Smoking Causes Hair Loss




Smoking has bad influence on all organs of human body. It is wrong to think that only lungs suffer from it and lung cancer is the only danger that might be brought by the bad habit. Scientists of different schools have been proving year after year that about a dozen of different variants of cancer: starting with lung and mouth and finishing with breast and bladder cancers might be brought by nicotine and 4,000 other chemicals that come in tobacco.

While cancer is a very important thing to be concerned about, every smoker should realize that it is not the only disease that comes as a “side-effect” of smoking. Almost all smokers have problems with heart which end in heart disease, blood vessel problems, strokes and heart attacks. Polluted lungs provoke excessive coughing, make it hard to be active, walk up and downstairs, do exercises, and lift heavy loads.

There are also numerous problems which as not as bad as these diseases, but still important: smoking reduces senses of smell and taste, gives unpleasant odor to breath, clothes and hair, sets accretion on teeth, and provokes coughing. No wonder that scientists found another “discomfort” caused by smoking: it appears that smoking might become the reason for hair loss.

In order to understand the connection between hair and smoking, one should understand the needs of hair follicles: they are “fed” by protein, oxygen, vitamins and minerals through tiny blood vessels which surround them. For healthy hair a person should receive good amount of oxygen from air and a set of essential nutrients from food or daily vitamin supplements. It is also important to have good blood flow in order to transport all these elements through the body.

Nicotine messes up with this really well. First of all, it increases the level of adrenaline which influences blood pressure and makes the heart beat faster. High blood pressure is not good because blood cells do not have enough time to give away all the nutrients they carry. Besides, nicotine constricts blood vessels and this gives two negative aspects: it is harder for the heart to pump the blood through arteries and the walls of the vessels are so hard that the vitamins cannot be given away to inner organs, hair muscles and other parts of the body.

Carbon monoxide inhaled from the cigarette smoke replaces oxygen in the blood causing its deficiency in the whole body. When it comes to hair, carbon monoxide slows down hair growth instead of vitalizing it as oxygen does.

Accelerated aging is one more side-effect of smoking. Unfortunately for smokers, the chemicals they inhale with cigarette smoke have a negative effect on skin, forming age spots and wrinkles quicker because the skin loses elasticity and they influence hair: smokers get gray hair earlier than they would being non-smokers and they lose hair earlier if by nature they tend to become bald.

A study held by scientists in Taiwan shows that tobacco influences hair loss. About 740 participants of an average age of 61 were offered a test where they answered questions about different aspects of their lives. After the results have been calculated the scientists have come to a conclusion that heredity is not the only reason for hair loss. To their opinion, environmental factors are important in this matter likewise and one of them is smoking.

For those who do not care about cancer or heart disease such minor thing as hair loss might not be a reason to quit smoking, but for others it is another major aspect to think about and work harder on eliminating the problem.

Greg Thomson

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Posted on October 7, 2009 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, Smoking and Health

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