Learn About How Stress Can Contribute To Baldness

Millions of people suffer from baldness, and this condition can be very degrading for some people, leading to a feeling of self worthlessness. But, at the same time, millions of other men and women just learn to live with baldness, thinking of it as yet another one of life's natural aging effects.

The scientific discoveries in recent years have made the treatments for baldness far more effective. And like so many other medical and personal health dispositions, if you act on the problem immediately, you've got a better chance of lowering the affects, or at times, even reversing the condition.

Now it should be said that there is not a magic pill for reversing baldness (yet) and there is no one single curative measure that works for one and all. As a matter of fact, in many cases a combination of a few anti- balding products will gain better results than any single product or method. Because everyone one of us is wired differently, the hair loss treatment for you will need to be tailored to suit your individual characteristics.

That moves us to the question at hand, whether or not stress can cause baldness? You see, stress is so generally referred to as the major cause of hair loss, that many people believe this to be kosher. The fact is that stress is a cause of balding, so you can blame your job or your sporting team if it makes you feel better, but it is not the major cause. Although stress is a cause of baldness, it is seen only as a contributing factor, because there is one cause that affects most hair loss sufferers.

Baldness can be caused by many factors, with more than 50% of males enduring some form of balding or thinning by middle age. Women also suffer from hair loss, and around 35-40% of women will suffer some type of balding or thinning by age 60. Studies suggest that Pattern Baldness is the most prevalent cause of baldness. Pattern hair loss alone affects more than 40% of the male population. Pattern hair loss is easy to explain - it is a genetic disposition - it happens naturally.

A genetic predisposition will mean that most men and women will experience Pattern Baldness. The cause of Pattern balding is very intricate, but in laymans terms, it occurs when testosterone combines with a specific enzyme and is converted into what is know as dihydrotestosterone (aka DHT). DHT has a negative affect on the hair follicles - it is the catalytic agent for slowing down hair production and produces weaker, shorter hair - and finally stops hair from growth altogether.

The way men and women experience Pattern Baldness is very different. Men tend to go through thinning hair in certain sections or patches of the scalp and that's why many cases in men result in the 'monk' effect, i.e. balding on top, with hair still growing at the sides and back. Women tend to lose hair uniformly across the scalp, so instead of having a visibly bald patch, a woman can actually lose more hair than a man, but still appear to have a full head of hair.

Pattern Baldness is by far the most likely cause f hair loss, but there are a number of other known causes. The other causes of hair loss are attributable for such small percentages of cases, and in many instances are the easiest to prevent, detect or even reverse. Other known causes of hair loss are hormonal imbalances (especially in women) illnesses, bad diet, lousy hygiene, drug abuse and last but not least, stress. Again, stress is an established known cause of balding. Not a major cause, but it ranks in the top few causes.

Telogen Effluvium is the scientific name of baldness that is caused by stress. This type of balding can also be caused by experiences such as trauma, childbirth, puberty, major surgery and even severe chronic illness. Telogen Effluvium is characterized by sudden hair loss caused by an interruption in the normal hair growth cycle. Stress and trauma cause large numbers of hair follicles to concurrently enter a stage of rest. After some time, the hair follicles will enter a stage of growth, and the old hair will be forced out of the follicle by a new hair that is formed beneath it. The result is a period of hair shedding, and is usually self correcting, but if the stress is ongoing, then this type of hair loss can become chronic and eventually lead to more prevalent baldness.

In theory you could blame your favorite sports team for stressing you so much that you went bald. But in actuality, although stress can lead to hair loss, it is one of the lesser causes of baldness. And it is only really related to more dramatic experiences that have bought on stress. Pattern Baldness is the most likely cause of hair loss, and if you act on it right away there's a good chance that you can minimize the effects.