the hair. So when we talk about proper hair growth and thickness, it is always related to how well the kidneys function. So I want you guys to look into your history, first of all, and see if you've ever had issues with a UTI or

kidney infections, bladder infections, kidney stones, any type of urinary tract infection or problem. If you've had that in the past and you see yourself having hair loss, hair thinning, graying, I want you to not blame one or the other, but I do want you to start to make the correlation. Now,

Let's say that you have had hair loss or graying and you think, I've never had a kidney issue. I've never had a kidney problem or nothing on paper or in a lab. Now, this is not to cause doubt or cause fear, but I want you to look at some other symptoms. So here are some top signals of kidney or urinary tract infections that could show you that there are some issues within the urinary system.

Now, does your teeth have any type of graying or yellowing color? Now, some people say I drink too much coffee or tea, and I understand that. But if you ever feel that your teeth have gotten a little bit gray or a little bit yellow and that they become translucent, where you can almost feel like you can see through them, many people have that. That's a sign of kidney weakness because of mineralization. Do you have chronic headaches between the eyes?

Bladder infection. Do you have bags underneath the eyes, very dark bags or circles under the eyes? Have you ever had chronically tight hips, hip flexors? Do you have sore knees where they always feel tight on the inside especially? Swollen or injured ankles on the outside of the ankles, do you feel like they're always sore? Plantar fasciitis underneath the foot. Any type of heel spurs or heel problems, any type of

ashy heels, cracked heels, any type of Achilles tendonitis, any chronic pain in the arch of your foot. If you have seen this, plus you've had unexplained flank pain in the back, like the pain on the flanks underneath the rib cage on the back. If you've had these, these are some of your top signals.

that there is probably hidden or chronic infections within the kidneys, the bladder, or the tubes within your urinary system, and it's never been identified. Why? Because most modern medicine tests only check for E. coli and a few bacteria. They do not go extensively and try to get images of the bladder and kidney. They just use a regular urinalysis.

But what that means is you'd have to get extensive imaging and go to a urologist or somebody that does extensive testing to find out there's hidden infections by doing different types of imaging or testing. But on the general, most tests will not show those infections. So you have to look into these types of symptoms that I just mentioned to see if you've ever had a kidney issues. Now, let's say you went, Doc, I do have those. I've had many of those.

But I didn't get it on the blood test or urinosis. Okay, so you can make the association now that there are some injury to your kidneys or your bladder. Here are some other physical manifestations. Do you have the urgency to urinate? When you have to pee, you have to go right now. Have you had some incontinence, whether in the day or night? Any bedwetting?

Do you have to pee often? And it doesn't matter if you've drank a less amount of water or a less amount of fluids. You just have to continuously go. If that's the case, there is a chronic infection your body is trying to flush out. Those are the urgency tests. Now, we gave you signs and symptoms and signals. So if you can see that there is probably an infection, I want you to then look into your family history. Did your mom or your dad...

ever have kidney issues? Do they have to pee a lot? Do they have any kidney stones, bladder stones? If they did have issues that could lead to heavier problems such as prostate issues and also ovarian issues like cysts and fibroids. I'm not saying it caused it, but infections in those areas can lead to connected problems within the urinary system and the reproductive. Look into your family history. If that's the case,

you can start to correlate saying, okay, there was kidney problems or urinary system problems in my family. But here's one of the biggest kickers I want you guys to look into. Have you ever had the notion that your family was endowed with fear? As in, do you see in your family history that your mom or your dad or both lived in a fearful situation? Did your grandparents?

Were there times in your history that you knew that fear was a big operator in your family line? Chronic anxiety, always afraid something is going to happen that's bad or the cup is half empty. There's always a fear that something is coming around the corner. Or if something positive happens, you always have to look for basically the sad part of it or find that there's something negative about it. Now, it may not be you, but if you see that in your family line,

And let's say you look at your mom, your dad, your grandparents, and they had always sore knees, tight hips, always a low back pain right underneath their ribs. Do you remember them ever saying that? Have you ever noticed on yourself or anybody that the knock knee, like almost where they have the knees almost touching each other, the opposite of bow legged? That's a big indication of kidney problems. If you see those things in your family history, tie them together.

Did your mother, your father's line, did they ever have thinning hair or graying hair? They could have had kidney or urinary tract system problems. Now, please don't think this to be negative. I just want you guys, if you're out there driving or listening along, the reason is because I have a lot of patients that come in and they say, doc, my hair is going gray. Or when I go into the shower, my hair is thinning out and it's loosening.

and it's thinning and loosening to the point where it's coming out in globs and it's clogging up my drain and I'm afraid I'm going to lose all my hair. Or I hear this one a lot. It used to be really thick and really full and now it's just thin. It hardly grows. Your hair, remember, is an extension of your blood. The older we get, the more fear, the more worry we go through, which stresses our adrenals.

Our adrenals sit on top of our kidneys. The more we go into adrenal overload and cortisol overload, we injure the adrenals and the kidneys because they sit right like basically sit on top of each other. And when that happens, it reduces the function of the kidney.

The kidneys cannot absorb minerals properly. It cannot filter your blood properly. It cannot filter your fluids to get rid of all the infections. But one of the biggest things is your sodium, your potassium, your magnesium, your mineral balance. What does your hair, skin, and nails need? Minerals.

So you can see that chronic stress, stress of life injures the kidneys, the battery packs of your life because of adrenal overload. And this affects your mineral balance. There's a lot of things technically in Western medicine, and I want you guys to see the full effect of it. So

If you know you've had some kidney issues, if you live in fear, you're always anxious and you always feel like you're always afraid of something. Look at that emotional aspect of it, but just see how the chemical aspect of it is like it's always draining your kidneys and your adrenals. Your minerals can't get to your tissue and you'll start to see what? Excessive graying hair. The roots don't stay strong. Furthermore, get this. Your kidneys produce a hormone known as erythropoietin.

Erythropoietin is a hormone that is signaled to the bone marrow, sends a signal to the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. So your kidneys, if they're working properly, will tell your bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.

This will give you stronger bones on the outside shell of the bone, but it'll give you red blood cells to then be put into your bloodstream where it will carry more nutrients, more oxygen, more iron, more proteins, more things and nutrients for your whole body. Does that make sense? Now let's say your kidneys are weak and fatigued. So the kidneys are weak. It can't produce the erythropoietin hormone to tell your bone marrow to produce the red blood cells.

This will reduce your red blood cells. This makes the bone marrow throughout your whole body weak and not being able to carry nutrients. Your bone marrow actually is helping your bones get stronger, but it's feeding what? It's feeding your skin, your dermis layer. It's feeding that nutrients right outside the bones. So if the kidneys are not producing the erythropoietin,

Two of the main areas of the body that in Chinese medicine that's very important is your spinal column and your skull. I don't want to get too technical, but when the kidneys are your battery packs in Chinese medicine, if they're working properly, one of the main areas that you want that bone marrow to be strong is in your spinal vertebral column and in your skull. Why? Because that's where your brain is and that's where your spinal cord's at. Correct? One of the main areas that is showing is thinning hair in Chinese medicine because the skull is

If it has weak bone marrow from weak kidneys, the hair follicles, the area up here on the vertex and the crown is one of the main areas. The bone marrow is weaker in the skull and it will make the hair follicle or the roots become loose. So then the hair starts to fall out. The chi...

First of all, is going to be blocked around the kidneys and around the bladder affecting that erythropoietins. So your skull is going to have a weaker bone marrow. And so you're not going to be able to hold the hair roots very well. That's an explanation within Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

So if you can clean up the kidneys and heal the kidneys, you actually can balance the erythropoietin hormone, and that will send proper strong signals to your bone marrow to create more red blood cells. Then you'll have stronger bones, bone marrow. You'll have stronger dermal layers of skin and hopefully keep the hair basically planted in the head. Now, you know the reason I know this works well because I see it with my patients, but I'll tell you my personal experience is

was when I was younger and I was a child. I had an accident where I ruptured a ureter, which is one of the tubes that go from the kidney down into the bladder. I fell into this storm cell window and it hit me in such a way that it popped open that tube around my kidney. I had internal bleeding, but I had chronic UTIs and bladder infections that I did not understand I had, but I now look back and go, I always had discolored urine. I always had pain and itching around my bladder. I always had

Cavities, heavy cavities all through my teeth when I was a kid. And I didn't even know that I had the warm urine or the hot urine that I had was an infection trying to get out. So all that happened. But as I got older, I'd have these bouts where I would have my hair get loose in the shower because I have longer hair.

When I would start to clean out my bladder and my kidneys of old yeast and infections, my hair would stop falling out. It'd be super strong. I could wash it all day. Nothing would fall out. This is personal experience, and I've seen it with my patients. We work on patients' kidney infections, their cracks in their heels, the dry, ashy heels, the Achilles tendonitis starts to fade away. And these patients say, my low back feels better. And they'll go, you know what, doc? My hair stopped falling out.

So there is a Western medicine biochemical change to the kidneys that directly affect your hair. So when we talk about the vertex or the crown of the head, remember the bladder meridian, guys, in Chinese medicine also runs from the inside between the eyes, right at the bridge of the nose, straight back over the skull and goes all the way down through the spine, down the spine, down through the glutes, the hamstrings, down through the calves and into the ankles.

But they say in Chinese medicine, the first bladder points right in the middle, like right in between the eyes and it goes up the forehead. The main area you're going to see the problem is, is at the crown of the head. You're going to see some loosening of the hair. So the main goal is to see that if you nourish the kidneys, you'll help the body's ability to absorb proper minerals and vitamins and retain them in the blood, which gives you better blood quality, which then means you have more blood going into the whole body and

but it's going to feed the hair and the hair can grow properly and stay strong and full of color. Looking for a natural way to boost your energy and hydration? Bee Minerals offers plant-based, all-natural minerals that support your body from the inside out with essential nutrients that work right at the cellular level.

It's hydration, gentle detox, and energy support, all without stimulants. Give your health the upgrade it deserves. Head to BeMinerals.com slash Dr. Motley. Use code DRMOTLEY, all one word in capital letters, for 20% off your first order. That's why it's important to know those signs and symptoms I talked to you about, about kidney infections. So the kidney infections...

If you look back in your family history, your own history, and you say, yes, I've had these issues, you could say, doc, what does that mean? If I find it, how am I going to find out anything about the kidneys? One of the things I check in is with a lab called MicrogenDx. Now, MicrogenDx, M-I-C-R-O-G-E-N-D-X.

MicrogenDx is a lab out of Texas and they check for 50,000 different types of bacteria. Not 5, not 10, 50,000. Because yes, there's that many types of bacteria and fungus and yeast alone. If you go to a normal clinic, they're going to check for just E. coli, staph. They may check for certain types of strep, which I would rarely suspect they would.

But they're only going to check for a few bacteria. And if you're clear on that and your urine looks a little bit clear, maybe a little cloudy, they say that's not a problem. Remember, your kidneys are huge sponges. They work hard like your liver all day to absorb toxins and try to remove them. They work excessively hard to clean out your fluids and your blood. Infections will find their way in the small tubes of the kidneys and lodge in there. You could have staph, strep,

E. coli, Lyme disease, Lyme infections, parasites, yeast galore, and fungus. All these can be trapped in the kidneys. I use the UROKEY, write that down guys, U-R-O-K-E-Y by MicrogenDx. And I use theirs with my patients because I've had personal experience with patients where they were told that they didn't have an infection in their kidneys at all. When they had all the signs and symptoms, hair was getting loose,

The heels and the calves were super tight and sore. They had issues with their teeth where it was starting to turn color. And when we did more extensive testing, we found that there were six different types of strep in this person's urine. Six. That explained why this patient had crazy levels of white blood cells and lymphocytes. They couldn't give an explanation. They did not know why there was strep.

And in balance with her white blood cells, they couldn't tell her. They said, everything looks great. No UTI. She kept saying, I know there's UTI because whenever I urinate, there's burning, there's something feeling off. They would say, no, there's nothing there. But it took a really good lab to find out those infections. Then proper antibiotics, which she had to use, and proper herbs, which I suggested to her, cleaned out the infection. Her hair stopped falling out and her teeth returned back to white.

I'm not saying that to pat myself on the back. I just want you out there guys to make it simple. Don't get it too complicated. If you see the signs and symptoms of the kidney infection and you have loosening hair and you're like, what's going on with my hair? Get a Euro key or find a good lab out there that will check for your, your analysis for extensive amounts of bacteria or yeast and fungus. I like micro Gen D X. I like the Euro key. I do like it. Now,

One thing I would suggest that when you get this and you start to analyze it, remember, don't feel overwhelmed. When you have thinning hair, and I know that there's many treatments out there, like they have certain supplements out there. They give you all the nutrients to help your hair get thicker, and they'll say, yes, it's getting thicker and it's getting richer. You have to take so many supplements, and I believe they work. I do. You do need the nutrients. Now, it works if you have really good kidneys.

And in fact, if you have a really good supplement, it actually may have the nutrients in there to help clean out your kidneys. But if you have really, you know, sick or imbalanced kidneys, I always suggest that we look into a few different therapies. Now, I'm going to talk about yeast and fungus in just a second. But when we talk about kidney infections like the staph, strep or E. coli, here are some of my main go to's. First of all, these are my favorites.

Top three, but there's many more herbs. I'm saying you don't have to take all three of these at one time, but I say look into these because they work so well for kidneys. Number one is uva ursi. If you're listening, it's U-V-A-U-R-S-I, uva ursi. It is a relative of blueberry, but it basically has the components of.

within the plant to actually help clean out UTIs, kidney stones, bladder stones, bladder infections. It's amazing. In fact, patients that come in with a kidney infection can take up to one or two capsules twice a day, and they report that their UTIs go away within a day and a half to two days. That's the average. I love Uva Ursi.

If that resonates with you, look into it and use it. Check out Supreme Nutrition Products website. It's amazing. They have great information. Another is Vital Guard Supreme. Vital Guard Supreme. It is chrysanthemum. Yes, mum flowers. Mum flowers in Chinese medicine heal and strengthen the kidneys. They are great at killing off viruses and yeast, even parasites and certain bacteria.

It's one of the overall general infection cleansers. And it's really safe for pregnant ladies and for children. Vital Garzaprine, Chrysanthemum. And last but not least, one of my favorites is Golden Thread. Golden Thread is called Chinese Coptis. It is Chinese medicine's natural antibiotic. But doing one capsule two or three times a day will start to clean the body, clean the kidneys and the bladder of that infection.

Golden Thread. It is one of the top antimicrobials that I've used. I love these three, Uva Ursi, Vital Guard Supreme, or Golden Thread. Now, if one doesn't work well within the first few days, if you don't notice a difference, or within a week, try the next one. But you want to stay pretty slow and steady. It may take two to three weeks if the infection's really deep within the kidneys and the bladder and that urinary system.

You may notice that there could be foam in your urine. There could be different color. You could have a little bit more achiness within the flank area around the kidneys. You could have a little bit more heat or pressure around the bladder. You could even have sore hips and sore ankles, sore knees because your body's releasing things out of the kidneys and out of the bladder. If you have these symptoms, you may be hitting the nail on the head.

If you give yourself two to three weeks, those issues will subside. And some people say, well, how do you know? Well, whenever you start to clean out the bladder and kidneys and the bladder pressure and the pain and the urgency starts to go away, your nighttime incontinence starts to fade. It's not so much hot urine coming out. Your flanks start to feel better. Your knees feel better and your urine staying pretty clear consistently. Then you could probably go down to one capsule a day of the supplement you choose.

And if it stays pretty consistent, then you could probably go one every other day. I don't usually suggest people stay on something more than three months. They may have to reevaluate and check out how their kidneys are doing, which means go do another urinalysis test. Go do another UroKey. If you do find it, look at the infections that are sticking around, then research the herbs like on Supreme Nutrition and find out which herbs are good for killing those bacteria and start the process again. You'll get rid of those infections. That's the pattern.

Try to make it simple and easy. The next thing I want you to really pay attention to with the Euro key is make sure that you check for fungus and yeast. I cannot tell you how many times people with fungus and yeast, overgrowth of yeast, leads to chronic kidney and bladder infections. Now, if you have hair issues, hair loss, this is another thing.

Do you or ever have thickening of the dermis or thickening of skin or flaky skin on your scalp where it feels like there's a lot of dead skin and it feels like there's a lot of dandruff? Have you had that on your scalp right at the top of the head? Do you ever feel like there's little bumps or scabs where you have to pick off in your scalp? Do you feel like your underarms ever smell excessively? Do you feel like you have excessive body odor? Do your feet have a pungent smell? Do you feel like you have a sour taste in your mouth when you wake up?

Here's another test. You can spit into a glass of water and see if your saliva actually is congealed and sinks to the bottom, which usually tells you have a lot of fungus. Do you have a white coating on your tongue all the time? Do you have unexplained rashes around your pelvis, around your armpits, the back of your knees? Do you sweat excessively at night? Do you smell like you have an odor at night?

If you have this, these are signs and signals that there could be possible yeast candida infection of fungus overgrowth. These are some of the top things that will keep a kidney infection going. Not only have the bacteria, but if you have this yeast and candida going, you have to get rid of it. Now, yeast and candida are there to help you. It may sound crazy, but yeast forms

Forms of yeast are like trash, the garbage man. They help pick up the garbage and the trash. They help absorb and clean up infections in the joints and in certain organs. But when we eat sugar, they eat the sugar and they'll produce ethanol, alcohol, or aldehydes, neurotoxins, which would make you have brain fog, low nerve conductivity, slow movement of the muscles, achy muscles. So either alcohol, alcohol,

or aldehyde. That's why people feel like they're drunk when they have too much yeast or fungus. If this is you and you have that itchy scalp or you have that overgrowth of too much dandruff, then you have overgrowth of yeast. You need to balance it. People say, well, take probiotics. Well, that's not bad. But first, in my opinion, you need to use homeopathics,

and certain herbals in combination and then look into probiotics. Now you can get the test with the Euro key, but write this down. A Viome test, V-I-O-M-E, or a natural biome test of the bacteria in your gut is a good way to see which bacteria you are deficient in.

It doesn't mean you go and start taking all these probiotics. What I'm saying is you can get the natural, you can look at your bacterial levels, but what I would suggest is to start cleaning up the fungus and the yeast. And two things I recommend, either or, is Neem, N-E-E-M. Also, we call it Malia Supreme, Malia Supreme by Supreme Nutrition Products, and it's an Ayurvedic herb named Neem. Now, that's a great fungal yeast cleanser.

starting off slow, maybe one a day, one or two a day, and that's it. Or scutellaria, S-C-U-T-T-E-L-A-R-I-A, which is called Chinese skullcap. They use it for children and pregnant ladies in Chinese medicine. It would help clean up cradle cap. Yeast, fungus. It's one of the best antifungal yeast supplements out there. So when you look into yeast and fungus, I would suggest scutellaria,

or Malia Supreme, which is Neem, along with the one you choose for your bladder and kidney infection. When you start to clean out the yeast, which I've had to work on, your tongue coating will go away. You'll have better body odor. Your body will release yeast in the bladder from the urine and from your bowel movements. Your feet won't smell as pungent. You watch, and then your dandruff will start to go away. You'll start to notice that your hair thickening, and you'll notice that you'll start retaining your hair. I've seen it many, many times.

If you ever have excessive problems like too much detox from taking the herbs, then you need to step back and reevaluate. Maybe you need to switch up the herbs. Maybe you need to take less. Instead of one every day or two every day, just take one every other day. The more yeast or fungus you have and you hit the right herb, you're going to make it flush and your body's going to be like, yo, this is not the best. We have to slow down. So reduce the amount. Reduce the dosage. But don't be discouraged. Get rid of the fungus and yeast.

Then you can check your, you know, your OK, your mouse test. You can get a biome test to see which bacteria needs replacing. And after a while, you don't have to get the biome test at the beginning. Actually, what I do is I usually take scutellaria or neem or the malia. I do that for about two months, maybe three, and start to get all these symptoms starting to be relieved and then get a biome test and see which bacteria or probiotics are needed.

then you can find the specific ones you need and start using those to help re-inoculate the system. You'll start to see that your kidney infections will go away. Your bladder infections will go away. So as you see this, remember...

These are the steps you can take to help with your hair. It's a lot of information, but I want you guys to know that if you start to help clean up the bladder and the kidneys, you start to help restore some of the good bacteria, you start getting rid of the fungus and the yeast, you can have healthy urinary system organs. And your bladder and kidney will thank you for it, and your hair will definitely thank you for it. You'll restore more nutrition to your blood, your hair will be healthier and stronger, and I

I mean, if your kidneys are weak and strong, you can use really good shampoos and you can use good scalp treatments. But you're going to have to use a lot of that to help keep your hair flourishing if you have a bad kidney problem. You need to clean those kidneys out. Please look into this. This is very important. Now, with this, you can use infrared sauna for detox for the kidneys. You could use...

You could use the infrared. You could also use red light therapy around the kidneys, which is amazing. And I also think that any type of lymph movement is needed, such as a vibration plate or bounding to help flush the kidneys. Drinking plenty of water. You could actually drink dandelion tea, sometimes milk thistle tea to help flush it. But the herbs I mentioned to you in those steps will definitely help you with this whole situation.

So guys, I hope this was informative. If you have questions or comments, send me some comments, send me some questions. I always love to hear about them. If you like this kind of info, please like and subscribe. If you know anybody else that's had some issues with their hair and their kidneys, send this to them. I want it to be very plain and simple. And if I can make it even more plain and simple, just let me know.

Guys, I hope this finds you well. And remember, we really appreciate your support and we thank you so much for listening in. But these are some simple steps. I know it seemed like a lot, but if you listen to this and you follow it and get some of this testing done, you're going to find a big reason why your hair is falling out or thinning or graying.

This will allow all your other nutrients, your vitamins, your minerals, your multiminerals. If you get all these infections out, you'll absorb all the minerals and vitamins even better. Your proteins, your amino acids, all your whey protein, all those things that you take, it will help you absorb them better. So guys, I hope this was informative. Let me know what you think. Until the next time, I appreciate you guys. Yes, I'm doing some remodeling here. So if you guys look in the background, it's a little bit crazy. It's just because I'm just doing some remodeling.

Until the next time, guys, have a great day for all of us here at the HL Podcast. Until then, take it easy.

Before we wrap up, please remember that the information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is formed through this podcast, and the use of information here or materials linked from this podcast is at your own risk. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Always consult with your health care provider before making any changes to your health regimen and do not disregard or delay seeking medical advice for any condition you may have. Thank you for joining us today on the Ancient Health Podcast. We hope you've gained valuable insights into the harmony between Eastern and Western medicine. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a review.

Remember, true health is about balance, mind, body, and spirit. So stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to explore how ancient wisdom and modern science can work together to help you thrive. Here's to your health, balance, and well-being. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and I look forward to our next episode together.