Vitamins by Oral Intake
and Hair Loss: Effectiveness and Limits - Page 2

The essential trio: sulphured amino acids + zinc + vitamin B6

Those first 3 ingredients shape the keratin’s raw material: you should find it in all the products on offer against hair loss, no matter your type of scalp.

Sulphured amino acids
Keratin is mainly made of proteins: methionine, cysteine, and cystine, connected to each other by the sulphur’s links. That is why they are called sulphured amino acids. Taken as dietary complements, they can have a triple action:

• Improve the regrwoing hair’s strength, and help its growth
• Controle the secretion of sebum, in the case of hyperseborrha (with the sulphur)
• Help to eliminate the toxins that land on the roots and prevent them from developing (again, with the sulphur)

Two drugs often prescribed by dermatologists: Cystine B6 and Lobamine Cysteine


Zinc
- Zinc has several roles. It is essential in the growth and vitality of phaneres (hair and nails). One of the first signs of zinc deficiency is in fact the slowing of hair growth, breaking nails, or doubled nails, or nails with white spots. In terms of hair renewal, zinc acts on four levels:

• First, it is necessary to the synthesis of the protein’s keratin, by linking their sulphured ends to each other, and protecting them against aggression from free radicals.

• It also has a role in the synthesis of essential fatty acids, which nourish and prevent the drying of the tissues that surround the hair follicle.

•  It is necessary to the mobilisation of vitamin A, which helps to lubricate the hair, hydrate the scalp and prevent desquamations (dandruff).

•  In the case of androgenetic hair loss, it helps to inhibit 5-alpha reductase, which is an enzyme located at the scalp level that causes excess sebum and hair loss.


Vitamin B6
• It also acts directly on the metabolism of the keratin’s sulphured proteins.

• It enacts the zinc’s inhibating enzyme (5-alpha reductase) action, which causes hair loss and hypersebhorrhea in androgenetic alopecia.

• Anti-stress: it is necessary to the taurine’s synthesis (taurine is another sulphured amino acid, derived from methionine and cysteine), which calms nervous tensions. It also helps to fixate magnesium, which contributes to balancing neurotransmitters, and manages anxious conditions. Those properties are especially important when we know the impact of stress on hair loss.

Other group B vitamins

They are also important, in any alopecic problem. They boost the hair’s renewal in general, and especially the hair follicle’s (the renewal of which is the fastest in the body).

• B1 contains sulphur, which is a key element in the keratin’s synthesis 
• B2 reinforces the hair’s protidic structure 
• B3 vasodilatating, increases the blood’s flow towards the hair’s root 
• B5 helps to develop the hair follicle 
• B8 boosts the scalp and has an antiseborrheic effect 
• B9 improves states of fatigue
• B12 has a role in the production of red globules

A drug often prescribed by dermatologists Bepanthene-Biotine

Essential fatty acids (EFA)

EFA feed the cellular membrane and actively take part in the production of new cells and intercellular exchanges, in the hair’s growth zone, the one that surrounds the hair follicle and the roots.

A deficiency in essential fatty acids leads to an excessively dry scalp, breaking and thinned hair. This especially affects women after the age of 40, and scalps with frizzy hair. Unfortunately, EFA are extremely vulnerable to the action of free radicals, and need an input in vitamin E or A (see below) in order to prevent their oxidation, and keep them from becoming negative.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a strongly anti-oxidising element. It boosts the oxygenation and the circulation of the blood at hair follicle level, and protects the skin and the scalp from drying out, by making the essential fatty acids’ action positive.

• With the iron: because iron is a pro-oxidising element, an iron supplement, given in the case of iron deficiency alopecia, should always include vitamin E, in order to decrease the risks of oxidation.

• With the other anti-oxidising elements: far from doubling, the action of each anti-oxidising element follows a very specific path, where each element plays its part. Basically, the beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) protects the inside of the fat circulating in the body, whereas vitamin E protects the wrapping, that is, our cells’ membranes. Each time vitamin E meets a free radical, it interjects itself, and reduces it. But now, because it is also oxidised, it is no longer able to fight unless vitamin C or selenium come to its rescue in order to regenerate it, and enable it to follow its anti-radical fight. 

Beta-carotene, vitamins E and C and selenium thus act in synergy. That is why we often recommend anti-oxidising formulas in order to fight against the aging of the hair’s reproduction cells.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is an epidermis-protecting agent, by hydrating it and providing it with anti-infections action. 

• In the case of hyperseborrhea, it helps to lubricate the hair, and to prevent the drying out and atrophy of the sebaceous glands.

• In the case of irritation of the scalp, it takes part in its cleansing by fighting against hyperkeratosis (abnormal proliferation of the skin’s superficial layers). This property is confirmed by the use in medicine of retinoid (vitamin A chemical molecules) in treating psoriasis. But beware of side effects: a chronic excess of vitamin A can lead to opposite symptoms: dandruff, itchiness, dryness and hair loss.

Vitamin A exists under two shapes:
• retinol, directly ingested by the body in its active form
• beta-carotene, or provitamin A, which requires synthesis in the intestine before being cconverted into retinol.

Apart from in the case of serious dermitis, it is recommended to prefer beta-carotene to vitamin A, for two reasons: carotene is not potentially toxic, and it avoids the risk of hypervitaminosis: it has a major anti-oxidising role (a property which vitamin A does not have).

Magnesium

It has a role in most of the body’s metabolic reactions:

• It activates, among other things, the whole of B vitamins, the importance of which in the renewal of the hair follicle cells we have already mentioned.

• The other reason that often leads to recommending magnesium in hair treatment is its psychological balancing role. Because stress is the most common aggravating factor for hormone-associated alopecia, we recommend an intake of magnesium in order to control the states of nervous tension, and their incidence on hair loss. Magnesium needs a fixating agent, and can be administered with vitamin B6.

DRI is the ‘Daily Recommended Intake’. It is harmonised at European level, and has a regulatory value. Below is a list of the DRI for the vitamins and minerals mentioned in this info file, and necessary to the hair.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION :
- How to Identify Your Type of Hair Loss (Alopecia)?
- Thinner and Fewer Regrowing Hair (with sketches). What To Do
- Your Diet and Hair Loss Men Women
- Excessively Acid Diet: Beware for Your Hair! Men Women
- Iron Deficiency and Hair Loss
- Greasy Hair Men Women
- Dandruff and Itchiness Men Women
- Dry Hair
- Breaking Hair and Split Ends
- DAILY Hair Loss: What Is the Norm? 
- Most Visited Info Files

FOR TREATMENT :
- CLAUDERER Anti-Hair Loss Treatments 
- Hair Growth and Regrowth: Where Precisely to Act?
- Clauderer In-Depth Hair Diagnosis

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