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Dietary changes halting alopecia areata
Hello,
I am new to the site, but wanted to come on and ask if anyone else has had significant success by changing their diet and eliminating inflammatory or foods that you are sensitive to?
I suppose I should start at the beginning.... My mother and great-grandmother both had alopecia areata. I noticed my first spot almost 10 years ago when I was pregnant. Unfortunately I did not carry full-term and noticed that a couple more spots had started shedding. I went to the dermatologist, who gave me some steroid cream and eventually transitioned to the shots, neither of which were particularly successful. I started doing a significant amount of research about food and hormonal reaction, inflammation etc. At that time I eliminated wheat, dairy, sugar, rice, potatoes, and caffeine. I had a FULL recovery of hair within 6 months.
This lasted for well over a year, until I met my husband and decided to go ahead and eat whatever I wanted, which included all of the foods I listed above. Small spots started to pop up and continued to proliferate. I dabbled in eliminating foods again, but was never able to completely cut them out due to being young and lazy. Whilst getting my master's degree parts of my eyebrows fell out and much of my hair broke off.I ended up cutting it short and penciling in my brows. About one year after I graduated I became pregnant again and had even more spots come up, losing more hair in pregnancy than before. I also lost part of the eyelashes on one eye. It came back after the baby was born and then began to shed about 1.5 years later, when I was living on coffee.
A local doctor's office did a blood test to test for foods that I am sensitive to, as "allergic" generally involves an intense, immediate reaction. I found that I was sensitive to a number of foods, including coffee, which was the worst. Some of the culprits were wheat, gluten, baker's yeast, mushrooms, tomatoes, cane sugar, lemon, watermelon, bell peppers, cottage cheese....you get the idea. I immediately eliminated all of those foods and my hair began to grow back. I now have a full head of hair and my eyebrows are mostly intact. There was a brief period where I was eating sugary snacks like a fiend and two little spots popped up, but I immediately eliminated and went back to my diet and they have since grown in. It has been well over a year now. On occasion I will do the "follicle test" on hairs that have come out and they all have the healthy bulb at the end.
I also take Vitamin B sublingually, Emergen-C lite with MSM - which is supposed to promote hair growth, hemp oil-perfect natural balance of omegas, sublingual biotin, and liquid Vitamin D3. I don't take all of them every day, but stagger them throughout the week. The doctor's office also found that I was deficient in both D3 and biotin, the first symptom listed for a biotin deficiency is alopecia...
I would also go to the Dermatologist's office once back on my diet to give the existing spots a "boost," in conjunction with the dietary changes - the shots actually worked!!
I wanted to share my story. Keep in mind, I am one person in the world and none of the information I am sharing has been involved in countless clinical trials and been validated. My Dermatologist and other doctor's along the way have scoffed at my suggesting that my hairloss is dietary. They administered countless tests, but all of my levels (thyroid, hormone etc.) were completely normal.
In Western medicine, the process is healing from the outside in - shots, pills etc. I wanted to heal from the inside out and this has been a successful process for me.
I wish you all well in your journey with this. I remember the times when I was crippled with fear that all of my hair would fall out.
Much Love.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ypsimama on
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So good to hear from you! I really believe that food sensitivity has much relevance in a number of physical conditions, but particularly with my alopecia. I have friends who have various conditions; rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and lupus, who have made dietary changes after the food sensitivity testing. And they have experienced relief in various ways.
I totally adhered to the elimination of sensitive foods for about 4 months and that's when I really started to see the difference. Reintroducing some foods brought on weird reactions: like tomatoes would make my mouth hurt. Nowadays the hardest things for me to stick to are mushrooms and sugar - go figure. Either way it's been well over a year, and the only time I see any difference, albeit minor, in my hair or eyebrows/lashes is when I repeatedly falter.
Good luck!!
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Permalink Reply by Maggie on
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I have had tons of success regarding my AA by eliminating gluten. I was diagnosed with AA in 2007 and went from one spot to about 70% hairloss including losing parts of my eyebrows and body hair. I did the steroid injections and topical steroid creams for about 8 months and nothing happened except severe indentions from the shots which made my balding head look and feel like a golfball. After that they put me on oral steroids, which again did not improve my hair growth just made me a raging witch who ate everything and cried at the drop of a hat! So after that they said to take about 4 months before we started doing injections and oral treatment again.
I had just lost hope and resigned to the fact that I would eventually lose the last 30%. However, my sister, who had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease 4 years earlier, called me and said you will not believe this; I just read an article that researched the effects that gluten has on people with alopecia why dont you try a gf diet! I had nothing to lose really, so I did it.
After three months I had the white baby hair growing. Then some of them started turning back to my natural hair color. I went back to the doctors to show them what happened and they said they wanted to test me for celiac disease so of course I said sure! They then told me I would have to eat gluten again for 3 months because it might not show up on my endoscopy since I hadn't been eating it. I politely declined. They told me it was such a horrible diet to be on and that I shouldn't do it if it isnt helping. They also told me that hair growing back and falling out again is the nature of the disease I had. I thought why would I go back eating something that I know helped my hair grow back by not eating it.
I went on eatin gluten free for about 3 more months, but what those doctors said did stick with me. What if my recent hair regrowth was just the nature of the disease. I couldn't stop thinking about it and when I went home for the holidays and couldn't eat any of my favorite foods I got depressed. So I decided this sucks and I went to Krystals, a southern US fast food joint, and pigged out on my favorite food there. About an hour later I thought I had food poisoning and was sick for two days. I also noticed I had a new bald spot at the base of my head that wasn't there a few days earlier. After that I went back on the gf diet and have been doing it ever since.
Do I think it is a cure and that I dont have alopecia that I actually have celiac? NO I know I have alopecia and I know that things like stress, sickness, and anxiety still affect it. I still shed more than normal and notice when my stress and anxiety level is high I shed like crazy, but I do know that not eating gluten, for me, helps my alopecia stay in check. I know it will not be this way for everyone, but it has worked for me and really helped me take control of my health. And as some of you know the feeling of a total loss of control over your body is half the struggle.
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Excellent news!! I am so glad to hear your story. I've been reading over the site and I rarely see conversations regarding long-term dietary changes. It has been so very pivotal in my story and not something Western doctors will endorse. I actually had one of them get angry with me and tell me that it was "all in my head" when I suggested that I had noticed a connection.
It's been well over a year now and the only spots I have gotten was when I pigged out on sugar - like you, almost instantly. We are what we eat. I do believe it is that simple. And the reality is that we live in a culture that pushes "fast, easy" food that has next to no nutritional value and is actually doing more harm than good. Besides the processed crap, many folk may not know that they have multiple food sensitivities (almost always wheat/gluten) that could be causing harm. I had a friend with arthritis go off of a number of foods and she has had no pain. Another inflammatory disease. There is something to be said for this that is far more simple than turning to big-Pharma.
Good luck and thanks again for sharing your story!!
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Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on
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In 2010 a gal named Susan had tons of stuff on AW about gluten-free. She listed everything in her diet. Read blogs and discussions starting June 2010 and see if you can find it. Susan is no longer on the site.
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Permalink Reply by Jana on
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Global Alopecia Mission has a growing research archives, and its focus is the larger immune context as well as nutrition. Give their website a look. : )
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Bollinger on
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Thanks so much for this information! How do you get tested, is it allergy testing or what? I'm willing to try anything! I have AA which has actually just recently went completely hay wire & I have more than 50% hair loss & am in a wig for the 2nd time. I've had AA for about 18 years & it's worse now than ever before.
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Hi Michelle! I was tested through a local doctor's office that is pretty progressive - they sent the test to Alletess Medical Lab - www.foodallergy.com. Best money I ever spent!
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My integrative medicine physician completed my testing. It was sent through NEurosciences. With the testing I received a packet describing the degree of each of my food sensitivities, hidden sources of the allergens and suggestions of dietary changes.
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Permalink Reply by Louis on
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Thanks for sharing your stories! After reading the info you shared, I decided to do some research on G/F diet as well as anti-inflamatory diets. All i can say is "WOW", it makes total sense! When you think about the inflammatory condition inside the body and that alopecia is an autoimmune disease attacking inflamed hair folicles, etc..there's got to be a connection! I have already began eliminating caffeine, gluten and other inflammatory foods from my diet! Anyone that is undecided about trying, look up info on anti-inflammatory foods and alopecia! It only makes sense and it couldnt hurt to try but will require some adjustment and will power! Also a healthy pocketbook as I found most these gluten free products and organic foods are a little pricey but I found lots of options I was unaware of at my local grocery! I think i will document with a journal and pics!
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I also think I am going to follow up with some food sensitivity testing and anything else you all have suggested but i have no health insurance and limited financial assets at the moment which is making this even more difficult. Any other suggestions are appreciated!
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I just got clearance for charity medical care and labs for one year, so I immediately went out and got blood and cholesterol tests. All is okay...so I cannot even blame my AT on my blood or vitamins! Ask your local hospital for charity labs.
I think the genetic links are probably the right direction for the latest research. One side of my family had the links of diabetes and asthma that share some alopecia gene markers. Can't do anything about genes I was born with...so I am waiting to find out what TRIGGERS those genes to create hair loss!
Note: A European female doctor found 30% more hair loss for men who took body-building protein drinks as teens and young men. Their hair started falling out in the early 20s. I would also follow any research centered on proteins.
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