How To Stop Hair Loss After Bariatric Surgery
It is certain that bariatric patients experience hair loss, so they should be prepared for this. The hair loss does not mean they will go bald at all, it might be dramatic but it is usually temporary. If hair loss is long-lasting, it means that it is not the surgery that causes it, but more serious reasons. Also, there are some ways of dealing with hair loss below we describe the most effective solutions of how to stop hair loss after weight loss surgery.
How Can I Prevent Hair Loss After Undergoing Weight Loss Surgery
Rapid weight loss can cause patients to lose hair weeks to months after surgery. This is related to reduced intake of protein, nutrients, and vitamins. Zinc has been shown to be involved in hair loss after weight loss surgery. It is recommend that you consume adequate amounts of protein, and take a daily zinc, and possibly biotin supplements after Gastric Band, Gastric Sleeve, or Gastric Bypass weight loss surgery. Also, various shampoos can help including Nioxin shampoo. Dr. Clayton Frenzel, a Dallas/Ft. Worth weight loss surgeon can educate you more if you have problems.
How Is Human Hair Made Up
Human hair is mainly composed of the keratin protein It also contains lipids, water, pigments and metal trace elements. Each individual hair comprises a strand that extends over the skin from a root embedded in a bag called a follicle, which has a lower, middle and upper segment. A structure called dermal papilla is found at the base of the lower segment or bulb. Formed from connective tissue, it supplies the hair with nutrients from the bloodstream. In the scalp hair also contains receptors for steroid hormones, known as androgens, that regulate hair growth.
Each strand of hair comprises several layers. The medulla is a central nucleus. Absent of thinner hairs, its role is not fully understood. The middle layer or bark occupies the largest proportion of the hair shaft. It contains bundles of keratin filaments that give hair flexibility and tensile strength. The bark also contains pigment granules such as melanin that provide color. The cuticle is a translucent and colorless outer layer of overlapping scales that protect the cortex.
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What Causes Hair Loss After Bariatric Surgery
The hair loss associated with weight loss surgery is called telogen effluvium and has to do with disruption during the normal hair growth cycle.
Basically what happens with Telogen Effluvium is that hair continues to enter into the resting stage, but the new growth cycle doesnt start up again like usual. This leads to a progressive loss of hair because no new hair is coming in.
Begin A Multivitamin Regimen Before Surgery
Consistently taking a multivitamin prior to bariatric surgery can help to correct any deficiencies that have been identified, and prevent further deficiencies from developing.
The act of taking a multivitamin can also help you form healthy habits, especially if you make a point to take it around the same time every day. Taking supplements will be a critical practice for life after bariatric surgery.
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Process Of Hair Loss After Gastric Sleeve Surgery
Hair loss is an extremely common condition after bariatric surgery. This situation is seen in an average of 40% of obese patients. Patients want to lose weight and look beautiful after bariatric surgery. Therefore, hair loss is a condition that causes patients to be unhappy. The name of hair loss after gastric sleeve surgery is telogen effluvium. It is a type of normal hair cycle. In patients with the same quality as the hair loss seen in the first months of babies. This loss usually passes by itself in 6 months. The patients wonder how to stop hair loss after gastric sleeve surgery.
Hair loss in this way can be regarded as a normal condition due to stress, illnesses, and malnutrition. Stress, genetic factors, environmental factors, factors such as diet are a cause of hair loss. Hair loss is seen after obesity surgery usually occurs because patients cannot get the necessary nutrients and vitamins in sufficient amounts. The situation we are talking about here is not a vitamin deficiency, but a sudden change in the absorption of nutrients and calories after the operation. This sudden change creates a shock effect on the patients body and causes hair loss.
Do You Lose Hair After Gastric Sleeve
Most patients naturally want to know do you lose hair after gastric sleeve, and whether the hair will grow back after a few months. The answer to both questions is: yes! It is likely that you may experience some hair loss after gastric sleeve, especially if you are a woman. However, the brighter part is that hair loss after bariatric surgery is temporary for most patients, and you can overcome it quickly with a focus on nutrition and stress reduction.
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You Visualize Your Gastric Sleeve Results Based On A Combo Of What Your Doctor Tells You And Other Peoples Experiences
So where does the regret come into play? Well, your results will be uniquely yours, and you may not be happy with them.
You may lose quickly, or you may face stalls. Your skin may bounce back with you or you may end up with excess. Certain areas of your body may seem to disappear overnight whereas others may feel like they wont budge.
Your personal results depend on many things:
- Age
- Commitment to following your nutrition plan
- Exercise habits
The hard truth: You wont know what your results will be until you are in the thick of your journey.
This is why it is so important not to create expectations for your weight loss journey based on someone elses outcome. Their results will almost always be different from yours because they are not you!
Minimize Unhealthy Weight Gain
- Balanced meal planning with lean proteins, healthy fats, and non-processed carbohydrates
- Portion control: do not overeat
- Training your taste buds to like non-sweet beverages like water, herbal teas, and True Lemon products
- The practice of Mindful Eating
- Do not drink with your meals it pushes food through your pouch faster causing you to be hungry faster
- Stress management tools like meditation, yoga, exercise, and mindful walking
- Treat yourself to no- food items
Exercise, yoga, and meditation are highly recommended to ease stress and avoid emotional eating.
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Emotional Stress And Hair Loss
Its highly likely that those with mild hair loss caused by anxiety are suffering from either telogen effluvium, or simply stress weakened hair.
In a recent study researches evaluated two groups of medical school-aged female students for 36 weeks. One group was entering into exams, taking exams and then recovering from exams while the other group was not currently preparing for or taking exams .
The results show that a comparison between students taking the exams and non-exam students revealed significantly higher stress perception in exam students.
No surprise, right? Exams are stressful!
Whats interesting is that researches were able to conclude that naturalistic stress has the potential to transiently hamper hair growth.
Now, it is noted that a larger and more comprehensive study needs to be conducted to really establish a basis for these claims, but this short and sweet study gave a sneak peek into how emotional stress can affect our bodys ability to support natural and healthy hair growth cycles.
The Hair Growth Cycle
Hair growth on the scalp generally follows a three-stage cycle. During the anagen or growth phase, cell division in the papilla is added to the length of the hair shaft, pushing new growth upwards from the root. Anagen can last from 2 to 10 years, although it is more typical from 3 to 5 years, during which the hair can grow at a rate of up to half an inch per month. Duration and growth rate may be influenced by age, genetics, hormones and metabolic factors, and may be sensitive to seasonal changes and circadian rhythms. In general, between 80 and 90% of scalp hairs will be in anagen at any time.
At the end of the anagen phase, the hair enters a transition period called a collagen. During this phase, mitosis ceases and the hair follicle contracts, cutting off the nutrient supply from the papilla to the root. The marrow and cuticle formation end first, leaving a section of the exposed cortex at the end of the hair shaft root. This is sealed to form a rounded hair that moves up from the bulb to the upper segment of the follicle, where it is anchored. Catagen is the shortest phase of the hair cycle, lasting 1 or 2 weeks, and only 1% of the hairs are in this phase at any time.
Telogen, the resting phase, now continues. The hair follicle remains inactive for 1 to 4 months until the anagen begins again and the new growth of the hair at the root causes the hair to be expelled from the follicle in a process known as detachment.
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Tips For Preventing Hair Loss After Bariatric Surgery
Almost half of patients, both men and women will experience hair thinning after their bariatric procedure. This occurs due to the trauma of surgery, combined with reduced caloric and protein intake, both of which can enhance the resting cycle of the hair follicles and reduce their active cycles.
Many patients become alarmed by the thinning of their hair, but for most, it should not be a major concern. That is because hair loss after bariatric surgery is usually reversible, unless a genetic condition such as male pattern balding is also at play.
Your risk for hair loss after bariatric surgery is also partially predicated upon which procedure you undergo. Gastric bypass patients have a more limited post-operative diet than gastric sleeve patients and will lose weight more quickly, especially in the early post-op period. These patients will also have a greater likelihood of losing hair.
What Is Dumping Syndrome
One of the key features that helps patient s control calorie intake after Gastric Bypass is the fact that food leaves the tiny stomach pouch and empties into a section of the small intestine called the jejunum. This pathway for the food is the Roux-en-Y of the procedure. The jejunum is not made to handle concentrated calories, especially refined sugar and high fat foods. The effect of this is that if a person consumes sugar after Gastric Bypass surgery, the presence of the sugar in this segment of intestine will create an unpleasant reaction that affects the whole body. On rare occasions a gastric sleeve patient can experience dumping syndrome. Some signs of dumping can be palpitations or racing heart, a sweaty and clammy feeling, abdominal pain and/or cramping, weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and sometimes diarrhea. Dumping syndrome is not dangerous, but it feels awful and once you react to a certain food in this way you do not want to eat that food again. This is beneficial as a negative reinforcement for certain foods. Dumping syndrome affects each person differently and you may feel any combination of the above signs. Dumping syndrome usually resolves after a year and a half.
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What Causes Hair Loss
According to Virtua Health, protein intake, stress and hormones all play a role. And being that its hard to get protein goals in post-op, me being always stressed, and my hormones are always out of whack, its not surprising my hair abandoned ship.
I went from full Tracee Ellis Ross type hair to very thin curly hair. Losing a lot around the crown, the kitchen, and the temple areas. I have one bald spot but also got a kick ass hat collection, so you know I made lemonade out of lemons.
If I had to guess, I would say I lost about 50% of my hair. I style around the bald spots and rock my new favorite hats to avoid questions from friends.
Hair Loss Has Many Causes
The most common type of hair loss after weight loss surgery is telogen effluvium. This can have nutritional and non-nutritional causes. Stress on the body can move more hair into the dormant phase which means a greater percentage of hairs falling out. Stress on the body can come in many forms, such as fever, infection,surgery, weight loss, deficiencies and some medications.
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Is The Good Bigger Than The Regret Of Course It Is
You know how the saying goes nothing changes if nothing changes. So, what have you got to lose? Sure, you may run into a few snags along the way. People may not be as supportive as youd like. Your skin may not look like you thought it would. You might face a few physical setbacks. But you get the opportunity to take your life back completely!
There is a quote that says, You can be the prettiest, juiciest, ripest peach in the orchard, and there will still be someone who doesnt like peaches.
Right?!! You will NEVER be everyones cup of tea. So just focus on being YOU. Be a YOU that you are proud of. Embrace your quirks. Own your crazy. Be so YOU that other people feel comfortable to be themselves around you.
What does this have to do with weight loss surgery? EVERYTHING.
Because your entire life is about to change. People are going to notice your outward transformation and they will watch you. Some of them arent going to like it. Not everyone will be happy for you. And thats okay. Your purpose in life is not to make everyone else happy.
Youre going to break old habits, make healthy choices, reach goals you never thought you could, wear clothes youve never been able to wear before, and be challenged mentally every single day.
Having gastric sleeve surgery is one of the most important investments youll ever make.
Re: Hair Loss And Itchy Scalp
I am experiencing the hair loss big time right now too. I am 4 months out. You can take biotin. But I found an article all about this and basically it said it is normal and most people will notice the hair loss to slow way down and stop anywhere for 6 months to the first year after the surgery. I will look for the article later and share the link. So maybe you are getting close to the end with all that. I know what you mean. I also have thick wavy hair. I am at the point right now I do not even want the girl that cuts my hair to trim it right now just because she would probably worry something is wrong with me. I have even thought of going somewhere else just for a trim because this thin wispy mop is annoying!!! So I total sympathize with you right now. I do not have the dryness. But you can try this at night before you go to bed, plain mineral oil, put a couple drops on your finger tips and massage directly into the dry areas. You will probably have to wash it in the morning. Also use a baby shampoo marketed for cradle cap. It will be very mild and will not irritate the skin, or make it worse.I hope that helps
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