Tips To Naturally Prevent Hair Loss From Diabetes
- Monitor Blood Sugar Levels
Regulating your blood sugar levels can help reduce side effects like hair loss. Once you control the blood sugar levels, your hair loss will naturally slow down.
- Reduce Physical And Emotional Stress
The impact of stress on hair loss is considerable. You can be especially sensitive to stress if you have diabetes. Try to control your stress levels. Do not push yourself and try to relax by practicing deep breathing exercises, meditation, or yoga.
- Exercise
Exercise can improve blood circulation to your bodys cells, including your hair follicles. It is also good for maintaining your physical and mental health.
- Establish A Healthy Hair Care Routine
Your daily hair care routine can affect the health of your locks. Try the following tips to offset the chances of hair loss:
- Avoid hair-damaging procedures, such as coloring, straightening, or perming.
- Limit the use of flat irons, curling tools, or hot combs.
- Use a gentle shampoo and conditioner.
- Try Essential Oils
Essential oils may have various beneficial effects on hair health. Some oils worth trying are:
- Lavender
- Clary sage
- Tea tree essential oil
You may mix them with carrier oils and massage the scalp. This can keep the scalp and the hair healthy.
- Eat Healthy
If your diet is low in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and other nutrient-rich foods, you are bound to experience a lot of hair loss. Hence, it is important to start eating healthy.
To Conclude
What Vitamin Should I Take For Hair Loss
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Yellowish Scaly Patches On And Around Your Eyelids
These develop when you have high fat levels in your blood. It can also be a sign that your diabetes is poorly controlled.The medical name for this condition is xanthelasma.
Take action
- Tell your doctor about the yellowish scaly patches around your eyes.
- Talk with your doctor about how to better control your diabetes. Controlling diabetes can clear the scaly patches.
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Why Am I Losing Hair On My Legs
- Why Am I Losing Hair On My Legs?
Youre sitting on the end of your bed putting on your socks when you see that your legs are smooth and shiny. You chalk it up to just losing leg hair with age and go about your daily routine. However, over the next few weeks you start feeling some leg pain and cramping making it difficult to walk the dog. Checking your legs again, you notice the shiny skin on your shins and you try to apply lotion to remedy the issue.
If you are over the age of 50 and you observe significant hair loss on the legs, ankles, or feet, it may be caused by an underlying vascular issue known as peripheral artery disease .
Monitor Blood Sugar Levels
If you have diabetes or prediabetes, blood glucose control is the primary goal. The target range for your blood sugar will vary depending on a variety of personal factors, but your doctor can help you sort it all out.
As discussed, elevated blood sugar can cause vascular disruption or damage, poor circulation and hormonal imbalancesall of which can lead to hair shedding and loss. Maintaining your blood sugars within your normal range can help keep your hair growth cycles humming along.
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Increased Thirst And Urination
When youre prediabetic, you have higher-than-normal levels of sugar in your bloodstream. High blood sugar makes your body increase urine production, and as you lose this fluid, you become thirstier and thirstier.
Genetics, a diet high in refined grains, sugary treats, soda pop, and processed foods, being overweight or obese, and a sedentary lifestyle also put you at risk for developing prediabetes, even if you dont have overt symptoms.
Regular primary care visits at Doctors First can help you keep track of your health markers so you can take action as soon as diabetes starts to loom as a possibility. In the meantime, switch to a healthier diet, quit smoking, move more, and lose weight to greatly improve your health and reduce the likelihood that youll develop prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes.
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Diabetes Hair Loss: Why It Happens And What You Can Do
Diabetes hair loss is not a new concept. Diabetes can have many adverse affects on the body, including hair loss or thinning hair. The majority of the time the hair loss grows back, though in some instances it may be permanent.
This can be scary and extremely distressing, both for men and women. We value our hair, as it is closely tied to our identity and our personal style. You cant deny that feeling of awesomeness when you first walk out of the salon or barber shop after a fresh new cut.
Luckily, diabetes hair loss can be controlled and treated with the right methods. Lets take a deeper look into the root causes and what you can do about it.
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Whats The Link Between Diabetes And Hair Loss
Regular hair growth can be impacted by stress, hormone imbalances and high blood sugar levels. Each of these things can disrupt the hair growth cycle, resulting in hair loss or lack of new growth.
When left unmanaged, high blood sugar levels cause sugar to build up in the blood, which can damage or block blood vessels. This means they can no longer deliver much-needed oxygen to your hair follicles for hair growth. Similarly, excess stress and fluctuating hormones can also impact the regeneration of hair follicles.
Poor blood circulation due to excess sugar in the blood, can affect the growth of hair on your head and other parts of the body, such as the arms and legs.
With diabetes, you are also at higher risk for a condition called alopecia areata, where the immune system attacks the hair follicles resulting in patches of hair loss. People with Type 1 diabetes are at higher risk for celiac disease and thyroid issues which can affect hair growth too.
Prevalence Of Hair Loss On Legs For Men And Women
Both men and women can experience anterolateral leg alopecia, which may be a sign of PAD, but it appears to affect men more than women. As many as 35% of men1 are thought to develop this condition over their lifetime. In most cases, the hair loss is on the lower legs. People affected by this condition may find themselves asking, Why am I losing hair on my lower legs? They may reach out to a dermatologist, believing that losing hair on the calves could be a skin issue and nothing else.
This could be the case, but its important to check for PAD regardless of your gender. In the past, PAD was thought to affect men more often than women,2 but recent studies show that women are affected as often as men.
If you have any PAD risk factors, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or a smoking habit, make sure to tell your physician or a vascular doctor about these risk factors. You should also tell your doctor whether or not you are experiencing additional symptoms of PAD, such as slowed toenail growth, skin discoloration, and cramping in the legs while walking or jogging. These can all signal a lack of adequate blood flow to your legs.
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Hair Follicle As An Early Manifestation Of Hyperglycemia
The hair follicle could be considered an end organ, with its own complex microenvironment . There are three types of hair follicles: terminal follicles, characterized by thick hair, found on the scalp and in the axillary and genital areas sebaceous follicles, characterized by their production of large amounts of sebum, found on the face, upper back and chest and vellus follicles, characterized by small thin vellus hairs, found in the remaining hairy surfaces of the body .
Hair growth takes place in a cyclical model that has three stages: anagen , catagen , and telogen . The exogen does not occur at every cycle, and the kenogen refers to a brief interval in which the hair follicle remains empty after the hair loss . The hair cycle regulation is complex, and includes various cytokines, hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors, and also changes in tissue biology and underlying epigenetic controls .
The hair follicle, as a highly active organ, needs a special regulatory microenviroment with adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients . A chronic decrease in the oxygen and nutrient supply caused by hyperglycemic vascular impairment can cause follicle damage, resulting in hair alterations like hair thinning, hair fragility, sparseness of hair, or decreased hair growth speed . These alterations may be subtle, so patients do not always notice them, and they must be detected with an active approach using dermatologic techniques.
Androgenetic alopecia
Hair loss in the inferior limbs
The Hair Growth Cycle And Diabetes
Hair usually goes through three phases. During the active growing phase, which lasts for two years or more, hairs grow at a rate of 1 to 2 cm per month. Hair then goes into a resting phase, which lasts for about 100 days. After this phase, some of the resting hair falls out.
Diabetes can interrupt this process, slowing down your hair growth. Having diabetes can also cause you to lose more hair than usual. That hair loss isnt only on your head. You can lose hairs on your arms, legs, and other body parts, too. When hair regrows, it does so at a slower-than-normal rate.
People with diabetes are more likely to have a condition called alopecia areata. With alopecia, the immune system attacks the hair follicles, leading to patches of hair loss on the head and on other parts of the body.
Diabetes itself can lead to hair loss. You may also lose hair as a side effect of stress from living with a chronic illness, or from medicines you take to treat your diabetes. Some people with diabetes also have thyroid disease, which can contribute to hair loss.
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Peripheral Artery Disease: Feet And Leg Issues
If youve noticed that you have shiny legs with no hair, you may or may not be experiencing other PAD symptoms such as:
- Difficulty walking or climbing stairs
- Leg pain that stops when at rest or elevating your feet
- Slow or non-healing wounds on your legs
- Restlessness in your legs felt especially at night
- Cramping or leg pain in your thigh, calf, or buttocks
- Leg fatigue or heaviness
- Tingling or numbness in your legs, ankles, feet, or toes
- One leg being cool to the touch when compared to the other
Hair loss on legs is just one of the many signs and symptoms of PAD. However, its crucial to note that not all people with PAD experience symptoms. If youre over the age of 50 and have risk factors like diabetes, family history of vascular disease, smoking, etc. you should consult a vascular specialist about your risk.
What Are Diabetic Feet
People with diabetes often have problems with their feet. Diabetic feet develop sores, deformities and infections more easily.
If not treated quickly, a diabetic foot ulcer or blister can get infected. Sometimes a surgeon must amputate a toe, foot or part of the leg to prevent the spread of infection.
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Diabetes & Hair Loss: Causes & Treatment Options
As people with diabetes, were often warned about the effects diabetes could potentially have on our eyes, fingers, and toes, but what about our hair?
Diabetes and hair loss is a common yet rarely discussed issue. Perhaps because its quickly dismissed as vanity, or because its embarrassing to publicly talk about balding areas of your scalp, whether youre a man or a woman.
Hair thinning and hair loss can come with a degree of shame because hair contributes to our feelings of beauty, femininity, and masculinity.
This article will explain the common causes and treatments for diabetes and hair loss.
Control Your Sugar Intake
Consistently high blood glucose is the number one enemy of your hair.
Elevated sugar levels destroy your blood vessels and keep the nourishing agents from reaching the follicles. Thus, impairing their growth.
So if you want to reverse diabetes and hair loss problems, then start monitoring your sugar intake right away.
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Type 2 diabetes affects the insulin in a persons body – a hormone that regulates how the body uses and stores glucose and fat. When a person has type 2 diabetes, the body still breaks down carbohydrate from the food and drink and turns it into glucose. The pancreas responds to this by releasing insulin, however, this insulin does not work properly and blood sugar levels rise with more insulin being released. This occurrence brings worrying symptoms, signalling high blood sugar levels, and can sometimes result in hair loss.
Alopecia The Hair Loss Disorder
If the hair loss is abnormally high, its possible youve developed a condition called alopecia areata.
Alopecia is an autoimmune disease in which your immune system attacks the hair follicles. As a result, their usual growth cycle is affected.
This diabetes hair loss condition is quite common in women who are aged 45+ years.
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Understanding Hair Loss On Legs
Under ordinary circumstances, hair fall is quite natural. New strands replace the old ones when they break off from the roots. However, when the follicles can no longer support growth, hair starts falling out, usually in chunks.
Certain hereditary disorders, such as alopecia areata, can cause hair loss on the scalp. In this condition, the immune system of the person starts attacking the cells that support hair growth. Another form of this disorder, called alopecia universalis, is body-wide hair loss.
Loss of hair on the legs typically occurs due to anterolateral leg alopecia. This condition affects the hair on the outer and front sides of the legs. Besides, aging may be a contributing factor since it can cause thinning of leg hair.
Have a look at other leading causes that may trigger loss of body hair.
How To Prevent Hair Loss
If you are suffering from diabetic-related hair loss, EXHALE. Your hair loss is probably a temporary problem that can be fixed with a combination of reducing stress and keeping your blood sugars manageable!
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Seek Professional Help For Hair Regrowth
Most women go for laser therapy or medications prescribed by dermatologists to regrow the hair.
Some professionals recommend hair lotions and topical sprays. Others give vitamin supplements to grow back the lost hair.
You can also go for surgical options such as hair transplant or scalp surgery to initiate hair regrowth.
If the diabetic hair loss is permanent or beyond repair, no worries. You can always get a sleek wig and rock a totally new style!
How Does Diabetes Affect Hair Growth
Before you can understand how diabetes can affect hair growth, let us take a cursory glance at how human hair grows.
- Human hair grows out of tiny pocket-like structures on the skin called follicles. The root of each follicle is made of protein cells.
- The blood vessels nourish the follicle roots and promote hair growth.
However, diabetes can affect organs like the eyes, kidneys, heart, nerves, brain, and even the blood vessels. The damaged blood vessels restrict the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the scalp and hair follicles, interfering with the hairs normal growth cycle.
But this is not the only cause of hair loss and hair thinning in people with diabetes. Here are some of the other reasons.
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Insulin Resistance And Its Association With Skin Manifestations
Insulin is a peptide hormone synthesized and secreted by the beta cells of the pancreas. Glucose is the main regulator of insulin secretion as the glucose concentration increases, it stimulates insulin secretion. Some of the glucoregulatory effects of insulin are inhibition of glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, increased transportation of glucose into adipose tissue and muscle, stimulation of glycogen synthesis, as well as a playing a major role in lipid and protein metabolism .
Insulin resistance can present in a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. These include: acanthosis nigricans, skin tags, hisrutism, , and androgenetic alopecia . The biologic plausibility of this association relies on the fact that hyperinsulinemia activates insulin growth factor-1 receptors located in fibroblasts and keratinocytes directly and indirectly, stimulating their proliferation . Hyperinsulinemia can also influence the production of sex steroids. Also, insulin and IGF-1 increase ovarian androgens by stimulating the ovaries to produce androgens via the increase of 17-hydroxylase local activity and inhibiting hepatic synthesis of sex hormone-binding globulin , which increases the availability of free testosterone . It is also important to mention that skin diseases such as psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, and vitiligo have been strongly associated with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome .
Table 1 Skin manifestations of insulin resistance