FOUR COMMON CAUSES OF HAIR LOSS

Hair loss is a common condition which usually afflicts the elderly, but sadly, this condition is more and more common in younger people too and it affects both men and women. Though hair loss doesn’t cause any harm and is not life threatening, it can have a detrimental psychological affect, bringing about depression and lowering self esteem.

Below are four common conditions that can cause hair loss:

Stress

Stress can trigger hair loss, especially those who are under a lot of pressure from work or even at school. Stress can cause all sorts of bodily changes like changes in blood pressure, palpitations, and gastrointestinal changes and even increase hair fall. Stress induced hair loss is easily treated by learning how to manage stressors.

Medications

There are certain medications that can cause hair loss like: Ache medications that contain vitamin A, antidepressants, birth control pills, antidepressants, antibiotics, antifungal, cholesterol lowering drugs, immunosuppressant drugs and many more, but chemotherapy drugs are the worst of them all, because literally all of your hair: head hear and body hair will fall off.

Hormones

There are cases when certain conditions cause elevated hormones like estrogen due to pregnancy. After giving birth, estrogen goes back to normal levels and this sudden change can cause a hair loss condition called telogen effluvium. This can cause severe hair loss in a short period of time; fortunately, telogen effluvium is temporary and hair growth returns after a few months.

Genetic

The number one cause of hair loss is due androgenetic alopecia. This is a genetic condition that for some reason makes our scalp hair sensitive to the hormone called dihydrotestosterone or DHT. DHT is a potent androgen that comes from testosterone when acted upon by the enzyme 5 alpha reductase. Androgenetic alopecia or commonly known as male/female pattern hair loss usually occurs around the age of 40, but can also occur at earlier ages.