Most of us think that hair breakage is caused by wrong hair care routine, but wait a second before you arrive at such conclusions. Wrong way of handling your tresses, over-styling, pollutants, heredity, choice of wrong products might be a dominant factor in causing your tresses to bid you farewell, but there are a selection of conditions and diseases that can equally contribute to the breakage of hair. In today’s post, we will talk about the list of illnesses that are responsible for causing hair breakage. Take a look:
1. Hypothyroidism: One of the primary reasons why you might be witnessing hair breakage is thyroid disorders. When you have thyroid issue, you would end up having brittle, dry, and dull hair. Over a period of time, hair would start thinning and eventually you may notice excessive shedding or bald patches. Some of the symptoms of thyroid are crumbling of nails, slower healing of wounds, deep lines on the palms and soles of the feet and itchy skin. If you see any of these symptoms, then it’s time to consult a doctor.
Solution: Thyroid disorders can be corrected by injecting synthetic thyroids to your body. Once your thyroid levels return to normal, your hair breakage problem will reduce.
2. Lupus Hair Breakage: Systemic lupus erythematosus or lupus for short, is a chronic autoimmune disease that is caused by the immune system of an individual. In this health condition, an individual’s immune system attacks healthy cells around the body. This is followed by certain symptoms like hair loss and hair breakage. This is an extremely complicated body disorder, so when the disease gets normal, you will notice hair growing back. Simple things like staying protected from the sun and other UV light sources can help to keep hair breakage under check.
Solution: Consult a rheumatologist if your hair loss is accompanied by joint pain, fatigue, and other symptoms of lupus, which is treated with oral medications such as prednisone. In case you notice any rash on the scalp, it can treated by application of a topical cream.
3. Anaemia: This is a very common health disorder that is accompanied by hair breakage. The most common type of anaemia occurs due to iron deficiency. To get sure about whether you are anemic or not, you should get a blood test done to determine this type of anaemia. In addition to hair loss, other symptoms of anemia include fatigue, headache, dizziness, pale skin, and cold hands and feet.
Solution: Intake of iron supplements should correct the problem.
4. Deficiency of Vitamin B: Low levels of vitamin B are also responsible for causing hair breakage.
Solution: This problem can be corrected by both dietary changes as well intake of vitamin-B supplements. Eat food rich in vitamin B like fish, meat, starchy vegetables, and non-citrus fruits. This will help improve health of your hair.
5. Alopecia: Commonly known as alopecia areata, this is caused by an auto-reactive immune system. The immune system of the body gets confused between foreign and body material and starts treating hair as a foreign agent which causes unwanted hair breakage.
Solution: Steroid injections help to treat this type of problem which appears as hair loss in round patches on the head. Other drugs, including Rogaine, may also be used. However, the results are not very promising in this case.
6. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): This is caused by imbalance in production of male and female hormones. An excess of androgens can lead to ovarian cysts, weight gain, a higher risk of diabetes, and changes in your menstrual period, infertility, as well as hair thinning. Because there is an abundance of male hormones in the body, it causes hair breakage problems as well.
Solution: This can be treated by including healthy changes in your lifestyle like following a healthy diet, exercise, and potentially birth control pills, as well as specific treatment to address infertility or diabetes risk. It can also be corrected by taking birth control pills such as Yasmin, which contains a potent anti-androgen that blocks testosterone. Weight loss also helps in decreasing the effect of male hormones.
7. Tinea capitis: This is a type of fungal infection on the scalp that mostly affects school children. Though this problem is more seen in children, it might also affect some adults. Bald spots usually show broken-off hairs accompanied by dermatitis.
Solution: Oral anti-fungal medications are used on the scalp to deeply penetrate the hair roots and cure the infection, after which hair grows back. Sharing hats or combs and brushes is also responsible for causing such disorders, so try to avoid sharing personal stuff.
8. Cancer: A few types of cancer like Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cause hair breakage, but cancer treatments like chemotherapy is also hugely responsible hair breakage and hair loss issues. Though this treatment is extremely successful in destroying cancerous cells, unfortunately it also attacks the hair roots of the body. In men, prostate cancer might also cause hair loss.
Solution: During chemotherapy infusions, scalp cooling caps when placed on your head helps to slow blood flow to your scalp. This way, chemotherapy drugs are less likely to have an effect on your hair. Also, applying Minoxidil to your scalp helps to regrow back lost hair.
9. Telogen Effluvium: Telogen effluvium is a phenomenon that occurs after pregnancy, major surgery, drastic weight loss, or extreme stress, in which you shed large amounts of hair every day, usually after shampooing or styling your hair. Some anti-depressants and non- steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs also cause hair breakage as a side-effect. As a result of this disorder, hair shifts faster than normal from its growing phase into the “resting” phase before moving quickly into the shedding, or telogen, phase.
Solution: When hair loss occurs due to pregnancy or major surgery, you have to wait till hair loss rate slows down. If the underlying cause is due to some medication, you might consider switching to some drug. If it’s stress-related, do your best to reduce anxiety.
Hope, this article enlightened you about the common disorders that are responsible for hair breakage. So, take necessary actions and as always stay beautiful and healthy from inside-out.
