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Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on November 3, 2010 at 4:39am

I was on Byetta for nearly two years and never experienced or heard of these side effects. Have you been having very bad digestion problems? Those sound like malnutrition issues. Byetta and Victoza will affect you ability to digest food, but it should not be so bad that it causes these sorts of problems. Losing hair can be a sign of "hair shock" and can occur "after" your diet becomes normal again. Have you been on a harsh diet and started eating more normally?

How long have you been on Byetta? Have you had bad gastric problems? What did your doctor say?

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Permalink Reply by Christalyn on November 3, 2010 at 5:34am

Please do some research on the drug because it has I think 4 methods of actions. It does slow down the food in the stomach. I must admit when I got off of byetta my nails were hard as rocks know that I started back up on it I have experienced some nail peeling. Have you gotten any nausea from the drug? Sometimes it will give me nausea.

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Permalink Reply by Jani on November 3, 2010 at 8:07pm

no nausea - iron stomach here - just negative nail and hair issues right now. been on metformin and byetta for a year now.

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Permalink Reply by KimKat on November 3, 2010 at 5:41pm

HI there,

I don't know any about Byetta but I do know about hair and nails. Your hair and nails are some of the last places on your body to receive nutrition because they are not essential to the bodily functionals like all our other organs are.

Peeling nails and falling out of hair COULD point to a thyroid condition too but it could also be a vitamin defiency of some sort and I would look into whether or not Byetta kills absorption of certain vitamins leaving you with a defiency. It could be your diet too since us Diabetics often do a drastic diet change at diagnosis. The stress of this can cause what bsc is referring to as "hair shock" that bsc if refering too. That and a combo of drastic diet change can cause a lot of hair loss many months after (I know because it happened to me - It has now stopped and hair growing back in more) I do not think that having slow absorption would negatively efffect just your hair and nails but I am not an expert on that. I do know that if you are not getting proper nutrition the hair and nails will suffer.

IE. I take Metformin and it is often advised that it kills B-12 so I take a supplement.

Poor circulation can be a something too - Even though my nails grow super fast and thick, my hair doesn't do the same. Since I spend a lot of time typing/computer, I get a lot of circulation to my fingers/nails.

Also, do you use anything on your nails that would cause them to dry and peel? When I used to use fake nails, the glue and acetone would dry out my nails and cause them to peel and break. Once I stopped that, they grew in like weeds and super thick ...still do to this day.

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Permalink Reply by Jani on November 3, 2010 at 8:06pm

No fake nails - nails used to be hard as real nails, never peeling or flaking. now they've peel below the quick, can't even trim them any more to even out the snags. The hair has always been healthy too. My diet and exercise is good. The I am on thyroid meds, as well as metformin and byetta 10. i've got to believe the slow absorption of nutrition has something to do with the problems. the hair loss is a BIG problem since it takes so long to grow back once you figure out what the cause is. I take B12, Biotin, calcium, 5000 mg of Vit D, and eat a very healthy diet. So my logical thoughts are they byetta and/ or metform, that slows down digestion, is doing a number on the nutrients that cause hair and nail health and growth. My hair is not breaking off, it is falling out.

Sure would love to know how others have solved similar issues - it's not fun trying to figure out how to be your own doctor, when your PCP, ENDO, Dermatologist and GYNO say "I don't know"????

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Permalink Reply by KimKat on November 3, 2010 at 10:43pm

Well, I take Metformin and it is known to deplete B12 in your system. A B12 defiency CAN cause hair to fall out. How much B12 are you taking? Many on here take large amounts of it. I take 2500mg a day.

If you have been on both for a year, I highly doubt it is the meds - you would have noticed this sooner if that was the case. I don't know anything about slow absorption but if you eventually do absorb the food, I don't see how that would effect your hair honestly. Why exactly do you think that is it? (other than you can't pin it down elsewhere?) Since you have a thyroid condition, maybe your meds need to be readjusted. Thyroid conditions are a definate cause of thinning hair.

My next advice would be to have a panel done to see what you might be deficient in to check for sure. Everyone has there own opinions on what a healthy diet is but there might be something you are missing. Peeling nails can be a Vitamin A defiency and B vitamins (esp. Biotin) are very important for hair. I take a hair vitamin every other day and vitamin shake on the other days.

The other thing to do is to look back at the past six months - any major stressful periods in your life? when you have one, it can take many months for the hair loss to show up so often a person does not corelation to the two events because they seem so far apart.

How much hair are you losing? It is actually considered normal to lose up to 100 strands a day for some people - even though it is scarey to us - that wouldn't be considered a considerable hair loss problem. If it is coming out in clumps all the time, than it might be something with your scalp. Hair shedding also goes in cycles do so you many seem to be shredding more hair at certain times of the year than others and it will be more noticeable. This is normal and will stop. I think there are doctors that specialize in hair loss. But keep track off how much you are losing and how long it has been happening.

Yes, it sucks to have to figure this out on our own - but doctors unfortunatley don't know everything even though they think they do so don't leave it up to them to give you all the answers. Hair loss is one of those things that could be caused by so many things, it is not easy to diagnose. You have to sometimes research this stuff yourself and push the doctors to give you the tests.

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Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on November 4, 2010 at 5:31am

Nails are like hair, when the body is under stress, they stop growing. All your hair folicles do dormant and I believe the same happens to the nail cuticle. Then when your body normalizes, the hair starts growing and the nails start growing. Your hair usually rotates through going dormant and as KimKat says, you lose some hair every day, but after a stress, your hair is "shocked" and when all the folicles restart, all your hair can fall out.

Your nails on the other hand would exhibit a growth line, which you have not described. Instead, you describe your entire nails as weak, peeling and flaking as though you have spent the last year under some stress. It is unlikely that a single event would suddenly turn your nails bad, that happens over a long period of time as they grow. Have you spent the last year restricting calories to lose weight or struggling with your thryoid meds? Have you had a lot of stress over the last 6 months to a year? That could explain everything.

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Permalink Reply by Jani on November 4, 2010 at 2:27pm

Stress levels are normal - no major stress. The hair loss is more than normal. I can see my scalp through the hair, and have not had to start highlighting it, so my dark hair doesn't show more and more of the scalp. I truly believe it's a side effect of a mix of meds, and not caused by stress or nutritional intake. My thyroid levels were said to be high by PCP and she said the ENDO was overtreating the thyroid. I was on 25 mcg of Cytomel and 1 mg of Synthroid. So PCP dropped Cytomel to 10 and Synthroid to .75. That was 4 months ago, and still losing hair and nails are still breaking, flaking, peeling and no longer than were the nail meets the skin. I use Nascobal B12 once/week, and take an additional Biotin capsule daily. Also take AG/Pro Vitamins with full chain amino acids for protien growth.

Loving everyone's input...just need to keep narrowing down the root cause. Tks bunches, J

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Permalink Reply by KimKat on November 4, 2010 at 3:03pm

The major stress would be something that happened at least six month ago - not necessarily current. Pregnancies? After birth, women tend to lose hair.

Hmmm.... I don't have thyroid issues (not that I know of) but I do know that several members on here say that doctors often do the wrong test for the thyroid and patients should request to have certain hormones tested. There is a group on here for diabetics with thryoid conditions and they might be the ones to ask.

Have you been taking the Byetta/Met mix for a year? Just in my expereince (i used be a hair dresser and I have had problems with hair loss randomly over the years for various reason like stress and diet and overprocessing..) that if it a medication, stress etc - that the hair loss itself, if caused by these things, will be evident within six months after start of these things. So, if it has been a whole year. But nutrtional deficiences (even those caused by meds) can take years to show up and affect your hair. So it is possible that these meds could be somehow indirectly related to this sort of thing - which is why I recommended having a full vitamin check to rule this out (can't hurt!) if you have access to this sort of thing.

But I would definately get more info on your thyroid treatment - I know from stories on here that if you don't get the right amount of type of treatment for this it will not help and if you are suffering hair loss from the thyroid - the right treatment will stop it. I don't know enough about this to give you further advice. But I would definately double check on that.

I am not familiar with the Nascobal B12 - is that a shot that last all week? I just take a sublingual pill once a day.

The hair pill I take has 2000 mcg of Biotin which is over 667% of the RDA of this vitamin. I just started taking these again and I did notice my shedding slowed. I have a more restrictive diet being a vegan though so I am pretty sure I was deficient in my some important hair vitamins. Don't forget too since we diabetics have to eat less we might be getting less than we need vitamin wise even if we are eating all the right stuff.

how much protein do you eat a day? If you are a meat eater, a few portions of meat will cover you protein.

Your hair isn't overprocessed is it? Just thought I would ask because too many chemical treatments to the hair can cause hair loss (not just breakage) - I know because I have been through that many times! Of course, cut the hair off and it grows back! My hair is long and I cut several inches off of it recently when I was shedding more and it really helped - My hair tends to grow in dry and slower because I took Accutane at one time in my life so cutting off dry ends helps with hair shed too.

Yep, it is really hard to pinpoint hair loss sometimes esp. when we have all these other things going on and we are taking meds etc. I was really stressed out about 8 months ago when I was diagnosed and the diet change - six months later was when I started getting more hair loss so I knew what it was from. I have already noticed some new grow in one area that I thought was too skimpy - just since starting increasing protein, taking the hair vitamin and doing some scalp massages in the tense areas (tense scalp can cause hair loss too - normally occurs at the crown).

Well, anyhow - if I were you I would firstly look into your thyroid condition/meds, make sure you are getting the proper treatment for that (check on side effects for that too) and than secondly (if you can) have your vitamin levels checked - mostly to rule these things out. These would be the easier things to fix anyhow. If it is not that than you know it might be something new or one of your meds. Than you can ask your doctor for another possible combination.

I noticed on your profile it says Pre-diabetic - do you test your BGs? Since you have an ENDO, I am guessing you have had all the necessary tests done (c-peptide etc). Just wondering about your numbers because I have often wondered if high BGs would effect the hair follicles in some people.

Sorry I can't be of more exact help - I am just trying give some things to look into based on what I know. :)

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