Solutions For Zoloft Hair Loss
One of the adverse effects from Zoloft, hair loss typically occurs in under one percent of patients taking this depression medication. Prozac and Paxil may also trigger hair loss for some individuals.
Yet an easy answer to Zoloft hair loss does exist. Let’s take a look at the bigger picture first, before we look at the solution. When you consider loss of hair related to pharmaceuticals, the first thing that comes to mind tends to be chemotherapy drugs.
Not only chemotherapy drugs, but many kinds of drug treatments might cause loss of hair as a side effect. Some examples include acne medicine, blood thinners, cholesterol reducing drugs, anti inflammatory drugs, and also contraception drugs.
Also, stress by itself can cause loss of hair. And since stress is so often present with people taking depression medications, it’s certainly feasible that Zoloft isn’t even the issue. It might be stress. In any case, you will discover steps you can take to reverse the loss of hair.
Why Zoloft Brings About Hair Loss
Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft, reports that no studies have been done on Zoloft together with loss of hair. But here’s one feasible explanation:
Most depression medications include fluoride. Read the excerpt from this post at Wikipedia -
“The fluorine atom is pervasive in drugs, e.g. Prozac, and many other substances such as freon, Teflon, and blood serum…”
Fluoride, because its a poison, causes a variety of harmful reactions in large concentrations. Among its various other results, it inhibits the thyroid gland. The thyroid generates thyroid hormones, which control metabolic functions in the body.
As reported by the National Research Council, a decrease in thyroid activity can cause a decrease of mental acuity, weight gain, and depression. But that’s not all it does.
Whenever you suppress the function of the thyroid, one of several problems is it may cause loss of hair. Therefore, it’s possible that it’s the fluoride in Zoloft that creates loss of hair. Again, this is only a theory.
What To Do Concerning Zoloft Hair Loss
Undoubtedly, one option is just to taper gradually off the Zoloft and develop different ways to handle your depression or anxiety or OCD or whichever other challenge induced you to begin taking Zoloft to start with. Most anecdotal information indicates that once you quit taking Zoloft, the hair loss ends, and the hair gradually returns.
However let’s imagine that for some reason, you want to remain on the Zoloft. What then?
The reason why fluoride may interfere with thyroid function is because it results in various trace minerals such as copper, zinc, selenium and magnesium, which are essential for good hair health, to no longer be available for the body.
The apparent solution, therefore, is to take a high quality multivitamin and mineral product. Anecdotally, this has been reported to reverse the Zoloft loss of hair even without weaning off the Zoloft.
The two principal substances you will need are zinc and selenium, at the suggested doses:
Selenium: 50 to 150 mcg/day
Zinc: 15 to 50 mg/day
Additional considerations:
Stress – intense emotional distress – may cause loss of hair simply by itself. Though it typically requires a few months for that loss of hair to start after the stress starts. (Or, once you start taking Zoloft.)
For anybody who is prone to hair thinning, it may not be due solely to taking Zoloft. It might be stress activated. It might be your body responding to stress. In any event, concentrating on lowering the stress will probably be a good accessory to taking vitamins and minerals. So what’s the best method to reduce your stress levels?
Understand all you can about emotional healing. Considering that stress basically comes from not processing your emotions in a healthy manner. And as you heal any emotional distress, then you will understand you’ve got less of an issue with Zoloft hair loss.
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