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Hair Loss – It’s Not Just a Problem for Men!

It’s appears in clumps in your hair bush, clogs the drain in your shower and you’re not pulling it out of your head. It’s your hair and you’re losing it – physically as well as emotionally. You feel embarrassed, anxious and depressed and it’s taking a toll on your relationships. Why is this happening?

While many women expect the normal signs of aging, such as an increase in weight and wrinkles, few expect to have to deal with hair loss. Hair loss in women occurs for a number of reasons, including:

• Heredity – the most common cause of hair loss in women. Hair loss usually begins before age 40 and gets worse through menopause. Unlike male pattern baldness, it usually involves thinning of hair all over the scalp and may be related to hormones that tell the scalp to stop producing hair.
  
  
• Stress – usually the result of surgery, accident or illness, extreme trauma, loss of a child, birth of a child, lack of protein or iron in your diet, or eating disorders. Shedding is usually gradual and occurs all over the scalp, although total baldness rarely results.
  
  
• Hair pulling – due more to psychological than physical problems, which include poor self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.
  
  
• Disease – known as alopecia areata, this is thought to be a type of autoimmune disorder that results in hair follicles being deprived of the nutrition they need to produce more hair. Hair loss may also result from bacterial and fungal infections and thyroid disease.
  
  
• Medication –physicians rarely alert their female patients of this common side effect of certain medications, including birth control pills, antidepressants, blood thinners, cholesterol-lowering drugs, pain medications and high blood pressure medications.
  
  
• Chemotherapy – Cancer-fighting chemotherapy may cause 90% or more hair loss.

In most cases, hair loss is not permanent and hair growth returns to normal within a short period of time. Worrying about it only makes it worse. Naturally, addressing the underlying causes of hair loss makes the most sense. Many are surprised to learn that nerves that control the scalp emerge from the upper portion of their spine.

One more reason for a thorough chiropractic examination!