Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Hair Loss Due to Divorce and Death

A study finds that women lose hair when they lose their spouses

As may have been written before, many women have issues with their hair, especially at midlife. We may blame hormones or ageing. But in some cases, the problem could be marriage — or the loss of it. That is the conclusion of a study by a plastic surgeon.

In the study, nearly 200 male and female identical twins were recruited, and they were asked to fill out a questionnaire detailing their lives and health habits. Then the study team took pictures of their scalps to judge who had the most hair.

A big difference was found between men and women who had lost hair. For men, genetics was the most important factor. But a few other things helped men maintain hair: not smoking, wearing a hat when under the sun, exercising and avoiding heavy drinking.

These behaviours helped women keep hair as well, but even more important was the state of their marriages. Women in stables marriages were more likely to have a full head of hair than their twins who were widowed or divorced. Other factors that were associated with losing hair included having many children and higher blood pressure.

These results have not been reported in a peer-reviewed journal — which means that they haven’t been verified by an objective outside expert. But the results make sense. We all know that stress can have physiological effects such as hair loss, and smoking and heavy drinking damage the skin.

What’s interesting is the difference of the risk factors between men and women. That’s another example of why research needs to be more gender specific. We are just not the same and researchers need to consider gender differences when they are looking at how genes and environment interact.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Does Anaemia Translate to Alopecia?

Nutritional deficiencies may be the cause of some cases of hair loss so if your hair is thinning or excessively shedding, you may be lacking in essential vitamins.
This Article
Are you anaemic?

If you are not yet middle-aged and are struggling with hair loss, it may be due to anaemia. Other signs of anaemia are the following:

• Tiredness
• Lack of energy
• Headaches
• Breathlessness
• Palpitations
• Paling of skin
• Flaking skin around the nails
• Mouth ulcers

Several studies have examined the relationship between iron deficiency and hair loss. Almost all have addressed women exclusively and have focused on non-cicatricial hair loss. Some suggest that iron deficiency may be related to alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia, telogen effluvium, and diffuse hair loss, while others do not. Several hair clinics screen male and female patients with both cicatricial and non-cicatricial hair loss for iron deficiency. Although this practice is not evidence based per se, we believe that treatment for hair loss is enhanced when iron deficiency, with or without anaemia, is treated. Iron deficiency anaemia should be treated.

So science has not really established whether there is a relationship between iron deficiency and hair loss, but some research suggest that there is. If you have hair loss and any of the other symptoms, see your doctor for a blood test to check for anaemia. If you are anaemic, a course of iron tablets may be enough to assist hair re-growth.

Food sources that contain iron include leafy green vegetables, beans, nuts, dried fruits, fortified breakfast cereals, oatmeal and meat. Make sure your weekly menu contains some of these types of foods in order to avoid anaemia. Reducing your caffeine intake can also improve your iron levels as caffeine inhibits your body’s ability to absorb iron.