3 main reasons for hairfall

Hair fall is one of the most common complaints we all have in our daily life. No matter what we do, we always end up having those few strands of hair stuck in our combs or lying on our bathroom floor.

As I have mentioned in my previous post, it is normal to lose around 50-70 hair per day, yet it is typical to be concerned when you see a chunk of your hair lying around or a receding hairline on your scalp.

There are many obvious causes for hair fall. But let me narrow down to 3 MAIN causes that are responsible for hair loss.

1)STRESS

It is the most commonly blamed cause for almost every medical problem in the world today . 80-90 percent of your hair are in growing phase and 10-20 percent of your hair are in resting phase that eventually shed from the scalp. 

                

                Stress releases certain chemical signals that induces hair follicles to enter into telogen phase (resting phase) and when the cause of stress is eliminated, the telogen hair follicles start to shed from the scalp, which we notice as a sudden increased hair fall. 

               Now, when I say stress it need not necessarily be an emotional or mental stress always, but of course, that also adds up to the causes. Any changes in your regular lifestyle is a form of stress to the body ... for example... frequent changes in food habits, in sleep cycles, relocating to a place which requires adapting to the local environment etc . 

             

2)DIET

As stress is one of the main causes of medical problems, having a balanced and a proper diet would eliminate stress but also, at the other end, improper or deficient diet can lead to may health issues too. Hair requires a mixture of vitamins and minerals to grow. There is a big list of vitamins and minerals that help assisting in hair growth and strengthening it. Let me tell you 3 MAIN ones that help and those are vitamin B12 , vitamin D3 and Biotin. 

• Vitamin B12 - plays a vital role in cell division and  red blood cell production. It thus helps to  produce new hair cells and promote hair growth. 

• Vitamin D3 - stimulates hair follicles. So its deficiency also leads to hair fall.

• And coming to Biotin, studies reveal that it improves keratin infrastructure(hair is made up of material called keratin) That means biotin helps in making your hair stronger.

Deficiency of any of these or all of them together would result in having a weaker, thinner hair and also end up having visible hair loss. 

3)HORMONES 

When it comes to hormones most of us think that this topic is for the females, as they are the ones who go through hormonal imbalance issues and so its  just the women who have this cause in their hair fall list. If you are one among those who think that way, then this part of the topic is for you. 

• When I say hormones its not just the female hormones (FSH,LH) that are involved  -  yet its imbalance as seen in PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome ) does cause hair fall.

• It could also be thyroid imbalance in your body(mainly HYPOTHYROIDISM)  -  thyroid hormone plays a vital role in metabolism as well as growth and development in our body . So when it is not pumping out enough hormones it could result in hair fall.

• Also the male hormone TESTOSTERONE gets converted to a more potent form i.e. Dihydrotestosterone in the body . This conversion in the scalp hair follicles causes hair to become smaller (miniaturization) regulating in male pattern baldness .

Therefore getting regular investigations(blood tests) of your  Serum Vitamin B12 , Serum Vitamin D3 and your thyroid levels and for women getting a hormone profile done with PCOS scan (when in doubt) would help you diagnose the cause of your hair loss.