Facts you MUST know about Zinc & Hair Loss

An important part of staying healthy is maintaining a good diet. The correct balance of vitamins and minerals can make you feel and look better. Lacking these necessary components of a healthy diet may be all it takes to lead to hair loss and baldness. In fact, you can lose a healthy head of hair if you aren’t getting enough of some very specific minerals in your diet. Zinc is an important mineral that your body needs in order to function well. Even though your body only needs a very small amount of zinc it plays an incredibly important role in your overall health and well being. Zinc plays a lot of different roles in your body; it plays a role in mediating the inflammatory response and is a key factor in the healing process. Zinc is critical in cell-cell communication and it is important for hair growth as part of the signal that tells hair follicles to start and keep growing. It also keeps them healthy by decreasing inflammatory processes and removing free radicals from the area around the cells.

While most people wouldn’t think that they have low zinc levels it has been reported as a finding in men with male pattern baldness. In 2009 in a study comparing the amount of zinc in both men and women with this pattern of hair loss found that they had a statistically significant difference in zinc levels when compared to people with full heads of hair (Jin, 1998; Bhat, 2009). All these men and women were otherwise healthy and felt fine. If they weren’t tested they would not have known about their zinc deficiency. Similarly you may not know if you have low zinc levels, your first and only sign could be losing your hair. If that is the case you may want to get tested to see if you could benefit from zinc supplementation. The hair loss from low zinc levels would happen gradually, first you would notice more hair in your brush or on your hands when you shampoo. Then you may begin to notice an itchy scalp or thinning areas that eventually become bald spots. If the zinc deficiency becomes chronic and severe people can get open sores, rashes, and scaly skin.

Animals deprived of zinc as part of scientific studies begin to show hair loss in as little as 18 weeks and they have more inflammatory markers in their blood (Singer, 2000; Gupta, 1997). Treating these animals with zinc quickly reverses all these findings. Most people get enough zinc from their diets, but without being tested you wouldn’t know if your hair loss may be related to something as easily corrected as a zinc deficiency. Having a zinc deficiency is more likely if you are following a special diet, or if you avoid certain kinds of foods. The good news is that this cause of hair loss is reversible. In fact multiple medical studies have documented patients who come in with severe hair loss, rashes and other symptoms of zinc deficiency who improve with zinc therapy. This has been shown to work in adult men and women, in children and infants. In fact, while some causes of hair loss can be permanent zinc therapy actually has been shown to re-grow lost hair (Inoue, 2008; Wang, 2005). This finding has been reproduced clinically thousands of times.

If you are losing your hair it is important to know you have options. It is worthwhile to get tested, especially if the result could mean you now have a safe and easy way to reverse hair loss. Another option is to use a zinc cream. Minoxidil with 1% pyrithione zinc shampoo has been shown in a double blind, controlled scientific study to result in hair growth. In the two hundred men studied in the experiment Minoxidil with zinc showed that after 26 weeks the people taking the Minoxidil with zinc had increased hair diameter and hair counts. These people had fuller thicker heads of hair apparent to the testing physicians without quantitative testing and then proven with microscopic analysis and hair counts by a group of doctors that didn’t know which group had the Minoxidil with zinc, and which group just had Minoxidil. It is important to note that none of these patients got tested for blood zinc levels. So we can’t know if they had a zinc deficiency but the test used shampoo and since it is topical rather than an oral medicine it is safe to be used by anyone with or without a medical deficiency who would like to see if they could benefit. The patients in the study may or may not have had a zinc deficiency but they, and their hair, did benefit from the treatment more than the group using just Minoxidil.  (Berger, 2003)

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Scientific Reference List – in order of appearance

1- Jin W, Zhu Z, Wu, S [Determination of zinc, copper, iron and manganese contents in hair for MPA patients and healthy men]. [Chinese] Guang Pu Xue Yu Guang Pu Fen Xi/Spectroscopy & Spectral Analysis. 18(1):91-3, 1998 Feb

2- Bhat YJ. Manzoor S. Khan AR. Qayoom S. “Trace element levels in alopecia areata. Indian Journal of Dermatology”, Venereology & Leprology. 75(1):29-31, 2009 Jan-Feb.

3- Gupta, R P. Verma, P C. Garg, S L.” Effect of experimental zinc deficiency on thyroid gland in guinea-pigs.” Ann Nutr Metab. 41(6):376-81, 1997.

4- Singer LJ, Herron A, Altman, N. “Zinc responsive dermatopathy in goats: two field cases.” Contemp Top Lab Anim Sci. 39(4):32-5, 2000 Jul.

5- Inoue K, Kito M, Kato S, et al. “A case of acquired zinc deficiency in a mature breast-fed infant.”  J Perinat Med. 26(6):495-7, 1998

6- Wang LC. Busbey S. Images in clinical medicine. Acquired acrodermatitis enteropathica.[Erratum appears in N Engl J Med. 2005 Apr 21;352(16):1731]

7- Berger, R S. Fu JL, Smiles KA, et al.  “The effects of Minoxidil, 1% pyrithione zinc and a combination of both on hair density: a randomized controlled trial.” Br J Dermatol. 149(2):354-62, 2003 Aug.