Powered by Max Banner Ads
When you look at your grandparents, you might think that it will take you decades and decades to look like them: it may take you years before your bones start aching and becoming weak, it may take a long, long time before your skin starts wrinkling and your body starts feeling it’s falling apart. You may even assume that it will take a long time before your hair starts falling out. However, make no mistake: not only the elderly can experience hair loss: you too can lose your hair early depending on your current state of affairs. In the same manner that you can feel weak and fatigued and old, you can also start looking old.
If you are constantly under stress, you can be sure that your body is going to respond accordingly: you can get stomachaches and headaches more often. You can feel old and worn out and spread out thinly. And you can certainly start experiencing hair loss. It can be as simple as your eyelashes and eyebrows coming loose. It can be as bad as your head losing its full amount of hair. When this starts happening, you may need to start losing the stress! Stress can constrict the thinner blood vessels that provide blood and oxygen to your hair follicles. When this happens, your hair can fall out and your body can weaken.
Some pregnant women also start experiencing hair loss following their pregnancy. This is due to the high levels of estrogen hormones in their bodies before they give birth. Estrogen is a potent hormone that can actually make you grow lots of great hair; lose the estrogen, and you also lose the hair. If you are pregnant, you may lose hair about three months to five months after you give birth. It may take up to a year for you to get your hair back. However, some pregnant women can also experience hair loss during their pregnancy, and this can be alarming and a sign that they are losing or not taking enough vitamins and minerals.
There are also hormonal imbalances that can give rise to hair loss. For instance, women can experience hair loss because they are lacking in certain hormones, or because their reproductive hormones are fluctuating. Both men and women can suffer from hair loss due to fluctuating or imbalanced levels of thyroid hormones, which do not only affect the hair, but the body’s ability to process certain nutrients. Such conditions may require interference by drugs or medicines that can restore the levels of hormones.
Some chemicals and bad habits can lead to hair loss. For instance, some hair treatment chemicals can make hair brittle, so that the mere act of perming your hair or adding color to it can actually push your body to take your hair out. Bad habits with your hair, such as tying it extremely tight or putting stress on it, can also make your follicles weaker and push your hair out faster.
If you are experiencing hair loss, don’t think that you are getting old – and don’t panic! Talk to a doctor or a health care practitioner and ask for advice. You may simply be under a lot of stress, your body may be going through changes, and your hormones may be out of whack. You will simply need therapy to get through it and you just need to know what as you keep a level head.
Low Jeremy
http://www.articlesbase.com/anti-aging-articles/do-only-the-elderly-experience-hair-loss-681278.html
2 Responses to “Do Only the Elderly Experience Hair Loss?”
Leave a Reply
I do not know WHAT is happening to my body and am feeling like the generous rural doctor doesn't either.?
But for my elderly rural doc, I would have no where to go. I love him. But, I’ve been having problems that are disabling my ability to function. As a fighter/survival, I have to find a way to fix whatever is happening to my body. Quick history: 6 years ago, WBC counts led to my PCP referring me to an oncologist. A bone marrow test (a test I will NEVER repeat without a seriously large dose of mind-altering medication) came back "inconclusive" and I have not had the resources (still don’t) to follow through (still recovering from divorce, bankruptcy, etc). In the last 18 months, the symptoms I was having (bone pain, night sweats, fevers, fatigue) were not only becoming more intense and frequent but included additional stuff (rashes on my face and arms, aweful hair loss, joint pain). Even though I am uninsured, I had to see a doctor because I was barely able to function. So, the rural doc ran 7 or 8 tests. Reported I have high WBCs, somewhat higher platelets, kidney and liver function within normal limits albeit on the low end. Suggests I suffer lupus; but, anxiety could be the problem. If anxiety is the problem, I would have lost ALL my hair a couple years ago with a rash covering my body and total paralysis!!! *seriously* Plus, every single CBC test I’ve had taken in the last six years always, always, always shows elevated WBCs. Lupus doesn’t do high WBCs. I don’t know what the hell is going on but I have to fix it because whatever it is,…it’s getting worse, much much worse. I can’t find any answers on the internet. Maybe, someone here is experiencing similar symptoms,…I hope.
One thing I can tell you in regards to the rashes and the other skin issues (hair loss, etc) is that many people can have these issues as a result of severe anxiety. The brain is a very powerful machine and it can actually cause physiological symptoms when there is no true physiological condition causing it. The brain tricks the body into thinking there is something wrong, when there is nothing wrong at all, at least no physically.
My mom has severe depression and anxiety and suffered from a severe case of hives. These hives would become so severe at times that she would actually get swelling of the lips, and sometimes of the eyelids. For all intents and purposes it presented textbook food allergy. However upon several tests ruled out any allergies as an underlying cause. The issues continued and worsened. She was prescribed some medications to treat the symptoms and was just diagnosed with idiopathic hives, and most medical folks know that idiopathic is just a fancy way to say that we have no freaking idea what is causing it. So, as the months continues and I actually saw first hand the hives and the swelling, I was convinced that they were missing something. I sent her to an immunologist and specialist in allergies. There they repeated some of the previous tests and the expanded the testing to include many other analytes. Again, the results came back with nothing at all. No allergies to anything, at least anything discounting some esoteric compound that she would have to go to a deserted island to come into contact with. So at this point I decided that it had to be psychological. She was put on some different anxiety medications as well as some different medications to deal with the depression. After awhile of the new medications, these hives went away and knock on wood it has been several years and she has not had any issues with them since. It sounds to me like a good majority of your problem may be psychological in nature. I know that it is difficult to believe that so many symptoms can result from your brain fooling your body, but keep in mind just how little we all (medical professionals included) know about the brain. So when you think about it that way, it really is not that surprising.
As a result of your anxiety causing you these serious skin issues, you become even more anxious and worried. This leads to lack of sleep, or possibly you get enough sleep, but the sleep you get is not of good quality. This leads to making your immune system less strong, thus opening you up to more infections and viruses (even simple ones like the common cold, or a stomach bug). All of these minor illnesses would cause your CBC to be off, indicating an increased WBC count, as could it throw some other analytes out of whack.
Lupus is an autoimmune disorder, so you could go to an immunologist (just as I did my mother) and have them test you for that as well as allergies and any other constituent that could be some type of root cause to your symptoms. I will not say that you should not do that, and in fact, I would recommend it, just to make sure that you are ruling out such issues. From there, if those tests come up empty, as in the case of my mom, I would recommend going to see someone who specializes in treating anxiety disorders and start there.
You say that you have limited resources. If you do not feel comfortable answering these questions, then I understand, or you can email me, but do you have medical insurance? Do you live in the United States? Do you have a full time job that you have had for a year, or does your company honor FMLA for you ( less than one year or small companies do not have to honor FMLA)? If you can answer some of that, then maybe I can tell you of a few options for you to consider on how to get the care that you need without putting yourself into financial straits.
icpmslabrat@yahoo.com
References :
Toxicologist, MD, Ph.D