Can vitamins and mineral supplements stop hair loss or help hair grow?
Nourish the hair, and it won't leave your head.
No matter how many times this question arises, the answer never changes. Skeptics recommend not taking vitamin supplements because you can get those vitamins and minerals from your food. Interestingly, a lot of readers will agree with this.
Can diet alone help stop hair loss and promote hair growth today?
Let's answer some basic questions.
- Do you prepare your food, or someone else cooks for you?
- Do you cook your food or prefer uncooked raw?
- Is your meal mainly vegetarian, non-vegetarian, or are you vegan?
- Do you check the source of your fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, or pulses?
- Does your meal confirm the standards of a balanced meal with the required portion of fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts?
- How busy are you on a day-to-day basis with getting your meals?
- Do you get your meal regularly at the same time?
What is the connection between nutrition and hair?
We ponder upon these questions to get an insight into the connection between nutrition and hair. We have to appreciate our body cells, the basic unit of life. These body cells build the tissues, and tissues constitute the organs. Finally, organs create our organ systems. Have you ever thought about what drives the body's cells in motion?
It's called intracellular nutrition. Deprivation of the essential nutrients to the body cells may adversely impact the entire body system, starting to fall apart sooner or later.
What are the factors that may impact cellular nutrition and hair health?
Our cellular nutrition depends on intrinsic factors such as digestion, gut health, lifestyle, eating habits, and extrinsic factors like processed food, overcooked or heated food, farming, soil, fodder, poultry, food preparation, preservatives, and a lot more. We cannot ignore the impact of stress on our health and nutrition.
Now we will try to answer the question again.
Can Vitamins Minerals Stop Hair loss?
So far from the basic understanding, the answer is, "Yes," Vitamins Minerals supplementation can stop Hair loss. But how?
What are the causes of hair loss?
Hair loss mainly occurs because of
- Poor nutrition, junk food, and poor digestion.
- Lifestyle changes, sleep deprivation
- Personal habits, alcohol, smoking
- Stress, both acute and chronic,
- External injury to hair or scalp like mechanical, chemical,
- Adverse environmental conditions, cold, heat, rain, pollution
- Local inflammation & general inflammatory conditions
- Exaggerated immune response or autoimmunity,
- Hormonal imbalance, pregnancy, PCOS, androgenic, DHT,
- Underlying medical conditions, chronic debilitating diseases
- Side effects of medications, especially chemo, immunosuppressants
- Genes or Hereditary.
- Iatrogenic like Inadvertent fasting and extreme weight loss diets
- and more.
What are the main types of hair loss?
The three most important types of hair loss and their causes are,
- Telogen effluvium is multifactorial, as stated above.
- Androgenetic alopecia is hormonal in origin.
- Alopecia areata, mainly because of immune system attack on the hair follicles.
Role of Vitamins & Minerals in Hair Health.
The 100,000 hair follicles usually found on the human scalp maintain their strength and integrity through adequate nutrition with proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.
- Micronutrients with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties such as:-
- Vitamins including vitamin A beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin E,
- Vitamin B complex includes (biotin Vitamin B7 or Vitamin H, nicotinamide Vitamin B3, folic acid Vitamin B9, thiamine vitamin B1, riboflavin vitamin B2, pyridoxine vitamin B6, cyanocobalamin vitamin B12 )
- Minerals such as iron, selenium, zinc, calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, magnesium, manganese, silicon
- Amino acids such as lysine and cystine
They all play a crucial role in maintaining the normal hair follicle cycle and the cellular turnover of the rapidly dividing matrix cells in the hair follicle's bulb. They also play a unique role in preventing the premature greying of the hair and help maintain hair health in general by slowing down hair loss and promoting hair growth.
Why vitamins and minerals are crucial for hair care?
Vitamins and minerals are essential for cellular nutrition.
- To support the cellular growth and differentiation at the level of the hair bulb
- For optimal cell growth and function of the hair bulb
- To protect, maintain and improve the health of the hair follicle
- To reduce the cellular inflammation at the hair follicle level,
- To combat free radical damage caused by external factors.
Thus nutritional deficiency at the cellular level may contribute to hair loss, and nutritional supplementation is the key to stopping hair loss and promoting hair growth.
In a nutshell:
Evidence-based medicine shows that vitamins and minerals are essential for hair growth and hair health in general. Any deficiency or imbalance may lead to hair loss which could be generalized or localized, short term or long term. After the hair loss starts, we spend a fortune to stop hair loss and promote hair growth. Still, we ignore taking care of the basic essential nutrition of our hair, especially when the vitamin and mineral supplementation is so affordable and easily available. Yes, a good blend of vitamins and minerals and anti-inflammatory antioxidants can prevent hair loss and improve hair growth. As a rule, it is always true that prevention is better than cure.
