The stressful world challenges both our mental and physical health. We start facing health concerns as we age. Among all such concerns, hair loss could be the one that has affected the most people.
Losing a few hair strands daily feels very frustrating. Have you ever thought about what causes hair loss?
Many things contribute to hair loss. Changes in diet is one of them. Every diet affects our hair growth, and it’s normal that our eating habits change with time.
Intermitting fasting is a popular diet, but does it contribute to hair loss? Let’s find out.
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is the practice of not eating food for extended periods. The word intermittent means at irregular intervals, something that is not continuously. You restrict yourself from eating for a few hours, and you eat between specified hours.
An important note is that you should not eat more than the recommended daily caloric intake. Count calories and include essential nutrients in your food during these hours.
Can Intermittent Fasting Cause Hair Loss?
The biggest risk when fasting is to miss out on essential nutrients for good health. There are many reasons for hair loss, and nutrient deficiency is one that can cause hair loss as a symptom.
Intermittent fasting itself should not be the cause for hair loss. Of course there are hereditary hair loss and auto-immune disorders causing hair loss. But apart from this, when general health is good, the hair tends to be good.
Make sure the food that you consume after a 16-hour break is nutritional. It should have all the macro- and micronutrients needed for good health and thus hair growth.
Many people believe that intermittent fasting has a direct effect on hair loss. But we have not yet seen any studies that proves this.
Temporary hair loss may occur when the body experiences high stress levels. But if all else is the same, changing one’s eating schedule to an 8-hour window should not affect hair growth.
Other than this, any hair loss that occurs during this diet can be due to the sudden change in your eating habits.
Our body doesn’t accept the change immediately. It requires time to get adapted to the changes we make to our lifestyle.
So this might be the reason you also get to experience loss of hair at the start of intermittent fasting. But, this diet itself doesn’t cause hair loss.
How To Prevent Hair Loss During Intermittent Fasting?
Calorie Deficit
When a person wants to lose weight they might consume less calories than before. If a person burns more calories than they consume, it’s called a calorie deficit. If a person consume as many calories as they burn, it’s calorie maintenance.
When you are calorie deficit, your body starts functioning differently. The body starts to focus on taking care of vital organs. It starts to use both essential and non-essential nutrients, such as keratin. Keratin is a one of the most important protein that makes up the hair. Being deficient in any of the nessecary nutrients for hair growth may lead to hair loss.
This is the reason you need to take proper care of your hair and health when fasting intermittently. Not having enough nutrients and calories to take care of vital organs can cause a wide range of symptoms. But there are ways to make sure your hair and your body gets more of the necessary nutrients.
The two tips below are the complete bedrocks for preventing hair loss during the fasting diet.
Hair Masks
What a time to be alive. There is a remedy for almost every problem. Hair masks are one of the remedies for reducing hair loss.
Hair masks have all the essential nutrients to maintain hair health while doing intermittent fasting.
Vitamins
There are some vitamins that improve hair growth. It may increase the length, thickness and strength of your hair .
Not only does it support your hair growth, but it also prevents the hair strands from breaking.
While doing intermittent fasting, taking hair vitamins can be a good idea.
Can Intermittent Fasting Cure Hair Loss?
Every diet has its pros and cons. People often only consider the negative effects of intermittent fasting on hair. They should also consider the positive ones.
Is there a link between curing hair loss and intermittent fasting? Many people think intermittent fasting is a miracle cure to anything.
Is it true that it can it also repair your hair damage and help you grow healthy hair? As far as we know, the answer is no.
Intermittent fasting has benefitted people in many ways. But when it comes to hair growth, we have not seen any evidence to support the claim that fasting helps to grow hair.
But the diet may be beneficial for health in other ways. And if it adresses an underlying health problem, then the net effect for your hair might be positive. Consult your doctor about your health concerns and possible treatments.
A diet with a balanced amount of essential nutrients should not cause hair loss.
Conclusion
Intermittent fasting is a way of eating that has become very popular in the past few years. Following the intermittent fasting diet does not have a direct impact on hair loss or growth. Eat foods that contain nutrients that are essential for healthy hair growth and youll be ok.
