I'm hoping some doctors will see this and respond with their opinions. Afterall we prospective patients need to keep all the donor supply we can!

A question for the doctors:

I've read that stress can play a part in some hair loss. Is this both physical and emotional stress? Since we are all under some stress in this day and age, how does stress affect hair loss in some people and not in others? Does it have something to do with how we let stress rule our lives, ie we lose sleep, eat an unhealthy diet, perhaps pull on our hair, who knows?

Anyone who knows the answer to studies that have been done on this, please respond. Thanks.

There is very limited data on stress and hairloss. As you can imagine it is very difficult to quantify stress. We do know that stress causes release of various hormones and other chemicals. Some of these substances seem to limit immune function, other seem to have effects on the cardiovascular system and gastrointestinal tract.

There are some studies correlating stress and cardiac risk.

There are reports of stress causing hair loss and greying of hair but the primary cause of both of these seem to be genetics.

There are various conditions including malnutrition, anemia and thyroid disease as well as other diseases that can cause hair loss. These entities often cause diffuse hair loss.

Dr Rose,

Thanks for answering my question. It seems in my case that the stress has resulted from a bad case of dermatitis, leading to folliculitis, leading to more hair loss. Obviously this has been stressful enough since my donor hair was involved. I wonder if this chain of events, once cured, will lead to the shed hair growing back? My on an antibiotic and have tried every dandruff shampoo in the book, most with irritating results. Now I'm back to a very mild shampoo, waiting for some regrowth to take place.