Like your skin, your hair is often an indicator of your overall health and wellness. Hair loss is commonly written off as part of aging for older people, especially if thinning hair or baldness runs in the family. While it’s true that our hair becomes thinner and finer with age, thinning hair or unhealthy hair can be an indicator of a vitamin and/or mineral deficiency, poor nutrition, and unhealthy environmental factors. While none of us will live forever, good nutrition and health practices can keep your body and your hair in good health longer. Here are some things to consider if you want healthy hair.
Endocrine Disruptors
Healthy hair depends a lot on healthy hormone levels, and healthy hormone-creating organs like the thyroid and the gut. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals and substances that interfere with your hormone receptors and organs and can cause problems with your hair, too.
Common chemicals in our homes, food, drinking water, and product packaging can throw endocrine organs off balance. For instance, numerous endocrine disruptors (like perchlorate, found in all kinds of processed foods like boxed mac and cheese), make it difficult for the thyroid to absorb iodine and produce thyroid hormones.
Iodine Deficiency and Your Thyroid
If you notice symptoms like tiredness, brittle hair and nails, stress, thinning hair, bags under your eyes, and weight gain, you may well have an iodine deficiency. Your thyroid needs iodine to function normally. And the hormones your thyroid produces are critical for protein production, cell metabolism, and cell growth – including the cells and proteins in your hair follicles. You may want to get your hormone levels checked and your iodine levels tested. Testing can be tricky because the range of what is considered “normal” is so broad. I recommend working with a functional medicine doctor or a chiropractor that uses applied kinesiology (muscle testing). Or you can simply add more iodine-rich foods to your diet like seaweed (nori is an example), dulse, and kelp.
Diet
Your diet is one of the best ways to maintain hair health and avoid thinning hair. Organic foods are important because of the endocrine disruptors that are so often found in non-organic foods. Even if you’re doing the Paleo or Keto diet, plant foods are still important. Nutrients from plant foods are varied, plentiful and extremely bioavailable – meaning, they’re easy for our bodies to use and absorb. Although some people do not tolerate raw fruits and vegetables, it is best to try to avoid cooking fruits and vegetables because it can destroy valuable nutrients and digestive enzymes. Smoothies are great options for many people.
Legumes are a wonderful option because they are high in fiber, protein, and micro-nutrients. You can eat them in soups and stews, add cooked or sprouted ones to salads, or grind dry ones for bread or baked goods to substitute for part of the grains. Rinse legumes well before putting fresh water on them to cook. Beans need to soak overnight (lentils and split peas don’t). Other good for choices for healthy hair are red bell peppers, spinach, broccoli and broccoli sprouts, mushrooms, avocado, sweet potatoes, and sprouted flax or chia seeds.
Stress
Hair loss and stress go hand in hand. Stress can increase the amount of androgens (a group of hormones that are present in both males and females) and can shorten the life cycle of your hair and can make it fall out more quickly. Second, stress raises cortisol levels, which means your adrenal glands are busy creating cortisol, and not the hormones needed for healthy hair. Interestingly, many people with very low cortisol levels also see a lot of hair loss. But that’s because of adrenal fatigue and burnout from producing too much cortisol over long periods of time. So it’s important to do what you can to manage stress – deep breathing, meditation, walks, hobbies, funny movies, etc. You can also help your body balance stress by taking adaptogenic herbs.
Nutrient Deficiencies
Certain nutrient deficiencies can have a direct influence on thinning hair and hair health. Lack of iron is a common cause of hair loss because it is required to make hair protein. Without enough iron, you’re likely to experience a lot of breakage and hair loss. If you’re not getting enough B12, you might feel tired, get sick a lot, feel weak, and generally unwell. You’re also likely to have thinning or brittle hair, since B12 has a direct effect on red blood cells’ ability to get oxygen into your cells. Vitamin D and Zinc play an important role in how your cells communicate, how quickly they repair damage, how easily they bind with protein and interact with hormones. If you’re deficient in Vitamin D or Zinc, you may notice unhealthy hair, as well as tiredness, mood disorders, and more susceptibility to illness.
Organic sulfur is also vital for strong, thick, vibrant hair. And because modern farming practices tend to strip the soil of nutrients, as well as use pesticides that break the sulfur cycle in plants, most of us aren’t getting enough organic sulfur from the food we eat. Eating organic, sulfur-rich foods and supplementing with organic sulfur can help you say goodbye to gray hair, drastically reduce your hair loss, and help unhealthy hair cells start producing keratin, pigment, and collagen again.
Finally, if you’re not getting enough essential fatty acids (like Omega 3) in your diet, you may experience hair thinning and overall poor hair health. Essential fatty acids help prevent hair loss, encourage new growth, fortify your hair follicles, and keep your scalp from flaking. Essential fatty acids are also wonderful for your skin, nails, brain and heart.
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