Richard Mitchell
Could something as basic as inadequate nutrition really contribute to excessive shedding of hair?
Does sensible nutrition have a role to play in helping hair to regrow?
The answer to both questions is yes! There is no doubt that poor nutrition and hectic lifestyles can contribute to hair loss. Modern diets can be associated with a number of nutritional deficiencies that are thought to contribute to hair loss:
1. The refining of whole grains reduces the B vitamin content.
But the body fails us and the mirror knows, and we no longer insist that the gray hush be carried off its surface by the cloth, for we have run to fat, and wrinkles encircle the eyes and notch the neck where the skin wattles, and the flesh of the arms hangs loose like an overlarge sleeve, veins thicken like ropes and empurple the body as though they had been drawn there by a pen, freckles darken, liver spots appear, the hair ... ah, the hair is exhausted and gray and lusterless, in weary rolls like cornered lint.
—William Gass (b. 1924)
2. Over cooking of vegetables destroys B vitamins.
3. Raw leafy greens are absent in most diets.
4. The vitamins that have been ingested are often re-directed to facilitate the digestion of nutritionally sterile carbohydrates like sugar and white flour.
5. Stimulants like caffeine, nicotene and alcohol rob the body of vital nutrients.
6. Excessive salt intake can encourage hair loss because of its tendency to accumulate in tissue.
Only in America ... do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles—and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn’t their fault they were given a gift like speech—look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic.
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)
7. Low fiber intake inhibits digestion thus reducing the body's ability to deliver nutrients to the blood stream.
Clearly poor nutrition can cause hair loss because the body will ration nutrients in a hierarchy of vital organs first and hair last. It is unlikely that improved nutrition alone will result in new hair growth but it will minimize shedding and support other treatments that encourage regrowth.
You can learn more about the importance of sound nutrition in maintaining healthy hair at the site listed below.
About the author:
Richard Mitchell is the creator of the www.myhairlossadvisor.com website that provides information and guidance to those suffering from premature hair loss. Please go to Hair Loss Nutrition to find out more about the issues covered in this article.