How Much Selenium Causes Hair Loss?

What is Selenium?

Benefits of Selenium

Selenium and Hair

Shedding of hair regularly is a common phenomenon where you lose 50-100 hair strands each day. It is a part of the natural hair growth cycle that comprises three phases- growth, rest, and fall. After the fall phase, the cycle returns to the growth phase, and new hair regrows from the follicles. Hair loss is different from hair shedding in hair loss due to external or internal factors; the regrowth of hair halts causes thinning and baldness. 

Our diet can many times influence our hair shedding and hair loss. Not just main nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, or fats, but also micronutrients like zinc, selenium, etc., can influence hair growth. Continue with the blog to learn everything about selenium and hair loss. 

What is Selenium?

The body demands many trace elements besides the macronutrients for proper growth and development. Selenium is a trace mineral that is required by the body to carry out various crucial functions, including reproduction, synthesis of DNA, thyroid hormone metabolism, reducing oxidative damage, and non-vital functions like hair growth. However, taking higher levels than required of this trace element in the form of supplements can promote hair loss.

Benefits of Selenium

Several benefits of selenium make it one of the most crucial elements to be a part of your daily diet. A few of them include:

• Selenium keeps you from fertility problems, iodine deficiency, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and thyroid malfunctioning that may cause hair loss. 
• Selenium helps to prevent memory loss problems 
• Antioxidant properties of selenium help in repairing damaged tissues and reduce oxidative stress that may cause hair loss
• Selenium is one of the best treatments against dandruff 
• It also works in the neutralisation of free radicals, which damage the hair follicles and cells  

Selenium and Hair

Selenium is good for hair as it promotes hair growth and keeps hair problems at bay. It is a counter element to keep various diseases and health conditions away. However, too much of anything is never good. You must be thinking, does selenium cause hair loss? Yes, Excessive consumption of selenium on an everyday basis can lead to hair loss conditions like telogen effluvium. This is because selenium tends to change the entire structure of the hair shaft, which may lead to hair loss or disturbs the natural hair growth cycle and send the hair follicles to the rest phase. Selenium makes hair so brittle that they become prone to breakage. 

The requirement of selenium in the body is very little; in infants, 15 micrograms; in men and women, 55 micrograms; and in pregnant and lactating women, 60-70 micrograms per day. Consuming a diet containing high protein foods like fish, egg, garlic, liver, cheese, oats, cereals, grains, and mushrooms can fulfil the requirement of this crucial trace element, and there is no need to consume supplements. You can visit your nearest dermatologist and consult a dietician to modify your diet and make it selenium-rich. Remember that you must not consume supplements without consulting a hair doctor. 

Conclusion

Hair loss due to selenium can be reversed as telogen effluvium is a temporary hair loss condition. New hair starts to regrow once the selenium levels in the body come back to normal. Selenium consumption has proved to lessen hair loss in chemotherapy patients also. However, consuming more than a suitable amount can also lead to reversible hair loss. If your workspace is a production site where selenium alloy is produced as a byproduct, getting exposed to it can cause hair loss. 

If you observe excessive hair loss, you must immediately consult an expert dermatologist at HairMD Pune and get all questions answered about how selenium causes hair loss.