Regular exercise is key to staying in good physical shape, and helps us live happy, healthy lives. Sometimes, when you start working out a lot you may notice your hair thinning. It’s easy to find this confusing. Isn’t exercise supposed to be good for you? So why is your hair falling out?
Studies have been carried out in the past that look directly at exercise and hair loss. It might seem counterintuitive, but exercise can accelerate hair loss. Although there are some actions you can take, living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean you’re safe from hair loss. Unfortunately great exercise regimen won’t stop genetic male pattern baldness.
That being said, there is a strong correlation between hair loss and exercise. Why?
Strenuous exercise equals stress, stress equals hair loss
The main reason why exercise is going to have a big impact on your hair loss problems is because strenuous exercise is stress. Your body has to undergo a lot of effort to go through an intense exercise regime, so it’s no wonder that your body feels stressed out.
Regular exercise is good for us, no doubt, but it’s important to not cause free-radical damage by over-exercising. If you are going through a stressful period in life, and you add strenuous exercise hair loss will naturally increase.
A healthy exercise regime is a great way to help lessen your stress levels, as exercise naturally burns off cortisol and adrenaline. However, over exercising can increase your physiological and physical stress. If you’re going through a tough period in your personal life or career, consider cutting down on your exercise days - even just one less day can make the difference.
Some light cardio is usually a good enough alternative to make sure that you don’t start to seize up. However, you do need to be conscious that exercise is stress, and stress does lead to hair loss.
Why does this happen?
When you go through a period of extensive exercise, your body will enter what is known as a “chronic stressor state”. Unfortunately, this can lead to developing the condition “telogen effluvium”, and this is will prevent hair follicles growing properly.
If you reduce your exercise and start improving your diet, though, you can begin to slowly but surely put an end to that process. If you want to try and help your body further, improve your vitamin intake. Doing so using vitamins from the likes of It Really Works Vitamins, who currently offer 10% off your first order with the MENSHEALTH10 code when shopping, can help too.
Following an extreme exercise regimen isn’t going to be good for your hair. If you aren’t properly balancing it out with nutrition and the right vitamin intake, hair loss will happen.