Stress and Hair Loss

stress and hairloss

One thing that everyone should understand about their hair is that it serves no vital function for our health. Without it, we can live and function normally. Many centuries ago, the hair on the heads of our early ancestors always warmer than their heads and reduced heat loss. However, for the most part, it's no longer necessary in modern society today.

When the body and our health is adversely affected (trauma, pregnancy, emotional stress, major illness), your hair is no longer a priority for health care. It's as if your body says I have big problems to worry about and care about, I do not need to worry about hair growth right now.

Is Stress Causing Hair Loss?

Standing in the shower shampooing, you notice clumps hair, wash down the drain. First, you confused and anxious, but to visit a dermatologist suggests that the feeling is likely you have in your head, suddenly thinning may also be its cause: stress.

That's right, stress can do to pull your hair, but extreme stress can cut the middle man.

Usually this is not a soft job or life stress, which causes hair loss, most likely, this is an extremely serious tension in the body that causes hair to stop growing and fall out. These types of stress can be triggered by certain medications, diabetes, thyroid disorders and even extreme emotional stress, but can also be caused by common life events like childbirth, miscarriage and surgery.

Great cause of all is pregnancy. In fact, it is estimated that 45 percent of new mothers experience some degree of hair loss from stress of the child. Since this type of hair loss is caused by such common triggers, many may suffer from it without knowing its cause. Most of the time, the hair will grow back within six months, but sometimes this type of hair loss may be the beginning of a long-term problem.

How Stress Causes Hair Loss

Hair grows in repeating cycles. The active growth phase lasts about two years and is accompanied by a relaxation phase,

stress_causing_Hair_Loss

which covers three months, after which the hair falls from your head. Typically, each strand of hair in your head is at a different point in the cycle, so the shedding of subtle: a few strands in the shower drain, some more on your brush, hair or two on your pillow. Normal head sheds more than 100 strands of hair a day.

However, when the body is subjected to extreme stress, as 70 percent of your hair prematurely can enter a phase of rest, called the telogen phase. Three months later, these hair begin to fall, loss of hair noticeably telogen effluvium called.

A person does not become completely bald and the thinning will be fairly unnoticeable. However, this is the delay for three months, and the fact that the trigger seems so unrelated that causes confusion is concerned about hair loss patient.

Fortunately, in most cases hair will grow back within six months. However, in a very small percentage of people, telogen effluvium may be only a trigger for more long-term hair loss.

Providing Cover Their Heads

Whenever a patient has sudden hair loss, he or she should see a dermatologist certified, preferably one with experience in this field. Even when the doctor is able to determine the source of stress, such as mother, who had just given birth, the father, to cope with the recent loss of a child or young woman who stopped taking the pill, additional testing should be done.

These tests will check for the presence of iron and certain hormone levels and thyroid function. Any deviation can slow re-growth of hair. For example, low levels of iron, especially characteristic of young women, and by the addition of iron or increasing the amount of red meat in their diet, young women can reduce the amount of time, it should worry about her hair.

Telogen effluvium unfortunately can also identify women with a genetic predisposition to lose her hair. Just as male pattern baldness these women will lose their hair from the top of their heads and can not grow without more extensive medical intervention.

But if you notice hair in the tread of your minds, the worst thing to do is worry about this extreme case of hair loss. If you have telogen effluvium, worry only causes more stress, may make your hair loss worse.

There is no worry about hair loss. I tell my patients, the worst thing to do about losing your hair should be worried about it.

Author:

Alex M. Barnett

Resources:

National Trichology Training Institute

The Hair Bible By Susan Craig Scott & Karen W. Bressler

Hair Loss Treatment Almanac 1998 By David Tse

Published Date: 18.09.2011