One of the well known underlying causes of thinning hair, and receding hairlines is having an iron deficiency. One way to measure iron in the human body is to take the ferritin levels, which can correlate to the amount of iron the body stores.

Ensuring your body maintains appropriate ferritin levels will help prevent the onset of further loss of hair in some cases. Low ferritin levels can preclude more serious health conditions, and should be addressed.

What is A Low Ferritin Condition?

According to the Mayo Clinic, having low ferritin levels is essentially having low iron in your blood.

Ferritin is a blood cell protein that contains iron, and a test that shows low ferritin can help medical professionals understand how much iron your body is storing.
Anemia is a serious medical condition, and having low ferritin levels can be a sign of iron deficient anemia which may also be a precursor to hair loss.

Low ferritin can occur for a variety of reasons including; inadequate intake or nutritional deficiency, malabsorption due to disease or the body’s reduced capacity to absorb iron, excessive loss of iron through various issues including menstruation or gastrointestinal losses, and functional iron deficiency in which iron is stored, but not adequately supplied to the bone marrow.

If you believe your hair loss might be associated to issues of low ferritin it will require a blood test to make that determination and then some medical work up to understand what is actually causing the iron deficiency in the body.

How Does Low Ferritin Impact Your Hair?

Having low ferritin levels, or being iron deficient, has been shown to cause thin, lifeless hair. Iron deficiency can lead to anemia, which puts the body in a state of survival and causes accessory functions such as maintaining and growing hair to cease.

While losing small amounts of hairs on a daily basis is normal, having low ferritin levels can accelerate symptoms of hair loss and thinning hair.

In fact, low ferritin is one of the more common causes of hair thinning seen in women.

Hair is unable to grow in a healthy manner and is likely to fall out before reaching any significant length, which leads to individuals complaining of ability to only grow short hairs in some areas.

As hair is merely falling out prematurely, this issue is reversible once the levels of ferritin are addressed within the individual.

In the 2013 article, Iron Plays a Certain Role in Patterned Hair Loss, the authors discuss their research on the role of low ferritin in hair growth.

As hair is a consistently proliferating organ, it requires sufficient blood supply to grow full, long, and healthy.

The research found that when matched for age and sex, those individuals with low ferritin were more likely to have symptoms of thinning hair.

Participants who took an iron supplement to address low ferritin levels showed improvement in hair density and hair length when compared to the control group.

Another impact of low ferritin on the hair is related to the body’s reduced ability to produce red blood cells, which will reduce the overall red blood cell count in the body.

According to the University of Rochester, red blood cells require iron to form normally and to carry oxygen throughout the body.

At the base of each hair follicle, there is a network of blood vessels that connect to the root of each strand of hair (See Fig. 1 above).

Red blood cells typically carry oxygen to the hair through these systems of blood vessels, which carry oxygen and supports healthy hair growth. Hair is not typically able to sustain normal or healthy growth without adequate supply of oxygenated blood.

Side Effects of Low Ferritin

Having low ferritin levels, or essentially being anemic and low in iron, can lead to a variety of negative symptoms.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute states that the type and severity of symptoms related to low ferritin will vary depending on the level of iron deficiency.
One of the most common signs of low ferritin is fatigue, or feeling tired.

Other symptoms of low ferritin levels are associated with the poor transfer of oxygen throughout the body including dizziness, headaches, or shortness of breath. Further signs include brittle nails and sore or swelling of the mouth and tongue.

One unusual side effect of low ferritin is that it can cause the unnatural craving of non-food items such as dirt or paint, a symptom referred to as pica.

Symptoms of Low Ferritin

• jaundiced, pale or yellow skin
• extreme tiredness
• dizziness
• heavy menstrual cycles
• digestive tract bleeding
• blood in the stool
• shortness of breath
• chest pain
• brittle nails
• hair loss
• pounding or “whooshing” sound in the ears
• restless leg syndrome
• craving non-food items

Ways to Increase Low Ferritin Intake

The only way to determine whether or not you have low ferritin levels is to consult a physician, who will have to perform a blood test in order to ascertain ferritin levels.

If it is determined that you do have low ferritin, this issue can be relatively easy to address.

While low ferritin levels can be addressed through diet, individuals who are known to have deficiencies would likely benefit from some measure of supplementation.

There are many ways to increase the ferritin levels in your body, including eating foods with high levels of iron and taking prepared supplements that are available on the market or in the form of a prescribed medication.

Numerous common food items have varying levels of iron, many of which can be incorporated into a healthy diet.

While there are supplements and medications to help increase ferritin levels in the body, this should be done so in consultation with a medical professional.

Eating a healthy diet, high in iron and other essential nutrients, will help support positive overall wellbeing which reduces the symptoms of hair loss and hair thinning associated with anemia, and a poor diet.

What Are Some Ferritin Rich Foods?

• Red Meat: the largest food groups that contain high amounts of iron to help raise ferritin levels in the body is red meat. While most meat contains some iron, the highest concentration of iron levels will be in the organs such as the liver, heart, and kidney. I wouldn’t recommend too much red meat as it is hard for the body to digest. Some people can thrive on red meat and for others it doesn’t suit their body type at all.
• Nuts: most nuts contain iron levels, and are generally a healthy snacking option that can be eaten on the go
• Dried Fruit: containing high quantities of iron, commercially available dried fruits are a healthy snack to address low ferritin
• Iron Fortified Foods: many foods have had iron added during the production, a simple means to address low levels of ferritin in many people. Many breakfast cereals, and enriched flour, have been fortified with iron

Conclusion

Having low ferritin levels can be a sign of more significant health issues, but may also lead to hair loss or hair thinning without progressing to more serious cases of iron deficient anemia.

There is significant evidence to suggest that low ferritin levels may be associated with hair loss, as it can affect blood flow and oxygenation of the hair follicle.

There are numerous ways to ensure your body has enough iron to maintain high levels of ferritin, including making some healthy adjustments to your diet or using a daily supplement.
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Ensuring your body does not have low ferritin levels is important for your overall health and having strong, resilient hair.
 
This information was found at Hairguard
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The research was trialled in pigs and tested on the liver cancer chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. The device, dubbed the “chemofilter” has a honeycomb structure coated with a polymer which reacts with the drug and prevents it being released – similar to the catalytic convertor in a car exhaust.

In the pig trials the device captured 64 per cent of the drug that would otherwise have circulated around the body, damaging the immune system and causing ulcers, nausea and other symptoms. Side-effects of doxorubicin in humans include hair loss, anaemia and increased risk of infection, as the circulating drugs kill off sensitive hair follicles and blood cells, according to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Dr Steven Hetts, another of the authors, said if it’s shown to work in humans the device could be rapidly approved for patients because it’s a removable implant.

​“We are developing this around liver cancer because it is a big public health threat – there are tens of thousands of new cases every year,” he added.

“But if you think about it, you could use this sort of approach for any tumour or any disease that is confined to an organ, and you want to absorb the drug on the venous side before it can distribute and cause side effects elsewhere in the body.”

This news story is from Independent

Grey hair – you either love it or hate it, show it off or hide it away. According to research, different ethnic groups will generally go grey at different times. Caucasians tend to start from the mid-30s, while ethnic hair tends to go grey only after 50. Contrary to popular belief, stress has not been shown to be linked to hair going prematurely grey, but genes can play a large role. Your children are more likely to go prematurely grey if you or your partner did.
 
Reasons for going prematurely grey:

• Vitamin B12, zinc and copper are needed to nourish your hair and to help in the metabolic processes involved in giving your hair its natural color. If you are deficient in vitamin C and E, you are more likely to go prematurely grey.
• Smoking results in the development of free radicals in your body, which in turn causes oxidative stress in the body. This can lead to a decrease in the pigmentation capacity of melanin, resulting in grey hair.
• Junk and processed foods accelerate aging, as these increase the oxidative stress and AGEs (advanced glycation endproducts), which accelerate aging and the loss of hair colour.

“Hair doesn’t turn white overnight,” says ethnic hair expert from Tanaz Hair Body and Nails, Brian Warfield. “The pigment can stop being produced while the strand is still growing, so you will find that a strand of hair can be half the original color and half white. My experience is that the strands that turn white become very smooth and resistant to color and chemicals. It’s like the cuticle is no longer there; chemicals don’t penetrate the way they used to, and the texture becomes wiry. ”Co-owner of Tanaz Hair Body and Nails, and hair specialist, Shelene Shaer, explains that all hair is made up of protein and keratin, with cuticles that overlap the hair. “Hair growth cycles can be anywhere from two to seven years, growing around 1cm a month.

As we age, the hair follicles become thinner, and some close up, so we have less hair. ”She adds that there are many amazing new products on the market that can slow this process down, although they tend to need continual use.
 
Color or grey

The good news is that grey hair has become a big trend, and many celebrities are sporting grey or silver hair – including those who don’t have any natural grey of their own! However, says Warfield, if you don’t like your white hair, you can opt for color. Make sure the color you use states that it will cover grey completely, otherwise the white hairs will turn out lighter than the strands that are not white. “If you go to a professional stylist, they must know that in order to cover white hair, they need to mix a base shade into their formula. For example, red shades on their own generally don’t cover white hair completely, and can turn pink. But if you mix a base shade of brown at the level you are targeting, then it will give the red something to hold onto and you will get better coverage with your color. Shaer suggests a number of ways to color grey hair.

“One is blanket color; this is when the color is solid and you will only get to see your regrowth. Inoa Loréal launched a color about four years ago that is a translucent – in other words, it colors the hair but it has a slight babylight effect, so the hair looks more natural. The grey gets about 80% colored and I love this. Another option is to add babylights of your natural color into your hair, and this way you maintain some grey, but it looks less. If you are struggling with the upkeep, consider keeping out a grey streak in front, to disguise the grey. ”With ethnic hair, Warfield recommends that if you relax your hair and your white hair goes yellow, use a silver shampoo after the relaxer to neutralize the yellow. “The more white hair you have, the more you need to moisturize it, as this will help to keep it under control. Use heat when doing your moisturizing treatment, to aid penetration of the product. The higher the percentage of white hair on your head, the shorter your cut should be. It helps to do a very stylish short cut, as this will take attention away from the white hair.
 
How to manage your hair:

According to Warfield, white hair needs more heat when it comes to styling, in order to get it straight. “Chemicals will still work (ie relaxers), but they may take longer and can give the hair a yellowish tinge. Sometimes, and this depends on the individual, going natural is an option that could be considered, especially if the texture of the white hair is very coarse and resistant. I’ve found that it’s very difficult to make your hair do something it doesn’t want to.”

With grey hair in general, colour takes longer, and stronger chemicals are needed to penetrate it, notes Shaer. “You will need to relearn how to manage your hair. It requires more work and styling, and the cut becomes so important, as styled hair is much easier to manage.” Colouring your hair generally softens the grey, she says. Hair oils and anti-frizz products will also help.
 
Why doesn’t my hair work for me anymore?

“Grey hair is like having a stranger move in; the way you style, cut and blow becomes so different. Shampoos with vitamins and lustre are important,” says Shaer.“Mind you, not all textures react the same way. Some are easier to work with than others, so not everyone will experience the same levels of frustration,” Warfield adds. Should you be battling with the changes in your hair, ask your stylist to teach you how to manage your “new” hair. You may find that you need to spend more time blowdrying; your cut and style will go a long way towards helping you to look and feel good. Contemplating doing box color? Click here to find out whether or not you should.
 

This first appeared on Longevity
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Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the U.S. if all types are combined. Melanoma specifically is among the top 10 cancers in both men and women, totaling more than 87,000 cases this year.

The best way to catch melanoma early is to have any new moles or patches of skin discoloration checked out—but only if you know it’s there in the first place. Half of melanomas go unnoticed by the person who has it, often when abnormality is on the scalp or neck. You can’t have a dermatologist examine the strange new mole on the base of your neck or behind your ear if you don’t even know it exists. And even if you’re looking, you usually can’t see enough of the back of your head and neck to notice anything unusual.

But your hairdresser can — as long as they know what they’re looking for. And it only seems to take 5 minutes of watching a video for hair dressers to become significantly more confident and knowledgeable about finding potentially cancerous skin lesions, according to a new study published in JAMA Dermatology.

“Hairdressers have the ability to monitor a large extent of the general public’s scalp and neck, highlighting their usefulness for the detection of scalp and neck melanomas via population-based screening and dermatologic referral,” wrote Neda R. Black, MD, from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, and her coauthors.

“Findings from this study suggest that a brief educational video can be beneficial for educating hairdressers about melanoma risk and the criteria for melanoma detection while also building on self-efficacy skills in skin lesion detection that might carry over to improved screening of those individuals at risk for melanoma,” they wrote.

This same group of researchers had previously surveyed more than 100 hair dressers from 45 hair salons to find out what they already knew about melanoma, especially regarding what to look for. The acronym ABCDE is a helpful way to remember key features of a suspicious lesion on the skin: Asymmetrical, Borders are irregular, more than one Color, a Diameter greater than 6mm and Elevated (raised bump).

“Results uncovered room for improvement in knowledge regarding signs and symptoms of melanoma,” the authors wrote, but they also learned in other research that most hair dressers want to learn more about detecting melanoma. So the researchers tested how well a 5-minute informational video might improve hair dressers’ knowledge and self-confidence in identifying suspicious skin lesions.

The authors emailed out the study link with the video to 20 Los Angeles County beauty schools and 100 participants watched the video and filled out questionnaires beforehand and afterward.

Comparison of the pre-test and post-test revealed improved knowledge on all the questions about melanoma knowledge, the authors reported. Before viewing the video, 59% of the hair dressers accurately identified suspicious lesions using the ABCDE criteria, compared to 71% of hair dressers after watching the training video.

Only one in five hair dressers (19%) said they felt “very confident” about identifying a possibly cancerous skin abnormality before watching the video, but after seeing the video, the percentage of hair dressers feeling very confident doubled to 41%.

Of course, 100 hair dressers isn’t a very large group to test a training intervention, and all of the participants volunteered for the study. These results, therefore, don’t necessarily mean that showing the video to all beauty school students is going to double detection of melanoma. In fact, it’s always possible that it could lead to false alarms and over-diagnosis, at least until researchers do more work to learn how accurately large numbers of hair dressers actually detect possible melanomas.

Another caution in this study is that 79% of the participants said they had previously gotten some training on skin cancer, pointing to what researchers need to learn from future studies.

“It will be important to know if our educational video functioned to reinforce existing knowledge or to provide new knowledge about melanoma detection, or both,” the authors wrote. They also need to find out whether hair dressers’ knowledge and skills remain strong over longer periods of time, and they need to compare knowledge improvements among hair dressers who watch the video to a different group the doesn’t view it.

But the good news is that this study lays the foundation for what might become an additional set of eyes keeping a lookout for an extremely common cancer.

“Based on our initial testing of an educational video intervention, training hairdressers in melanoma screening and referral seems to be a promising avenue for future research,” the authors concluded.
 
This article first appeared on Forbes