Reduce Hair Growth: Hair growth reduction during intermittent fasting occurs due to the stress placed on hair follicle stem cells.
Recent research has revealed an unexpected link between a popular diet and hair growth.
Reduce Hair Growth, Intermittent fasting (IF) has long been known as an effective method for resetting the body’s metabolism and helping people achieve long-term health and weight loss goals. Instead of focusing on the types of food, it emphasizes limiting the daily calorie consumption window, which is why it has become one of the most popular fasting and dieting techniques. Many health experts recommend and practice it.
However, in addition to the wide range of scientifically proven benefits of this technique, new research has recently been published revealing an unexpected side effect related to hair, which might make some people reconsider this method.
In a new study published last week in Cell Press Journal, researchers examined the effects of intermittent fasting on mice and noticed a topic that had previously received little attention.
Reduce Hair Growth, Previous studies have shown that intermittent fasting increases the resilience of stem cells related to blood, the intestine, and muscle tissue. The team behind this groundbreaking study hypothesized that fasting could also significantly aid in skin tissue regeneration, allowing old and damaged cells to be replaced. However, when comparing results from this experiment, a surprising discovery was made regarding hair growth and regeneration.
According to Herald-Sun, scientists tested this theory by shaving parts of the mice’s fur and dividing them into two groups. One group was given an every-other-day diet (with unlimited access to food on feeding days), while the other group was given a time-restricted eating regimen.
Reduce Hair Growth, The mice on the intermittent fasting diet followed a schedule with 8 hours of food access and 16 hours without food, only drinking liquids.
After 30 days, it was revealed that the group of mice with unlimited access to food regrew most of their hair. In contrast, the mice on intermittent fasting had only regrown part of their hair after 96 days.
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Why Does Intermittent Fasting Affect Hair Growth?
Reduce Hair Growth, According to researchers, reduced hair growth during intermittent fasting is due to oxidative stress on hair follicle stem cells. When the body goes without food for long periods, the main energy source, typically glucose, shifts to stored fat. This shift is precisely what makes intermittent fasting an effective weight loss technique. However, as the recent study shows, this method is not without side effects.
While the hair follicle stem cells in the control group were able to return to an active state after a few weeks (allowing hair to regrow), the stem cells in the mice on intermittent fasting entered a state known as apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
Reduce Hair Growth, After this finding in mice, researchers attempted to study hair growth under these conditions in humans and conducted a small clinical trial with 49 healthy adults.
In this trial, individuals who followed intermittent fasting also saw a similar result, but the effect was much milder. Adults who fasted for 18 hours a day for 10 days (a more extreme version of the typical 16-hour fasting regimen) reported an 18% slower hair growth rate compared to adults who did not follow the regimen.
Bing Zhang, the lead author and stem cell biologist, explains: “The human population is very diverse, so these effects may vary among individuals. On the other hand, mice have a much higher metabolism rate than humans, so fasting and metabolic changes have a more significant impact on the hair follicle stem cells in mice.”
Reduce Hair Growth, He added, “We don’t want to scare people away from intermittent fasting because it has many beneficial effects. However, it is important to understand that there may also be some unintended consequences.”
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