Suffering from Hair Loss?

In the past, I've written about my stressful stint, years ago, in an Emergency Medicine Residency program. I've described some of the effects that that stress had on me and my body, including depression, colds, and a kind of dental infection that famously for affected stressed out World War I soldiers. However, I never mentioned the fact that, to top it off, my hair also became noticeably thinner. For those of you who've never experienced this, I urge you to be compassionate with people you know who complain of or suspect hair loss. This may not seem like a big issue when compared to cancer, war or famine, but it can be deeply upsetting and a source of much worry and insecurity.

Thanks to my own wonderful doctor, a visit to a specialty Hair Clinic, and a major lifestyle change, my hair's looking pretty good now. Yet ever since, I've been more aware of supplements claiming to improve hair quality and growth. Do any of them work?

Surfing the net, I came across websites listing nutrients "essential" to healthy hair. However, this turned out to be one of the most difficult topics I've ever researched, as I consistently turned up websites promoting product sales, rather than evidence-based information in the form of scientific literature. Medline and PubMed searches turned up very little; the research information I'll share with you today took a lot of work to find!

Commercial websites mention B vitamins, particularly niacin and pantothenic acid, as critical to hair health. I couldn't find any official reference supporting these functions, other than the fact that niacin is important to skin health. Others also mentioned folic acid and B6 as important nutrients for hair; again, I wasn't able to find literature supporting this.