More Protein, Less Hair Loss
If you didn’t know hair is made from protein, we get protein from our diet. Diets severly lacking in protein have been known to cause hair loss as the body tries to reserve protein for more important body functions such as muscle repair. As a result hair goes into what is called a resting phase ie. it’s stops growing. What’s worse is two to three months later hair rate loss accelerates, you lose more hair than ever before and none of it is growing back.
Think about it, if your hair doesn’t have the building blocks for growth how can you expect to keep a full head of hair? And so it follows eating a plenty of protein will help minimise hair loss from this aspect. The best sources of protein include milk, eggs, meat and fish. These proteins contain a wide range of amino acids (what protein is made up of and broken down to in the body) and are easily absorbed by the body.
Getting all scientific now…Dr. Yano, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Detmar from scientific instutions in Massachusetts have done studies to indicate that something called VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) is a very significant factor that stimulates new hair growth and also makes hairs thicker. The study compared two sets of mice, one set were normal mice the others where genetically modified to produce large quantities of VEGF. What was observed was the VEGF mice grew hair quicker and thicker in their first two weeks. Then later they shaved the mice, again the VEGF mice hair regrew quicker, nearly “70 percent thicker than in wild-type mice”. I won’t go into the exact mechanism of VEGF today, but suffice to say it appears to be a highly important factor involved in hair growth.
Getting back to the topic title, VEGF is a protein made by the body, and as I have mentioned proteins are made from amino acids and amino acids are supplied to the body by eating protein (haven’t lost you there?!). So not only does eating protein provide the building blocks to sustain and grow hair but it may also provide the nutrients which are need for the body to make VEGF which will help sustain and stimulate hair growth.
Whilst adequate protein might not cure hair loss it will certainly help minimize it, not to mention eating protein is a vital and healthy nutrient that has a whole host of benefits to the body. Ideally try and eat some quality protein with each meal. This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. For example a healthy dose of milk with your breakfast, an egg sandwich for lunch, chicken breast with your main meal and so on.
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This article was written on September 22, 2005 was posted in these categories Hair Nutrition .