Intensive workouts stimulate the hormonal balance and metabolism, which results in weight loss, improvement of physical condition and the body's efficiency. Sharp training also temporarily disrupts the homeostasis of the body. Can intense workouts be the cause of hair loss because of this? How does intense exercise affect your hair?
Regular exercise in the gym improves your condition, but few people know that excessive exercise can also contribute to hair loss. With too much exercise, the body reacts as in an extremely stressful situation - which is one of the main causes of baldness.
Can intense training cause hair loss?
Intensive workouts in the gym accelerate metabolism, but also stimulate the hormonal balance and temporarily disrupt the body's homeostasis, i.e. the ability to maintain the stability of internal parameters.
During exercise, mainly cortisol and testosterone are thrown out, so women who have problems with polycystic ovaries, too little progesterone or too much prolactin in the body should pay special attention to themselves. For them, high-intensity exercise causes an additional hormonal disruption, which may result in hair loss.
In men, excessive strength exercise causes a surge of testosterone, which turns into DHT (dihydrotestosterone), causing the miniaturization of the hair follicles, and in the case of men who are genetically overloaded - baldness is almost certain. Post-exercise testosterone levels typically rise from 15 minutes to an hour.
For example, cardio exercises, which we often perform at the gym, cause the transduction (conversion) of testosterone into its destructive form for hair follicles, i.e. DHT. It is responsible for the miniaturization of hair follicles and is the cause of androgenetic alopecia in men. Also in women, it has a negative effect on hair bulbs, causing gradual hair loss. In both sexes, this process takes place under the influence of the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase.
Hair loss after intense training - what to do?
You can use blockers that inhibit the enzyme transformation process, they are:
- nettle,
- green tea,
- saw palmetto extract
- or seed oilpumpkin.
It is also important to wash your hair thoroughly after intense exercise, as the overproduction of sebum is another factor contributing to hair loss.
The first signs that should worry us are when the hair becomes very dry, there is more of it on the brush, it becomes brittle or excessively oily. It is worth asking for help from a trichologist - a specialist in problems related to scalp and hair diseases. At the beginning of the visit, he or she conducts an interview and a trichoscopic examination (with a special microscope), which allows to assess the condition of the scalp and hair roots.
Then he selects a treatment appropriate to the problem, which will restore the he althy condition of the hair and scalp, e.g. by improving microcirculation in the capillaries, new hair growth is stimulated.
When deciding on intense workouts, it is worth starting to observe your body more closely. It is important that women with the aforementioned fluctuations in hormone levels choose their exercises carefully. Sometimes it is better to choose brisk walking rather than strenuous exercise, which can have negative consequences.
For avid athletes, a trichologist can choose supplements that counteract the miniaturization of the hair follicles (contain herbal DHT blockers, a complex of vitamins and minerals) or contain melatonin, which has a positive effect on the cell division of the hair matrix. There are also special preparations for external use that protect the bellows.
Remember that the condition of the hair is closely related to the functioning of the entire body. If it is abnormal, the hair follicles are the first area where nutrients are no longer supplied. For this reason, the trichologist may ask for some basic blood tests to be performed.
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