Is stress a leading cause of hair loss? There may be a cure in the offing

Have you even been worried about hair loss? There may be a cure in the future if researchers from University of Manchester have their way. The team has recently discovered the biological mechanism that heads to hair loss and this has raised hopes of a potential cure in the near future. Hair loss has emerged as a concern for many, especially the youth. They are many factors including intoxicants, certain medicines, stress related factors and other reasons that are responsible for this ordeal. The British team has discovered that stress is a key factor that leads to hair loss. They discovered this link while testing a drug to see if it boosted the growth of hair follicles in the scalp.

Stress:
It has been found that a mechanism called the integrated stress response (ISR) does negatively impact hair growth by impacting the growth of hair cells. These cells pause regular activity when they experience stress like conditions. They become dormant to mitigate the effects of stress. It is known that hair follicles do become stressed as they age a bit but a hyper ISR response leads to the death of these hair cells rather than it being slowed down. This indicates that they key towards solving the issue of hair loss and eventual balding is to slow down the ISR.


Cure:
Presently, there are no known drugs to cure ISR. This team of researchers from Manchester are experimenting with the drug. There are similar experiments being carried out in different countries. In 2022, a team of Japanese researchers grew hair follicles successfully in a lab. This may be the best solution till date. Many others opt for the laser treatments or hair transplants.

FAQs:

How many men suffer from the issue of hair loss?
Roughly, 85% of the men suffer from the issue of hair loss before the reach their middle age. Whereas nearly half of the women also suffer from this issue by the time they reach the age of 70.

In Britain, how many people suffer from hair loss?
It has been revealed that approximately 6.5 million men and 8 million women in the UK are affected by hair loss. The most common cause of hair loss in the UK has been found to be androgenic alopecia.