Medications as a Cause of Hair Loss
Most people probably want to go
through their whole lives without getting sick.
That would definitely be a dream.
We’ll leave that for the geneticists
to figure out, but for now, when illness strikes, we resort to any number of
prescribed and advertised medications.
It is intriguing, however, that sometimes, the very remedies we take
are the causes of further problems.
Side effects are common place in the world of medicine.
However, some are more distressing than others.
One of these especially problematic consequences is hair loss. There
are hundreds of drugs that list loss of hair as a possible side effect, so
it’s impossible to name all of them here. There are however, a few common
drugs and conditions that one will need to watch out for.
Due to the association of hormonal
problems and hair loss, women are more often a victim of this than men.
This is due to things more specific
to the fairer sex. For one, only
females can get pregnant. In this 9
month period, women become very hormonal and this can effect the hair’s
growth cycle. This is a little common
though and a little difficult to manage. What
can be checked however, are oral contraceptives.
More commonly called ‘the pill,’
these drugs unnaturally affect female hormones and can sometimes result in
mild to moderate thinning at the top. Products
high in progestin should raise red flags in the scalp department.
After child birth, women also take
drugs to counter post partum depression. This
is not the only situation associated with depression though.
There are many problems in a person’s
life that can result in this condition, and even though women are more prone
to it, a large number of men go through it as well.
This is where antidepressants enter
the mix, and these also cause hair loss. One
known product is Celexa. Due to the
loss of protein and amino acids while taking the drug, researchers theorize
that this occurrence is the cause of hair fall.
Other antidepressants connected to
this side effect are Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil.
A large number of people taking
accutane because of severe acne have reported moderate to severe hair
thinning. This is very distressing as
people wanting to improve their looks suffer a different setback with the
drug.
A common and well known medical
therapy that causes hair loss is chemotherapy.
Hair fall occurs pretty much after
chemotherapy begins, but hair normally grows back at the end of treatment.
In fact, most hair loss instances
caused by drugs can be addressed by simply changing medication.
Then after a several months, one’s
hair will grow back to normal. Some
cases though, need a little more help and extra treatment.
Even worse, in a small percentage, the hair loss is permanent.
This is quite unfortunate, especially
since the cause comes from medicine, products we seek to help with our
ailments. So here’s a tip: when faced
with a new prescription, especially with drugs we are unfamiliar with, study
its adverse side effects. Doing so
can prevent unwanted and unforeseen complications.
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