Hair Transplant Surgeon Dr. Jose Crisanto of
The A Institute answers our questions.&nbsp;

Hair fall is a known post-COVID symptom, but more and more people&mdash;whether or not affected by the virus&mdash;have been experiencing an alarming loss of hair. We lose about 50-100 strands a day which is a lot already, but serious hair loss is more visible and tangible. The culprit? Stress. L&rsquo;Officiel speaks to Dr. Jose Crisanto, a hair restoration expert from The A Institute, on how this happens and how we can prevent it.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Yes, hair loss can be triggered by stress diagnosed as Alopecia Areata,&rdquo; shares Dr. Crisanto. He confirms that during the pandemic, there&rsquo;s been a noticeable increase in patients complaining of hair loss. For most during this pandemic, stress triggers revolve mainly around avoiding the virus, job/business security, family members&rsquo; wellness, lack of interaction with loved ones, and most of all death of many around us. So how exactly does stress erode our hair? Dr. Crisanto answers:
<blockquote>
 &nbsp;&ldquo;When a patient is stressed the immune system is triggered to disrupt the metabolism of hair. It manifests with the sudden onset of discrete, round patches of hair loss associated with normal underlying skin.&rdquo; He further explains how the body ends up ditching hair first of all: &ldquo;When the patient experiences stress, the brain senses danger, influencing the nervous system to stimulate your adrenal glands to secrete cortisol. Cortisol is a steroid hormone, the primary stress hormone; it increases sugars in the bloodstream, enhances one&rsquo;s brain&rsquo;s use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
For those affected by hair fall, it means your body is in fight-or-flight mode for too long. But how does our body differentiate regular stress from increased levels of it, which we&rsquo;re going through now? Dr. Crisanto continues, &ldquo;One&rsquo;s body is hard-wired to react to stress in a way meant to protect you against aggressors or dangers perceived by you. We face multiple demands in our daily lives, such as work, family, traffic, daily living. And now, the added stress of the perils of the uncertainty of the current pandemic caused by COVID-19. Once the perceived threat has passed, the hormone levels return to normal. So in essence, our body will prioritize its survival and divert nutrition from nonessential organs, in this case hair, which consequently is sacrificed and thus leading to hair loss.&rdquo; TLDR; your body is in survival mode&mdash;and one of the first things to go, sadly, is the flow of nutrition to the hair.&nbsp;
Luckily, there are solutions. &ldquo;It usually responds quite well to local injections of corticosteroids. And eliminating the stressors,&rdquo; Dr. Crisanto says. For now, one would be hard-pressed to single-handedly find a way to eliminate stressors caused by the pandemic. Meanwhile, it&rsquo;s best to nip it in the bud and see a doctor early on&mdash;they&rsquo;ll usually inject corticosteroids in the affected area, and you can take supplements like Biotin to encourage hair health. If your condition has pressed on further, here are some treatments they recommend at the A Institute:
 Minoxidil and Propecia These are available in drugstores, but never proceed without your doctor&rsquo;s advice. Be warned&mdash;they&rsquo;re potent, and works via widening blood vessels to bring more nutrient rich blood to the follicles, but these need full commitment as may cause a rebound effect. You&rsquo;ll have to complete this treatment long term.&nbsp;
Low-Level Light Laser Therapy&nbsp; Their laser treatment for hair loss is called Revage, and it&rsquo;s a weekly, completely non invasive procedure you take literally sitting down, with the machine not unlike the salon steamer over your head. The laser works by stimulating blood flow to dormant follicles, triggering it into active growth phase.&nbsp;
PRP (Platet-Rich Plasma)&nbsp; According to the Aivee Clinic&rsquo;s website, &ldquo;PRP therapy for hair loss is a three-step medical treatment in which a person&rsquo;s blood is drawn, processed, and then injected into the scalp. PRP injections trigger natural hair growth and maintain it by increasing blood supply to the hair follicle, and increasing the thickness of the hair shaft. May be combined with other hair loss procedures or medications.&rdquo;
Lotus Micro-Grafting Lotus micro-grafting is the newer technology that evolved from PRP. It involves harvesting a bit of your scalp/skin tissue, inserting it into the Lotus cartridge, which the machine then shakes to cut tissue very finely to produce mesenchymal cells&mdash;the origin cells&mdash;and then distill it into a solution to be injected into parts of the scalp that need the growth. This sends signals to your hair follicles to grow more efficiently.&nbsp;
Ultimately, the &ldquo;cure&rdquo; to stress-related hair loss&mdash;or most stress-triggered ills&mdash;is a change in lifestyle. Our daily stressors is something we can&rsquo;t control much these days, so when it gets to be too much, seeking professional help for your mental health is always the best option.&nbsp;
 You may reach The A Institute at 0917 728 3838.

Losing Your Hair This Pandemic? Here’s Why. 

L'OFFICIEL PHILIPPINES  March 2024- Park Gyu Young 600PHP 

L'OFFICIEL PHILIPPINES February 2024 Digital -James Reid 

Losing Your Hair This Pandemic? Here’s Why.

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