What Are The Causes Of Hair Loss?

The most common cause of hair loss is hereditary baldness, or androgenetic alopecia (AGA) also known as male pattern baldness.  Strikingly, as we age pattern hair loss may ultimately affect almost as many women as men. Other less-common causes of hair loss include disorders which may be linked to underlying diseases, medications, medical treatments, normal hormonal changes, stress, and poor nutrition.

Health disorders that can cause hair loss include alopecia areata (an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own hair and in which all the body hair may be shed), cicatricial alopecia (inflammation that scars and permanently destroys the hair follicles), trichotillomania (psychological disorder in which people pull out their own hair and, in some cases, ingest the hair),telogen effluvium (sudden hair loss due to stressful events such as surgery, illness and birth).  

Hair loss can also be caused by other diseases, disorders and conditions including high fever, diabetes, hypothyroidism, lupus erythematosis and even parasitic infestation such as ringworm.  Drugs can also cause hair loss.  These include certain birth control medications, anabolic steroids, blood thinners and of course anti-cancer chemotherapuetic agents.  Hormonal events linked to hair loss include giving birth (post-partum hair loss is extremely common),  low progesterone levels, extreme weight loss, and of course menopause.  

In our next segment we will explore viable hair loss treatment options for each form of hair loss just described.