8 Vitamins and Minerals that Affect Hair Loss

It's no secret that many people in our society don't eat the proper foods on a daily basis. Although fitness and health have become more prominent in people's minds, fast food and snacks have also become an integral part of our lives. Even if you're young and thin enough that you don't think your eating habits are taking any tolls on your body, there are so many ways that lack of proper diet does affect your body systems later on in life. For example, a lack of essential vitamins can result in hair loss when the hair follicles don't get the nutrients they need to stay healthy, or an excess of certain vitamins can cause your hair to fall out.

Vitamin A is a good example of something that seems like you should get a lot of it, but if you take A supplements, you can easily overdo. This vitamin is not water soluble and leads to hair loss when taken excessively. Even though it is an antioxidant, and you've heard plenty of good things about those, you can definitely take too much of a good thing with vitamin A.

You'll want to consume plenty of milk, egg yolks, and yeast in order to get your requirement of biotin (aka Vitamin H). This is the vitamin that has the biggest effect on helping you retain your hair and even keeping it from graying. Protein is another component of health that will help feed your hair and keep it strong. This nutrient is found in meat and poultry and has been found to be the material that 90% of hair is made up of. This is one of the reasons why it is found in so many types of shampoos and conditioners.

In the case of the B vitamins, though, the hair loss you may sustain is a good thing. B vitamins strengthen hair follicles and make your hair less prone to damage. Therefore, you want to have an intake of plenty of B vitamins such as are found in whole grains, bananas, potatoes and beans. B is another one of the antioxidants as are A and E. These vitamins are responsible for flushing the impurities out of your body, boosting your immune system, and making hair strong and healthy.

Lack of iron or zinc can be the culprits when you are experiencing abnormal hair loss. Being sure that you eat foods containing plenty of these minerals is essential to regrowing the hair you have lost. An added benefit to consuming plenty of red meat, which contains high concentrations of zinc, is that it has been proven to improve a person's sex life. A third mineral, Pantothenic Acid, is also critical to a healthy scalp. It's one of the vital components in a cell that converts food to energy. When your body is lacking in this essential nutrient, not only will you experience hair loss, but you can also become constipated or develop one of many other ailments.

It's easy to get lulled into thinking that since your hair is on the outside of your body, it shouldn't matter what you put into your body because it can't possibly affect it. However, when you know a bit more about how your body works, you'll begin to understand why the right vitamins and minerals are necessary in order for you to be healthy and to have a full head of hair.