Common Causes of Hair Loss
It is very natural for a person to loss 50 to 100 hairs each day under the body's hair renewal process. But most of the people at least once in their lifetime suffer with heavy hair loss. There may be various reason behind this; like medication, chemotherapy, exposure to radiations and certain chemicals, nutritional and hormonal factors, thyroid disease, skin disease or stress, etc.
In most of the cases hair loss is temporary but in certain cases it may be permanent depending on the severity of disease. Some of the most common causes of hair loss are explained here.
HORMONAL
Hormones are stimulant to hair growth and causes hair loss problems. Hormones affect heavily our hair growth. These affect both male as well as female hair health.
Hair thinning is one of the hormonal problems and affects both men and women. Hair thinning in male is specific and follows a pattern from the front through to the crown. Hair thinning in female does not follow any specific pattern.
Hair thinning is caused by androgen DHT or Dihydrotesterone. Everyone has DHT but only some suffers with hair problem, are you wandering, why? This owes to the hair follicles, which have a greater number of androgen receptors for the DHT to attach with. Till date the most effective treatment for the problems of hair thinning is; anti androgens. Anti androgens are preventive drugs that prevent the creation of DHT. In future we may get genes therapy for hair thinning problems.
Childbirth
Many of the females experience hair loss after labor. In such a situation many of the hair enters the telogen or resting phase. Some of the females experiences hair loss within two to three months after giving childbirth.
Hair problem due to pregnancy is temporary and in many of the cases eradicate within time, say 1 to 6 months. This occurs because of diverse hormonal changes that take place within the body during pregnancy.
Birth control pills
The females who are genetically programmed with Androgenic Alopecia, if takes birth control pills at much younger age encounters hair loss. Androgenic Alopecia is caused due to various hormonal changes.
The females who have history of hair loss in their family must consult doctor before taking any birth control pills. This type of hair loss is temporary and may stop in 1 to 6 months. But in some of the cases, it has been noticed that a female cannot regrow some of her hair that was lost due to Androgenic Alopecia.
Deficient diet
A good balanced diet rich in varied variety of nutrients is equally important to your hair health. The person who eats less of proteins or has irregular eating habits suffers with hair loss. Generally to save protein our body pushes growing hair into resting phase. If your hair can be pulled out by the root very easily, then this may be due to lack of a well balanced diet. This condition can be prevailed by eating a diet rich in proteins and other necessary nutrients.
Low serum iron
If some person either may not have access to iron rich food or his / her body may not absorb enough of iron then this may cause hair problems. Women during menstrual period are more prone to be iron deficient. Low iron in the body can be detected by laboratory test and can be corrected by taking a diet rich in iron and iron pills.
Disease Or Illness
Hair loss due to some disease or illness is very common, but this type of hair loss is temporary and lost hair may grow again. Diseases like sever infection or flu and high fever, thyroid disease etc may lead to hair loss.
Certain medications, cancer treatments, and chronic illnesses also cause hair loss. A person who receives surgery also faces hair loss problems.
However, hair loss problems of any sort are generally temporary and can be solved by taking good nutritious diet and professional help.
Tania writes on reasons for hair loss.
Learn more about anxiety cure and hair loss solutions and treatments here.
The Truth About Senior Moments
Copyright 2006 Mary Desaulniers
We all have our moments when the word stays paralyzed in our throat. We can see the face, hear the voice, but we struggle to name who it is we have in our mind. Most of us have dismissed such moments as senior moments. After all, we reason, they are part of aging. However, a new study that emerged from Chicago recently suggests otherwise. Senior moments might not be as innocuous as previously thought. The study suggests that in a disturbing number of cases, embarrassing senior moments such as forgetting a word, name or recent conversation are really hallmarks and signs of Alzheimer's disease.
After performing autopsies on the brains of 134 older people who had appeared to be normal except for some moments of forgetfulness, Chicago scientists have found that one third of the participants had brains riddled with plagues, waxy protein clumps and scarred tissues that were all signs of Alzheimer's disease.Their senior moments were pathological. Despite the fact that their brains showed marked deterioration similar to those who succumbed to Alzheimer's, these participants had been able to lead functional normal lives; that is, they were able to take care of personal, household, social and daily living needs. Their ability to do so has prompted the inevitable question: why is that that some people are totally incapacitated and indisposed by brain deterioration while others (who had similar levels of deterioration in the brain) are able to function normally?
Dr. David Bennett, an Alzheimer's researcher at Rush University Medical Center acknowledges that much can be gleaned from this discrepancy: "There's something about these people that allows them to have large amounts of pathology without obvious memory problems. We need to understand why that is so." His research suggests that certain factors seem to prevent us from being incapacitated in our daily lives despite the build up of plaques and protein in our brains. These factors include a) high levels of education and b) feelings of social connectedness.
Mentally stimulating tasks such as learning a new skill or language, doing crossword puzzles, reading and writing all help to diminish incidents of senior moments and prevent Alzheimer's by enabling the brain to compensate for the incapacitating elements of the disease. Just as moderate aerobic activity( like running or speed walking) can build arterial reserves that prevent heart attacks, so mind building activities can create a "neural reserve" that enables people to tolerate Alzheimer's-induced brain deterioration without succumbing to dementia.
The next question we need to ask then is, what activities can we cultivate to preserve our neural reserves?
1. In the famous Nun's Study, researchers noted that the sisters who had a dense linguistic style in their early journal entries (which demonstrated an ability to manipulate complex ideas and images within a single sentence) were the most untouched by Alzheimer's. Writing is an activity that demands correlation between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; translating emotions and ideas into words demands the bilateral engagement of both hemispheres, mind and senses. So by all means write—and write everyday. Make it as much a daily activity as exercise. Write from your mind; write from your heart and write from your gut. Don't worry about what others think. Just write!
2. Learn a new skill or language. Assimilating something new, especially something that is unfamiliar terrain helps the brain to build new neural reserves. The language can be in the realm of music or computer ; as a matter of fact, so much has developed these days in the area of programming that the whole online arena of systems protocol and programs has literally opened up all kinds of possibility for growth.
3. Learn to play a new instrument— another example of assimilating new terrain. When we attended a recent violin concert where my grandson( age 4) performed the repertoire with the members of his Suzuki school, we were impressed by an elderly gentleman who stood up with the children ( ranging in age from 3 to 17) and performed his solo piece. The applause was thunderous.Non- senior moments like this inspire us to step outside our comfort zone and work through whatever it takes to learn a new skill.
4. Travel widely and far. By the same token, traveling to different cultures can enhance the activity of brain functions. When my partner and I traveled to France and Italy last fall, we could feel the neurotransmitters firing in our brains—especially in Italy. We had to learn how to ask for food, time, directions to the subway station, to the washroom. The city became a physical puzzle we had to tame and nowhere was this more evident than in Venice, where safely ensconced in the ferry that carried us to the Piazza del San Marco, we struck up conversations with a gentleman from Latvia, a lady from Capri and a couple from Korea . We were worlds apart linguistically—but somehow we managed to understand each other quite well. This was a situation when eyes, hand and gestures spoke more than words!
5. Exercise daily. Not only does aerobic and cardiovascular activity strengthen our muscles, joints and bones, it improves the brain tissue density in older adults. During the normal human aging process, the average brain loses 15% of the cerebral cortex and 25% of white brain matter, a loss that is linked directly to reduced cognitive performance. Aerobic and cardiovascular exercises benefit the areas in the brain that are most susceptible to the ravages of aging.
6. Last but not least, bless all you encounter and love what you do; forget details that are not essential to your spiritual growth, such as your senior moments. Leaving your ego self has the same dynamics as learning a new language. Know that we are shadows and that our real home lies elsewhere; this knowledge will catapult us into learning the language of spirit.
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A runner for 27 years, retired schoolteacher and writer, Mary is helping people reclaim their bodies. Nutrition, exercise, positive vision and purposeful engagement are the tools used to turn their bodies into creative selves. You can visit her at http://www.GreatBodyat50.com or learn how she lost her weight at http://www.greatbodyproteinpower.com
How You Can Find Stress Relief
Copyright 2006 Douglas Alp
We all have heard of the harmful effects stress can have on our lives. Although we can never totally eliminate stress we must be able to manage stress, and find stress relief, especially the prolonged stress which will indeed cause many ill effects on your health.
In many ways we can eliminate much of our stress by the way we perceive things. There are many things in life in which we have little or no control over. Things such as traffic jams and the way others act. If we react to these things in a way that adds stress to our lives many of our bodily functions shut down and prevent our bodies from keeping ourselves healthy and youthful.
Much of our stress can be relieved by the way we perceive things. In many cases we are stressed out by things we have no control over. If we can do something about a situation then we should act on it to resolve the problem. If the situation is out of our control we would be better off just accepting it for what it is and focus our attention on something more pleasant or something that will enhance our day and our lives.
The body reacts to stress by producing a flood of chemicals that shut down important but not vital functions to survival. This constant supply of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and the suppression of growth hormones and other healing hormones that help your body heal after stress, will damage your body and have a negative effect on your health over time.
Some ways you can control the amount of stress you encounter is to monitor a few things about the so called stressful situation you are in. Firstly ask yourself, am I in control of the situation that is upon me. Like I said earlier if the situation is beyond your control you must let it go. If there is something you can do about the situation then you must be in action and do something to resolve it.
Secondly you could identify to what extent your stress is the result of your interpretation of the situation, which in fact, relates to your beliefs and judgments. If you are caught up in the story of "this always happens to me" or are you always trying to prove something to yourself to reinforce a limiting belief you have about yourself or others. This can be a harmful cycle in which you will always generate unwanted stress in your life. Pay attention to see if the same situations come up and you get stressed out about similar things. Awareness to our beliefs and judgments can open doors to freedom within our consciousness.
The third thing that one can do is to learn to consciously adjust your reaction to what is happening in our lives. Learn to be calm in situations, to be focused and powerful in dealing with stressful issues. When we react all the time we are not in control and not being in control can add to feelings of recklessness. An out of control feeling is definitely a situation which can cause stress.
Besides the few perceptive ways to deal with stress just mentioned one can also start a program which will be more proactive and help you put your mind and body in a state that more readily handles situation as they arise. Proactive stress management techniques can be addressed with knowledge. Through personal development books or courses that teach you to be in more control of your life and to accept others for who they are, you can eliminate about fifty percent of your stress.
There are also courses in anger management if you feel you have an issue with anger. Many times anger is the end result of other emotions such as disappointment, jealousy, fear, or other emotions. Not being able to communicate this in a healthy manner and really understanding your emotions can lead to anger in almost any area of your life. The recognition of these emotions and the ability to communicate them to yourself and others can be a big stress releaser and put you in better control of your emotions and your life.
Of course eating well and exercising help your body to deal with stress. The release of good hormones through things such as yoga, aerobic, meditation, breathing exercising or weight lifting greatly help your body deal with stress, firstly by having a means to release the stress through the physical activity and secondly these activities enable the body to produce the healthy endorphins and healing hormones into your body.
Other ways to reduce stress is to engage in something you love to do. Get your mind off the situation that is causing you stress. By having a hobby that you just love to do such as gardening, playing a musical instrument, stained glass or whatever gets your mind focused on something you love. Usually something creative opens you up a totally different space within you.
And of course my two favorite thing to relieve stress, laughter and good supportive friends. Go see a funny movie or go out with supportive friends to a comedy club. Spend good quality time with them and share your love, don't complain about your stressful situation unless you discuss it to find possible ways of resolving the situation and then end the conversation and have some fun.
Listen, stress can kill you and the more and more scientist explore this issue the more and more they know that almost all disease can manifest from stress and ill thoughts. Choose to deal with stress in a positive way. Find the way to incorporate stress relief practices into your life and help you mind, body and spirit live a healthier more fulfilled life.
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This article has been brought to you by Douglas Alp from MyCompletelife.com. Douglas is in pursuit of the complete life which beings with optimal health at the core and is the foundation for a great abundant life. You can visit his site at http://www.mycompletelife.com to find other great resources and sign up for your free newsletter to assist you to building a healthy and vibrant body and mind in pursuit of your complete life.