How Your General Health Affects Hair Loss

In my last post Hair Loss: Beating The Genetic Code, I discussed steps that can be taken to diagnose hair loss before it gets serious and steps one can take to fend off baldness before it begins. In this post, I will address the affect your overall health can have on your hair.

Common Hair Loss or Male Pattern Baldness is generally thought of as a genetic condition with which there is little or no recourse to treat or prevent. There may be more to the mystery of hair loss than just bad cards in the game of genetic poker.

While those of us with a predisposition towards baldness are likely to develop hair fall to some degree, there are secondary factors that may accelerate the rate of loss. These factors fall into three categories; Diet, Lifestyle, and Exercise. Here in the United States, we generally flunk at all three categories. Many Americans don’t eat right, smoke and drink, and don’t exercise enough.

Looking At Our Global Neighbors (From An American Perspective)

If you are an American hair loss sufferer, you may have noticed the condition of baldness affects many of our fellow citizens. If you look to other parts of the world, particularly Asia, you may notice hair loss is a problem which is far less prevalent in this region. Many men in China even enjoy non-graying hair into their sixties. Why is there such a difference in the frequency of hair loss between Eastern and Western civilization? Genetics may play some role but the biggest difference between Americans and their Asian counterparts are found within their dietary choices.

Do men prematurely lose their hair in Asia? Yes ,it can happen, but this issue is far less in frequency when compared to hair loss in the U.S. (I suspect the small amount of hair fall developing in this region could be relative to the increasing amount of American influence, particularly in Japan).

In the United States, we generally eat processed foods loaded with saturated fat and with little or no nutritional value. It can actually be quite challenging to avoid these foods in America, but a deep introspective look will help you assess where you stand in your diet.

 Before you grab the phone and order up some Chinese food, be warned that Chinese food in the U.S. is different than native Chinese food. Chinese cuisine here in the States is cooked in heavy amounts of grease and with the food additive MSG. Instead, read on to find practical advice about how to examine your diet and lifestyle to help curtail your hair loss.

Slow and Fast Hair Loss

Hair fall can occur at many different speeds and ages depending on the person. This is likely due to the overall health, lifestyle, and nutrition of any given person.  The obvious argument against this theory is that seemingly healthy people still experience baldness and many unhealthy people keep their hair. One has to look beyond the argument. If you don’t have the genetic predisposition to experience hair loss, your lifestyle will have a negligible affect on your hair, where as a person with the genetics to experience baldness will likely lose their hair at certain rate. Health, Lifestyle, and Nutrition become variables in this equation.

Contributing Factors

If one engages in a diet that lacks nutrition, one can expect to exacerbate their hair loss ultimately increasing the speed of the condition. Moderate exercise tends to increase blood flow and carry nutrients, vitamins, and minerals all around the circulatory system. A lack thereof can cause blood to distribute slowly which can cause serious health problems like heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. If you smoke, cigarettes may be contributing to pollution of your blood by adding thousands of toxins to your blood stream. These secondary factors all play a role in the acceleration of male pattern baldness.

The Composition Of Hair

Hair contains three primary elements you have probably heard of before; Zinc, Copper, and Sulfur. If your dietary choices are poor, you may be not be getting the necessary amounts of these minerals. Hair’s strength and elasticity is built by nutrients, minerals. and vitamins and when there are deficits, hair can suffer even more.

Biotin is a vitamin which is responsible for the strength of hair, skin, and fingernails. While most healthy people can easily get the required dose of biotin though foods like eggs and bananas, a fast food aficionado may not be getting enough. Vitamins, nutrients, and minerals are the building blocks of health and the health of your hair. Some changes in your diet can help your hair quite a bit.

The Equation Of Health And Hair Loss

While genetics generally control who will lose their hair, your life style and health can have a huge effect on the degree and rate of hair fall one experiences. Maybe you have noticed some people lose most of their hair in a few short years while others go bald over an extremely prolonged period of time. The difference is usually attributed to the overall health of the hair loss sufferer. 

In other words, those who begin losing their hair and live an unhealthy lifestyle have put themselves on the express lane to baldness. One who examines their lifestyle and diet and makes the necessary changes has a good chance at prolonging their hair loss for many years. The biggest problem is consistency; many people cannot be consistent with healthy choices for long periods of time.

What You Can Do

If you want to do the most for your hair on a health level, the best way to start is too examine your diet, lifestyle, and exercise routine. Changing your diet to include foods that add vitamins, nutrients, and minerals will strengthen your hair. Dropping bad habits like smoking, alcohol, or drug use will strengthen your immune system.  Developing a moderate exercise routine (i.e. walking) will greatly increase blood flow distributing vitamins, nutrients, and minerals throughout your blood stream.

These changes will improve your overall health and the health of your hair. Genetics play a role in hair loss but it is the road we choose that determines how big of a role genetics play.  If you give your hair what it needs to grow and keep your health in check, you can defend your hair from further loss and in time recover some of what you’ve lost.

Remember diet and exercise are just one weapon in the fight against hair loss. There are other methods that can naturally stop hair loss and regrow hair especially when used in combination. Remember, as with most things in life, moderation is key.

Samuel Reed is a hair loss survivor and the author of Hair Reborn: The Holistic Approach For Natural Hair Regrowth, a book with a detailed plan for naturally stopping hair loss and regrowing hair.

The book is available in print and digital formats on amazon.com

Hair Reborn in Digital From Amazon Kindle  

Hair Reborn In Print From Amazon

To learn more about reversing hair loss naturally visit:

Hair Reborn Book Official Website