A diet followed by millions of people could cause hair loss, a new study suggests

Following a celebrity-favorite diet could increase your chances of going bald, a new study has found.

From the Kardashians to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, intermittent fasting has become a popular weight loss strategy among high-profile figures, but scientists have found the eating regimen can destroy hair follicles.

Researchers from Westlake University, Zhejiang, China, suggested this likely has to do with the diet starving cells of energy than they need to promote healthy hair growth.

Speaking about the findings, which were carried out on mice, senior author and stem cell biologist Bing Zhang from Westlake University in Zhejiang, China, said: ‘We don’t want to deter people from practicing intermittent fasting.

“It’s just important to be aware that it can have unintended effects.”

The diet involves going long periods of time without food, or eating very small amounts, usually in the morning.

It was popularized by the late health guru Michael Mosely, who invented the 5:2 diet – which involves limiting calories to 500-600 for two days a week.

Proponents credit the eating plan with a host of health benefits beyond just weight loss, including reducing the risk of dementia.

For the new experiment, mice were shaved and then fed every 8, 16 or 48 hours, compared to a control group that had unlimited access to food.

While control mice that had unlimited access to food had regrown most of their hair after 30 days, mice that followed both intermittent fasting regimens showed only partial hair regrowth after 96 days.

The experts said this may be because the hair cells need to be regularly ‘activated’, which is fueled by energy from food.

But intermittent fasting limits energy intake, which kills hair cells.

Not eating regularly allows the body to use fat stores instead of its preferred energy source, glucose, which can trigger the release of chemicals that damage hair cells, according to the researchers behind the study.

Other studies have replicated these findings.

In a small human trial, 49 young adults were fasted for 18 hours.

The scientists found that a time-restricted diet reduced the average rate of hair growth by 18 percent compared to the control group, over a period of ten days.

‘We see a milder effect in humans. So there is still hair growth; it’s just a little slower than normal,” says Zhang.

The researchers concluded that this may be because people are very different in genetic makeup, so there can be a wide range of outcomes, with some suffering to a much greater extent as a result of the diet.

This comes after a study published earlier this year by Chinese researchers found that the diet fad could double the risk of dying from heart problems.

The study, which involved 20,000 adults, found that those who eat just eight hours a day have almost twice the risk of heart attack and stroke later in life.

The Chinese researchers plan to build on their findings to see if they translate to humans or other cells.

“We also want to find out how fasting affects the healing of skin wounds,” she added.