Hair Loss and Dementia?

I am taking care of my mother-in-law and she has Dementia.She just started losing a lot of her hair.She has always had beautiful hair and hardly any gray. She is 86 years old and she is starting to bald on the back of her head from the hair loss. What can be causing this? Tons of it falls out when I wash it or brush it.

There is no direct connection between dementia and balding, but the stress of dementia may cause hair loss. This would be more common in women, since they are usually more impacted by stress hair loss than men. As women become older, the disappearance of the estrogen support that comes past menopause makes the hair more vulnerable to hair loss especially from the genetics, when it is present. We see this in women aged 50-60 years. Also, we are aware that hair has a number of cycles in an adult’s lifetime, so maybe she has reached it?

You should ask her doctor about her treatment, including any medications she is on that can cause hair loss.