Episode 228
Julie Olson:The 5-R Framework for Reversing Hair Loss Naturally
Julie Olson:
The 5-R Framework for Reversing Hair Loss Naturally
Julie Olson shares her 5-R framework for addressing hair loss naturally, revealing the surprising gut-hair connection and debunking common myths about biotin while providing practical solutions for the 76 different causes of hair loss she's identified.
First Aired on: Jan 26, 2026
Episode 228
Julie Olson:The 5-R Framework for Reversing Hair Loss Naturally
Julie Olson:
The 5-R Framework for Reversing Hair Loss Naturally
Julie Olson shares her 5-R framework for addressing hair loss naturally, revealing the surprising gut-hair connection and debunking common myths about biotin while providing practical solutions for the 76 different causes of hair loss she's identified.
First Aired on: Jan 26, 2026
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
In this episode:
Introduction
Julie Olson is a triple board-certified nutritionist, published researcher, and functional medicine expert who founded the trademarked HealthyHairFix® protocol. After experiencing her own severe hair loss at 38, she developed a comprehensive 5-step system to restore health and hair naturally. In this episode, she joins me to discuss the 5-R framework for reversing hair loss and the often-overlooked gut-hair connection.
Episode Highlights
Julie's Personal Hair Loss Journey
Julie shares how her hair began falling out in clumps at age 38, leading doctors to dismiss it as genetics with no real solution beyond lifelong medications.
- Hair loss triggered a complete lifestyle evaluation and career change
- Discovered multiple underlying issues: hypothyroidism, H. pylori, Epstein-Barr virus, celiac disease, and dysbiosis
- Fast-paced LA lifestyle with poor nutrition and high stress contributed to the perfect storm
- Used her health crisis as motivation to quit television and go back to school for nutrition
The Revolutionary Gut-Hair Connection
Julie explains groundbreaking research showing how gut health directly impacts hair growth, including fascinating evidence from fecal microbial transplants.
- Four subjects receiving fecal transplants for other conditions accidentally regrew hair, including an 86-year-old man
- The scalp and hair follicles have their own microbiome that needs to be treated like the gut microbiome
- Hair follicles are extremely metabolically active and require enormous amounts of nutrients and energy
- Chronic inflammation from gut issues redirects resources away from hair growth
The 5-R Framework for Hair Loss
Julie outlines her systematic approach based on functional medicine's 5-R protocol, customized specifically for hair loss recovery.
- Remove: Eliminate candida, H. pylori, toxins, and inflammatory foods
- Replace: Address nutrient deficiencies with proper supplementation
- Reinoculate: Restore healthy gut bacteria
- Repair: Heal intestinal permeability and systemic inflammation
- Rebalance: Optimize hormones and stress response
The Biotin Myth Exposed
Julie debunks the widespread belief that biotin supplementation helps with hair loss, revealing surprising dangers of high-dose biotin.
- Biotin deficiency is extremely rare, affecting only 1 in 140,000 people
- High-dose biotin interferes with absorption of B vitamins and affects ferritin levels
- Can skew over 200 lab tests including thyroid, vitamin D, and cardiovascular markers
- One documented case of a missed heart attack due to biotin interference with troponin levels
- Most people get adequate biotin from common foods in their regular diet
Dietary and Lifestyle Factors
Julie discusses the impact of modern eating patterns and food quality on hair health, drawing insights from blue zone longevity research.
- Vegan and vegetarian diets can contribute to hair loss due to missing essential amino acids
- Hair is made of protein (keratin) and requires adequate protein intake
- Top hair-healthy foods: leafy greens, salmon, olive oil, avocado, Brazil nuts, sardines, eggs, oysters, and organ meats
- Blue zone observations: people eat slowly, enjoy their food and company, everything in moderation
Hidden Toxins and Their Impact
Julie explains how environmental toxins, particularly mercury fillings, can be major contributors to hair loss and systemic inflammation.
- Mercury fillings are increasingly common in her practice as a hair loss trigger
- Safe removal protocols are essential - improper removal can cause higher exposure
- Glyphosate contamination of wheat may be more problematic than gluten itself
- European wheat is different - smaller, unbleached, and unmodified compared to US wheat
Testing and Individualized Approaches
Julie emphasizes the importance of proper testing to identify individual root causes rather than guessing with generic protocols.
- Uses comprehensive gut testing and NutriEval to assess methylation and detoxification
- Food sensitivity testing helps with compliance when people see their body's specific reactions
- Must discontinue biotin 5-7 days before any lab work for accurate results
- 76 different causes of hair loss organized into 5 functional categories
Why Quick Fixes Don't Work
Julie explains the limitations of popular hair loss treatments and why addressing root causes is essential for lasting results.
- Only 49% of hair transplants work long-term and they don't address underlying causes
- Topical treatments and shampoos can't fix internal problems
- Minoxidil causes initial hair loss and permanent dependency
- PRP treatments have limited evidence and can be very painful
Notable Quotes from this Episode
Hair loss was my gift. I literally would not have stopped. I wouldn't have changed everything. It takes something - whatever it is, straw to break the camel's back - just to finally pay attention to your health and wake up.
Julie Olson
Your hair will fall out three months after that stressor. Sometimes you forget what that was and you're like, my hair's falling out and you panic. But if you think back three months earlier...
Julie Olson
They've convinced millions that topicals and shampoos and serums can fix an internal problem. You can't find hair growth in a bottle.
Julie Olson
Other Resources:
Other Resources:
Connect with Julie Olson
Connect with Julie Olson
Watch this interview:
Watch this interview:
Episode Transcript
Julie Olson:[00:00:00] When you have this chronic systemic inflammation, there's other things your body has to take care of besides your hair so that is one mechanism that where chronic stress plays a huge role.
Julie Howton: Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Howton. In today's episode, I am joined by Julie Olson, who is a triple board certified nutritionist [00:01:00] and functional medicine practitioner. Julie suffered from severe hair loss at 38, which prompt her to learn all she could about it, and gave her the foundation to develop her own five R framework to reverse hair loss even if you don't have, quote unquote, severe hair loss.
Your overall health will improve when you follow Julie's protocol.
Julie, welcome to the podcast.
Julie Olson: Oh, thanks for having me.
Julie Howton: I am so glad we're finally doing this. We've been talking about it for years.
And I, I'm really excited because I think this is more than ever, and we'll talk about why, um, more and more. Well, I'll say women, people probably in general, but women are, are struggling with hair loss.
Um, and so can you share your journey with us? I know it was your personal story that, that got you to become, um, such an expert and, and such a resource [00:02:00] for women looking for support.
Julie Olson: Sure, sure. So, yeah. I mean, you're exactly right. It's, it's women hide it. You know, we're ashamed of it. Society doesn't accept it.
So my journey started when I was 38. I'm 62 now, but I,
Julie Howton: you
Julie Olson: look 38 now. But that's when, when I was 38, my hair was falling out in handfuls and clumps months after months, and it got so bad. You could see my scalp as clear as day. It was horrifying, and I went from practitioner to practitioner and they all basically said the same thing, that there's not much you can do because there's probably genetics, but you can try lifelong medications.
Julie Howton: Now, did you, did you have women in your family that you knew of that had experienced this? No. Okay. I was just curious. Yeah, yeah. Even then, I wouldn't buy the genetics story, but I was just curious.
Julie Olson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't buy it either. Um, [00:03:00] and so fast forward I, um, that's the time when I moved back from California, um, to Colorado.
And I, my, actually, I moved back. Full disclosure, I was a media research analyst at Warner Brothers and I got the call that my mom had stage three cancer and we're really close. So I moved back and worked in television. I worked at. Channel two and channel four CBS in, in Denver. And I just got disenchanted with the business and more interested why she got so sick.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: And it was at that time that I realized I was putting blinders on my own health. And when my hair started falling out in clumps, I'm like, mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Yeah,
Julie Olson: I'm quitting. So I quit. I went back to school and it's the best thing I ever did.
Julie Howton: Wow. Amazing. And, and so. Obviously you're not wearing a wig, [00:04:00] right?
Obviously. Oh, no, that's, you nailed it. That's my hair.
Um, so, so not genetics for you, right? No. No. Your hair loss. What, what, what did you end up figuring out for yourself that kinda led you into, you know what, I'm gonna help people figure this out.
Julie Olson: Well, I was a hot mess. I was literally, after I started digging, I realized I was a hot mess. And, um, it started with my lifestyle choices, which I know you're such an expert on.
But I was living a very fast lifestyle in la a lot of late nights partying and,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, as, as people do.
Julie Olson: Yeah. But I wasn't eating well. Um. Okay. And then what? After I started digging deeper, [00:05:00] I found out I had hypothyroidism, h pylori, Epstein, Barra virus. Not, not a little like 3000 in the 3000 range.
So active normal range is like 240 or something like ridiculous. But I thought, oh, I'm just tired because of my lifestyle.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: Um, what else? A dysbiosis bad. Um.
Julie Howton: So pretty
Julie Olson: much all the things.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Celiac, um, and other food sensitivities. Uh, tho those are the main things. I mean, it was really,
Julie Howton: well, that's, that's enough.
Yeah. A doing.
Julie Olson: It's, I mean,
Julie Howton: it's, it's interesting. Do you see this a lot as women, we can ignore, like we, we explain away, right? Right. Like the fatigue and the, and you know, we kind of. Are masterful at ignoring the symptoms when they're quiet or whispering and as they get louder, but hair falling out in clumps, that gets our attention.
[00:06:00] Right,
Julie Olson: right. And that's why I call it a gift. It was my gift.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: I literally would not have stopped. I wouldn't have changed everything. Yeah. And maybe that's it. Yeah. It can be vain, but you know, women, men too. And that's okay. It takes something. Some, whatever it is, straw, to break the camel's back just to finally pay attention to your, your health and wake up.
And, and that's why I'm so passionate about it, because I do, I get women like me, that same thing. You know, they, they look fine and they eat fine and they exercise, blah, blah. But I start doing labs and they're not absorbing, they're not methylating, they're not detoxifying properly, they're not, you know, and it's, you start to peel back the layers and, and.
And it makes a lot of sense too because, um, we can talk about, I, uh, you'll, I think we'll be talking about the fecal microbial transplant. And that's also something that got me so excited about this because, [00:07:00] um, functional medicine, they, they say, you know, it all starts in the gut and it, and I have another abstract on just that, the gut hair link and.
And the, I have the fecal microbial transplant. Some of the first cases that just happened by accident, there's uh, um, four subjects and some of 'em had a autoimmune alopecia. So alopecia is the medical term for all types of hair loss, thinning, and autoimmune forms. People think, gotcha. Differently.
Julie Howton: Right.
But,
Julie Olson: um, couple of the subjects had, yeah. All alopecia universalis where you lose hair from all over your body. Mm-hmm. And, and sure enough, um,
Julie Howton: it's not why they got the transplant.
Julie Olson: No, it's not why they had speed. The other lady had bad colitis. The other man, which is actually my favorite one, he [00:08:00] is 86 years old.
Julie Howton: Wow.
Julie Olson: He had colon cancer and depression and he just had a bald spot. And so I'm like. Sure enough, they all grew back the hair and I'm like, even if you're 86, you
Julie Howton: wow.
Julie Olson: Back their hair. That's
Julie Howton: amazing.
Julie Olson: You, I love that. You get your gut balance. So that is so inspirational for me. Um,
Julie Howton: yeah. That's incredible. Um, and, and I, I remember when I first started reading research about fecal transplants, um, you know, it is, it's fascinating.
It makes so much sense if you think about it. Uh, but so gut is obviously just, I know listeners are like, really? Again. Um, but, but this, this impact because look like what are, you are like the poster child for you had almost like every kind of category would look for. You didn't mention toxins for you personally, but like
Julie Olson: Oh yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, so whether [00:09:00] it, whether it's. Do similar things apply, whether it's autoimmune or not? Um, as far as as gut health and nutrition and hair loss?
Julie Olson: Yes. Yes. Now that's a good question because I'm up to 76 causes of hair loss.
Julie Howton: Okay.
Julie Olson: But I put them to five functional root cause categories and one is gut, which includes digestive, digestive.
Nutritional, right?
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: Um, inflammatory is another one. Toxins, stress and hormonal.
Julie Howton: Yes.
Julie Olson: So, and there's overlap in those as well. So it's not really about the gut per se, but it kind of always goes back to the gut because we create our hormones in the gut. If we have stress. How in the heck can we absorb our nutrients?
And stress plays a big [00:10:00] role in, in that, in triggering inflammation. And when you have, um, chronic inflammation, it actually, yeah. It's gonna, it, it, it does the same to the hair follicle. We don't need our hair, you know? Right. And so it's gonna take care of everything else.
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: And, um, that's another reason why c.
They called it the COVID shed was, so, it was inflammatory. There's so many inflammatory cytokines and things running, you know, bouncing around that. Um, your hair, it prematurely pops it from the resting phase. I mean, I'm sorry, the growth phase. To the resting phase.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: When you have this chronic systemic inflammation, your hair just so I, I can't, there's other things your body has to take care of besides your hair hit your hair growth.
So that is one mechanism that where chronic stress plays a huge role. It like o other [00:11:00] diseases and autoimmune conditions and everything.
Julie Howton: Sure. And medication. I mean, the reason I say all roads lead back to the gut, and I don't mean it as in the, like, you have to manage the stress. You have to, you know, remove the toxins, whatever the, the things are.
Those, those factors, but all of them affect the gut. Yeah. So like if you're ignoring, if you're like, well, I'll just get my, you know, toxic burden down and you're not healing the gut, um, it, it's, it's not gonna help at all. Right. You know? Right, right. Are, are there, you know, we, we say at the clinic all the time, you know, like you said, like your hair's not necessary.
You know, and so to the body, to physiologically, like it's gonna be the last thing that gets those resources.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, what are some either foods or eating styles that you feel contribute to hair loss? Like what, what are [00:12:00] we kind of doing wrong?
Julie Olson: Um. At first how we're eating. Most people are eating on the run.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Not digesting
Julie Olson: or standing up.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: My, my husband's um, jiujitsu group came over to watch some fights or something a couple of weeks ago. They ate their entire dinner standing up.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: I'm like, and then they said, oh, we do it all the time. Yeah. And they're not, you know, people don't chew.
Julie Howton: You have to be in the rest and digest.
Yeah. In the parasympathetic state in order to, yeah. Assuming you've even done the work to heal your gut. Um, I know. Are, are there like big nutrients? P you see like frequently missing? I know you do, you know, a lot of, a lot of testing.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, you're not guessing with your clients. Like I, I know. Um, you know, like us it's, it's individualized.
You have your framework and we'll, we'll [00:13:00] touch on your framework as well. Um, but, but are there certain kind of deficiencies or, um. Eating patterns that you see like kind of frequently like, oh, yep, there it is.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Well, a vegan or vegetarian is, it's really, really difficult to have healthy, to grow your hair just in general because we need those essential and branch chain amino acids.
You don't get on a vegan or vegetarian diet. Right. And I test those. I, I'll, I'll see where all their amino acids are at. Yeah. But I mean, our hair, they call it keratin, but that's protein. Our hair's made of protein, um, what we need. Thank you. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, it's important for people to hear because so often, and, and sometimes it's, it's for other reasons. But often people are making that choice because they, they, they're intending for it to be a healthy choice.
Julie Olson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Um, [00:14:00] and, and I too, you know, I, I, I, it can long term cause a lot of problems for the body beyond hair.
Um, yes. But, so it makes perfect sense to me, but I I, I just wanted to hear your take on that. Yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah, yeah. I just, um, yeah, but. There are some top foods I can rattle 'em off. Um,
Julie Howton: sure.
Julie Olson: I pretty much, I'm real, a real fan of the paleo.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: The anti-inflammatory autoimmune diet. Um, some of those. But, um, I have recipes with these particular foods because they are from my research, the top hair health foods.
You want me to run through it?
Julie Howton: Sure. Not along, but I mean, if you, yeah, if you have favorites that like, if people can hear like, Ooh, I'm not incorporating that in. Sure.
Julie Olson: Okay. Um, well, leafy green salmon, olive oil, avocado, onions, pumpkin, Brazil nuts, [00:15:00] sardines, eggs, lentils, oysters, Oregon meat livers, great hair,
Julie Howton: food.
Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um,
Julie Howton: so nutrient dense.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Nutrient dense.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, yeah.
Julie Howton: Good Omegas, I'm guessing because
Julie Olson: yes, we need omegas. We definitely need our omega. We need a micronutrients, some macronutrients. The thing is, Julie, they've discovered the new scalp, hair follicle microbiome, and it needs to be treated the same way as our gut microbiome, and people don't realize our hair follicles are.
Extremely metabolically active. They require an enormous amount of nutrients, and they also require enormous amount of energy. You know, a TP, the whole Krebs cycle thing. Yeah, the mitochondria. And, and again, when people are struggling, struggling with their health in other places, that [00:16:00] that's the last thing.
That's gonna right your body. It's,
Julie Howton: but sometimes it's body wants, it's the first symptom where they really realize something's wrong. Right. So, uh, to me, I, hair loss is a symptom,
Julie Olson: right?
Julie Howton: It's, you know, just like joint pain or psoriasis or, you know, fill in the blank. Um, and, and so, you know, I love that and it makes perfect sense that, that the approach is, you know, let's find out why.
You know, remove those things. Support. This is a good, great time to, to, you know, mention your, your five step approach to, you know, 'cause this is not, you know, see Julie if either Julie, but nobody should seek you out if they're looking for a pill or a supplement, that's gonna be the magic solution to their hair loss.
Julie Olson: Sure. Sure. So, yeah, it's based off [00:17:00] of the, the function by bars, by framework. Remove, replace, re inoculate, repair, repair and rebalance. Um, yeah. But there are some caveats and there are some other testing and markers that I'll do, um, associated with hair loss, but I, I, it's not a cookie cutter approach. Yeah.
You know?
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: As Right. I mean, um. And I am very, very much a stickler on the remove phase, um,
Julie Howton: share. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, it, it's like people say to me all the time, you know, well, you know, do, do you say that you healed your RA or that it's in remission or that you never had ra? And I'm like, well, I don't usually say any of those things, but what I will say is if I go back.
To living how I was living. I will be symptomatic and probably diagnosable again, [00:18:00] you know, at, at some point it'll catch back up. Um, so the removal, you like, you can't do the same thing, right? It's the definition of insanity, right? Like you can't do the things that got you. Either sick or experiencing hair loss, and often it's both, um, and expect results.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: So I love that, that you're pretty open with like, no, there, there is a remove. Remove is important and that's where we start. Right. You know? Um, what are kind of the, are there across the board things that, that, you know, you know, that are included in the remove phase for most people?
Julie Olson: Yeah, I'm seeing a ton of candida, h pylori, toxins, toxic overload, you know, a lot of food sensitivities.
I, but that's, um, and nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalance. But I see on the gut tests, [00:19:00] um, I really like the gut test. I like the other test, um, Neutrival, um mm-hmm. Where it looks to see if they're. Methylating detoxifying. Um,
Julie Howton: I love Nutri Bele also absorbing
Julie Olson: properly
Julie Howton: because it's personal. It's not just showing where you are in the range, but it's showing like for your body, what do you need right now?
Julie Olson: Right, right.
Julie Howton: And I, I think that's one of the things for me that makes it such a standout test. Um, you know, so I love that you use that as well, you know? Uh,
Julie Olson: yeah. And Julie, you know, something. That I'm running into a lot, and I'm wondering if you all are, is I'm getting these women with a bunch of mercury fillings and I'm, I'm to the point where like mm-hmm.
I'm not starting my program with you until you get those removed.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And safely. Yeah.
Julie Olson: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Um, are
Julie Olson: you seeing that too?
Julie Howton: I, I think, yeah. I, I [00:20:00] mean, and that's always been, and maybe it's 'cause it was part, it's been, it's part of my journey. Mercury toxicity. So I, that's somewhere where I always, me too, tend to, to go to, um, you know, the, what I think of as almost what people, which, funny, it's, it's in their bodies, but they would consider it a hidden toxin would be, you know, the fillings and or breast implants.
Um, you know, we're, I'm seeing a lot of. That and, and, and again, and it's fascinating where, you know, if I'm working with somebody and, and you know, I, I try to not like day one be like, you gotta get those out. Um, but I've had so many clients where I know that's one of the big drivers and, and we're working toward embracing the fact that, that it's okay to.
To take steps to truly heal the body. And I've had so many say, oh, you know, within the first week of getting them, I had [00:21:00] X or Y or, so they've known from the time they got them that their, it was triggering a, you know, inflammatory response in the body. But yet, 10, 15 years later, I'm having to actually convince them that even though their body has been telling them for over a decade, this is a problem.
Um, and so, and yeah, mercury, fillings, root canals.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, a a lot of, you know, just traditional dentistry or, and or, um, and I know you, you know, you're looking at toxins. Um, like my, my daughter, I always admit, you know, the, how, how we would parent differently if we knew then what we know now. Right. I had a bunch of fillings removed when I was pregnant with her.
Julie Olson: Oh, wow.
Julie Howton: So she had mercury toxicity, not from her own fillings, but from her in utero exposure. So, [00:22:00] you know, it, it's, there's a reason why we test. Right,
Julie Olson: right, right.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Right. So the first part of my career I was, I've been a nutritionist for 15 years. I, um, was a nutritionist for Natural Grocers, you know who that is?
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: For six years. And then, um, uh, functional medicine practice. So testing, and I know how it is when you don't test, and I know how it is when you test.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: Even for something as simple as food sensitivities, because you can tell someone till you're blue in your face. Yeah. That, um, you know, you need to remove
Julie Howton: certain things.
Julie Olson: Yeah,
Julie Howton: yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah. And then I just wanna, before I lose a thought, jump back to the Mercury. I just published a, a blog on Mercury and, and it's, it's has a ton of references, so I mean, oh, fun. Just because it is hard to figure out, I think, for a lot of these people. [00:23:00] Like what's the link between. Removing my Mercury and
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: You know, hair loss and mercury. And, well,
Julie Howton: and I wanna highlight again, I, I, I commented on safe removal and, and, um, I, I did a, a great episode several years ago with, with Charla Aaronson, who's a, a biological dentist. Um, you know, if you listen closely to what I just said about my daughter
Julie Olson: Yeah, exactly.
Julie Howton: The removal can be a way higher exposure than leaving them in your
Julie Olson: mouth's, not me.
Julie Howton: Yeah. So I
Julie Olson: use the smart Yes. And there's some certifications. Yeah. It's on my blog.
Julie Howton: Yeah. So I just wanna highlight that for people. Yeah. I don't want people running to their regular dentist Oh, that,
Julie Olson: yes.
Julie Howton: And getting their, their mercury fillings removed. Yeah. That
Julie Olson: makes it worse. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, yeah, so, so it, mercury is, is a big one.
You mentioned, so I'm gonna highlight, and people already know my bias [00:24:00] anyway, you mentioned gluten. Um, because I'm, I agree. I'm at the, at the point where, you know, it, it's so, it, it's so helpful to have advanced testing now where people can. See what their body's reaction versus, you know, Julie said, don't eat gluten.
Yeah. Um, glu again, it, we've known since 2015 that it, it can contribute to leaky gut, even for people that have never been gluten sensitive. So that's, that's a component of the spiral.
Julie Olson: Right, right.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Julie, you and I know too much about gluten. It's, we know it's not good for anybody. Well, it's such a large protein to digest.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: And, um,
Julie Howton: and I, I have evolved the, the, the, um, and, and this is the perfect segue into what I really wanted, I want you to share with us. Um, but I really have evolved to question, is it gluten or is it, [00:25:00] you know, the gluten, glyphosate that, you know, the, we, we have. Modified the wheat in our country to contain higher levels of gluten in certain proteins.
Um, and it's all saturated with glyphosate here. Um, and, and they, it's the last thing they do at harvest is spray it again with glyphosate. 'cause it helps dry it out. Like it's so hard to pull, pull those apart. Um, that I really do. It's like, okay, question mark. Like. It, I think gluten as, as it was intended, might not be the big problem for everybody.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, that, that we see all the time in practice because I know a lot of people that can go to Italy or go to Europe and eat gluten
Julie Olson: mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: And be fine.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, and people ask me all the time, like, you know, well, you're celiac, have you tried that? And I'm like, no, I'm not that [00:26:00] brave because I, it's not worth ruining my vacation.
Um, and I, I, um, have celiac, so it's different. Um, but you, I know, spent a couple weeks, not just in Italy. Um, but this will kind of circle back to lifestyle and stress too, um, in Sardinia. So blue zone, right? Yeah. Which is we talk about is we're trying to study these blue zones and figure out, you know, what is this secret to, to longevity and health span and, you know, living not just longer, but well.
Um, so can you share a little bit with us? 'cause that that's a good, it's not like you were there for a day, like you were there for two weeks.
Julie Olson: Yeah. And then we went and took a cooking class and we made bread and the flour. That's part of the problem is in America they hybridize wheat, so it has bigger yields.
If you see a picture of wheat in United States and wheat [00:27:00] and. Europe or anywhere else in the world. Yeah, it's much smaller.
Julie Howton: It's a different,
Julie Olson: it's a huge,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, and it's, it's different color. So the flower there is really yellow. I mean, not light yellow. It's, well, it
Julie Howton: hasn't
Julie Olson: been
Julie Howton: bleached.
Julie Olson: We bleached it, we do all sorts of things too.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: It's nice
Julie Olson: putting,
Julie Howton: we strip everything out of it and then we like throw crappy versions of stuff back in. Like, it's crazy. Yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah, yeah. Um.
Julie Howton: Did you eat the bread?
Julie Olson: I did. I, I ate it. I fine. You're so
Julie Howton: brave.
Julie Olson: I, but Julie, I did the same as you. 'cause I was in Europe for a month.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: I was in Ireland, Greece, and, um, and then Italy and I was gluten-free.
I mean, I was, I'm, I'm like a Nazi on that. Yeah, I'm
Julie Howton: right.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Wow. Amazing.
Julie Olson: But yeah, and they, and they don't add of it. I mean, they just make, it's like. Flour [00:28:00] and water is how they made the bread. Right. And you know, United States, they
Julie Howton: all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. So, so share some of your, your wisdom you picked up there other than again, highlighting.
Like our food system in this country is completely adulterated, if you could even call it food at this point.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and so a lot of the problems, again, because people will say, you know, people have been eating wheat for, you know, a long time. And I'm like, not this wheat not, not what we have here. Um, yeah.
But, but what else? 'cause you, you highlighted even in your own journey that this stress is such a big. Driver of chronic inflammation, you know? Right. Gut challenges despite like all the things. Right? Yeah. Again, 'cause we can't, they're not separated in a box. We're integrated humans.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, so what, what else did you get to experience [00:29:00] or witness there that, that you think like, ugh, you know, I, I can see why I got sick living the way I was living.
Julie Olson: Right, right. Well, they actually. They slow down. They enjoy their food, they enjoy their family, they respect their elders. They have a purpose. They move. They just walk everywhere. But they, they enjoy their food. They drink wine, but it's all organic. Yeah, they have coffee. It's all organic and they enjoy, I mean, the, the, the big thing is meeting for coffee in the morning and then meeting to have a glass.
They don't go, they don't overindulge
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: Either. They, everything's in moderation. And I didn't see supplement stores. I didn't even see gyms.
Julie Howton: Yeah, well, they
Julie Olson: don't need them. I just saw a lot of people out on the streets just hanging out and talking to each other. Uh, I didn't see people with hair loss. I.[00:30:00]
I Isn't
Julie Howton: that amazing?
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: But they have a purpose too. I mean, they're,
Julie Howton: it's
Julie Olson: huge. They're very family oriented. Um, and if they, if, you know, if they do work, they're very, you know, seem to be very into whatever they're doing. Very passionate to
Julie Howton: about it. Purpose.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're definitely not eating, standing up and, and they're chewing their food like we talked about earlier.
But
Julie Howton: it's just, it seems so simple.
Julie Olson: Simple. It, it's simple. It's so basic.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: You know, after I got Julie, after I got back, I was on a, um, uh, summit bio, like a biohacking summit and Uhhuh, he's like, so what are your top biohacks and what did you learn? I'm like, there aren't any, you, you have to get the basics down.
Julie Howton: Back to basics is the biohack, right? Yeah. Like the [00:31:00] living aligned with how we're created to live.
Julie Olson: Right. I mean, you know the Brian Johnson Johnson?
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: He's taking a hundred supplements a day.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Um, yeah. Which. Yeah, that's a whole nother podcast.
Julie Olson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julie Howton: But it does lead me to, um, because this, I, I do wanna make sure that we get to, when it, when it comes to supplements for hair loss, um, I, I wanna talk about biotin because every, almost every woman that mentions hair loss as an aside, um, will say.
I'm taking biotin or you know what I mean? Like, like we were talking before I hit record and I remember 15 years ago stealing my horse's biotin that she was taking for her hooves. 'cause I thought that might help my hair loss. So can you share with us, um, I know, you know, [00:32:00] you've done a lot of research on, on biotin it, is it a good thing for everybody to be taking to support hair health?
Julie Olson: We, no, because we get enough in our diet. Biotin deficiency is exceedingly extremely rare.
Julie Howton: Okay?
Julie Olson: Very rare. I mean, we get it in, in common foods. Um, it, we get enough. And the RDA for biotin is 30 and they're, they're selling like 10,000 micrograms of biotin. In a lot of hair health supplements, but so, okay.
It's extremely rare unless you have this rare genetic disorder, which affects one out of 140,000 people.
Julie Howton: Holy cow. That is
Julie Olson: rare. Um, if you're getting long-term parental nutrition, you know, like intravenous nutrition.
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: If you have long-term antibiotic use.
Julie Howton: Okay.
Julie Olson: If you have, if you're a alcoholic or you have liver disease, or if you do [00:33:00] dietary extremes like, um, raw eggs because they, they bind to the biotin and prevent.
Julie Howton: That would have to be a lot of rags. We're not talking about one Caesar salad. Right, right. Like,
Julie Olson: um, yeah. And then in pregnancy, women re require when they're pregnant, just a little bit of, uh, extra biotin. Okay. And then certain medications deplete, biotin, anti-seizure medications. And interesting, um, some medications for acne and even some medications for Crohn's disease leads to biotin deficiency.
But I mean, that's such a small, but
Julie Howton: that's specific
Julie Olson: percentage, right? Yeah. And the problem is, um, there's a lot of nutrient interactions. You know, zing, zang, you know, you, you kind of need to balance out your copper and zinc. Well, um, if you take too much biotin, um, it's gonna. Um, interfere with the absorption of a lot of the B [00:34:00] vitamins, B five, B six, B12, um, okay.
And it's gonna mess up your ferritin. Um, and then it has the potential to, um, disrupt your, your mat, your metabolic. Especially your, your kidney and, and, and your liver because, um, it alters, uh, the, the glucose metabolism, um, exasperating, hypoglycemia and diabetics. Um,
Julie Howton: wow. Okay.
Julie Olson: And then it,
Julie Howton: so it's not benign it.
Julie Olson: No, it's, but that, that's what I mean. Even us, we we're like, oh, is Biogen, it's a B vitamin. It's water soluble. Right. No, no. So, and then it also,
Julie Howton: well, 'cause you mentioned this balance of things, right? Like every system in our body has an opposing force. Ev everything like you, you mentioned, which is like a beautiful one.
The, the coppers zinc, like it's, the ratios are really important and, and they matter. [00:35:00] Um, and, and so I wanna highlight, like you, you mentioned this interaction with ferritin and ferritin levels can be really related to hair loss, right?
Julie Olson: Oh yeah. But it also interferes with, um, your thyroid levels and vitamin D measurements.
Julie Howton: Wow.
Julie Olson: Um, over 200 labs, vitamin D, B12. Um, a lot of the antibody tests. Um, and the most concerning one is the Tri Trippin. 'cause it, um, it's a cardiovascular. I'm, I'm
Julie Howton: okay.
Julie Olson: It is a part, a cardiovascular marker. So if someone comes in taking a lot of biotin, um, it can make that number incorrect. And there's actually, I have a documented, um, heart attack that was missed.
Julie Howton: Wow.
Julie Olson: Because the labs came back abnormal. [00:36:00] Um, yeah. It's, it's, and, and also it can cause skin problems. Which is interesting because they market, they market it as
Julie Howton: hair, skin. Yeah. Healthy hair, skin, nails. Right.
Julie Olson: I even had some, um, clients come in and they're like, yeah, whenever I take biotin, I get acne. And that's documented.
I may, I
Julie Howton: have a right, but did they stop taking it? Because that's always interesting to me, right? Like, yeah. It's like, okay, well stop doing that. You know? Um, yeah. Yeah. I, I think that's so important for people to hear. What, what would you consider, um, you know, you, you mentioned COVID, like there are certain times where we will lose more than typical hair.
Um, so I, I wanna be really like cl clear with like, I lose a lot of hair all the time. I obviously have a lot of [00:37:00] hair. Yeah. I didn't always like, again, when I was on all the medications and I was inflamed and I was sick,
Julie Olson: yeah.
Julie Howton: I didn't like such a difference that as my new hair grew back in, especially 'cause my hair's curly.
Like I had to cut all the rest of the hair off. 'cause you could really tell like, new hair, old hair. Oh
Julie Olson: wow.
Julie Howton: But, but I, I tend to, you know, it is typical to drop hair. Hundreds
Julie Olson: of hairs a day is typical. That's normal. Many, a hundred.
Julie Howton: A
Julie Olson: hundred.
Julie Howton: Um, and then, uh, there's certain, uh, certain things, sometimes women will get concerned because they'll feel like all of a sudden they're losing more hair.
You mentioned COVID. I I think it's a, it's a common post viral syndrome. Um, I would say post anesthesia. What, what are some, yeah. Um, so
Julie Olson: after pregnancy, after they have their baby.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, but also seasonal changes. You're gonna lose hair going into each new season.
Julie Howton: Okay? Yeah. So not always time to panic.
Julie Olson: No, no, no, no.
[00:38:00] But if it's day after day, week after week, month after month, then you need to panic because there's also a bit of an urgency here when it gets to the point where. There's scarring of the hair follicle and you can usually see that 'cause it's a shiny scalp. You see a lot of men with a, that scarring of the hair follicle, that's almost impossible to reverse that type of hair loss.
Julie Howton: Okay. Yeah. Once, yeah, once you've scarred up. So early is better. But yet, don't panic if you can think to. You know, did I have a virus a few weeks ago? You know, did I just have surgery? Did I just have a baby like these, these are
Julie Olson: right.
Julie Howton: Big hormonal fluxes will, will cause us to lose hair.
Julie Olson: Right. And when we have a big stressor in our life
Julie Howton: mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: Your hair will fall out three months after that stressor.
Julie Howton: That's really good information. Yeah. It's almost
Julie Olson: sometimes you forget what that was and you're like, my hair's falling out [00:39:00] and you panic. But if you think back three months earlier, yeah.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm. Well, and I see that a lot with like, oh, you know, my autoimmune symptoms just became noticeable.
Now we know they were brewing in the background, but usually, especially for women, it can be. Uh, right about that same time, about three months post stressor. Yeah. So, um, you know, it's not usually during the stressor, it's usually after, so, yeah. Yeah.
Julie Olson: Can I just, um, mention it going back to the biotin and Yeah.
If, you know, and you guys probably do this as well, but when you do have lab work done, um. Especially a thyroid panel, iron panel, just blood work in general. Um, get off biotin for five to seven days.
Julie Howton: Yes.
Julie Olson: And then I do have this published abstract here in this integrative medicine, the clinician journal this month about, which is amazing, the, which I call the [00:40:00] biotin myth now, um, just because people don't understand more is not better.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And, and I think it is one of those things that's not an expensive supplement. So this, you know, with the people tend to, to just do more and more and more are, are there things that, that most of us can just incorporate into our wellness routine other than the lifestyle thing? Are there supplements you, you say are good kind of for everybody?
Like I, I had mentioned Omegas. Um, is there anything that you're like, you know, even just protectively. We should be doing for our hair.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Um, well, good. B complex, even a good multivitamin. Uh, a good, I I'm a big fan of enzymes. Digestive enzymes.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, you know, again, going back to getting your gut healthy and keeping it healthy.
Some of those core supplement, I mean, there are certain nutrients that help with [00:41:00] hair like collagen and horsetail and, um, silica. I mean, there's a whole list of them, but you know it's not gonna work and you're gonna waste your money if you think you can go out and get a hair supplement and your hair's gonna grow back.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: It, it's, it's 99% of it is deeper because. Again, like we talked about earlier, why
Julie Howton: are you deficient to begin with? If, if it's a deficiency. Exactly. Right. Yeah.
Julie Olson: And, and Julie, that brings up hair transplants. I have so many women come to me that've had hair transplants.
Julie Howton: Really? Wow.
Julie Olson: And that's because,
Julie Howton: and it didn't solve all their problems.
Julie Olson: No, I I it, they only work for a couple of years. On average, only 49% of hair transplants work and beware of those discounted hair transplants in foreign countries. 'cause that's gonna cost, talk about scarring, right? That's gonna cause lifelong scarring. Um, and then even [00:42:00] PRP treatments, um, it was very, very painful.
And, um, there's just limited evidence that they work. So, you know, first Yeah, I,
Julie Howton: I mean, and if you're not, again
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Foundational, right? Like if you, if you address the drivers and you're, you're doing all the lifestyle things and, and you've, like you said, you've repaired and re and restored and you've done your five Rs.
And then you wanna do like a PRP microneedling, great, fine. But, but if you're not gonna do the other stuff, there is really nothing that's gonna fix it.
Julie Olson: Right, right. Yeah. And that's, we,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: That's why I'm so happy to be on your podcast, Julie. We speak the same language. I mean, it's just, it with all the marketing out there, especially the beauty industry.
Julie Howton: Oh gosh. Yeah.
Julie Olson: I mean, they've convinced millions that topicals and shampoos and serums can fix an internal problem.
Julie Howton: Right. Yeah. Oh, there's the key. It's an [00:43:00] internal problem.
Julie Olson: You can't find hair growth in a bottle, and even like Minoxidil, when you get on it, I guess your hair falls out and then if you ever get off of it, your hair's gonna fall out.
Is that, and if you're trying to get pregnant, that talk about a toxin,
Julie Howton: right?
Julie Olson: Yeah. And, uh, Finasteride has black box warnings. Um, it makes men lose all their libido on average. And I, it's just, um, and now I just heard that, um, the pharmaceuticals are. In a race now to create a pharmaceutical because the GLP ones are causing hair loss,
Julie Howton: right?
Well, because of nutrient depletion and protein depletion. Like it, it's not, it's not rocket science, right? Let's give [00:44:00] you another, that's the approach, right? Let's get everybody hooked on this pharmaceutical and then we can create another pharmaceutical for, I say all the time, I think of the 10 medications I was on.
At the end, um, probably, you know, at least four, if not five of them were for side effects of the other medications. I mean, you know, it's so, it's such a racket, so insane. Um, so,
Julie Olson: but what triggered your, um, ra,
Julie Howton: um, it, well, unknown celiac, um, I had Hashimoto's that wasn't diagnosed till way later. You know, celiac was.
Diagnosed before the Hashimoto's, both way after the ra. Um, but I had mercury lead mic. I had, you know, toxicity issues M-T-H-F-R that I didn't know about. And this one will speak directly to you. Grew up low fat, so I was depleted of healthy fats. Um, and, and so [00:45:00] that, that combo, you know, the diet and the stress No, no doubt.
Because. Yeah. Knowing what I know now, I should have never been able to even start to feel better on my own. Yeah. And nailing the, the diet and, and having a truly dedicated twice a day meditation routine.
Julie Olson: Oh,
Julie Howton: were the two things. That got the needle to move and then going keto for me, at that time,
Julie Olson: Uhhuh
Julie Howton: was like the light switch of like, ah, my, I came back online, you know?
Um, and, and so now, you know, when I, when I look at labs and, and, and things like, really I was, that, my toxicity levels were that across the board and that high that, that it is. Like you purpose, right? Like, this is clearly what I'm supposed to be doing because I really shouldn't have been able to, to even get as far as I did before I knew more or found somebody who did.
Um, so, and
Julie Olson: what was [00:46:00] the best way for you to remove your toxins when you found out
Julie Howton: slowly?
Julie Olson: What did you do? Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, same thing we do with that, you know, supported my body's detox processes. Um. You know, movement, sauna, um, binders. I still take binders. I will always take binders because I'm a collector. I, I just, damn.
Oh,
Julie Olson: so you take 'em like on an empty stomach once a day or something?
Julie Howton: Uh, um, I take them with, I, I use, you know, targeted binders. Um, and, and, you know, I'll, I'll take them. I take 'em twice a day. Um, I'm not talking about which I will take, like if I am. Traveling and eating somewhere where I'm, you know,
Julie Olson: yeah.
Julie Howton: Concerned about the oil or the food quality or, um, I'll take something like a charcoal, but these are, these are targeted binders for, I just kind of rotate. Um, at one point I had done chelation for the lead, and, and [00:47:00] I, I muscle wasted it, it, even though I was being really careful and monitored. It was not the right way for me to do it.
So, um, but you know, and then again, back to the B vitamin, supporting my body's detox processes, um, and just realizing and obviously limiting by the time I found out I had high toxicity, I mean, I was already limiting exposures, right? Yeah. Like I, you know, um, but my home is my haven and, um. You know, controlling what I can and not, you know, I, I've come through the, the, oh my gosh, it's everywhere phase and, and just, um, you know, keep my, keep my burden down so that I feel well, you know, so it's, it's, yeah, it works.
Julie Olson: And did, did you grow up here or is that what you
Julie Howton: think? No, growing up, um, no. I, I grew up in New Jersey. I lived in South Florida for 13 years, which is [00:48:00] most likely where I got the, the mold exposures. Um, and then things like getting a bunch of fillings replaced, uh, while I was living probably with mold exposure, you know.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, just tipping point, you know?
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and so it, it is always individualized and I, I still, you know, I, I say I have to, I choose to still always be as careful as I can without it being, it's not stressful, you know, I use clean products. I, I'm mindful of what I put on my body. Um, but I know just from, I still have glyphosate in my system.
I've been eating organic ever since it was a thing, right? Like, so I, I just, I like to keep stuff. I'm a, I'm a, I'm an internal hoarder, so it's a, it's just always a process.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, but we always say, you know, low and slow, like, detox [00:49:00] should be boring. And if you feel it, it's, you're, it's too much.
Julie Olson: You're right.
Right. We de we're supposed to be healthily detoxing every single day.
Julie Howton: Yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah.
Julie Howton: And these, absolutely,
Julie Olson: these detox protocols, these
Julie Howton: harsh, and I sleep well, and I drink a lot of water and I poop, you know, at, you know, every day at the very least. And, and you know, all the things that, again, back to basics, right?
I'm not. I'm not gonna go after, you know, something like up in the sky if somebody says, well, you know, yeah, I poop twice a week. It's like, oh, we're gonna start there and then, you know, build as we go.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, so we're at the point in the conversation where listeners are waiting to hear what is Julie's one step.
That people can take starting today to improve their health. And this can be anything under the sun.
Julie Olson: Oh man. One step.
Julie Howton: I know it's tricky.
Julie Olson:[00:50:00] Well, let's just go back to what I've said twice on here. I guess that's an easy step, is to just enjoy your food, your company.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: As a nutritionist, we say, drink your.
Food and chew your nutri your, and chew your liquids. That's extreme. But drink your food and chew your liquids. I mean, but
Julie Howton: yeah,
Julie Olson: seriously, you've got to, you've gotta slow down and absorb what you are consuming. I mean,
Julie Howton: yeah,
Julie Olson: I think the people on this podcast probably do eat healthy. But are they still stressed out?
Are they
Julie Howton: sure? Are they eating, standing up? You know, are
Julie Olson: they right?
Julie Howton: My grandfather, who was such a character, uh, um, used to chew his food, so he used to drink [00:51:00] his food and we just thought it was the funniest thing, you know, as a kid he would say, you should, you should just literally chew until you probably don't have to swallow.
Like, you know, just, um, and we always thought it was, it was. A little wacky. Yeah. Um, and and he would and he would giggle 'cause it would make us giggle. And, and, but it's like, oh dang. Yep.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm a slow eater and that's because I chew.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: But my, my grandmother, who is my mother's mother, who she lived 104.
Julie Howton: Oh wow.
Julie Olson: Right. No medications, but she did the same thing. She chewed and chewed just slow and,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: Ate. Or she's the one from Loveland where you, you are.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Amazing. So see, like again, that you, you mentioned this like respecting the elders and the, the family and the community. In, in blue zones, right and right.
And there's so much, [00:52:00] you know, if, if we think back to the things that may have seemed silly, it's really, these are the gifts that, that we can get from, you know, past generations. Um, I grew up unfortunately in a fast eating, aside from my grandfather. Um, you know, my dad was a really fast eater. He also passed at 54.
It's probably a correlation. Um, but yeah. Uh, there's a lot of gold again, going back to how we were designed to live. Yeah. Um, and so that's such a, a great reminder and I love the 'cause. I, I think joy is a missing piece in wellness for so many people. So I love that you started it with, you didn't start with Chew, you started with enjoy your food, your company, you know, um.
And, and so I think that that's more healing than probably anything else we've spoken about.
Julie Olson: Yeah. And I, I would just say, just simplify it.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: That, that's the [00:53:00] first thing you said, Julie, when I talked about the blue zone, you're just like, it's just so simple.
Julie Howton: Right? But you know, the, so, uh, and I'll add this though, it's simple, but we, it takes effort.
Living here. Yeah. We have to be intentional. I shouldn't say effort, right? It takes intention,
Julie Olson: right?
Julie Howton: To create that lifestyle here. Right? Or we get caught up like you were living in, you know, with that fast paced life that, um, fast pace is fine, short term.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, so I love
Julie Olson: that. And then save your money on biotin.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Save your money on your health. I love that. Uh, where for people that are listening on the go and aren't gonna check out the links, where's the best place for, for people to find more about you?
Julie Olson: Uh, they can just look me up. Julie olson.com. That'll go to my website, but I really encourage everyone to take the quiz on my website's [00:54:00] homepage because it'll give you rankings within those five root cause categories With numbers.
Yeah, actual numbers to see like if you, you have a higher toxic load than your inflammatory or your, is your digestive, the. Um, concerning.
Yeah.
Julie Olson: So it's gonna really give you a good place to start if your hair's thinning or just in general in health. It's, it's a real, it's a good quiz that give you some, some, some, um, you know, statistical,
Julie Howton: yeah, it's the same pillars.
People, autoimmune hair, hair loss, optimization, chronic inflammation like. Health is health. And so you specialize in, in helping women reclaim, you know, their hair in addition to their health. It's like whatever, whatever somebody's seeing us for. Again, back to that foundational. Um, so I say no matter what, like go to the, go to the website, take the quiz.
Um, and Julie, I just appreciate you sharing, you know, so [00:55:00] much wisdom with us today. Uh, I know so much of the work you do is research based. Um, and, and so in addition to being easy to, to, to talk to, um, you're just, you're such an amazing resource for us, so I appreciate it.
Julie Olson: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much.
I do love researching. I'll have to admit that.
Julie Howton: Well, we appreciate it.
Julie Olson: Thank you so much for having me here, Julie,
Julie Howton: and of course
Julie Olson: we'll see you soon.
Julie Howton: Yes, in person soon. For everybody listening, remember you can get those transcripts and show notes and the links by Visiting Inspired Living Show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did.
I'll see you next week.
[00:56:00]
Julie Howton: Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Howton. In today's episode, I am joined by Julie Olson, who is a triple board certified nutritionist [00:01:00] and functional medicine practitioner. Julie suffered from severe hair loss at 38, which prompt her to learn all she could about it, and gave her the foundation to develop her own five R framework to reverse hair loss even if you don't have, quote unquote, severe hair loss.
Your overall health will improve when you follow Julie's protocol.
Julie, welcome to the podcast.
Julie Olson: Oh, thanks for having me.
Julie Howton: I am so glad we're finally doing this. We've been talking about it for years.
And I, I'm really excited because I think this is more than ever, and we'll talk about why, um, more and more. Well, I'll say women, people probably in general, but women are, are struggling with hair loss.
Um, and so can you share your journey with us? I know it was your personal story that, that got you to become, um, such an expert and, and such a resource [00:02:00] for women looking for support.
Julie Olson: Sure, sure. So, yeah. I mean, you're exactly right. It's, it's women hide it. You know, we're ashamed of it. Society doesn't accept it.
So my journey started when I was 38. I'm 62 now, but I,
Julie Howton: you
Julie Olson: look 38 now. But that's when, when I was 38, my hair was falling out in handfuls and clumps months after months, and it got so bad. You could see my scalp as clear as day. It was horrifying, and I went from practitioner to practitioner and they all basically said the same thing, that there's not much you can do because there's probably genetics, but you can try lifelong medications.
Julie Howton: Now, did you, did you have women in your family that you knew of that had experienced this? No. Okay. I was just curious. Yeah, yeah. Even then, I wouldn't buy the genetics story, but I was just curious.
Julie Olson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't buy it either. Um, [00:03:00] and so fast forward I, um, that's the time when I moved back from California, um, to Colorado.
And I, my, actually, I moved back. Full disclosure, I was a media research analyst at Warner Brothers and I got the call that my mom had stage three cancer and we're really close. So I moved back and worked in television. I worked at. Channel two and channel four CBS in, in Denver. And I just got disenchanted with the business and more interested why she got so sick.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: And it was at that time that I realized I was putting blinders on my own health. And when my hair started falling out in clumps, I'm like, mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Yeah,
Julie Olson: I'm quitting. So I quit. I went back to school and it's the best thing I ever did.
Julie Howton: Wow. Amazing. And, and so. Obviously you're not wearing a wig, [00:04:00] right?
Obviously. Oh, no, that's, you nailed it. That's my hair.
Um, so, so not genetics for you, right? No. No. Your hair loss. What, what, what did you end up figuring out for yourself that kinda led you into, you know what, I'm gonna help people figure this out.
Julie Olson: Well, I was a hot mess. I was literally, after I started digging, I realized I was a hot mess. And, um, it started with my lifestyle choices, which I know you're such an expert on.
But I was living a very fast lifestyle in la a lot of late nights partying and,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, as, as people do.
Julie Olson: Yeah. But I wasn't eating well. Um. Okay. And then what? After I started digging deeper, [00:05:00] I found out I had hypothyroidism, h pylori, Epstein, Barra virus. Not, not a little like 3000 in the 3000 range.
So active normal range is like 240 or something like ridiculous. But I thought, oh, I'm just tired because of my lifestyle.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: Um, what else? A dysbiosis bad. Um.
Julie Howton: So pretty
Julie Olson: much all the things.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Celiac, um, and other food sensitivities. Uh, tho those are the main things. I mean, it was really,
Julie Howton: well, that's, that's enough.
Yeah. A doing.
Julie Olson: It's, I mean,
Julie Howton: it's, it's interesting. Do you see this a lot as women, we can ignore, like we, we explain away, right? Right. Like the fatigue and the, and you know, we kind of. Are masterful at ignoring the symptoms when they're quiet or whispering and as they get louder, but hair falling out in clumps, that gets our attention.
[00:06:00] Right,
Julie Olson: right. And that's why I call it a gift. It was my gift.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: I literally would not have stopped. I wouldn't have changed everything. Yeah. And maybe that's it. Yeah. It can be vain, but you know, women, men too. And that's okay. It takes something. Some, whatever it is, straw, to break the camel's back just to finally pay attention to your, your health and wake up.
And, and that's why I'm so passionate about it, because I do, I get women like me, that same thing. You know, they, they look fine and they eat fine and they exercise, blah, blah. But I start doing labs and they're not absorbing, they're not methylating, they're not detoxifying properly, they're not, you know, and it's, you start to peel back the layers and, and.
And it makes a lot of sense too because, um, we can talk about, I, uh, you'll, I think we'll be talking about the fecal microbial transplant. And that's also something that got me so excited about this because, [00:07:00] um, functional medicine, they, they say, you know, it all starts in the gut and it, and I have another abstract on just that, the gut hair link and.
And the, I have the fecal microbial transplant. Some of the first cases that just happened by accident, there's uh, um, four subjects and some of 'em had a autoimmune alopecia. So alopecia is the medical term for all types of hair loss, thinning, and autoimmune forms. People think, gotcha. Differently.
Julie Howton: Right.
But,
Julie Olson: um, couple of the subjects had, yeah. All alopecia universalis where you lose hair from all over your body. Mm-hmm. And, and sure enough, um,
Julie Howton: it's not why they got the transplant.
Julie Olson: No, it's not why they had speed. The other lady had bad colitis. The other man, which is actually my favorite one, he [00:08:00] is 86 years old.
Julie Howton: Wow.
Julie Olson: He had colon cancer and depression and he just had a bald spot. And so I'm like. Sure enough, they all grew back the hair and I'm like, even if you're 86, you
Julie Howton: wow.
Julie Olson: Back their hair. That's
Julie Howton: amazing.
Julie Olson: You, I love that. You get your gut balance. So that is so inspirational for me. Um,
Julie Howton: yeah. That's incredible. Um, and, and I, I remember when I first started reading research about fecal transplants, um, you know, it is, it's fascinating.
It makes so much sense if you think about it. Uh, but so gut is obviously just, I know listeners are like, really? Again. Um, but, but this, this impact because look like what are, you are like the poster child for you had almost like every kind of category would look for. You didn't mention toxins for you personally, but like
Julie Olson: Oh yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, so whether [00:09:00] it, whether it's. Do similar things apply, whether it's autoimmune or not? Um, as far as as gut health and nutrition and hair loss?
Julie Olson: Yes. Yes. Now that's a good question because I'm up to 76 causes of hair loss.
Julie Howton: Okay.
Julie Olson: But I put them to five functional root cause categories and one is gut, which includes digestive, digestive.
Nutritional, right?
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: Um, inflammatory is another one. Toxins, stress and hormonal.
Julie Howton: Yes.
Julie Olson: So, and there's overlap in those as well. So it's not really about the gut per se, but it kind of always goes back to the gut because we create our hormones in the gut. If we have stress. How in the heck can we absorb our nutrients?
And stress plays a big [00:10:00] role in, in that, in triggering inflammation. And when you have, um, chronic inflammation, it actually, yeah. It's gonna, it, it, it does the same to the hair follicle. We don't need our hair, you know? Right. And so it's gonna take care of everything else.
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: And, um, that's another reason why c.
They called it the COVID shed was, so, it was inflammatory. There's so many inflammatory cytokines and things running, you know, bouncing around that. Um, your hair, it prematurely pops it from the resting phase. I mean, I'm sorry, the growth phase. To the resting phase.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: When you have this chronic systemic inflammation, your hair just so I, I can't, there's other things your body has to take care of besides your hair hit your hair growth.
So that is one mechanism that where chronic stress plays a huge role. It like o other [00:11:00] diseases and autoimmune conditions and everything.
Julie Howton: Sure. And medication. I mean, the reason I say all roads lead back to the gut, and I don't mean it as in the, like, you have to manage the stress. You have to, you know, remove the toxins, whatever the, the things are.
Those, those factors, but all of them affect the gut. Yeah. So like if you're ignoring, if you're like, well, I'll just get my, you know, toxic burden down and you're not healing the gut, um, it, it's, it's not gonna help at all. Right. You know? Right, right. Are, are there, you know, we, we say at the clinic all the time, you know, like you said, like your hair's not necessary.
You know, and so to the body, to physiologically, like it's gonna be the last thing that gets those resources.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, what are some either foods or eating styles that you feel contribute to hair loss? Like what, what are [00:12:00] we kind of doing wrong?
Julie Olson: Um. At first how we're eating. Most people are eating on the run.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Not digesting
Julie Olson: or standing up.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: My, my husband's um, jiujitsu group came over to watch some fights or something a couple of weeks ago. They ate their entire dinner standing up.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: I'm like, and then they said, oh, we do it all the time. Yeah. And they're not, you know, people don't chew.
Julie Howton: You have to be in the rest and digest.
Yeah. In the parasympathetic state in order to, yeah. Assuming you've even done the work to heal your gut. Um, I know. Are, are there like big nutrients? P you see like frequently missing? I know you do, you know, a lot of, a lot of testing.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, you're not guessing with your clients. Like I, I know. Um, you know, like us it's, it's individualized.
You have your framework and we'll, we'll [00:13:00] touch on your framework as well. Um, but, but are there certain kind of deficiencies or, um. Eating patterns that you see like kind of frequently like, oh, yep, there it is.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Well, a vegan or vegetarian is, it's really, really difficult to have healthy, to grow your hair just in general because we need those essential and branch chain amino acids.
You don't get on a vegan or vegetarian diet. Right. And I test those. I, I'll, I'll see where all their amino acids are at. Yeah. But I mean, our hair, they call it keratin, but that's protein. Our hair's made of protein, um, what we need. Thank you. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Well, it's important for people to hear because so often, and, and sometimes it's, it's for other reasons. But often people are making that choice because they, they, they're intending for it to be a healthy choice.
Julie Olson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Um, [00:14:00] and, and I too, you know, I, I, I, it can long term cause a lot of problems for the body beyond hair.
Um, yes. But, so it makes perfect sense to me, but I I, I just wanted to hear your take on that. Yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah, yeah. I just, um, yeah, but. There are some top foods I can rattle 'em off. Um,
Julie Howton: sure.
Julie Olson: I pretty much, I'm real, a real fan of the paleo.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: The anti-inflammatory autoimmune diet. Um, some of those. But, um, I have recipes with these particular foods because they are from my research, the top hair health foods.
You want me to run through it?
Julie Howton: Sure. Not along, but I mean, if you, yeah, if you have favorites that like, if people can hear like, Ooh, I'm not incorporating that in. Sure.
Julie Olson: Okay. Um, well, leafy green salmon, olive oil, avocado, onions, pumpkin, Brazil nuts, [00:15:00] sardines, eggs, lentils, oysters, Oregon meat livers, great hair,
Julie Howton: food.
Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um,
Julie Howton: so nutrient dense.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Nutrient dense.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, yeah.
Julie Howton: Good Omegas, I'm guessing because
Julie Olson: yes, we need omegas. We definitely need our omega. We need a micronutrients, some macronutrients. The thing is, Julie, they've discovered the new scalp, hair follicle microbiome, and it needs to be treated the same way as our gut microbiome, and people don't realize our hair follicles are.
Extremely metabolically active. They require an enormous amount of nutrients, and they also require enormous amount of energy. You know, a TP, the whole Krebs cycle thing. Yeah, the mitochondria. And, and again, when people are struggling, struggling with their health in other places, that [00:16:00] that's the last thing.
That's gonna right your body. It's,
Julie Howton: but sometimes it's body wants, it's the first symptom where they really realize something's wrong. Right. So, uh, to me, I, hair loss is a symptom,
Julie Olson: right?
Julie Howton: It's, you know, just like joint pain or psoriasis or, you know, fill in the blank. Um, and, and so, you know, I love that and it makes perfect sense that, that the approach is, you know, let's find out why.
You know, remove those things. Support. This is a good, great time to, to, you know, mention your, your five step approach to, you know, 'cause this is not, you know, see Julie if either Julie, but nobody should seek you out if they're looking for a pill or a supplement, that's gonna be the magic solution to their hair loss.
Julie Olson: Sure. Sure. So, yeah, it's based off [00:17:00] of the, the function by bars, by framework. Remove, replace, re inoculate, repair, repair and rebalance. Um, yeah. But there are some caveats and there are some other testing and markers that I'll do, um, associated with hair loss, but I, I, it's not a cookie cutter approach. Yeah.
You know?
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: As Right. I mean, um. And I am very, very much a stickler on the remove phase, um,
Julie Howton: share. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, it, it's like people say to me all the time, you know, well, you know, do, do you say that you healed your RA or that it's in remission or that you never had ra? And I'm like, well, I don't usually say any of those things, but what I will say is if I go back.
To living how I was living. I will be symptomatic and probably diagnosable again, [00:18:00] you know, at, at some point it'll catch back up. Um, so the removal, you like, you can't do the same thing, right? It's the definition of insanity, right? Like you can't do the things that got you. Either sick or experiencing hair loss, and often it's both, um, and expect results.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: So I love that, that you're pretty open with like, no, there, there is a remove. Remove is important and that's where we start. Right. You know? Um, what are kind of the, are there across the board things that, that, you know, you know, that are included in the remove phase for most people?
Julie Olson: Yeah, I'm seeing a ton of candida, h pylori, toxins, toxic overload, you know, a lot of food sensitivities.
I, but that's, um, and nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalance. But I see on the gut tests, [00:19:00] um, I really like the gut test. I like the other test, um, Neutrival, um mm-hmm. Where it looks to see if they're. Methylating detoxifying. Um,
Julie Howton: I love Nutri Bele also absorbing
Julie Olson: properly
Julie Howton: because it's personal. It's not just showing where you are in the range, but it's showing like for your body, what do you need right now?
Julie Olson: Right, right.
Julie Howton: And I, I think that's one of the things for me that makes it such a standout test. Um, you know, so I love that you use that as well, you know? Uh,
Julie Olson: yeah. And Julie, you know, something. That I'm running into a lot, and I'm wondering if you all are, is I'm getting these women with a bunch of mercury fillings and I'm, I'm to the point where like mm-hmm.
I'm not starting my program with you until you get those removed.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And safely. Yeah.
Julie Olson: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Um, are
Julie Olson: you seeing that too?
Julie Howton: I, I think, yeah. I, I [00:20:00] mean, and that's always been, and maybe it's 'cause it was part, it's been, it's part of my journey. Mercury toxicity. So I, that's somewhere where I always, me too, tend to, to go to, um, you know, the, what I think of as almost what people, which, funny, it's, it's in their bodies, but they would consider it a hidden toxin would be, you know, the fillings and or breast implants.
Um, you know, we're, I'm seeing a lot of. That and, and, and again, and it's fascinating where, you know, if I'm working with somebody and, and you know, I, I try to not like day one be like, you gotta get those out. Um, but I've had so many clients where I know that's one of the big drivers and, and we're working toward embracing the fact that, that it's okay to.
To take steps to truly heal the body. And I've had so many say, oh, you know, within the first week of getting them, I had [00:21:00] X or Y or, so they've known from the time they got them that their, it was triggering a, you know, inflammatory response in the body. But yet, 10, 15 years later, I'm having to actually convince them that even though their body has been telling them for over a decade, this is a problem.
Um, and so, and yeah, mercury, fillings, root canals.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, a a lot of, you know, just traditional dentistry or, and or, um, and I know you, you know, you're looking at toxins. Um, like my, my daughter, I always admit, you know, the, how, how we would parent differently if we knew then what we know now. Right. I had a bunch of fillings removed when I was pregnant with her.
Julie Olson: Oh, wow.
Julie Howton: So she had mercury toxicity, not from her own fillings, but from her in utero exposure. So, [00:22:00] you know, it, it's, there's a reason why we test. Right,
Julie Olson: right, right.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Right. So the first part of my career I was, I've been a nutritionist for 15 years. I, um, was a nutritionist for Natural Grocers, you know who that is?
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: For six years. And then, um, uh, functional medicine practice. So testing, and I know how it is when you don't test, and I know how it is when you test.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: Even for something as simple as food sensitivities, because you can tell someone till you're blue in your face. Yeah. That, um, you know, you need to remove
Julie Howton: certain things.
Julie Olson: Yeah,
Julie Howton: yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah. And then I just wanna, before I lose a thought, jump back to the Mercury. I just published a, a blog on Mercury and, and it's, it's has a ton of references, so I mean, oh, fun. Just because it is hard to figure out, I think, for a lot of these people. [00:23:00] Like what's the link between. Removing my Mercury and
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: You know, hair loss and mercury. And, well,
Julie Howton: and I wanna highlight again, I, I, I commented on safe removal and, and, um, I, I did a, a great episode several years ago with, with Charla Aaronson, who's a, a biological dentist. Um, you know, if you listen closely to what I just said about my daughter
Julie Olson: Yeah, exactly.
Julie Howton: The removal can be a way higher exposure than leaving them in your
Julie Olson: mouth's, not me.
Julie Howton: Yeah. So I
Julie Olson: use the smart Yes. And there's some certifications. Yeah. It's on my blog.
Julie Howton: Yeah. So I just wanna highlight that for people. Yeah. I don't want people running to their regular dentist Oh, that,
Julie Olson: yes.
Julie Howton: And getting their, their mercury fillings removed. Yeah. That
Julie Olson: makes it worse. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, yeah, so, so it, mercury is, is a big one.
You mentioned, so I'm gonna highlight, and people already know my bias [00:24:00] anyway, you mentioned gluten. Um, because I'm, I agree. I'm at the, at the point where, you know, it, it's so, it, it's so helpful to have advanced testing now where people can. See what their body's reaction versus, you know, Julie said, don't eat gluten.
Yeah. Um, glu again, it, we've known since 2015 that it, it can contribute to leaky gut, even for people that have never been gluten sensitive. So that's, that's a component of the spiral.
Julie Olson: Right, right.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Julie, you and I know too much about gluten. It's, we know it's not good for anybody. Well, it's such a large protein to digest.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: And, um,
Julie Howton: and I, I have evolved the, the, the, um, and, and this is the perfect segue into what I really wanted, I want you to share with us. Um, but I really have evolved to question, is it gluten or is it, [00:25:00] you know, the gluten, glyphosate that, you know, the, we, we have. Modified the wheat in our country to contain higher levels of gluten in certain proteins.
Um, and it's all saturated with glyphosate here. Um, and, and they, it's the last thing they do at harvest is spray it again with glyphosate. 'cause it helps dry it out. Like it's so hard to pull, pull those apart. Um, that I really do. It's like, okay, question mark. Like. It, I think gluten as, as it was intended, might not be the big problem for everybody.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, that, that we see all the time in practice because I know a lot of people that can go to Italy or go to Europe and eat gluten
Julie Olson: mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: And be fine.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, and people ask me all the time, like, you know, well, you're celiac, have you tried that? And I'm like, no, I'm not that [00:26:00] brave because I, it's not worth ruining my vacation.
Um, and I, I, um, have celiac, so it's different. Um, but you, I know, spent a couple weeks, not just in Italy. Um, but this will kind of circle back to lifestyle and stress too, um, in Sardinia. So blue zone, right? Yeah. Which is we talk about is we're trying to study these blue zones and figure out, you know, what is this secret to, to longevity and health span and, you know, living not just longer, but well.
Um, so can you share a little bit with us? 'cause that that's a good, it's not like you were there for a day, like you were there for two weeks.
Julie Olson: Yeah. And then we went and took a cooking class and we made bread and the flour. That's part of the problem is in America they hybridize wheat, so it has bigger yields.
If you see a picture of wheat in United States and wheat [00:27:00] and. Europe or anywhere else in the world. Yeah, it's much smaller.
Julie Howton: It's a different,
Julie Olson: it's a huge,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, and it's, it's different color. So the flower there is really yellow. I mean, not light yellow. It's, well, it
Julie Howton: hasn't
Julie Olson: been
Julie Howton: bleached.
Julie Olson: We bleached it, we do all sorts of things too.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: It's nice
Julie Olson: putting,
Julie Howton: we strip everything out of it and then we like throw crappy versions of stuff back in. Like, it's crazy. Yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah, yeah. Um.
Julie Howton: Did you eat the bread?
Julie Olson: I did. I, I ate it. I fine. You're so
Julie Howton: brave.
Julie Olson: I, but Julie, I did the same as you. 'cause I was in Europe for a month.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: I was in Ireland, Greece, and, um, and then Italy and I was gluten-free.
I mean, I was, I'm, I'm like a Nazi on that. Yeah, I'm
Julie Howton: right.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Wow. Amazing.
Julie Olson: But yeah, and they, and they don't add of it. I mean, they just make, it's like. Flour [00:28:00] and water is how they made the bread. Right. And you know, United States, they
Julie Howton: all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. So, so share some of your, your wisdom you picked up there other than again, highlighting.
Like our food system in this country is completely adulterated, if you could even call it food at this point.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and so a lot of the problems, again, because people will say, you know, people have been eating wheat for, you know, a long time. And I'm like, not this wheat not, not what we have here. Um, yeah.
But, but what else? 'cause you, you highlighted even in your own journey that this stress is such a big. Driver of chronic inflammation, you know? Right. Gut challenges despite like all the things. Right? Yeah. Again, 'cause we can't, they're not separated in a box. We're integrated humans.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, so what, what else did you get to experience [00:29:00] or witness there that, that you think like, ugh, you know, I, I can see why I got sick living the way I was living.
Julie Olson: Right, right. Well, they actually. They slow down. They enjoy their food, they enjoy their family, they respect their elders. They have a purpose. They move. They just walk everywhere. But they, they enjoy their food. They drink wine, but it's all organic. Yeah, they have coffee. It's all organic and they enjoy, I mean, the, the, the big thing is meeting for coffee in the morning and then meeting to have a glass.
They don't go, they don't overindulge
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: Either. They, everything's in moderation. And I didn't see supplement stores. I didn't even see gyms.
Julie Howton: Yeah, well, they
Julie Olson: don't need them. I just saw a lot of people out on the streets just hanging out and talking to each other. Uh, I didn't see people with hair loss. I.[00:30:00]
I Isn't
Julie Howton: that amazing?
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: But they have a purpose too. I mean, they're,
Julie Howton: it's
Julie Olson: huge. They're very family oriented. Um, and if they, if, you know, if they do work, they're very, you know, seem to be very into whatever they're doing. Very passionate to
Julie Howton: about it. Purpose.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're definitely not eating, standing up and, and they're chewing their food like we talked about earlier.
But
Julie Howton: it's just, it seems so simple.
Julie Olson: Simple. It, it's simple. It's so basic.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: You know, after I got Julie, after I got back, I was on a, um, uh, summit bio, like a biohacking summit and Uhhuh, he's like, so what are your top biohacks and what did you learn? I'm like, there aren't any, you, you have to get the basics down.
Julie Howton: Back to basics is the biohack, right? Yeah. Like the [00:31:00] living aligned with how we're created to live.
Julie Olson: Right. I mean, you know the Brian Johnson Johnson?
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: He's taking a hundred supplements a day.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Um, yeah. Which. Yeah, that's a whole nother podcast.
Julie Olson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julie Howton: But it does lead me to, um, because this, I, I do wanna make sure that we get to, when it, when it comes to supplements for hair loss, um, I, I wanna talk about biotin because every, almost every woman that mentions hair loss as an aside, um, will say.
I'm taking biotin or you know what I mean? Like, like we were talking before I hit record and I remember 15 years ago stealing my horse's biotin that she was taking for her hooves. 'cause I thought that might help my hair loss. So can you share with us, um, I know, you know, [00:32:00] you've done a lot of research on, on biotin it, is it a good thing for everybody to be taking to support hair health?
Julie Olson: We, no, because we get enough in our diet. Biotin deficiency is exceedingly extremely rare.
Julie Howton: Okay?
Julie Olson: Very rare. I mean, we get it in, in common foods. Um, it, we get enough. And the RDA for biotin is 30 and they're, they're selling like 10,000 micrograms of biotin. In a lot of hair health supplements, but so, okay.
It's extremely rare unless you have this rare genetic disorder, which affects one out of 140,000 people.
Julie Howton: Holy cow. That is
Julie Olson: rare. Um, if you're getting long-term parental nutrition, you know, like intravenous nutrition.
Julie Howton: Sure.
Julie Olson: If you have long-term antibiotic use.
Julie Howton: Okay.
Julie Olson: If you have, if you're a alcoholic or you have liver disease, or if you do [00:33:00] dietary extremes like, um, raw eggs because they, they bind to the biotin and prevent.
Julie Howton: That would have to be a lot of rags. We're not talking about one Caesar salad. Right, right. Like,
Julie Olson: um, yeah. And then in pregnancy, women re require when they're pregnant, just a little bit of, uh, extra biotin. Okay. And then certain medications deplete, biotin, anti-seizure medications. And interesting, um, some medications for acne and even some medications for Crohn's disease leads to biotin deficiency.
But I mean, that's such a small, but
Julie Howton: that's specific
Julie Olson: percentage, right? Yeah. And the problem is, um, there's a lot of nutrient interactions. You know, zing, zang, you know, you, you kind of need to balance out your copper and zinc. Well, um, if you take too much biotin, um, it's gonna. Um, interfere with the absorption of a lot of the B [00:34:00] vitamins, B five, B six, B12, um, okay.
And it's gonna mess up your ferritin. Um, and then it has the potential to, um, disrupt your, your mat, your metabolic. Especially your, your kidney and, and, and your liver because, um, it alters, uh, the, the glucose metabolism, um, exasperating, hypoglycemia and diabetics. Um,
Julie Howton: wow. Okay.
Julie Olson: And then it,
Julie Howton: so it's not benign it.
Julie Olson: No, it's, but that, that's what I mean. Even us, we we're like, oh, is Biogen, it's a B vitamin. It's water soluble. Right. No, no. So, and then it also,
Julie Howton: well, 'cause you mentioned this balance of things, right? Like every system in our body has an opposing force. Ev everything like you, you mentioned, which is like a beautiful one.
The, the coppers zinc, like it's, the ratios are really important and, and they matter. [00:35:00] Um, and, and so I wanna highlight, like you, you mentioned this interaction with ferritin and ferritin levels can be really related to hair loss, right?
Julie Olson: Oh yeah. But it also interferes with, um, your thyroid levels and vitamin D measurements.
Julie Howton: Wow.
Julie Olson: Um, over 200 labs, vitamin D, B12. Um, a lot of the antibody tests. Um, and the most concerning one is the Tri Trippin. 'cause it, um, it's a cardiovascular. I'm, I'm
Julie Howton: okay.
Julie Olson: It is a part, a cardiovascular marker. So if someone comes in taking a lot of biotin, um, it can make that number incorrect. And there's actually, I have a documented, um, heart attack that was missed.
Julie Howton: Wow.
Julie Olson: Because the labs came back abnormal. [00:36:00] Um, yeah. It's, it's, and, and also it can cause skin problems. Which is interesting because they market, they market it as
Julie Howton: hair, skin. Yeah. Healthy hair, skin, nails. Right.
Julie Olson: I even had some, um, clients come in and they're like, yeah, whenever I take biotin, I get acne. And that's documented.
I may, I
Julie Howton: have a right, but did they stop taking it? Because that's always interesting to me, right? Like, yeah. It's like, okay, well stop doing that. You know? Um, yeah. Yeah. I, I think that's so important for people to hear. What, what would you consider, um, you know, you, you mentioned COVID, like there are certain times where we will lose more than typical hair.
Um, so I, I wanna be really like cl clear with like, I lose a lot of hair all the time. I obviously have a lot of [00:37:00] hair. Yeah. I didn't always like, again, when I was on all the medications and I was inflamed and I was sick,
Julie Olson: yeah.
Julie Howton: I didn't like such a difference that as my new hair grew back in, especially 'cause my hair's curly.
Like I had to cut all the rest of the hair off. 'cause you could really tell like, new hair, old hair. Oh
Julie Olson: wow.
Julie Howton: But, but I, I tend to, you know, it is typical to drop hair. Hundreds
Julie Olson: of hairs a day is typical. That's normal. Many, a hundred.
Julie Howton: A
Julie Olson: hundred.
Julie Howton: Um, and then, uh, there's certain, uh, certain things, sometimes women will get concerned because they'll feel like all of a sudden they're losing more hair.
You mentioned COVID. I I think it's a, it's a common post viral syndrome. Um, I would say post anesthesia. What, what are some, yeah. Um, so
Julie Olson: after pregnancy, after they have their baby.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, but also seasonal changes. You're gonna lose hair going into each new season.
Julie Howton: Okay? Yeah. So not always time to panic.
Julie Olson: No, no, no, no.
[00:38:00] But if it's day after day, week after week, month after month, then you need to panic because there's also a bit of an urgency here when it gets to the point where. There's scarring of the hair follicle and you can usually see that 'cause it's a shiny scalp. You see a lot of men with a, that scarring of the hair follicle, that's almost impossible to reverse that type of hair loss.
Julie Howton: Okay. Yeah. Once, yeah, once you've scarred up. So early is better. But yet, don't panic if you can think to. You know, did I have a virus a few weeks ago? You know, did I just have surgery? Did I just have a baby like these, these are
Julie Olson: right.
Julie Howton: Big hormonal fluxes will, will cause us to lose hair.
Julie Olson: Right. And when we have a big stressor in our life
Julie Howton: mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: Your hair will fall out three months after that stressor.
Julie Howton: That's really good information. Yeah. It's almost
Julie Olson: sometimes you forget what that was and you're like, my hair's falling out [00:39:00] and you panic. But if you think back three months earlier, yeah.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm. Well, and I see that a lot with like, oh, you know, my autoimmune symptoms just became noticeable.
Now we know they were brewing in the background, but usually, especially for women, it can be. Uh, right about that same time, about three months post stressor. Yeah. So, um, you know, it's not usually during the stressor, it's usually after, so, yeah. Yeah.
Julie Olson: Can I just, um, mention it going back to the biotin and Yeah.
If, you know, and you guys probably do this as well, but when you do have lab work done, um. Especially a thyroid panel, iron panel, just blood work in general. Um, get off biotin for five to seven days.
Julie Howton: Yes.
Julie Olson: And then I do have this published abstract here in this integrative medicine, the clinician journal this month about, which is amazing, the, which I call the [00:40:00] biotin myth now, um, just because people don't understand more is not better.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And, and I think it is one of those things that's not an expensive supplement. So this, you know, with the people tend to, to just do more and more and more are, are there things that, that most of us can just incorporate into our wellness routine other than the lifestyle thing? Are there supplements you, you say are good kind of for everybody?
Like I, I had mentioned Omegas. Um, is there anything that you're like, you know, even just protectively. We should be doing for our hair.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Um, well, good. B complex, even a good multivitamin. Uh, a good, I I'm a big fan of enzymes. Digestive enzymes.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: Um, you know, again, going back to getting your gut healthy and keeping it healthy.
Some of those core supplement, I mean, there are certain nutrients that help with [00:41:00] hair like collagen and horsetail and, um, silica. I mean, there's a whole list of them, but you know it's not gonna work and you're gonna waste your money if you think you can go out and get a hair supplement and your hair's gonna grow back.
Julie Howton: Right.
Julie Olson: It, it's, it's 99% of it is deeper because. Again, like we talked about earlier, why
Julie Howton: are you deficient to begin with? If, if it's a deficiency. Exactly. Right. Yeah.
Julie Olson: And, and Julie, that brings up hair transplants. I have so many women come to me that've had hair transplants.
Julie Howton: Really? Wow.
Julie Olson: And that's because,
Julie Howton: and it didn't solve all their problems.
Julie Olson: No, I I it, they only work for a couple of years. On average, only 49% of hair transplants work and beware of those discounted hair transplants in foreign countries. 'cause that's gonna cost, talk about scarring, right? That's gonna cause lifelong scarring. Um, and then even [00:42:00] PRP treatments, um, it was very, very painful.
And, um, there's just limited evidence that they work. So, you know, first Yeah, I,
Julie Howton: I mean, and if you're not, again
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Foundational, right? Like if you, if you address the drivers and you're, you're doing all the lifestyle things and, and you've, like you said, you've repaired and re and restored and you've done your five Rs.
And then you wanna do like a PRP microneedling, great, fine. But, but if you're not gonna do the other stuff, there is really nothing that's gonna fix it.
Julie Olson: Right, right. Yeah. And that's, we,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: That's why I'm so happy to be on your podcast, Julie. We speak the same language. I mean, it's just, it with all the marketing out there, especially the beauty industry.
Julie Howton: Oh gosh. Yeah.
Julie Olson: I mean, they've convinced millions that topicals and shampoos and serums can fix an internal problem.
Julie Howton: Right. Yeah. Oh, there's the key. It's an [00:43:00] internal problem.
Julie Olson: You can't find hair growth in a bottle, and even like Minoxidil, when you get on it, I guess your hair falls out and then if you ever get off of it, your hair's gonna fall out.
Is that, and if you're trying to get pregnant, that talk about a toxin,
Julie Howton: right?
Julie Olson: Yeah. And, uh, Finasteride has black box warnings. Um, it makes men lose all their libido on average. And I, it's just, um, and now I just heard that, um, the pharmaceuticals are. In a race now to create a pharmaceutical because the GLP ones are causing hair loss,
Julie Howton: right?
Well, because of nutrient depletion and protein depletion. Like it, it's not, it's not rocket science, right? Let's give [00:44:00] you another, that's the approach, right? Let's get everybody hooked on this pharmaceutical and then we can create another pharmaceutical for, I say all the time, I think of the 10 medications I was on.
At the end, um, probably, you know, at least four, if not five of them were for side effects of the other medications. I mean, you know, it's so, it's such a racket, so insane. Um, so,
Julie Olson: but what triggered your, um, ra,
Julie Howton: um, it, well, unknown celiac, um, I had Hashimoto's that wasn't diagnosed till way later. You know, celiac was.
Diagnosed before the Hashimoto's, both way after the ra. Um, but I had mercury lead mic. I had, you know, toxicity issues M-T-H-F-R that I didn't know about. And this one will speak directly to you. Grew up low fat, so I was depleted of healthy fats. Um, and, and so [00:45:00] that, that combo, you know, the diet and the stress No, no doubt.
Because. Yeah. Knowing what I know now, I should have never been able to even start to feel better on my own. Yeah. And nailing the, the diet and, and having a truly dedicated twice a day meditation routine.
Julie Olson: Oh,
Julie Howton: were the two things. That got the needle to move and then going keto for me, at that time,
Julie Olson: Uhhuh
Julie Howton: was like the light switch of like, ah, my, I came back online, you know?
Um, and, and so now, you know, when I, when I look at labs and, and, and things like, really I was, that, my toxicity levels were that across the board and that high that, that it is. Like you purpose, right? Like, this is clearly what I'm supposed to be doing because I really shouldn't have been able to, to even get as far as I did before I knew more or found somebody who did.
Um, so, and
Julie Olson: what was [00:46:00] the best way for you to remove your toxins when you found out
Julie Howton: slowly?
Julie Olson: What did you do? Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, same thing we do with that, you know, supported my body's detox processes. Um. You know, movement, sauna, um, binders. I still take binders. I will always take binders because I'm a collector. I, I just, damn.
Oh,
Julie Olson: so you take 'em like on an empty stomach once a day or something?
Julie Howton: Uh, um, I take them with, I, I use, you know, targeted binders. Um, and, and, you know, I'll, I'll take them. I take 'em twice a day. Um, I'm not talking about which I will take, like if I am. Traveling and eating somewhere where I'm, you know,
Julie Olson: yeah.
Julie Howton: Concerned about the oil or the food quality or, um, I'll take something like a charcoal, but these are, these are targeted binders for, I just kind of rotate. Um, at one point I had done chelation for the lead, and, and [00:47:00] I, I muscle wasted it, it, even though I was being really careful and monitored. It was not the right way for me to do it.
So, um, but you know, and then again, back to the B vitamin, supporting my body's detox processes, um, and just realizing and obviously limiting by the time I found out I had high toxicity, I mean, I was already limiting exposures, right? Yeah. Like I, you know, um, but my home is my haven and, um. You know, controlling what I can and not, you know, I, I've come through the, the, oh my gosh, it's everywhere phase and, and just, um, you know, keep my, keep my burden down so that I feel well, you know, so it's, it's, yeah, it works.
Julie Olson: And did, did you grow up here or is that what you
Julie Howton: think? No, growing up, um, no. I, I grew up in New Jersey. I lived in South Florida for 13 years, which is [00:48:00] most likely where I got the, the mold exposures. Um, and then things like getting a bunch of fillings replaced, uh, while I was living probably with mold exposure, you know.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, just tipping point, you know?
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, and, and so it, it is always individualized and I, I still, you know, I, I say I have to, I choose to still always be as careful as I can without it being, it's not stressful, you know, I use clean products. I, I'm mindful of what I put on my body. Um, but I know just from, I still have glyphosate in my system.
I've been eating organic ever since it was a thing, right? Like, so I, I just, I like to keep stuff. I'm a, I'm a, I'm an internal hoarder, so it's a, it's just always a process.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, but we always say, you know, low and slow, like, detox [00:49:00] should be boring. And if you feel it, it's, you're, it's too much.
Julie Olson: You're right.
Right. We de we're supposed to be healthily detoxing every single day.
Julie Howton: Yeah,
Julie Olson: yeah.
Julie Howton: And these, absolutely,
Julie Olson: these detox protocols, these
Julie Howton: harsh, and I sleep well, and I drink a lot of water and I poop, you know, at, you know, every day at the very least. And, and you know, all the things that, again, back to basics, right?
I'm not. I'm not gonna go after, you know, something like up in the sky if somebody says, well, you know, yeah, I poop twice a week. It's like, oh, we're gonna start there and then, you know, build as we go.
Julie Olson: Right.
Julie Howton: Um, so we're at the point in the conversation where listeners are waiting to hear what is Julie's one step.
That people can take starting today to improve their health. And this can be anything under the sun.
Julie Olson: Oh man. One step.
Julie Howton: I know it's tricky.
Julie Olson:[00:50:00] Well, let's just go back to what I've said twice on here. I guess that's an easy step, is to just enjoy your food, your company.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm.
Julie Olson: As a nutritionist, we say, drink your.
Food and chew your nutri your, and chew your liquids. That's extreme. But drink your food and chew your liquids. I mean, but
Julie Howton: yeah,
Julie Olson: seriously, you've got to, you've gotta slow down and absorb what you are consuming. I mean,
Julie Howton: yeah,
Julie Olson: I think the people on this podcast probably do eat healthy. But are they still stressed out?
Are they
Julie Howton: sure? Are they eating, standing up? You know, are
Julie Olson: they right?
Julie Howton: My grandfather, who was such a character, uh, um, used to chew his food, so he used to drink [00:51:00] his food and we just thought it was the funniest thing, you know, as a kid he would say, you should, you should just literally chew until you probably don't have to swallow.
Like, you know, just, um, and we always thought it was, it was. A little wacky. Yeah. Um, and and he would and he would giggle 'cause it would make us giggle. And, and, but it's like, oh dang. Yep.
Julie Olson: Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm a slow eater and that's because I chew.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: But my, my grandmother, who is my mother's mother, who she lived 104.
Julie Howton: Oh wow.
Julie Olson: Right. No medications, but she did the same thing. She chewed and chewed just slow and,
Julie Howton: yeah.
Julie Olson: Ate. Or she's the one from Loveland where you, you are.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Amazing. So see, like again, that you, you mentioned this like respecting the elders and the, the family and the community. In, in blue zones, right and right.
And there's so much, [00:52:00] you know, if, if we think back to the things that may have seemed silly, it's really, these are the gifts that, that we can get from, you know, past generations. Um, I grew up unfortunately in a fast eating, aside from my grandfather. Um, you know, my dad was a really fast eater. He also passed at 54.
It's probably a correlation. Um, but yeah. Uh, there's a lot of gold again, going back to how we were designed to live. Yeah. Um, and so that's such a, a great reminder and I love the 'cause. I, I think joy is a missing piece in wellness for so many people. So I love that you started it with, you didn't start with Chew, you started with enjoy your food, your company, you know, um.
And, and so I think that that's more healing than probably anything else we've spoken about.
Julie Olson: Yeah. And I, I would just say, just simplify it.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Julie Olson: That, that's the [00:53:00] first thing you said, Julie, when I talked about the blue zone, you're just like, it's just so simple.
Julie Howton: Right? But you know, the, so, uh, and I'll add this though, it's simple, but we, it takes effort.
Living here. Yeah. We have to be intentional. I shouldn't say effort, right? It takes intention,
Julie Olson: right?
Julie Howton: To create that lifestyle here. Right? Or we get caught up like you were living in, you know, with that fast paced life that, um, fast pace is fine, short term.
Julie Olson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Um, so I love
Julie Olson: that. And then save your money on biotin.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Save your money on your health. I love that. Uh, where for people that are listening on the go and aren't gonna check out the links, where's the best place for, for people to find more about you?
Julie Olson: Uh, they can just look me up. Julie olson.com. That'll go to my website, but I really encourage everyone to take the quiz on my website's [00:54:00] homepage because it'll give you rankings within those five root cause categories With numbers.
Yeah, actual numbers to see like if you, you have a higher toxic load than your inflammatory or your, is your digestive, the. Um, concerning.
Yeah.
Julie Olson: So it's gonna really give you a good place to start if your hair's thinning or just in general in health. It's, it's a real, it's a good quiz that give you some, some, some, um, you know, statistical,
Julie Howton: yeah, it's the same pillars.
People, autoimmune hair, hair loss, optimization, chronic inflammation like. Health is health. And so you specialize in, in helping women reclaim, you know, their hair in addition to their health. It's like whatever, whatever somebody's seeing us for. Again, back to that foundational. Um, so I say no matter what, like go to the, go to the website, take the quiz.
Um, and Julie, I just appreciate you sharing, you know, so [00:55:00] much wisdom with us today. Uh, I know so much of the work you do is research based. Um, and, and so in addition to being easy to, to, to talk to, um, you're just, you're such an amazing resource for us, so I appreciate it.
Julie Olson: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much.
I do love researching. I'll have to admit that.
Julie Howton: Well, we appreciate it.
Julie Olson: Thank you so much for having me here, Julie,
Julie Howton: and of course
Julie Olson: we'll see you soon.
Julie Howton: Yes, in person soon. For everybody listening, remember you can get those transcripts and show notes and the links by Visiting Inspired Living Show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did.
I'll see you next week.
[00:56:00]
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Julie Olson
Julie Olson, BCHN®, CN, CFMP, CGP, is an award-winning, triple board-certified nutritionist, published researcher, and functional medicine expert. She is the founder of Fortitude Functional Nutrition and the trademarked HealthyHairFix® protocol, a 5-step system designed to restore health and hair naturally by identifying and addressing the underlying root causes. She used these same strategies to personally overcome her own health struggles with hair loss, digestive issues, and autoimmunity. Named one of the “Top 23 Experts to Watch in the Health & Wellness Space” by the Los Angeles Tribune Magazine, Julie empowers women worldwide to reclaim their health, hope, and hair - naturally.
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