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Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz
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and welcome to DermTV.
Women often ask me what vitamins or minerals
can they take to make their
hair and nails grow faster or even to make
their hails harder or thicker
and, unfortunately, the answer is, none. The
reality is that, unless you’re
severely malnourished or unless you have a
severe vitamin deficiency,
taking extra vitamins and minerals just has
no effect on your hair or
nails. Lots of websites and advertisers recommend
vitamin and mineral
supplements, especially vitamin B6 and biotin,
folic acid and beta-
carotene, and the minerals, magnesium and
zinc. But there’s no medical
evidence to suggest that taking supplements
of these minerals or vitamins
has any effect on the growth of your hair
or nails if you have a normal
diet and you are normally nourished. Let me
explain why.
The vitamins and minerals that you use for
your hair and nails work in
very, very small, tiny, minute amounts. And
the small amounts that are
present in everybody’s diet is sufficient
to make your hair and nails grow
normally. Those vitamins and minerals act
like on/off switches. Let me give
you an example. This lamp has a regular on/off
switch with no dimmer. If I
push the switch on, you get this much light.
If I push harder as I am
pushing now, the light doesn’t get any brighter.
It works the same way with
the vitamins and minerals in your body for
hair and nails. The normal
amounts you have will allow normal growth,
and taking extra amounts have no
effect on their growth. So, despite deceptive
advertising, your hair and
nails can’t be fooled.