It is undoubtedly one of the phrases that we have heard ad nauseam: stress causes hair to fall out. And if this occurs in autumn, the increase is much greater. The problem is that science had not found a clear correlation to be able to say that this was 100% true. What we knew was that stress raised cortisol and that this altered growth cycles, but we were missing the ‘how’. Something that we have already managed to solve.
A path for treatments. Without a doubt in the aesthetic world there is a great demand for treatments that solve baldness problems such as shampoos, vitamin supplements and without a doubt the option of hair follicle transplantation are the order of the day. That is why understanding exactly why hair falls out in certain situations can end up helping to develop a greater number of medications.
The study. The good news we have on the table comes from a study published in the journal Cell supported by previous research that has found the missing link regarding stress and hair loss.
A priori it could be thought that cortisol, the so-called ‘stress hormone’, could be responsible for this loss. But science has taken a turn of the helm by pointing to an electrical overload of the nervous system that would literally be frying the hair cells.
The fighting system. Our nervous system has two very clear parts. One that we call ‘parasympathetic’, which is the body’s brake and is active when we are most relaxed. But, on the other hand, we have the ‘sympathetic’ that is activated in times of stress, to increase heart rate or tension.
It is precisely this system that causes this undesirable effect, especially because when activated it produces epinephrine or norepinephrine, which is a powerful vasoconstrictor that causes the muscle to have more blood, tension to increase or the heart rate to skyrocket. And this is precisely the substance that travels to the hair follicles, being almost like a poison for the stem cells that are responsible for regenerating hair.
As. All the cells in our body need energy to function, as if they were a small factory. The energy is ‘generated’ in what we call mitochondria, which literally take oxygen from the blood to produce a reaction that releases the energy that the cell will use to do all its tasks such as synthesizing the necessary elements that our hair has.
The problem is that with the arrival of norepinephrine to the cells, these mitochondria die, and a production system without energy is condemned to die. And this is precisely what happens to the cells of the hair follicle, causing the system to collapse and accompanied by hair loss.
This is something that has been demonstrated in mice, where by blocking the entry gates of norepinephrine to the hair follicle cell, hair loss was blocked.
The immune system. Beyond the effect of norepinephrine, we also find the effect of our own defenses. And there are many factors that can activate the immune system around the follicle, which explains why stress is such a common trigger for alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disease where the body itself attacks its own follicles as if they were something foreign when it is its own thing.
The future of baldness. As we mentioned before with this door open, pharmacology can now do its job by looking for ways to block the effect of norepinephrine in these cells without affecting the rest of the body (where it is very necessary). Although not stressing and having a calm life, the truth is that it can be the best possible treatment for both baldness and other diseases, although in today’s society it is undoubtedly a great challenge.
Images | Gustavo Sanchez
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