Way Too Fat     

Harken back 20 years. I went on a crash diet: 60 lbs. in 3 months; 40 lbs in the 6 months that follow. Then my hairline started thinning.

Hair loss is a problem that can be experienced by both men and women of all ages. One of the main reasons for hair loss is that it was inherited. Basically, your genes will determine whether you are prone to hair loss or not. Aside from this, there are many more causes of hair loss like bad habits, harmful hair treatments, skin infections, and even hormones.

Another important fact that you should know about hair loss is that diet can also make a huge impact in your hair's health. Although it is not known by many, crash dieting can actually lead to hair loss.

Crashing Diets Means Crashing Your Health

It is unfortunate but true, crash dieting has been proven to cause hair loss if prolonged for a long period of time. For this reason, everyone should be careful and eat the right diet. Deciding to succumb to crash diet (maybe due to an important event you would want to look your best for), might make your body react drastically because of the sudden threat caused by crash dieting. The result would be that the body will roughly store nutrients instead of using it to produce hair, which can lead to the dreaded hair loss. This can prove to be a bigger problem in the long run. Also diets that lack protein are especially risky because protein is a major component in healthy hair growth.

Body's Defense Against Crash Diet Malnutrition

Also note that the body would suddenly make all the vitamins and minerals in its system turn into maintaining your vital organs because it is deprived from the nutrients necessary for everyday living. During crash dieting therefore, it would stop all the mechanism necessary for maintaining your hair's health as it will devote all of its resources into preserving your life because of the threat of starvation.

Hair Phased Out Because of Crash Dieting

The hair has two phases. One is the growing phase and the other is the resting phase. Normally, almost ninety percent of your hair is in the growing phase while the remaining ten percent is in the resting phase. The ten percent that is in the resting phase is that hair that will start to fall. This is a part of its normal cycle so it is typical for you to lose some hair every once in awhile. However, in crash dieting, an unhealthy amount of hair that is in the growing phase would suddenly shift into the next phase, the resting phase. Hair is pushed into the resting phase by the body so that it can conserve all the nutrients it can. When this occurs, hair loss will follow.

In many cases, hair loss from crash dieting may not be experienced immediately. In fact, this is the reason people do not associate the hair loss they are experiencing to the crash dieting they did some months before. Usually, there are two to three months interval before the obvious consequence of the crash diet can be felt. This is in part because the hair that was in the resting phase previously would fall out as part of its cycle.

A person will most likely experience six months of hair loss due to crash dieting. And the hair would only return to its normal condition when you resume your normal eating habits. But there is still an added hazard because the stress that your body feels from starvation also has the possibility of producing a particular male hormone that is responsible for the destruction of the hair follicles. When this had already occurred, then the hair will no longer be able to grow because the follicles are gone. When this happens aside from cosmetic surgery that is available at astronomical prices, not much of remedy can be offered. Crash dieting is a great risk for people who already have the gene that is prone for baldness because the effects of crash dieting can be worse for them compared to other people

Labels: hair loss, weight loss