Causes Of Hair Loss
There are a number of reasons why people will suffer from hair loss, whether it is through disease or other conditions. But the majority of people will go bald as a result of the influence of genetics, hormones, and time. Stress may also cause additional loss, but this type of hair loss is more common in women than in men.
When it comes to genetic hair loss, it is often a good indicator to look at Grandpa’s hair to see if you are likely to lose yours. Doctors will often look a few generations back on the family tree, on both sides, in order to determine if you have inherited a genetic type of pattern baldness.
We all know that everyone inherits genetic tendencies from their parents. It is a common belief amongst doctors today that the genes responsible for common baldness are autosomal – that is they can be inherited from either the mother’s side or the father’s side of the family. There is a belief that baldness comes only from the mother’s side, but this is false. However, for reasons which are not fully understood, the predisposition inherited from an affected mother is of a slightly higher importance than that inherited from an affected father.
It is also a common belief amongst doctors that the genes involved in androgenic alopecia are dominant, which means that only one gene out of a pair is required for the trait to show up in the individual. So, unfortunately, even if only one of your parents passes on the gene involved in baldness, then you are more than likely to suffer some hair loss yourself.
The good news is that the inherited gene is not “expressed”, so it is possible to carry the gene for balding, but in fact never suffer with baldness. It is possible for the gene to skip a generation or two, so only looking at the generation preceding you will not tell you what might happen to your own head.
The ability of a gene to affect you is known as “expressivity” and occurs when a number of factors come into play. The major ones of these involve hormones and age, although stress is another quite common factor. For example, if a man has a father and uncles who suffer with severe baldness, he may have minimal hair loss because of the expression of the baldness gene, which may be limited in this case. This is quite a complex matter and scientists are still trying to find out why this happens.
The whole point of gene identification is to manipulate genes to prevent or reverse common baldness. In order to do this, doctors will need to find and fully understand which genes result in the balding process, and why these genes appear to manifest themselves in you and in a completely other way in your brother.
Find out more about the main hair loss causes
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