Cisionwire issued a press release authored by LaSandra Cooper or Marie Grimaldi of American Society Plastic Surgeons, in which according to a new study done by Dr. Bahman Guyuron, chairman of the department of plastic surgery at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, loss of a spouse though death or divorce may lead to abnormal hair loss in women. In his paper Guyuron says that the stress from the loss of a spouse, can for some women, lead to midline or central hairline loss.
The problem Dr. Guyuron says is stress, when it’s prolonged, can lead to problems with hair health which can then lead to it falling out. He also notes that smoking and drinking can do the same. He plans to outline his findings at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ annual meeting, September 23-27, 2011 in Denver.
Alan Mozes in USA Today states that to find out if stress was a contributor to hair loss in women, Dr. Guyuron looked at the results of a study where sets of identical twins were studied and found that smoking and drinking very clearly contributed to hair loss across the temporal area of the head occurred over time. Hair loss in the corneal area, however, was more often attributed to diseases such as diabetes. Guyuron says that overall the study showed that hair loss could be attributed to virtually any type of long-term stress, including a loss of a spouse. But because the loss of a spouse appeared to be the most common form of long term stress in women, he used it as the basis for his report.
Most women know without having to resort to a medical study that stress is not good for their hair. They can feel it and see it in the mirror, and many women notice more hair in the drain during traumatic times in their lives. Thus, this study isn’t likely to surprise women that have experienced it firsthand. But, such women are clearly not the audience that Dr. Guyuron is aiming at. He’s looking past the medical community as it’s becoming increasingly clear that many people, and in this case, women, are unaware of the physical toll that stress can take on their bodies and health, and thus don’t take steps to mitigate its impact before it can cause it’s generally permanent results.
And while women cannot avoid the loss of a spouse, most can take steps to reduce the stress that results from having it occur, whether through death or divorce, and doing so, might just lead to less stress-related health problems, including loss of hair.