Hair loss is increased by stress: example 4X increase by COVID (hint: Vitamin D) – Sept 2022


What to Do if You’re Experiencing Hair Loss After Covid – Sept 2022

New York Times

  • “Increased shedding after illness is not unusual. The good news is that it’s most likely temporary.”
  • “Some research estimates that 22 percent of those who were hospitalized with Covid-19 experienced temporary hair loss.”
  • “Sudden and temporary hair loss has a medical name: telogen effluvium. It occurs when stress or illness triggers much more shedding than the typical 50 to 100 hairs a person loses per day. It is not specific to Covid-19: Experts have known for centuries that severe illness, surgery, blood loss, hospitalization, childbirth and extreme emotional events, like the loss of a loved, one can trigger telogen effluvium.”
  • "But researchers have found that people with a history of Covid-19 infection are four times as likely to develop hair loss than those who were not infected."


Vitamin D Recommendation for COVID hair loss: topical vitamin D + VDR activators


VitaminDWiki - 37 studies in both categories Virus and VDR

This list is automatically updated


Google Scholar search for "telogen effluvium" "vitamin d" 1150 hits as of Sept 2022

Google Scholar_

Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with telogen effluvium: a systematic review and meta-analysis 2019?

( Gyoo Huh ) , ( Yeon Gu Choi ) , ( Hyeon Jeong Park ) , ( Junghwa Yang ) , ( Yunho Lee ) , ( Jung Yup Kim ) , ( Sunmin Yim ) , ( Heun Joo Lee ) , ( Young-jun Choi ) , ( Ga-young Lee ) , ( Won-serk Kim )

Background: Telogen effluvium (TE) is the most common cause of diffuse hair loss. TE tends to be related to external causes. However, the connection between vitamin D and TE has not been established
Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with TE. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on TE and prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency/ deficiency before August 5, 2019 were performed searching EMBASE, Pubmed, and Cochrane library.
Results: In all, 7 studies including a total of 658 TE subjects were analysed. 6 studies including a total of 580 were subject to evaluation for vitamin D deficiency. The pooled prevalence of all studies was 0.3787 [95% confidence interval 0.1479-0.6426]. There was a significant heterogeneity (I2 = 97.6%). Subgroup analyses of studies using the cut-off value less than 12 ng/mL (k = 3, 0.2301 [0.1057-0.3837], I2 = 86.2%) and studies performed in the U.S (k = 4, 0.2881 [0.1634-0.4312], I2 = 88.4%) resulted in the decrease of heterogeneity.
Conclusion: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the U.S was estimated 6%. Vitamin D deficiency in TE patients might be higher compared to general population in the U.S. Hence, vitamin D deficiency should be considered in TE patients. The limitation of this study is the small number of pooled studies, inconsistent definition of vitamin D deficiency between studies, and high heterogeneity


Vitamin D level and telogen hair loss: A Case control study - 2021 (11 ng vs 19 ng)

: Journal of the faculty of medicine Baghdad Vol. 63 No. 3 (2021) DOI: https://doi.org/10.32007/jfacmedbagdad.6331846
Taiceer A. Turkan
Jamal R. Al-Rawi Dept. Dermatology & Venereology, College of Medicine, Al-Mustansiriya University

Background: Hair loss is a common skin condition. Hair is not a vital organ but losing it has a worse effect on the psychological state of the patient and may interrupt his daily social activities. Telogen effluvium founded to be the commonest noninflammatory cause to diffuse hair loss. Since nutritional disturbances are one of the triggering factors for it. It might be useful in the management of TE Due to the limited number of studies& little information is available on this subject possible role of vitamin D or its deficiency should be studied further.

Aim of the study: to determine the association between Telogen effluvium and vitamin D level.

Materials and methods: This is a case-control study performed in a period between December 2018 until June 2020; in Baghdad dermatology center at medical city. One hundred women who were seeking treatment for diffuse hair shedding and who hadn’t received treatment or supplements yet and One hundred fifty control subjects are chosen from patients who were referred to the dermatology clinic for the treatment of nevi and who are not pregnant or lactating, had no systemic or local scalp diseases are included in the study. Full History, physical examination performed for all cases including looking for cutaneous diseases, supplements & drug intake. Serum Vitamin D3 is measured using (Ichroma (TM), Boditech Med Inc., Korea).

Result: A total of 250 females were included in this study, 100 of them got telogen effluvium & 150 were patients who attend dermatology clinic seeking treatments for nevi or skin tag (control group) .The mean age of cases was (22.59 ±4.837 year) that wasn’t significantly different from mean age of control group (23.647±6.022 years) (p-value =0.127).
The mean level of Vitamin D was significantly lower than that of control group (11.16±4.49) Vs (18.98±10.65), P value <0.001. Vitamin D mean level in acute phase was significantly higher than that of chronic phase pts. (11.68±4.77 & 9.93 ±3.55 respectively), p value=0.04. Mean vit. D among symptomatic patients. (9.7 ± 3.5) was significantly lower than that among asymptomatic pts. (13±4.19) (p=0.001).No significant association were noticed between job & residence of the patients of both groups, (P-value =0.283 & 0.069 respectively

Conclusion: Age mean difference was not significant among cases and controls. Deficiency in vitamin D may assume a possible leading cause of telogen effluvium among women with hair loss. Cases were significantly associated with low level of Vitamin D3 than controls.Low level of vitamin D was dominant among housewives, urban women, and among symptomatic patients with acute duration.
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki


Telogen effluvium was most strongly associated with low Vitamin |D - Aug 2021

Telogen effluvium in daily practice: Patient characteristics, laboratory parameters, and treatment modalities of 3028 patients with telogen effluvium
Ahu Yorulmaz MD, Yildiz Hayran MD, Ahmet Kagan Ozdemir MD, Orhan Sen MD, Ilgaz Genc MD, Gunes Gur Aksoy MD, Basak Yalcin MD
First published: 27 August https://doi.org/10.1111/jocd.14413 publisher rents PDF for $15

Telogen effluvium (TE) is a common form of non-scarring alopecia, characterized by excessive shedding of telogen club hairs.
Objectives
The aim of the present study was to investigate patient characteristics, laboratory parameters, and treatment strategies in TE.
Methods
Electronic records of 3028 patients were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic and clinical data, as well as serum parameters screening for iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, folate and zinc deficiencies, thyroid function, and ANA titers, were evaluated.
Results
In the study group, the most frequently performed test type was serum ferritin level (82.3%), followed by complete blood count (81%), both of which revealed that 6.2% of the patients had iron deficiency anemia. 4.6% of the patients had thyroid dysfunction. In screened patients, vitamin and mineral deficiencies were as follows: vitamin D (72.2%, vitamin B12 (30.7%), folate (4.4%), and zinc (2.1%). Women were more likely to be prescribed vitamin D replacement therapy. Iron replacement was the most frequently ordered treatment, comprising 37.5% of total prescriptions.
Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive retrospective study having the largest number of patients with TE. Our results will not only help to augment knowledge about TE, but also provide a diagnostic algorithm for the laboratory and clinical workup of patients with TE.

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