Hair loss, whether you are a man or a woman, is a devastating condition to endure. There is so much emphasis placed on our hair as a huge part of our physical appearance that when you start losing it, the consequences are disheartening at best, a hard to repair blow to the ego at worst.
Balding and hair loss used to be a problem that was commonly thought of as being a male burden, but it has spread more and more to females as time goes on. While there may be different individual causes for the hair thinning, it is most often linked to some sort of hormonal imbalance, in both men and women.
There are medications, lifestyle changes, stress factors, various diseases, and hereditary factors at work as well, but when you distill them, they all point to the same underlying cause – hormones.
In men, the primary contributing factor to balding and thinning of the hair is an abundance of a hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which is also known as an androgen. Androgens are really just the family of male hormones that fall under the umbrella of testosterone, and dihydrotestosterone is a common biproduct of this family of hormones in the male – and the female, body.
When the body produces too much DHT, it tends to create a hostile environment in the hair follicles, which makes it hard for hair to grow. It actually also eventually will kill the hair follicle, making the hair fall out, and rendering that follicle useless for further hair production, which is what you see when a whole section of a person’s hair falls out.
On men, a common pattern of hair loss is called male pattern baldness, which occurs on the front and top of the head, and can extend to the crown. This occurs because they either may suffer from Alopecia, which is a medical condition where hair not only falls out on the head, but also may fall out allover the body, or they are exhibiting typical signs of male hair loss.
Even though DHT (excessive androgens) are a large part of the cause behind hair loss, there is another factor at work as well. The thyroid gland has a lot to do with hair loss. When the thyroid is not functioning properly, a common side effect is that the hair can fall out, or thin out.
However, upon further examination, we find out that the underlying cause for hair loss in thyroid patients is that the condition causes an accelerated conversion of androgens to DHT, the very root cause behind hormonal hair loss.
When you look at the causes for hair loss, you find that in the end, all of them are related to the increased production of DHT. The medications that seem to consistently cause hair loss usually internally speed up it’s production, things like pregnancy in some women or hormonal shifts, result in an increase in this chemical/hormone, and many lifestyle changes or even stress also cause shifts in hormones that then lead to excessive hair loss, weakening of the hair structure, and eventually balding or partial balding.
For this reason, it is important that you seek the advice of a physician at the first sight or notice of hair loss. This way, you can be proactive in helping to put your hormones back in a favorable position to create a conducive environment to healthy, abundant, hair growth and strength.
Danna Norek runs several blogs and website about beauty, herbal medicine, self improvement, and of course hair loss. You can read about how to use herbs and natural ingredients and treatments to help restore your hair here at Herbs Used for Hair Loss. You can also read more about restoring your hair with the help of supplementation and topical solutions like the very effective Minoxidil here at Male Hair Loss Product.
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