Prenatal vitamins for hair and nails: Helpful or harmful?

August 18, 8:53 PMLA Health and Beauty ExaminerSarah Torribio

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Question:

 “I’ve heard that prenatal vitamins are a great way to get stronger hair and nails. Is this true? Also, is it safe to take them if I’m not having a baby, and don’t plan to become pregnant?”

Answer:

The old wives’ tale is that your nails and hair will grow faster if you take prenatal vitamins.

Actually, there is no scientific evidence linking the consumption of prenatal vitamins with faster hair and nail growth.

Scientists don’t know everything, though. After all, despite the fact that we’ve almost reached the space age-sounding year of 2010, no one has found a cure for baldness or the common cold.

Anecdotal evidence abounds as to the vitamins’ efficacy. Nearly everyone you ask seems to have a story about it. I’m no exception.

A friend of mine watched her hair grow several inches during her pregnancy. And while I didn’t have a follicular growth spurt, when I was pregnant with my now 8-month-old son, my nails were tough as . . .well . . . nails. I think it was the vitamins.

All of this talk is nothing new. A few years back, however, web searches regarding the prenatal vitamin/hair-and-nails link spiked after a 2006 Harper’s Bazaar interview with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, in which she was asked what beauty tips she plans to pass onto her daughter Apple.

Along with touting H2O, sunscreen and fresh organic food, she shared the secret to her lovely flaxen locks, which at the time flowed past her bra strap. She credited prenatal vitamins.

"It doesn't matter if you are pregnant, I swear to God,” Paltrow told Harper’s. “I have double-processed blond hair, and it's so long and not damaged. Those vitamins, they are the trick!"

If Gwyneth and the word on the street are right, what’s the secret to this mane magic?

It may not be any particular component of prenatal vitamins, but instead a happy side-effect of consistently using any comprehensive multivitamin.

Perhaps prenatal vitamins seem better at nurturing hair and nail growth than regular multivitamins because expectant mothers —and those hoping to rid themselves of tress distress and the broken-nail blues—are so conscientious about popping the daily supplements.

For instance, I am very spotty about taking vitamins in general. I tend to get on a healthy kick, do well at taking a daily multivitamin for a couple of weeks, and then forget about it. While I was pregnant, however, I never missed a dose. After all, I had the ultimate incentive: a healthy baby.

My prenatal vitamin-consuming regularity could be the secret to my Herculean nails.

The case for multivitamins

Yes, taking multivitamins in general seems to be a good course of action for those looking to grow their hair long for their impending wedding, or get long, elegant nails for prom.

After all, a number of vitamins are said to nourish your hair, most of which are present in both your average multivitamin and the prenatal variety.

Along with performing micro-mini graft procedures, dermatologist Dr. Lawrence J. Shapiro, founder of Dr. Shapiro’s Hair Institute in south Florida, keeps a regular blog on the subject of haircare. 

In a 2008 blog entry, Shapiro discussed the “Top 8 Vitamins for Healthy Hair.” After three months beefing up on these nutritional goodies, you’re sure to notice the difference, Shapiro says.

His recommendations are as follows: Vitamin A, which “makes hair shiny and soft”; Vitamin C, which is “helpful in creating healthy hair”; Vitamin E and Vitamin B3 (niacin), which “boost circulation to your scalp”; Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) and biotin (Vitamin H or B7), which “help slow hair loss and can prevent your hair from turning gray”; Vitamin B6, which helps your body produce melanin and hence your hair color and also “prevents hair loss”; Vitamin B12, which may also stave off hair loss; and inositol, which “helps your hair follicles at the cellular level.”

Shapiro says you can get most of these vitamins via a B complex supplement, packed with the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of B vitamins. He also gives readers ideas on how they can get their healthy hair vitamins via various foods, including one super-food, egg yolks, which contain vitamins B5, B6, B12 and biotin.

I checked out a common store-brand multivitamin, in this case Centrum Ultra Women’s Tablets, to see if your average multivitamin contains what the doctor ordered.

According to the Centrum site, the supplement promotes “healthy skin, hair and nails” via biotin, beta-carotene and vitamins A (70 percent of your RDA), C (125 percent), and E (117 percent); Vitamin B5 (150 percent); biotin or Vitamin B7 (13 percent).

Centrum also helps women bolster their energy with a variety of B vitamins, which include B3 (70 percent of your RDA) and  B6 (100 percent; B12 (100 percent).

Alright. If you want to follow Shapiro’s recommendations, any multivitamin takes care of most of your hair’s needs.

If you want to bone up on a higher dose of biotin, you can add a B complex supplement such as Puritan’s Pride Ultra B-Complex supplements. These not only include 333 percent of the RDA of biotin but also feature 100 mcg of inisitol.

Natal or not

So what’s the big deal about prenatal vitamins?

Prenatal vitamins are simply multivitamins packed with some extra nutrients—pumped-up levels of folic acid, calcium and iron—that are beneficial to moms-to-be and any baby who may be on board.

As compared to regular multivitamins, prenatal supplements also go a bit easier on the vitamin A, high levels of which have been associated with birth defects and liver toxicity.

Folic acid (also known as Vitamin B9) is the synthesized version of folate. The nutrient is considered a crucial part of an expectant mother’s diet, because it helps stave off anemia and an array of serious birth defects, most of which develop in the first weeks of pregnancy.

This is why you’ll find healthy doses exceeding women’s usual 400 microgram RDA of folic acid in supplements aimed at moms-to-be. For instance, the popular over-the-counter supplement Pregnancy Plus contains 600 micrograms of folic acid.

Folate is necessary for the production and maintenance of new cells, so it may help promote healthy hair and nails.

The extra iron in prenatal vitamins helps combat anemia, which can easily sideline an expectant or nursing mother. Thus, Pregnancy Plus supplements contain 27 milligrams of iron, as compared to the 18 mg found in the aforementioned Centrum formula.

Like the folic acid, the iron in prenatal vitamins may be doing double duty. In recent years, research has shown a connection between hair loss and iron deficiency.

In a May 2006 WebMD article, Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Dr. Leonid Benjamin Trost was interviewed about this potential link.

"We believe that treatment for hair loss is enhanced when iron deficiency, with or without anemia, is treated," said Trost, who co-authored a study on the subject for the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Pumping iron

So you’d like your nails to go the way of Florence Griffith-Joyner’s, and your hair to become as long as that of the newly-blond Kim Kardashian?

If you’d like to experiment with prenatal vitamins, most experts say it is safe—but there are a few very important caveats.

Prenatal vitamins are only recommended for women of childbearing age; they typically contain too much iron for men, children and women who are no longer menstruating. 

An article on the HighBeam research site lays out the numbers. The RDA of iron for pregnant women is 27 mg. (That’s how much is in most prenatal supplements, such as PregnancyPlus.)

When they aren’t pregnant or nursing, women of childbearing age only require 18 mg of iron. And, according to the HighBeam article, “once your periods stop completely after 12 consecutive months an you are officially in menopause, your iron needs plummet to 8 mg.” The RDA for men ages 19 and older is always 8 mg.

There’s nothing good about too much iron, according to the Iron Disorders Institute.

A surfeit of iron in the body, called iron overload, can tax organs like the liver, pancreas, heart and skin. It can also have ill effects on joints and bones, the gallbladder and the anterior pituitary.

Diseases and illnesses that can result from iron overload are many. They include: cirrhosis; liver cancer; osteoarthritis and other joint and bone problems; diabetes; gallstones; irregular heart beat; heart attack; hypothyroidism; infertility; impotence; depression; and hypogodandism. Too much iron can also make the skin develop an ashen or sallow color.

If you are a woman of childbearing age, the extra iron should do you no harm. It can, however, can cause slight discomfort for some people. Large amounts of supplemental iron and folic acid both can make you sick to your stomach.

The iron can also cause or exacerbate constipation, says “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” author Heidi Murkoff in the “Ask Heidi” section of WhatToExpect.com. One solution she suggests for queasy pregnant women is switching to a prenatal vitamin that does not contain iron (while taking iron in a separate supplement), or using a supplement that contains a slow-release form of iron. 

An example of an iron-free brand of prenatal vitamins is Daily Wellness’ NutraBlend Prenatal Support without Iron.  This option might be just the ticket if you are taking a prenatal vitamin just for hair and nail support, but the supplement makes you feel sick.

Getting Interactive

There is one more group of people who should proceed with extra caution with regards to prenatal vitamins. Thyroid medications such as Synthroid, certain antibiotics, aspirin and bisphosphonates (drugs used to treat osteoporosis) may not work the way they should when taken with prenatal vitamins.

You should consult your doctor if you are considering mixing prenatal vitamins with any of the aforementioned drugs because “some of these drug interactions can prevent the medications from being absorbed into the body, or may increase your risk of bleeding,” according to an article on MedTV.

In summary, prenatal vitamins MAY help promote healthy hair (and nail) growth. And they are safe to take if you are not pregnant, so long as you are a woman of childbearing age. If you fit this bill, let me know how your experiment with prenatal vitamins goes.