Can losing weight cause your hair to fall out?
When we decide to push our body into a healthy lifestyle, our hair may not immediately accommodate in this new routine. The shedding weight often causes shedding of hair, but how? Researchers have found a striking link between hair fall and weight loss. In general, hair fall have numerous causes. It could be genetic, dietary, hormonal, stress or autoimmune disorders. Proteins are building blocks of our body. All the structures like muscles, blood vessels, liver, brain, heart are made tissue containing mainly protein. Likewise, hair are constituted by a unique protein called as keratin, which usually get last portion of absorbed protein.
This explains the sudden loss of hair during your journey of weight loss. However, this distressing period is absolutely temporary. You may not be taking enough protein in your diet. Workouts increase the body demand of protein and to meet that demand, hair usually suffer. Insufficient supply of protein drives the hair to resting phase in order to preserve the remaining protein. Thus, no hair growth takes place, and the hair eventually began to fall after a while. This phase is called as acute Telogen Effluvium (TE). Improper diet affects hair growth and hair quality at the same time.
In presence of any disease or hormonal imbalance, body maintains that resting phase for a prolonged duration. Inadequate nutrient intake generates oxidative stress in the hair which shows pre-mature greying or thinning of hair. The nutrients essentially to be taken are iron, folic acid, vitamin E, vitamin A, essential amino acids, omega 3 & 6 and micronutrients like zinc and selenium. These supplements can show serious complications on chronic use, hence one should keep a tab on their consumption.
The effects can be seen even on low dosage taken over a longer period of time. One should always aim to achieve a nutrient rich diet without much relying on supplements. A bountiful regime of walnuts, flax seeds, almonds, salmon, meat, egg whites, berries, yogurts and seasonal fruits will not only helps you get required nutrients but also increases your metabolism and enables you shed more weight without losing your precious tresses.
Always speak to your health professional at earliest and follow his advice. Only he can diagnose the exact reason for your hair fall. Screening of vitamins and minerals is always a good way to start a therapy. Unnecessary supplementation sometimes do more harm than good.