Can Polycystic Kidney Disease Cause Hair Loss

2015-02-12 06:57

Hair loss is a very common metabolic activity for our human being and there is no need to worry about it. However, some PKD patients complain they have such a severe hair loss that they are afraid of combing their hair. Why is this? Can Polycystic Kidney Disease cause hair loss?

That is true, kidney weakness is always associated with hair problems, but this does not mean all the people with kidney problem will definitely suffer from hair loss. Polycystic Kidney Disease impairs kidney function by damaging healthy kidney tissues, which always brings lots of negative effects on the body’s system. We are more likely to suffer hair loss with kidney damages resulted from Polycystic Kidney Disease due to the following several reasons:

-Protein problems

Protein is necessary for our muscles, bones, nails and hair to remain healthy and strong. In PKD, damaged kidney structure not only fails to preserve protein in the body, but also lead to abnormal proteins that settle into body tissues, which can cause amyloidosis disease. Amyloidosis disease affects the normal amounts and structure of the protein in the body, as a result of which, hair can no longer maintain its health, ultimately resulting in hair loss.

-Oral drugs

There is no cure for Polycystic Kidney Disease, but to tightly control its symptoms or complications like high blood pressure, proteinuria, anemia and pain, some oral drugs are needed. Many medicines, especially hormone medicines, can cause adverse effects and hair loss may appear as one of the side effects.

-Malnutrition

Another contributing factor of hair loss in Polycystic Kidney Disease is malnutrition. Due to kidney impairment, PKD patients need to follow strict diet plan and many foods may become taboo for them. For this reason, they become malnourished easily, and this may cause hair to break easily or fall out.

Hair loss is not a very common problem in Polycystic Kidney Disease, but it indeed troubles some patients. To solve this problem, a series of effective measurements are needed. If you are interested in learning management for hair loss in PKD, please leave a message below.

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