This is a great question. There is a connection between acne and hair loss. Both are often caused by hormonal changes. Often this can mean that if you suffered from acne in your life you will also suffer from premature hair loss at some point in your life. Note that this is not always the case, but in cases where acne is predominantly caused by hormonal changes (the vast majority of cases), it is also likely that future hormonal changes may result in future hair loss.
What causes acne?
If you look at the causes of acne, you’ll see that they are very similar to the causes of hair loss:
- hormonal changes
- poor diet – too much of the wrong types of fat and sugar
- stress
- incorrect skin care
- inefficient liver
I’d like to highlight the first and last points in the list above. All of the causes listed above are in fact interlinked, effecting each other, but I’d like to explain the points about the liver and hormonal changes further.
The liver processes hormones, fats and toxins. If the liver lacks sufficient levels of ‘coenzyme A’ (a fat metabolizing coenzyme), the body recirculates fat in the blood, which may then be secreted through the skin via the sebaceous glands. This oil (which causes greasy skin and the shiny scalp effect common in balding men) is known as ‘sebum’ and is thought to be a major cause of acne. In fact the evidence is so strong, that in a study, simply increasing coenzyme A levels in the body was shown to have a massive positive impact on acne, simply because skin sebum levels were reduced.
So we can see how by making a change in the liver, we can effect the skins surface. Clearly the liver is an important factor in both acne.
But what has sebum got to do with hair loss?
Well, if we can effect skin sebum levels by giving the liver a helping hand, you can imagine what we can do for your hair, if you just apply some more logical science along the same vein. Sebum contains DHT. DHT is by far the most significant cause of hair loss. So if you suffer from elevated sebum levels, you need to give your liver a helping hand. It’s likely that it was your liver’s inefficiency that caused your acne when you were younger. And now the same thing is a causal factor in your hair loss.
The answer is to get your liver working at optimal levels, to increase coenzyme A levels and to remove any impacted sebum from your scalp to clear the pores, allowing new hairs to grow.
However there are several other factors that effect the liver. After all, why do some people’s liver’s become less efficient in the first place, while other peoples liver’s don’t? Stress, poor diet and hormonal imbalance can overstress your liver. By fixing these problems you can have a positive impact on your liver and your hair.
There’s another twist to the story
Stress can have a massive impact on your physical health. It can effect your hormonal balance and the health of your liver. So if you are badly effected by stress, it’s likely that anything you do to improve your liver, will be a waste of time, until you properly deal with the route cause of your problem – the stress itself. Acne, like hair loss, is often worsened and even caused by stress, but the stress is strongly interlinked with hormonal balance. Both feed back on each other. In order to properly cure the acne or the hair loss both problems must be dealt with in a comprehensive manner.
To learn more about stress, the liver, hormonal balance, sebum, DHT, hair loss and how to properly eliminate each of these underlying causes, step by step, download my hair loss eBook today.