When the body undergoes shock, it neglects the maintenance of certain parts of the body such as the hair to focus on the root of its shock. Occurrences including nutritional deficiencies, extreme stress, and hormone imbalances are responsible for this. In the instance of the COVID-19 pandemic, our bodies top priority is our respiratory and immune health. This results in our bodies neglecting our integumenrary system, which includes hair. Our hair goes through a cycle of four stages of growth and shedding, otherwise known as the anagen, catagen, telogen, and exogen phases. The third stage, telogen, is when old hairs stop growing and begin to shed in order to make room for new growth. Telogen effluvium, existing as either chronic or acute, is a type of hair loss that happens three months after a stressful life event, and can last up to half a year. The difference between normal shedding and telogen effluvium is that one happens regularly in smaller pieces while the other sheds to the point of significant loss of hair volume. The relationship between COVID-19 and acute telogen effluvium was studied in 39 patients who had COVID. A hair pull test was used to diagnose telogen effluvium. It was found that after 2-3 months of having had COVID, more than 50% of these patients were diagnosed with telogen effluvium.
Salama,
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of articles and personally heard a lot about people losing their hair during the pandemic. It was interesting to find out that the root of the issue was due telogen effluvium. I did not realize how much impact it could really have on hair growth. Fortunately, telogen effluvium is generally reversible. A person with this condition does not lose all their hair, although it may become noticeably thin. Great job!