Iodine and Hair Loss

Do you know iodine is essential for healthy hair growth. Iodine is actually an essential mineral that performs various tasks to keep you body healthy.



Iodine is necessary component for proper thyroid function. Your thyroid glands controls metabolism of cells. Therefore, lack of iodine causes hair loss in series of sequential disturbance, that is, iodine affects thyroid glands, thyroid glands in turn do not work properly and metabolism gets slower resulting in slower cellular growth of body tissues.

Hair follicles are epithelial tissues which replace themselves after a specific period and they are very susceptible to being affected or damaged. Healthy hair follicles produce healthy and long hair shafts and for healthy hair follicles, proper nutrition and metabolism is necessary. Iodine is usually added in table salt, but it is a not the best way to get iodine. It is best to take iodine from other sources like vegetables and fruits. Common foods that contain iodine include salmon, seaweed, seafood, lima beans, eggs and potatoes.

Your body is a set of many organs and organ systems that need close coordination with each other for normal growth. Pituitary glands in your body controls the secretion of other glands like thyroid glands, testis and other glands producing sex hormones. Thyroxine in turn controls many other glands and growth of bones and muscles. Therefore, lack of iodine cause severe disturbance in endocrine and exocrine system. Some hormones are produced excessively while some are produced less than the amount produced normally.

Excessive production of sex hormones triggers the production of DHT. Hair follicles are very susceptible to excessive DHT. Therefore, Hair follicles get damaged when excessive sex hormones and excessive DHT is produced. Iodine is the culprit that brings the body at this juncture in a series of disorders.

Disorders Associated with Iodine Induced Hair Loss?
Iodine deficiency usually causes frustration, mental retardation, birth defects, weak bones and slower body growth. Hair loss due to iodine is not sudden and starts with thinning hair. If it is left untreated and iodine is not included in the diet, it leads to complete hair loss or Alopecia areata.

How much iodine do I need?
Each person requires a teaspoonful of iodine throughout its lifetime. As thyroids glands have no reservoir for iodine storage, you certainly need to take small amounts of it each day. WHO recommends the following daily intake:

Population sub-group	Amount
Adults	150 ug/day
Pregnancy and Lactation	200 ug/day
Children (6-12 years)	120 ug/day
Infants (0-5 years)	90 ug/day

Conclusively, taking the above recommended amount of iodine will really reduce the risk of hair loss and other iodine related disorders.