Is there a relationship between alcohol consumption and hair loss?
Hair loss can be attributed to various causes, but have you ever thought how alcohol may play a role in this? Although there is no evidence in a direct relationship between hair loss and alcohol consumption, excessive drinking can indirectly cause hair loss.
Losing a few hair strands every day when combing your hair is not as alarming as losing a sizeable amount of hair every day. Excessive consumption of alcohol could be a cause of losing a lot of hair. This is because too much alcohol can prevent the body from absorbing essential body nutrients from the food you consume, leading to deficiencies of key nutrients responsible for hair strengthening.
How does this happen?
Despite there being no strong scientific link between excessive alcohol consumption and hair loss, excessive drinking may disrupt the body’s ability to absorb the necessary nutrients. Body nutrients such as proteins, copper, and zinc are very important in the growth and strength of your hair and that is why hair shredding may occur if the these nutrients are not regularly absorbed into the body.
Studies have shown that some excessive drinkers can struggle with malnutrition, which can accelerate hair loss. Alcohol contains a lot of empty calories which are not helpful to the body. Consumers may feel full most of the times and they may forget to look after their health generally, including avoiding well balanced meals. Excessive drinkers may not concentrate on eating a nutritious meal regularly and this may cause a deficiency in the body’s essential nutrients for hair strength. Alcohol also interferes with the absorption of the nutrients by interfering with the digestive system in the stomach. Excess alcohol in the body can gradually destroy the lining in the stomach, which will trigger the production of excess acid in the stomach and it will in turn, interfere with the digestive system. This can cause lower absorption of the vitamins and nutrients into the body which will not help with hair loss.
Hormonal Imbalance from Excessive Consumption of Alcohol
Excessive alcohol consumption can also greatly interfere with the hormonal interactions necessary for controlling the body’s processes responsible for hair growth. A regular excessive drinking habit will interfere with the production of the thyroid, which is responsible for the body’s growth, and in turn, it may cause thinning and shedding of hair from your scalp.
Excess Alcohol can cause Dehydration
When you are dehydrated, your hair follicles become dry and weak making it easy to shred off or attract dandruff. Alcohol causes dehydration and the effects of dehydration will cause hair loss.
Excessive Drinking causes ‘Telogen Effluvium’
Telogen effluvium is a hair loss condition that occurs when hair follicles do not replenish themselves. This condition is mainly accelerated by too much stress on the body. Excessive drinkers do not get quality sleep necessary to kick out fatigue and stress, and that is why most drinkers have a lot of stress that strains their hair follicles, leading to hair loss.
Alcohol is linked to accelerated estrogen production
Male drinkers produce very high levels of estrogen which is linked to hair loss. High levels of estrogen in the body can also cause balding with time.
The point to take from this article is that an occasional drink or night out shouldn’t cause too much of a concern, but if you are finding that alcohol is affecting other areas of your life, then it may be affecting your hair also.
If you are suffering with hair loss or your hair is falling out, why not find our details in our contact page and let us help you with your options.
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