Overview
- Product Name: Viviscal
- Product dosage: 2 supplements per day
- What it does: Viviscal claims to help people with hair loss
- Price: $49.99 per month for 60 supplements
- Ingredients: AminoMar, Zinc, Iron, Silica, Biotin, Niacin, Vitamin C
- Complementary or alternative services: SelfDecode – The best option for health-focused DNA and lab analysis with personalized reports and health recommendations.
Pros
- May help you achieve a thicker head of hair
- All natural supplement so fewer side effects than medication
- Easy to use
Cons
- Expensive
- May not work for everyone
- Benefits will subside if the product is disused
About Viviscal
Viviscal was founded in 1990 by James Murphy, and is now owned by his brand Lifes2Good Inc headquartered in Ireland. Viviscal is the leading seller of hair growth supplements in the US and has been sold in 43 different countries worldwide.
What are Viviscal Vitamins?
Hair loss itself isn’t especially dangerous for your health, but it can have a huge impact on your mental wellbeing. As a result, there are countless balms, tonics, and as-seen-on-TV miracle cures for hair loss and thinning. Unsurprisingly, the reviews for most of these products suggest they don’t work as well as advertised.
Viviscal claims to be a clinically proven and natural hair thickening supplement. The Viviscal vitamin has been promoted by several celebrities including Hailey Bieber and Miley Cyrus suggesting it is highly effective. So is Viviscal one of the few hair restoring treatments that does exactly what it claims?
Read on to find out the in’s and out’s of Viviscal including whether it’s safe, what users are reporting, and the scientific validity of the components of the supplement.
Is Viviscal Safe?
One of the major questions to know when you are taking any pill daily, particularly if it claims to be somewhat of a miracle pill, is this safe?
The good news is that Viviscal is in fact safe in general, however, you should check the individual ingredients of Viviscal and consult with your physician before starting any new program of supplements.
How Does Viviscal Work?
Based upon information taken directly from Viviscal’s webpage, their hair growth supplements work in four stages as shown in the below image.
Viviscal’s website provides citations of several clinical studies which have observed a significant increase in patients’ hair thickness following supplementation. It is worth noting however that these clinical trials were small, and larger scale research is needed to confirm Viviscal’s efficacy.
How To Take Viviscal
The recommended dose of Viviscal is two supplements per day, one in the morning and one at night. Whilst online reviews suggest some people have experienced results in as few as 3 months, Viviscal recommends taking the supplements for at least 6 months in order to see results.
Cost of Viviscal
Buying directly through Viviscal’s website, the cost is $49.99USD per month for 60 supplements, so following their claims, it would cost around $300 for the 6 months of product you would need to take before you’re likely to see results. It is worth also bearing in mind that you will likely only see the benefits of these supplements if you continue taking them, so that should be factored in when considering cost.
Viviscal Ingredients
- Shark Cartilage & Mollusk Powder (AminoMar): Touted as the secret ingredient of Viviscal and derived from marine sources, AminoMar is a mix of key protein molecules identified as part of the Inuit diet by a Scandinavian professor.
- Zinc: Zinc is highly important to many aspects of our health, but when it comes to hair Viviscal’s blog states that the main benefit of zinc as an ingredient is that it helps maintain balanced hormones and prevents protein from being excessively broken down.
- Iron: Iron is needed to help carry oxygen throughout the body in our blood. If you’re iron deficient, your cells (like hair follicles) may not receive enough oxygen and become unhealthy.
- Biotin: Biotin is thought to help the body process fats, carbohydrates, and amino acids, which are important for making protein. As protein is important for healthy hair, so is maintaining biotin levels.
- Niacin: Niacin is proposed to promote healthy circulation which helps to keep hair follicles nourished.
- Vitamin C: Vitamin C is thought to promote collagen production, which is an important component of healthy hair.
Whilst these Viviscal ingredients may well have hair health boosting properties, it is worth noting that the scientific evidence backing the positive effects when it comes to hair thickening is at best limited. Also while this product may work for some, there is also no guarantee that this product will work for everyone.
The best way to identify whether any particular supplement, diet, or lifestyle change may be of benefit to your health is by first investigating your genetics and labs using a service such as SelfDecode to identify your body’s predetermined needs.
Viviscal Side Effects
Whilst there are no side effects listed on the Viviscal website due to the product being classed as an all natural supplement and not a drug, there have been some side effects linked to the Viviscal ingredients shared by users online. These include:
- Nausea: Nausea is one of the more commonly reported side effects of Viviscal, likely due to the high iron content of the supplement causing stomach irritation. This can be managed by taking the tablets with a meal rather than on an empty stomach.
- Skeletal stiffness: Taking excess vitamin C has the potential to cause skeletal stiffness. If you do experience this, you may wish to lower your dosage.
- Body hair growth: One ‘side effect’ people often do not anticipate is the growth of their body hair. Viviscal not only promotes the growth of hair on your scalp but also your leg and arm hair, pubic hair, facial hair and any other hair you may have.
Other Viviscal Reviews
On their web page, Viviscal supplements have an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars from 2,732 reviews at the time of writing.
Viviscal supplements sold on Amazon through the Viviscal store page have an average customer rating of 4.5 from nearly 11,000 reviews, that’s pretty convincing. Customers laud the supplement for being easy to swallow and value for money.
Negative reviews include ineffectiveness of the product, with many customers sharing that they have not experienced any difference in hair growth.
Complementary or Alternative Services to Viviscal
As mentioned, if you’re looking to make diet, supplement or lifestyle changes to help you optimize your hair health, it’s best to understand whether or not these are actually suited to you before you expend time and money on them by investigating your genetics. Companies like SelfDecode may offer an alternative or complementary approach to using Viviscal.
Lifestyle and environmental factor may influence your hair health, but genetics may also play a big role. Let’s look at the SPATA8 gene, for example. This gene reduces the activity of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, which stimulates and promotes hair growth. Variants of this gene have been associated with relatively higher odds of male pattern baldness.
However, just because your genes make it more likely that you experience a health issue, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. On the contrary, by undestanding your genetic risks, you can make targeted changes to your lifestyle to counteract the negative effects of your genes.
SelfDecode analyzes up to 83 million genetic variants and provides personalized diet, lifestyle, and supplement recommendations to help you optimize your overall health. SelfDecode offers reports in over 40 aspects of your health, including stress, anxiety, and psoriasis, to name a few.
What’s more, a subscription to SelfDecode will also give you access to a lab analysis tool. This way, you can also look at your labs to make sure they are in their optimal range. For example, one of the ingredients in Viviscal’s supplements is zinc, which may contritibute to hair loss when low, among other health issues. By uploading your results to SelfDecode Labs, you can find out if your levels are in their optimal range, or if you need to take active steps to prevent a deficiency.
But when it comes to analyzing labs, SelfDecode goes beyond telling you if your markers are normal. You’ll receive tailored suggestions on how to optimize your levels. If your zinc levels are optimal, you may want to consider another approach to improve your hair health.
Viviscal Review Summary
Viviscal may be able to improve the thickness of your hair over a period of 3-6 months, and so long as you maintain these supplements your hair should remain thick. These benefits however do come with some potential side effects, and these supplements may not work for everyone.
A more progressive approach would be to use a company like SelfDecode to better understand your genes to identify if they’re predisposing you to any health issue and receive prioritized and personalized recommendations to help you improve your overall health, all backed by science. Also get access to SelfDecode Labs to find out if your labs are in their optimal range, and what you can do to improve them.
Related
- Iaso Tea Review: Can this tea help you lose weight?
- Prevagen Review: Does It Really Work?
- Hydroxycut Review: Does this supplement work?
- Neuriva Review: Can This Supplement Improve Brain Function?
- Capillus Review: Can this cap help your hair grow back?
- Baze Review: Are Personalized Supplements Worth It?
- Üforia Science Review: Supplements Based on Your DNA?
