Low levels of ascorbic acid and how there may be a hair loss connection.

Also known as vitamin C this is possibly one of the most needed but least known of the vitamins and the use of vitamin c for hair loss should become apparent upon reading this article.

In my quest to find an answer to the obvious question presented in this site –I.E. what is the cause of hair loss and for sure what is the cure. and as I have also noted on this site the full answer to this is not known by any hair clinic, hair loss doctor or anyone as far as I know anyway.

Nope not even the so called experts agree on the full reason for hair loss and it may take a long time in unraveling. So what is this mystery that I am talking about and will the answer be more hair and less hair loss we hope?

Well we are going to get to that shortly but as its only a piece of the puzzle -- now lets ask some questions and if you are a science or history buff than you will probably like the following article that although true I would be willing to bet is not known even by your high school and college biology teachers or most doctors for that matter - basically very few are aware of this but it it is scientific fact.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

What human condition has caused the most death and disease in human existence?

What has been the catalyst for the biggest changes to human history – wars, invasions etc. .

What was the secret that the English navy had that allowed them to eventually come to rule the seas as the greatest navel power of its time.

Do you know what one identical disease ALL humans, no mater what race or ethnic group or any other difference- suffer from?

Well before we answer these questions and to give you a little time to think on it lets go over some history of life here on earth or this story wont make a lot of sense. (the short version I promise)

According to science the earth was lifeless for billions of years then when life got started nothing more than single cellular life forms existed in the seas and oceans – it is believed the earth at this time was so hostile to life as it was constantly bombarded by radiation from space as well as the obvious stress of the earth’s evolution by fire but then something was created by nature to allow life some breathing room in this extremely hostile environment.

This help came in the ability of primitive life forms to synthesize a substance called ascorbic acid. Life that could not get this process going went away and all life since then has had this ability to produce or ingest this absolutely essential substance since then or face extinction.

A short explanation of what ascorbic acid does – the process of life at the molecular level is the orderly exchange of electrons – ascorbic acid keeps the electron transfer from going out of control as it can donate an electron or absorb electrons to keep the system stable – otherwise you have dangerous free radical activity in cellular systems. (very short version)

All of this is well and good you say but what does it have to do with hair loss, thinning hair or a hair loss remedy well we are going to get to that but consider this-- what holds your hair follicles on your head and what keeps the blood flowing to the follicles so they can continue the process?

Your skin AKA collagen- the biggest organ the body has and the one that takes the most stress as you can see in wrinkles as we grow older and of course the stress of raising kids can’t help but put a line or two on the brow but that is a story for another site-- right.

Your hair that grows from hair follicles that are themselves made up of collagen grow in your scalp that also is made from collagen and the tiny little capillaries walls that feed the root also are made up of collagen.

See diagram below and how blood and oxygen is supplied to the hair - these tiny vessels have to have a good supply of Vitamin c to stay intact.

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OK alright let’s answer the questions posed above starting with the following illustration of how hair grows.

Q. What human condition has caused the most death and disease in human existence? A. The answer to that is Hypoascorbemia induced Scurvy – a degenerative disease where the body can die from blood loss due to blood vessels coming apart for starters.

Q What has been the catalyst for the biggest changes to human history – wars, invasions etc? A. Hypoascorbemia – mankind has continually had to battle with this disease with the fate of nation states at the mercy of solders and a populace that may have been unable to fight due to their diseased state (Hypoascorbemia).

Add to this the instability induced in the governing of populations dying in mass from disease, many of which are helped along by the lack of ascorbic acid and you have societal instability, war, chaos in general

Q. What was the secret that the English navy had that allowed them to eventually come to rule the seas as the greatest navel power of its time. A Well I am sure your familiar with the term Limes in terms of the English –right? Ah you figured it out already – that’s right the navy figured out what the disease that was causing so much death and suffering among the sailors as a lack of fresh fruit (they didn’t know what was in the fruit they just knew it was required by the men or they would come down with scurvy and die) that they could carry limes onboard and give each sailor enough ascorbate a day to keep them from dying from the many dieses that a lack of ascorbate would cause. and as well as outright scurvy Guess that’s

Q. Do you know what one identical disease ALL humans, no mater what race or ethnic group or any other difference- suffer from? A. Something tells me you already guessed this disease – yes Hypoascorbemia and all humans have the same defective gene in our liver that should make this conversion to change blood glucose to ascorbic acid .but due to genetic damage somewhere in our biological past can no longer make the conversion. The problem starts for humans when we are born as we have a disease that only 4 or 5 other mammals are known to share and that is the disease --- Hypoascorbemia or in other words the inability to internally produce ascorbic acid by a glucose enzyme conversion process in our livers. It’s a four step process and all humans can only handle the first three—the defective gene we have keeps our livers from making ascorbic acid at the forth enzyme cascade.

In some ways this is similar to the disease diabetes except that ALL humans have to deal with this problem of a lack of Ascorbic acid when it is needed and not just when we eat it. The problem is made clear when we compare a human ascorbate need with that of a mammal that can make their own ascorbate as needed in their liver. As you will see from the following diagram we simply can’t eat the amount of ascorbate rich food that we would need for stress and illness situations that begins to compare to the levels of other mammals.

It is believed that many of the infections and illness we deal with on a regular basis have their root in this problem not to mention the problem with inflammation and hair loss as well as poor collagen formation which itself can lead to hair loss or poor growing hair.

Remember that the foundation of the hair follicle is made up of collagen and its this that a lack of ascorbic acid can have a most profound effect on good looking hair as well as your overall health I personally use 3 to 5 grams a day usually 2 or 3 grams in the morning and the rest in the afternoon.

By the way before they knew what the component in fruits and veggies that have ascorbic acid in them they named the compound –Vitamin C--- and of course this is the common name used today although you can find ascorbic acid usually as buffered C. This buffering is done to reduce the acidity that can cause gastric distress in high doses but that depends on how much your body needs at the time as disease can cause the body to use up its store quickly.

This article only scratches the surface of this subject and I have intentionally left out information on other areas of vitamin C in disease states but below are some websites that will go into more detail on various conditions that may be helped with proper dosing of this essential substance.

Just this authors opinion on the subject of ascorbic acid and human health but from what I have seen written on the subject it would not surprise me if the average human life span was on average – 120 to 140 years in length. I say this from the indication of lower infections and general disease in the population that is indicated by many studies on this subject.

TAKE your vitamin C daily for good hair and good health…..

I would also suggest you check out a doctor's insight on this subject with a more medical slant who helps people with this problem daily and will give you even more practical suggestions and ideas on what your options are which may go beyond the scope of this site.