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Vitamin D Deficiency and Hair Fall: What the Studies Show

Malaysia has strong sunlight, yet many people here still run low on vitamin D. Office hours, covered dress, sunscreen, and darker skin all cut how much vitamin D your skin makes. Four open papers below show how common low levels are in Malaysia, how often they show up in people with hair fall, and what happened when vitamin D was corrected in women with shedding.

Low vitamin D is common in Malaysia

Md Isa and colleagues at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia reviewed local vitamin D studies across adults, adolescents, pregnant women, and children. Deficiency and insufficiency clustered in females, Indians, and Malays. The authors link that pattern to skin melanin and to sun-avoidant lifestyles that include covering clothes, which many Malay Muslims practice. One multi-ethnic study of teachers in Kuala Lumpur, summarised in that review, found vitamin D deficiency in 67.4 percent overall, including 80.9 percent of Indian teachers, 75.6 percent of Malay teachers, and 25.1 percent of Chinese teachers. A separate Malay cohort summarised there found deficiency in 87 percent of women versus 41 percent of men. Living under a tropical sun does not guarantee a healthy vitamin D level.

How often hair-loss patients are deficient

Yongpisarn, Tejapira, Thadanipon, and Suchonwanit pooled studies of vitamin D across alopecia types up to September 2024. Vitamin D deficiency was found in 53.51 percent of people with telogen effluvium, 51.94 percent with alopecia areata, 50.38 percent with female pattern hair loss, and 47.38 percent with male androgenetic alopecia. Compared with controls, alopecia areata raised the odds of deficiency by 2.84 times, and female pattern hair loss raised them by 5.24 times. Telogen effluvium patients also had lower mean vitamin D than controls, by about 5.71 ng/mL. The authors conclude that screening for vitamin D makes sense in alopecia areata and female pattern hair loss.

Patchy hair loss and vitamin D

Liu and colleagues ran a meta-analysis of alopecia areata specifically. Across 1,585 patients and 1,114 controls, mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was 9.08 ng/mL lower in alopecia areata, and the odds of vitamin D deficiency were 4.14 times higher. Serum calcium was not lower. So the signal is vitamin D itself, not calcium.

What correcting vitamin D did in shedding

El-Tatawy, Gheida, Soliman, and Ismail studied 40 women with telogen effluvium and 20 matched healthy women. Mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was 13.31 ng/mL in the shedding group and 33.61 ng/mL in controls. After three months of oral vitamin D, the shedding group's mean level rose to 38.4 ng/mL. Hair shedding scores fell sharply in both acute and chronic shedding, and dermoscopic signs of empty follicles and thin density improved. The study was open-label and small, and the authors call for larger trials with clear dose guidance. It still shows that when vitamin D starts very low, bringing it up tracks with less shedding on clinical and dermoscopic checks.

What to do

Ask your doctor for a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D test if your hair is shedding, your parting is widening, or you have patchy bald spots. Mention indoor work, covered dress, darker skin, obesity, or a recent pregnancy. If your level is low, your doctor chooses the dose and the follow-up blood test. Do not self-dose high vitamin D, because excess vitamin D raises calcium and harms the kidneys. Pattern thinning at the crown or parting is also driven by androgens, so vitamin D alone is not the full plan. Our ferritin note covers the iron store test that often sits beside this blood work.

Where Folli-Activ fits

Folli-Activ contains no vitamin D, and it was not the product in any of these studies. It is a 10-in-1 oral formula that works on the other parts of the picture: saw palmetto, pumpkin seed oil, and nettle root for the androgen side covered in our saw palmetto note, curcumin with piperine and EGCG for follicle inflammation, biotin for hair keratin work, plus reishi, royal jelly, and aloe vera. Fix low vitamin D with your doctor and support the follicle side at the same time.

Each bottle holds 90 capsules. On this site, 1 bottle is RM169, 3 bottles are RM447, and 6 bottles are RM699 with free shipping. Go to the cart to see your total with delivery.

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