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.

Baldness treatments are becoming more effective, owing to recent scientific discoveries. And like so many other medical and personal health ailments, if you act on the problem right at the onset, you've got a better chance of lowering the affects, or at times, even reversing the condition.

Now it must be stated that there is not a magic pill for correcting baldness (yet) and there is no one single treatment that works for everyone. As a matter of fact, in most instances a combination of a few anti- baldness products will reap better results than any single product or method. The baldness treatment that suits each of will need to be tailored to our individual characteristics and traits.

That moves us to the imminent question, whether or not stress can cause baldness? You see, stress is so habitually referred to as the major cause of hair loss, that many people believe this to be genuine. 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.

Balding 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. The most prevalent hair loss cause is Pattern Baldness. Pattern baldness alone affects more than 40% of the male population. Pattern baldness is easy to explain - it is a genetic disposition - it occurs naturally.

Our genetic make-up naturally predisposes most men and women to Pattern Baldness. The cause of Pattern hair loss 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 an adverse affect on the hair follicles - it is the causer for slowing down hair production and produces weaker, shorter hair - and in time stops hair from growth altogether.

The way men and women experience Pattern Baldness is very different. Men tend to endure thinning hair in certain sections or patches of the scalp and that's why most instances in men result in the 'monk' effect, i.e. baldness on top, with hair still growing at the sides and back. Women tend to lose hair evenly 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 accountable for such small percentages of cases, and in many cases are the easiest to prevent, detect or even reverse. Other known causes of hair loss are hormonal imbalances (especially in women) illnesses, lousy diet, inferior hygiene, drug abuse and last but not least, stress. Again, stress is an established known cause of hair loss. 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 synchronously enter a stage of rest. After some time, the hair follicles will enter a stage of growth, and the old hair will be ejected 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.

Stress-related baldness does really exist, so you can blame your football team, or your job or anything else that stresses you out. 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.