Vitamin D deficiencies will often give many symptoms including muscle pain, cold/fever and excessive sweating, but it can also in some more extreme cases result in hair loss. There is quite a lot of existing evidence suggesting that vitamin D deficiencies definitely cause hair loss and other hair problems as vitamin D stimulates the hair follicles to grow and when your body doesn’t have enough then your hair growth stops being effective.
So how does it effect the hair?
Vitamin D affects you and your health in many ways, including the skin and the hair and is pivotal in creating new hair follicles and maintaining them. Your hair follicles are the small pores on the head where your new hairs grow from and the new follicles can help your hair maintain its thickness and prevent your existing hair from starting to fall out, whether that is prematurely or not.
Research has shown that without enough vitamin D, new hair growth can be stunted and a deficiency in vitamin D has been linked to alopecia, the autoimmune condition that causes baldness and bald patches on your scalp and other areas of your body and can affect both men and women. Other studies have found that more specifically in women aged 18 to 45 who have experienced alopecia or other forms of hair loss have shown lower levels of vitamin D and this can be caused by spending lots of time indoors, wearing lots of sunscreen or not eating enough foods that contain vitamin D or the right amount of it.
So what can I do to get more vitamin D?
There’s a lot of things that you can do to bump up your levels of vitamin D. You can opt to start off with multivitamins which usually include around 400IU of vitamin D (but even this is still below your recommended daily allowance). If you choose to use multivitamins to top up your vitamin D, you also need to ensure that you are receiving some form of vitamin D within your diet. Rather than using a multivitamin, it may be best for you to see your GP and ask them to check your blood levels of vitamin D and decide on a specific dose of your supplementation and if your levels are very low, higher prescription doses can be recommended.
Secondly, linking back to the first point there are a number of foods containing high amounts of vitamin D that can be used to top up your levels. Eating a healthy diet including foods that naturally contain vitamin D can help to improve your levels and reduce the effects of hair loss. Some foods naturally rich in vitamin D are;
- Salmon
- Fish oils
- Animal fat
- Mackerel
- Other fatty fish
One tablespoon of cod liver oil for example provides you with 340% of your daily vitamin D needs.
Lastly, exposure to the sun is incredibly helpful for those with a vitamin D deficiency. Spending too much time indoors or out of the sunlight can lead you to a deficiency, this is easily avoidable by simply taking a brief stroll on a sunny day and the benefits can be huge.
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