How Soft Drinks Lay the Groundwork for Hair Loss

This is a topic that has the potential to cause a bit of an argument, especially amongst those who enjoy a cold pop. Since there isn’t a direct correlation between hair loss and drinking soft drinks, it would be easy to dismiss the notion. However, when it comes to the co-contributing factors in hair loss, ingesting extremely elevated levels of sugar is almost like the primer coat before the paint. It’s not directly causing your hair to fall out, but it’s laying solid groundwork for future hair problems.

Almost everyone will experience hair loss or thinning at some point in their life. For the most part, it’s just the natural order of things. Although, when facing the beginning stages of either of these afflictions, maybe it’s worth considering a small, but significant dietary change.

Let’s take a closer look at how sugary drinks work against the health of your hair.

‘Normal’ Effects of Sugary Drinks
We hear often about how sugary drinks are bad for us, and for all intents and purposes, they are. For many people, soft drinks have simply become a part of daily life because they’re convenient, readily available, cheap, and to be honest, they taste good.

In an innocuous way, they’re also addictive. That little release of dopamine that gets triggered by a sweet drink seems innocent and pleasant enough, and easily reinforces the desire to consume more. But let’s remember, there’s very little these drinks are doing for us. In fact, many of the standard effects of soft drinks are completely counter-productive and damaging to our overall health – including the health of our hair.

High Cals, No Nutrients
For starters, soft drinks are super high in calories, but provide almost no nutrients. It goes without saying that this leads to weight gain and an increased risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. The lack of nutrients alone can have a negative impact on your body’s ability to grow healthy hair.

Dehydration
The marketing of soft drinks is astoundingly misleading, as it often seems to suggest that these drinks will quench your thirst. In reality, they’re doing exactly the opposite. Most soft drinks are high in sugar and caffeine, both of which act as diuretics – increasing urine production and leading to dehydration.

Water is always a better alternative to quench thirst, especially during periods of physical exertion. Hydration is critical for your hair as it helps to maintain a healthy scalp environment. When your scalp is dehydrated, it can become dry and flaky, which leads to irritation, inflammation, and follicle damage. Any of these can begin to cause hair loss.

Caffeine-related Stress
When caffeine is consumed in excess, it can trigger the release of stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol contributes to inflammation and damage to the hair follicles. With enough time, this can lead to a condition called telogen effluvium, which is characterized by excessive hair shedding.

Limiting your caffeine intake can help you to manage stress levels and limit the amount of cortisol being released in your body. A nice, passive way to help prevent hair loss.

Inflammation Caused by High Sugar IntakeFirstly, too much sugar intake can lead to an imbalance in your gut bacteria, which often causes inflammation. Overloading on added sugars promotes the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut while also reducing your beneficial bacteria. A can of pop every day is enough to throw your gut balance completely out of order, and the resulting inflammation will wreak havoc on your hair follicles. Gut health is paramount for supporting healthy hair growth.

A sort of science-y addition to that…

Our bodies convert sugar into glucose and that triggers a release of insulin, which is awesome. Insulin helps distribute glucose to our cells where it gets used for energy. The problem is, with too much sugar consumption, our body starts producing more insulin than it needs, resulting in insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance can lead to your body releasing way too many cytokines (proteins that regulate immune responses), which can result in chronic inflammation.

Elevated Triglyceride Levels
A lesser-known potential factor in hair loss, but one that’s worth consideration. While the link between elevated triglyceride levels and hair loss is not yet fully understood, there is logic in the theory that inflammation and hormonal imbalances caused by high triglyceride levels can negatively impact the health of your hair.

Consuming too much sugar can lead to an increase in triglyceride levels in the bloodstream. With enough time at elevated levels, this can cause inflammation throughout the body, including the hair follicles. Inflammation is one of your hair’s worst enemies, as it can severely disrupt the regular hair growth cycle, which invariably results in hair loss.

Reducing your intake of saturated and trans fats and added sugars (especially present in soft drinks) will help to balance your triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of negative effects.

Hormonal Imbalances
When we consume too much sugar, like one or more sodas every day, it can cause an imbalance in various hormones that usually regulate your blood sugar levels. These include insulin, cortisol, and glucagon. Imbalances like this can disrupt the functionality of the endocrine system, which can lead to hair loss.

In particular, consuming too much sugar can lead to higher levels of androgens, which are male hormones that can contribute to hair loss in both men and women. Elevated levels of insulin can also disrupt the normal balance of hormones in the body, which leads to various health problems, not just hair loss.

At the end of the day, we’re not here to completely vilify the soft drink industry. There are plenty of occasions where pop just feels like exactly the right thing. Like so many things, moderation is the key. Cutting out extremely sugary drinks and reducing your consumption of added sugars can have a tremendous impact on the health of your hair, and your overall wellbeing.