hair loss – step 1
I was going to start this off with some melodramatic line like “I was 25 when I started losing my hair….” but decided against it. I’ll just put it simply. For women, hair loss is no joke. Even *thinking* about losing your hair is no joke. I am sure it’s not exactly a picnic for men either but somehow it seems more acceptable in our current society for a man to shave off his thinning hair in favor of just going bald. Baldness, whether it is by choice or not, is definitely more preferable for a man than it is for woman. So basically, when a woman realizes her hair might be thinning gradually or even completely falling out there is a sense of panic.
First of all you should know that it’s normal for some hair to fall out. Not all the hair on your head grows at the same rate. A percentage of your hair is in the resting stage and thus will fall out as new hair grows in it’s place. Hair has a cycle and grows for a certain period of time. The medical field tells us that hair basically grows one half inch per month. So in a year’s time hair will grow 6 inches. Now, we know that there are exceptions to pretty much everything so some people may be genetically disposed to a faster rate of hair growth but generally speaking, you should expect six inches in a year’s time.
There are a variety of reasons hair starts to fall out. I mean first of all there are so many chronic illnesses that have hair loss listed as a possible side effect. For example, both diabetes and lupus are known to cause hair loss. But it’s not just chronic illness, fungal infections can cause hair loss.
To top it off, it’s not just the illnesses themselves, it’s also the medicine! So many of the medicines we take can interrupt our hair’s growth cycle and eventually just cause it to fall out. Blood thinners, birth control pills, and anti-depressants have been known to cause hair loss. If you have gout or high blood pressure, the medicines you take for your condition can also cause hair loss. The good news is, that if your hair loss is caused by medicine, when you stop taking the medicine, you should stop losing your hair.
We blame a lot of things on hormones and we can add hair loss to the list. Hormones regulate so many bodily functions. If you have any sort of problems with your thyroid and are also experiencing hair loss, your thyroid problems could be contributing to the problem. Like the thyroid, the balance of male and female hormones, androgens and estrogens, can also be linked to hair loss. Correct your thyroid/hormonal imbalance and voila!, the hair loss problem should resolve as well.
So first things first, before you freak out over what to try, do, eat, take, etc to fix your hair loss, stop in and see your doctor to make sure the usual medical suspects are eliminated.
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