Hair loss can be distressing at any age. Understanding what causes thinning and experiencing bald spots motivates people to find solutions. One potential aid for hair retention and regrowth lies within our own nutrient needs - vitamin D. So how does vitamin D help with hair loss?
Vitamin D delivers essential support for healthy hair follicles and growth cycles. Getting enough of this essential vitamin can promote healthy hair strands from root to tip. Vitamin D benefits hair by reducing inflammation, assisting cell regeneration, energizing growth phases, and strengthening the follicles that produce new hairs. So, let's walk into the world of vitamin D and discover its remarkable benefits for hair growth and combating hair loss.
The Importance of Vitamin D
The Importance of Vitamin D for Hair and Overall Body Health
You need vitamin D to absorb calcium and phosphorus, minerals necessary for normal bone and heart health. According to scientists, around twenty-seven diseases are associated with a lack of vitamins in the body.
Due to inadequate exposure to the sun, our mobility has become limited, and aging speeds up. Consider older folks living in nursing homes—less time spent in the sun quickens aging. Vitamin D deficiency also impacts your mood, hormone levels, and energy. Another critical role of vitamin D is to build and maintain your hair health since it is involved in nurturing the hair follicles. Vitamin D deficiency may also cause hair loss, particularly “spot hair loss” (Alopecia Areata).
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that aids in preventing hair loss and promoting the growth of hair follicles. Alopecia, also known as hair loss, has a clear relationship with inadequate vitamin D levels. Several studies have also validated insufficient vitamin D levels with men experiencing higher hair loss. Additionally, signs suggest that vitamin D supplements may mitigate hair loss. However, research examining the connection between hair loss and vitamin D levels in women has yielded varying and inconclusive outcomes.
Although no one has confirmed or proved that vitamin D stops hair loss in everyone, activated vitamin contributes to hair growth for many.
Learn More: How Heart Problems Cause Hair Loss?
Connection of Vitamin D With Hair Loss
Inadequate levels of vitamin D in the body may not be the sole cause of hair loss. However, it still plays an important role in developing Alopecia Areata and pattern baldness. Let's look at the link between vitamin D and hair health:
Vitamin D Receptors and Hair Growth
Vitamin D receptors can be found in diverse cell types, encompassing immune cells, kidney cells, and hair follicles. Vitamin D connects with these receptors, assisting in regulating cell cycles, a crucial aspect of promoting healthy hair regrowth. Research indicates that individuals with alopecia areata often encounter disturbances in hair follicle cycling attributed to insufficient Vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D and Pattern Hair Loss
There is a lack of extensive research which can establish an association between vitamin D and pattern hair loss. However, recent studies have suggested that there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and the heightened severity of alopecia areata. Moreover, vitamin D is recognized for its anti-inflammatory properties, which can be beneficial for certain types of hair loss, as inflammation is a contributing factor.
The Potential of Vitamin D for Hair Growth Restoration
Recent findings propose potential advantages of utilizing vitamin D treatment to stimulate hair growth in individuals grappling with hair loss.
While reduced vitamin D levels contribute to hair loss, they do not represent the singular causative factor. It significantly contributes to sustaining robust hair regrowth, especially in instances of alopecia areata and male & female pattern hair loss. However, more in-depth research is required to thoroughly investigate vitamin D's potential as a therapeutic remedy for hair loss restoration.
Does Vitamin D Deficiency Cause Hair Loss?
Yes, vitamin D deficiency can contribute to hair loss since it plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy hair growth cycle. Inadequate levels can disrupt the hair growth cycle, resulting in increased hair shedding and thinning. Also, research has shown connections between low vitamin D levels and conditions like alopecia areata and pattern hair loss. Additionally, it's anti-inflammatory properties can help mitigate inflammation in the scalp, which can also contribute to hair loss. Also, it's important to remember that vitamin D deficiency is not the only cause of hair loss. Other factors play significant roles.
The vitamin D receptors are present in hair follicles. That's why insufficient vitamin D levels may lead to alopecia areata, which causes patchy hair loss. Additionally, some research also suggests a potential association of lower vitamin D levels with more severe cases of alopecia areata.
Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin D Deficiency hair loss is often reversible, so it's essential to understand the signs of vitamin deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is quite common, especially in regions where people get limited sunlight or during certain seasons. You can know you have vitamin D deficiency if you experience these symptoms:
Fatigue and Weakness: Feeling tiredness or lack of energy, even after enough rest.
Bone and Back Pain: The deficiency of vitamin D can lead to bone and back pain and also increase the risk of fractures.
Muscle Pain: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with muscle pain and weakness since it can affect muscle function and structure.
Depression and Mood Changes: Some studies also suggest a link between low vitamin D levels and mood changes, including anxiety and depression.
Impaired Wound Healing: Vitamin D is also essential for the proper functioning of the body's immune system and wound healing.
Hair Loss: Vitamin D deficiency can be associated with some types of hair loss because of insufficient levels of this vitamin.
Vitamin D Benefits for Hair Growth & Reversing Hair Loss
Vitamin D, often called the "sunshine vitamin," is a vital nutrient that plays a crucial role in various aspects of our health, including bone health and immune function. Vitamin D may also contribute to hair growth and overall hair health. It also plays a role in supporting healthy hair growth and has many benefits for hair health. Here are some of the vitamin D benefits for hair growth:
Regulates Hair Follicle Cycling
The main benefit of vitamin D for hair growth is it regulates the hair follicle cycle. The vitamin D receptors present in hair follicles help regulate the recycling process of hair follicles. Recycling is necessary in order to maintain the normal growth of hair and prevent hair loss.
Promotes Hair Follicle Health
Vitamin D plays a significant role in promoting hair follicle health. Hair follicles are tiny structures in the scalp from which hair grows. Adequate levels of vitamin D are essential for these follicles to function correctly. It helps produce new hair cells and supports the growth of existing hair strands. By nourishing the hair follicles, vitamin D creates a favorable environment for healthy hair growth.
Supports Immune Function
Vitamin D supports a healthy immune system since it has immunomodulatory effects. Vitamin D helps create an environment helpful to healthy hair growth by supporting immune function. It is also relevant in alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss. It is also relevant in alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss.
Anti-Inflammatory Effects
Vitamin D possesses anti-inflammatory properties that can prevent hair loss. Inflammation in the scalp can disrupt hair growth cycles and contribute to hair loss. Vitamin D helps reduce inflammation, creating a healthier environment for hair follicles to thrive.
Help Restore Hair Growth
Some studies also suggest that vitamin D supplementation may aid in restoring hair growth, particularly in cases of vitamin D deficiency hair loss.
How Much Vitamin D Do You Need to Stop Hair Loss?
According to doctors, 20-50 micrograms per liter of blood should have vitamin D to ensure continued hair growth and prevent loss. Also, it is recommended to supplement with between 5,000-10,000IU daily to achieve healthy levels of vitamin D.
However, a Yale Medicine report suggests that taking vitamin D supplements isn’t the same as getting vitamins from sunlight. This is due to our body, which doesn’t absorb vitamin D like it does when sunlight hits your bare skin.
The Sun and Vitamin D
Contrary to popular belief, the sun doesn't produce vitamin D. But the sunlight is necessary for certain chemical reactions in our body. In order words, sunlight enables our body to produce vitamin D. Although there is a limit on how much your body can produce vitamin D each day, you can never overdose on vitamin D, no matter how much time you spend in the sun.
Ultraviolet B (UVB) is the middle wavelength of the UV spectrum. While it is considered to be the main cause of skin cancer, it is also the wavelength that produces vitamin D. The earth's atmosphere blocks most of the UVB coming from the sun, so only a little gets to the surface. UVB can only penetrate the outer layer of the skin. Since it can’t penetrate glass, you can’t get any UVB light indoors, even on the brightest day. Also, people who have darker skin can make less vitamin D since melanin blocks UVB, like sunblock.
During winter, as well as in the morning and evening during summer, the angle of the Earth to the sun prevents UVB from reaching the ground. Generally, the farther you live from the equator, the less UVB reaches you in the winter.
During the 1900s, physicians used to prescribe patients to take sunbath to expose them to vitamin D. But, this is no longer practiced. However, humans need the sun as it is essential for the human body.
On average, the human body needs fifteen minutes a day of exposure to sunlight. It's important to have the sun shining on areas of your skin for those fifteen minutes. Some studies also suggest that the best time to get a daily dose of natural sunlight during summer months is at 9 am or after 2 pm. This is the time when your body can do the best job of absorbing sunlight.
Read More: Does Hair Grow Faster in Summer?
You can always take vitamin D supplements to avoid the risks of sun. However, natural sunlight is much more beneficial to us. Studies have also found that the vitamin D you get from sunlight is longer-acting and stays in the body longer than supplements.
There is also another option for getting this lifesaving nutrient. Even if you live in an area where there's not much sunlight, you can still sit under UV lights and get enough vitamin D levels required for a healthy body and fight depression if you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Another study has proved that the artificial lights used in tanning salons could also give the body what it needs to produce vitamin D. Researchers also saw an increase in vitamin D levels in patients who were regularly exposed to the rays of a sunbed over an eight-week period. However, be aware of overexposure in tanning salons. A burn does not equal a “good base tan.”
Overexposure to the sun can burn the scalp and can cause hair loss. Find out how you can protect yourself.
Conclusion
Exposure to sunlight, vitamin D supplements, and artificial UV light all help activate vitamin D. In fact, human hair contains vitamin D receptors (VDR) that increase during the hair growth phase (anagen phase) when VDRs are the most active. In summary, vitamin D has been shown to help hair loss and stimulate hair growth. So, when the body doesn't have enough vitamin D, your hair may be affected. Therefore, the relationship between hair health and vitamin D levels is something hair experts will continue to study closely.
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