Below we will cover just what Vitamin D does for hair, why your levels might be low, how to get Vitamin D levels back to normal, and how to help prevent a deficiency.
New information is constantly available about how different deficiencies in vitamins and minerals can play a role in negative health effects, even in seemingly unrelated parts of your body. Vitamin D has been touted as one of those all-important vitamins that many people should supplement, since it seems to play a role in so many vital functions of the body, including the healthy formation of bone and helping the body absorb calcium properly.
A deficiency in this essential vitamin has also been linked to hair loss. Below we will cover just what Vitamin D does for hair, why your levels might be low, how to get Vitamin D levels back to normal, and how to help prevent a deficiency.
Vitamin D isn’t all about bones, it also helps stimulate hair follicles to grow hair. Your hair is on a natural cycle of growth, no growth, and then loss of that hair. Losing 50-100 hairs per day on average is a normal phase of that growth cycle. But, when the next phase of hair growth isn’t stepping in to replace those lost hairs due to a Vitamin D deficiency, slowed growth can make hair seem less thick over time.
In addition to its role in the growth phase of hair, lower levels of Vitamin D are seen more often in those with the autoimmune disease alopecia areata as compared to matched controls without alopecia. One study looked into the Vitamin D levels in women experiencing female pattern hair loss and compared the levels with women who were not experiencing hair loss and found that women dealing with hair loss had significantly lower levels than women with no hair loss issues.
There are three ways that you can get your daily amount of Vitamin D: you can synthesize it from getting some sun, you can consume it in food, or you can supplement it in a capsule or tablet. So, if you are not regularly getting enough Vitamin D from one or a combination of all of these sources, you may end up being deficient. People who don’t spend time out in the sun or who live in darker climates may develop a Vitamin D deficiency if they don’t make an effort to eat or supplement Vitamin D.
Also, people with a darker complexion do not synthesize Vitamin D from the sun as well as those with paler skin. The same Vitamin D production from sun exposure also declines as you get older. Additionally, Vitamin D levels can decline when the Vitamin D you consume is not able to be absorbed from the GI tract due to a gastrointestinal illness like Chron’s or celiac disease.
Low Vitamin D levels are not always something that you can feel, and most people who have low Vitamin D levels may feel just fine. However, for some people low levels of Vitamin D may come along with the following symptoms:
Most doctors routinely check on Vitamin D levels with a blood panel. But, if your doctor has never mentioned Vitamin D levels with you, ask them about checking on the levels during your next appointment.
The treatment for Vitamin D deficiency is starting a plan to make sure that you are getting enough Vitamin D every day.
Depending on your levels, this may mean that your doctor recommends an over-the-counter supplement to you, suggest for you to increase your consumption of certain foods, or may even prescribe a high-dose Vitamin D supplement for you to use called Ergocalciferol.
Your doctor will likely then check your blood levels of Vitamin D on a return visit to see how the treatment is going and adjust any recommendations accordingly.
Finding and correcting a Vitamin D deficiency to help with your hair loss concerns is a start on the road to better overall health and hair health. But, depending on the extent of the changes to your hair, you may want a little extra help increasing your hair regrowth and keeping your current hair in place.
Here at Strut Health, we carry prescription oral and topical hair loss medications including Finasteride, Dutasteride, Spironolactone, and Minoxidil.
You can have a free online questionnaire and image-based consultation with our doctors to see which ingredients may be a good fit for your hair goals. If you are a good candidate for treatment, your prescription medication can be shipped to your front door with our free shipping.
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