Baldness is a degrading condition for millions of men and women, and can lead to psychological problems and feelings of self worthlessness. On the other hand, there are also millions of baldness sufferers who just treat their hair loss as a fact of life - a part of growing old.
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 right away, you've got a better chance of lowering the affects, or in some cases, even reversing the condition.
Now it should be said that there is not a magic pill for curing balding (yet) and there is no one single treatment that works for everyone. As a matter of fact, in many instances a combination of a few anti- balding products will derive better results than any one particular product or approach. 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 imminent question, whether or not stress can cause balding? You see, stress is so frequently referred to as the major cause of hair loss, that many people believe this to be correct. The fact is that stress is a cause of hair loss, so you can blame your job or your sporting team if it makes you feel better, but it is not the major cause. Often stress can be contributing factor, but there is one major cause of baldness that precedes all others.
Baldness can be caused by many factors, with more than 50% of males experiencing 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 hair loss or thinning by age 60. The most prevalent hair loss cause is Pattern Baldness. Pattern hair loss alone affects more than 40% of the male population. Pattern balding is easy to explain - it is a genetic disposition - it eventuates naturally.
Most men and women are genetically predisposed to Pattern Baldness. The cause of Pattern baldness is very intricate, but in a nutshell, 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 causer for slowing down hair production and produces weaker, shorter hair - and ultimately stops hair from growth altogether.
Men and women suffer from Pattern baldness in very different ways. Men tend to experience thinning hair in certain sections or patches of the scalp and that's why many instances 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 of hair loss, but there are a number of other known causes. The other causes of hair loss are accountable for such small percentages of cases, and in many cases are the easiest to prevent, detect or even reverse. Other known causes of baldness are hormonal imbalances (especially in women) illnesses, inferior diet, poor hygiene, drug abuse and last but not least, stress. Again, stress is an indisputable known cause of baldness. 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 hair loss can also be caused by experiences such as trauma, childbirth, puberty, major surgery and even severe chronic illness. Telogen Effluvium is characterized by abrupt hair loss caused by an interruption in the normal hair growth cycle. Stress and trauma cause large numbers of hair follicles to synchronously enter a stage of rest. After some time, the hair follicles will enter a stage of growth, and the old hair will be pushed 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 baldness can become chronic and eventually lead to more prevalent hair loss.
So in theory you can blame your job for your baldness, or you could blame your hockey team, or football team or basketball team. But in actuality, although stress can lead to hair loss, it is one of the secondary 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.
