Stress Induced Hair Loss: The Bald Truth

Stress is something almost all of us have to live with. It's a fact of life, and while it can have it's beneficient effects, like spurring us on to greater achievements and making us far more focused and intense at a task, taken to an extreme stress can be detrimental to a person, both psychologically and physiologically. One of more annoying effects of extreme stress is a scientific condition called Telogen Effluvium. In layman's terms, this scary sounding name actually means that a person's hair starts thinning due to stress.

Stress doesn't directly contribute to one's hair loss, however. Despite what most people may think, it's actually a proven fact that the stress a person feels doesnt have a direct physical bearing on that person's hair loss. Being stressed out doesn't cause your hair to pop off your head faster; rather, when a person is under stress, he/she actually falls into certain personal habits that lead to hair loss. These personal habits ARE a direct effect of stress, and dealing with them will help to minimize stress-related hair loss. Here are a few of these habits, and a few precautions you can take to avoid them:

Poor Diet - When people are overstressed, they tend to neglect their eating habits. A person who has an unbalanced diet will eventually suffer from a lot of different physical ailments, and frankly hair loss would be the least of a person's worries in this case. However, hair loss is a relatively mild warning sign that you should correct your diet and start eating right. To show how a poor diet affects a person's hair, here is a little fact: normally a person WILL shed hair, roughly about 100 follicles a day, andthese are eventually replaced by the body naturally.

People who have an unbalanced diet will usually lose 200 to 300 hairs in a given day, more than the body can replenish immediately, and THIS causes hair loss. By getting a balanced diet rich in protein, with low fats and carbohydrate content, this type of hair loss can eventually be overcome, as the added nutrients will bring the rate at which you shed your hair to normal levels, and eventually your scalp will replenish your hair naturally.

Alchohol And Cigarettes - sad to say, as a result of stress some people turn to vices to cope with the stress. Alchohol and cigarettes are relaxants, and being readily available and legal, are sometimes overindulged in by people going through periods of high stress. While taken in moderate amounts, both of these vices already carry their own corresponding health risks. However, in times of stress even people who are merely casual social drinkers or smokers may suddenly increase their intake as a means of coping. During these times, the increased intake of alchohol or nicotine causes physical problems. You may have noticed that habitual chain-smokers, for example, have yellowed finger nails or yellow teeth.

Aside from these obvious effects, it's been shown in studies that hair loss is also one fo the effects of over indulgence in booze or smokes. The remedy for this is obvious; quit smoking or drinking. However, even if you're not ready or willing to give them up just yet, then at the very least cut back a bit, and avoid the habit of turning to the bottle or grabbing your lighter whenever you get stressed out.

Hair-Fiddling - funny as it seems, a lot of people still carry nervous habits with them throughout life that become more apparent in times of stress. Some of these can actually lead to hair loss. There are people who bite their nails, fiddle with their purse, twirl a ballpen... then there are the people who fiddle with their hair in one form or another. Some girls, for example, have the habit of chewing the ends of their hair when nervous, which leads to a lot of split ends. The nervous habits that most lead to hair loss are ones that involve more drastic versions of hair-nibbling, like actually pulling or twisting your own hair when annoyed, or scratching your head when stumped.

If you're one of the people who indulges in these nervous habits, then the solution is pretty much to discipline yourself to stop yanking your hair out by the roots whenever your kids blow up the kitchen or your boss starts screaming at you for your deadlines. If you must have a nervous habit, find something relatively harmless - buy a stressball, it'll even strengthen your grip.

Despite these sage little pieces of advice, however the fact remains that stress is still, ultimately, the cause of your hair falling out. The remedies given here are not permanent fixes, just patch jobs to stall the problem. If you really want to stop your own personal case of Telogen Effluvium (man, the name still sounds scary!), find a way to deal with your stress. Learn to laugh at your problems more, read a book, get more exercise, find a new hobby.

Above all, keeping healthy and having a positive, light, and happy outlook on the world keeps you from getting stressed out. Keep a smile on your face and in your heart, and you'll be surprised how easy it can get dealing the universe in general.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://hair.pagechic.com where you can learn more about hair loss and hair care.

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