Raechele Cochran Gathers, MD A lot of things can cause you to lose your hair: Genetics, stress, medications, thyroid problems, tight braids….among many other things. But did you know about low vitamin D and hair loss? Vitamin D is actually found in only a few foods. It’s a fat soluble (dissolves in fat) vitamin that is crucial for your body to absorb calcium. Vitamin D also helps your cells to grow and develop correctly, and is essential for your nerve and heart health. Vitamin D is also important for reducing inflammation. Many types of hair loss can be caused by inflammation in the scalp, including alopecia areata and CCCA.
Low Vitamin D and Hair Loss
An otherwise healthy 34 year old black woman went to see the doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She’d been experiencing hair loss for four years. She said that her hair had once been shoulder length, but had gotten shorter and shorter, without her ever cutting it. She’d tried biotin to help grow her hair. It hadn’t worked. You can read more about her case here.
She looked like this:
Courtesy: J Hoot MD et al,. Cutis 2018 July
Her doctors ran an array of blood tests, including checking a blood count, her iron and thyroid levels. Her blood work was all normal except her vitamin D. It was low! Her doctors started her on vitamin D supplements. She didn’t try any other therapies except the vitamin D. In 6 months, she had re-grown a significant amount of hair, and her vitamin D level was in the normal range.
Courtesy: J Hoot MD et al,. Cutis 2018 July
Where Does Vitamin D Come From
Vitamin D is made by your body when the ultraviolet light of the sun reaches your skin. The ultraviolet light triggers a chemical reaction that causes your body to make vitamin D. Interestingly, the vitamin D made by your body (or that which you take in from food), still has to go through two more activation phases (called hydroxylation) in the liver and the kidney before your body is able to use it.
Foods with Vitamin D
Few foods actually contain vitamin D. Fortified foods (those with vitamin D added to it) are actually the major source of vitamin D in the American diet. Usually, the foods that are fortified with Vitamin D are milk, breakfast cereal, and some juices. Natural sources of vitamin D are fatty fish like salmon and tuna, and fish liver oil. Other food sources of vitamin D are egg yolk, sardines and beef liver. You can find a list here.
Risk Factors For Low Vitamin D and Hair Loss
The following are risk factors for people who are more lively to have low vitamin D levels, and possibly low vitamin D and hair loss.
- African Americans or others with darker skin
- Obesity
- Older age
- Living in northern climate
- Celiac disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease (like Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis)
- Having had gastric bypass surgery
- Liver problems
Why Low Vitamin D Causes Hair Loss
Why is low vitamin D associated with hair loss? It seems that vitamin D is important for starting and successfully completing a normal hair growth cycle. Vitamin D is needed in the development of anagen (growing) hairs. With low vitamin D, you are at risk for not only baldness, but also poor growth or regrowth of your hair.
Featured Image: Zeyus Media
