Suffering from
Diabetes and Hair Loss?

What is Diabetes and hair loss?

As most people already know, diabetes is a medical condition where the sugar (glucose) quantity in the blood is too high. Overall there are 2 types of diabetes which is

• Type 1 Diabetes - where your body is incapable of making insulin
• Type 2 Diabetes - the more common type whereby your body does not make or use insulin well.

So what diabetes and hair loss have in common? Diabetes creates a lot of stress and illnesses to your body. It also cripples our nervous system as well as our body's ability to heal. In one way or the other, stress is a cause for hair loss.

Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

While there are no definite signs of diabetes, do look out for the following

• Fatigue : You might be suffering for tireness because your cells can't absorb glucose for energy
• Always Thirsty : In diabetes, your kidneys tend to overwork to flush out the extra glucose. You will feel the need to replenish your liquids.
• Chest Pains : Large amount of sugar in your blood might cause blockage that can lead to a heart condition. Beware.

There are no noticeable signs or symptoms of diabetes until the situation really gets worse like when you get a long healing cut or some really bad illness. It's best to keep a healthy lifestyle and do regular body check-ups.

The Link Between Diabetes and Hair Loss?

As you all should know, diabetes is a disease where our body are unable to convert glucose to energy. This condition leads to

• sugar build up in our body
• high sugar concentration in our blood stream which leads to fat build up
• clogged bloodstream creates blood circulation problem
• extra energy needed to filter excessive sugar diverting energy (like hair growth)

With poor blood circulation, vital nutrients and oxygen supplies are unable to reach the hair follicles thus leading to hair loss.

Diabetes is a trigger for a lot of diseases. It can also trigger hormonal imbalances that can cause hair loss as well as crippling the hair follicle regeneration process.

Another reason for hair loss is that diabetes causes stress to the body. Because your body depends on insulin and medications regularly as well as complications from diabetes, your body is exerted to stress.

Stress is also a reason for hair loss. Please read here to learn more.

Handling Diabetes with Care

If you are suffering from diabetes, you must understand the further complications of this disease. Medications for hair loss must be reviewed deeply before taking. Even foods that can improve hair loss like iron must be considered before taking due to your diabetes condition.

Any vitamin supplements that contains

• energy (carbohydrate)
• fat
• sugar

must be avoided at all costs to prevent deterioration of the disease.

It's best you consult your doctor for suitable foods that does not contain glucose or leads to more complications.

Diabetes and Hair Loss Treatments.

There is no cure for diabetes. As long as you have it, it might cause hair loss problems and if you have diabetes and hair loss, then it's double trouble for you. However, with proper care and attention, you can definitely improve your life and reduce hair loss. You can try what I call a Diabetic Management Routine.

I recommend

• A healthy diabetic diet - healthy fruits and vegetables taken on time.
• Glucose free iron supplements - Iron is one of the main minerals to improve blood flow. You can get a lot of these from beans and other type of vegetables.
• Stress Management - stress is bad for everything. It's bad for your hair and it's bad for your diabetes as well. Look for a stress reduction plan. If you can lower stress you can definitely do benefit for your life, hair and condition.
• Taking your Medications on time - since diabetes is a chronic illness, matching your lifestyle to it is important. Make sure your medications are part of your life now. Skipping too often will only burden your body and will accelerate other complications.

Whatever it is, diabetes is a long term medical condition, what you really need to do is to look after it before all else. Properly manage your diabetes and hair loss will handle itself.

Personal Note

When come to any kind of illnesses that causes secondary conditions like hair loss, it's good to remember to focus on the main illness. If diabetes is the result of your other problems, then solving and managing it well will benefit or at least slow other diseases.

My mum has been a diabetic sufferer for almost 20 years. She has slowed down her active lifestyle, found religion (Buddhism), lives on a healthy diabetic diet and is quite happy with her life now. Most importantly, keep diabetes in check!

It's not how long you live. It's how well you live for the remainder of your life. Cherish what you have and everything else will be fine.