Can B12 Deficiency Cause Hair Loss?

Hair loss can be attributed by lots of things. Even sometimes it signals particular conditions. In some cases, it is also linked to lifestyle factors. For such case, it is usually temporary when the underlying cause goes away. How about vitamin B12 deficiency? Can this dietary factor cause hair loss, too?

Hair loss and your diet

Hair follicles require plenty of adequate nutrients to keep them grow and regenerate continuously. Therefore, your diet can play a role.

Experts agree that a balanced diet, ‘especially with the right mix of iron, protein, or other essential nutrients’, is so crucial. It may be one of the best-kept secrets for your healthy hair!

The good news, your hair loss is very treatable and reversible if it is associated with poor diet. But if it is also linked to a medical condition, hormonal changes, or even the result of hereditary – your diet alone is not enough.

So, it’s important to find the cause of the problem. This also affects the kind of treatment you need to take! Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to diagnose the cause. Sometimes the cause of hair loss remains puzzling or is not fully understood.

The following are some common essential nutrients to help keep your hair healthy.

The common symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency

You can get vitamin B12 through your diet, especially from animal-based foods. Like other vitamins, your body cannot make vitamin B12. Therefore, it should be consumed on a regular basis.

But some people don’t get enough B12. And this deficiency can lead to some problems. The common symptoms include:

1. Anemia.
2. Fatigue (including weakness and tiredness).
3. Difficulty breathing such as shortness of breath.
4. Change in tongue (smooth tongue).
5. Change in the skin (like pale skin).
6. Stomach discomforts (including bloating, constipation, or diarrhea).
7. Decreased appetite.
8. Decreased vision.
9. Problems of nerves such as muscle weakness, tingling, or numbness.
10. The deficiency may also cause some psychological problems such as memory problems and depression.

In addition, a mild deficiency usually doesn’t cause any symptom. The sign and symptom are likely to occur for a significant deficiency.

Sometimes vitamin B12 deficiency can cause hair loss, too!

Cobalamin is another alternative name of vitamin B12. It is one of B complex vitamins, which is essential and required for healthy eyes, liver, skin, and hair.

It seems that vitamin B12 has lots functions in the body. Even it is also required to make red blood cells, DNA, and important to help keep nervous system work properly.

A challenging question, how does it contribute to cause hair loss?

… Continued …

Cells of hair follicles are very active. They need to constantly divide to keep the hair follicle’s life cycle run as well. This mechanism requires a proper function of your DNA, and vitamin B12 is also involved in the production of your DNA, as noted before.

However again, hair loss can be attributed by lots of factors. It is likely to be associated with lack of vitamin B12 if you also experience other symptoms of B12 deficiency (see the previous page).

Tips for coping

If your hair loss does link to vitamin B12 deficiency, it is very treatable once the deficiency is addressed. But it is also dependent on the cause of your deficiency, because sometimes the problem may also links to certain conditions.

For instances, you are at high risk of B12 deficiency if you have one or some of the following conditions:

1. Any conditions that can affect the way of your body to absorb your dietary nutrients. These include pernicious anemia, atrophic gastritis, or having removed part of intestine /stomach through surgery.
2. Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, or parasite /bacterial growth in the intestine. These conditions can affect your small intestine. As a result, your body may become poor in absorbing your dietary vitamin B12.
3. The use of acid-reducing medicine in long term.
4. Some autoimmune disorders such as lupus and Graves’ disease.

The deficiency is relatively easier to treat if it is caused by lifestyle factors such as heavy drinking and poor diet (typically in strict vegetarian since plants cannot make vitamin B12). The only foods that deliver B12 are animal-based foods such as meat, dairy products, poultry, and eggs.

Should you take B12 supplement? Again, talk first to your doctor to keep safe!

Even the requirement of vitamin B12 also can vary, depending on some factors such as; age, your diet, and whether you have medical condition that affect your B12. Even sometimes what medications you’re taking can have an effect, too!