Cigarette Smoking and the Potential for Hair Loss

Smoking cigarettes is obviously a topic that has serious implications among many different disciplines in medicine. Smoking cigarettes can cause problems with lungs such as COPD and even is suspect to cause lung cancer. Smoking also has effects on the heart and circulation. Circulation is our topic for this blog and what its effects may be on hair loss.
There are research studies that has found links to cigarette smoking and hair loss. This should be concerning especially if you are a man that has a familial history of baldness. If you are a young man in your early teens or twenties and are beginning to see hair loss you may want to take into consideration why smoking may add to your hair loss.
Evidence has shown that smoking 20 or more cigarettes per day will cause an impediment of blood flow to the extremities and including the scalp. Hair follicles need blood flow for oxygen and nutrients from the tiny capillaries that are connected to the bulb of the follicle. Cigarette smoke contains many chemicals (List below from www.wikipedia.com) that has effects on blood vessels and especially capillaries. Capillaries are the smallest vessels that are connected to each follicle. When a person smkes a cigarette the capillary will restrict and clamp down. This in turn cuts off circulation to the follicle. The follicle can withstand this briefly however over a continuous period of time and couple that with the male pattern baldness that is genetically caused… a speeding up of hairloss can occur.
Cessation of cigarette smoking should be considered for many clinical reasons. Hair loss is now one of them. Below are two links of articles that support this and also the list of chemicals from the largest tobacco companies in the world:
http://www.medic8.com/healthguide/smoking/problems-smoking/smoking-your-hair.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes