How Stress Can Damage Your Hair

09/30/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

There’s no denying that the busy modern lifestyle can be stressful. Most households require two incomes to function these days, leaving parents struggling to balance work and raising a family, not to mention a host of other obligations. You may suffer from sleep loss, weight gain, anxiety, or all of the above, and you may not even realize that stress could be a contributing factor.

We’re learning more and more about the effects of stress, and it doesn’t just impact your mental or emotional state. It can also cause physical side effects. For example, corticosteroid, a hormone associated with stress, has been found to suppress immune function, reducing the body’s ability to fight pathogens and making us more susceptible to illness.

In addition, stress could be a contributing factor to temporary or ongoing hair loss. There are three main hair loss conditions related to stress: alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, and trichotillomania. What are they and what can you do to halt hair loss and minimize the conditions causing it?

Alopecia Areata

Alopecia areata isn’t strictly related to stress, as it a condition characterized by your immune system attacking the body’s hair follicles. It can affect not only the hair on your head, but all over your body, causing it to fall out and resulting in patchiness or overall thinning. In some cases, hair regrows without further incident, while you might also experience regrowth only to have hair fall out again.

Generally speaking, alopecia areata could be related to any number of factors, and is considered an autoimmune disorder. That said, it is believed that this condition can be triggered or made worse by severe stress. While there is no known cure for this condition, stress-related alopecia could decline along with stress reduction.

In the meantime, there are a variety of treatment options to consider, some of which may speed hair regrowth. Immunosuppressants may help to reduce the mistaken immune response while you address and attempt to reduce stressors.

You may also want to consider technological innovations like low-level light therapy (LLLT). This FDA-cleared treatment involves the use of a laser cap that can improve hair thickness and growth with just 30 minutes of wear every other day. It improves cellular respiration and stimulates hair follicles to help combat the effects of hair loss. This is an all natural, pain-free, chemical-free, and hands-free hair growth treatment option.

Telogen Effluvium

Before you can understand telogen effluvium, you need to know that hair growth occurs in three phases: anagen, catagen, and telogen. The anagen (active) phase is when hair grows, and for any given strand of hair, it lasts several years. This is followed by the catagen (transitional) phase, when the root begins to shrink, over the course of a couple weeks. Finally, the telogen (resting) phase occurs, lasting a few months, during which the hair is shed.

At any given time, only about 10% of follicles are in the telogen phase. However, significant stress can cause a condition called telogen effluvium, by which more hair follicles (up to about 30%) enter the telogen phase, typically resulting in noticeable thinning. This is generally considered a temporary condition brought on by some kind of shock to the system. As with alopecia areata brought on by stress, this could be remedied through stress reduction techniques, as well as treatments like LLLT that help hair to regrow faster and thicker.

Trichotillomania

While alopecia areata and telogen effluvium are physical symptoms that could be related to extreme stress, trichotillomania is different. It has more to do with how stress can impact your mental and emotional state, and your behaviors.

It’s a common trope in comedy to pull out one’s hair as an indication of anger or stress. However, you might not realize that it’s an actual condition. Trichotillomania is a psychological disorder in which people feel compelled to pull on their own hair, including eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair on the head or body.

This condition is often linked to stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions, and may be a form of self-soothing, gaining control, or otherwise coping with negative feelings. Cognitive and behavioral therapy are generally accepted as the best means of addressing the underlying causes of trichotillomania, but in the meantime, you can attempt to replenish the hair on your scalp with LLLT and complementary treatments.

Minimizing Stress

Although many people suffering stress-related hair loss are keen to treat the symptoms, it’s important to understand the importance of addressing the cause, as well. Reducing stress may require you to cut out stressors, including obligations that spur your anxiety. A healthy diet and regular exercise can also help, as can treatments like therapy and meditation. Don’t hesitate to speak to a trusted physician to learn more and seek referrals to specialists regarding high stress and the effects that are damaging your hair.

Going Healthy, Health, Lifestyle

9 Stress Relief Strategies That Work for Any Lifestyle

09/30/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Stress is often referred to as the silent killer. Everyone faces some level of stress at some point in their life. However, constant, everyday stress is hard on your body. It can lead to serious physical problems, including fatal diseases like heart disease. Your body is capable of dealing with stress, but there is a limit to how much one person can handle.

One of the most common symptoms of stress is difficulty sleeping. And lack of sleep also causes stress. It’s a never-ending cycle, but some people have found great success in using Cannabinol (CBD). CBN is a variant of CBD that improves sleep. Many people use CBN for enhanced relaxation.

Stress is Connected to the Number One Cause of Death Worldwide

While everyone has stress in their lives, everyone doesn’t handle it exactly the same way. How you handle stress can affect your health. Too much stress can lead to high blood pressure, one of the main causes of heart disease.

The American Heart Association notes that the specific connection between stress and heart disease “isn’t clear.” However, stress triggers the “fight or flight” adrenaline rush. If you’re under constant stress, your blood pressure will undoubtedly increase. How can you help keep your stress levels low?

9 Ways to Relieve Stress

Managing stress doesn’t come with a one-size-fits-all instruction manual. What may reduce stress for one person may CAUSE stress in another. However, there are a handful of methods that seem to benefit almost everyone.

9 stress relief strategies that work the best include:

1. Stay active. “Blowing off steam” doesn’t always mean verbally venting your issues. Being active, especially through exercise, can help give your body a break from the stress.

2. Practice mindlessness. You’ve likely heard of practicing mindfulness, but have you tried practicing mindlessness? Distracting yourself with a good book or a binge-worthy TV show can help take your mind off your troubles.

3. Keep breathing. Meditation is one of the most recommended methods of dealing with stress. As long as you’re still breathing, you can overcome anything.

4. Embrace nature. Many people find the sights and sounds – or lack of sounds – peaceful. Something about nature is innately calming.

5. Find a hobby. Similar to mindless entertainment, hobbies are a great way to keep your mind busy. They often have personal meaning, such as needlepoint passed down through generations.

6. Surround yourself with friends and family. Interacting with family members isn’t always relaxing, or stress-free. However, if you are lucky enough to have close, stress-free relationships, utilize them to help ease your stress.

7. Light a scented candle. Aromatherapy is a very trendy, and science-backed, stress-reliever.

8. Eat healthy foods. “You are what you eat” isn’t just something your mom used to say.What we eat can affect every part of our lives, including our stress levels. Eating healthy helps you mentally and physically.

9. Go for a drive. Driving down winding back roads with your hair blowing in the wind is a classic stress reliever that never goes out of style.

Stress is a fact of life. But learning to handle stress in the most positive ways can help reduce this health danger immensely.

Going Green, Going Healthy, Health, Life, Parenting

How to Turn Your Kids into Environmental Ambassadors

09/29/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Later, hotter summers and colder winters prove that global warming is a real issue. The impact of this will affect those we care about most- our children.

In 2020, working toward protecting our environment and global warming has never been more important. We should, every day, be doing our bit to help to protect, sustain and care for our natural world before these irreversible issues take hold too quickly.

As adults with children, it is our job to teach them about the damage being made to the planet- a vast topic to understand, but a valuable, lifelong lesson to learn.

Here are some of the things to teach our kids about the environment, and how they can care for the world around them.

What areas Should You Cover When Talking to Young Children About the Environment?

Children are very receptive to life lessons. They will be highly influenced by the people around them- friends and family, and will want to start doing some of the same things as them. If they see you recycling, then they’ll want to know how and why they should do that and want to get involved.

Some topics of conversation to help to engage your children with environmental issues should be: deforestation, global warming, recycling, and endangered animals. Talk to them about how some of the smaller changes and habits they engage in now will help them to make an essential impact for the future generations.

Help them to understand the ways in which they can help to save electricity and water around the home such as, turning the tap off when it’s time to brush their teeth, and to unplug items when they are not being used, as well as turning off the lights when they leave a room.

Here are Some Fun Activities to Help Children to Understand the Importance of Caring for the Environment

Invent craft projects using items that would usually be thrown away- for example a jar for pasta sauce can be used again to hold trail mix snacks, or painted brightly and turned into a pencil pot.
Get outside in nature. Visit a nature reserve, a farm or a national park and help them to point out all the wildlife they see. Why not create a finder mission activity where they can tick off each animal or bug that they see. You can laminate an activity sheet and have them circle pictures with a dry wipe marker so they can be used again.
Read articles and listen to talks about the environment. Stephen Troese has a wide range of these that are accessible for most audiences. You can read some before speaking to your children to get a better understanding of this area yourself.
Create a small compost box to keep outside. Teach children the items that can and cannot be collected in the food waste tubs, and have them watch these items decompose to turn into compost.
Use the compost to plant their own vegetables. It’s exciting to watch a seed begin to sprout and then turn into something recognizable as something to eat!