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Permalink Reply by AlopeciaDestroyedMyLife on December 28, 2014 at 1:34pm

Yes it is definitely hereditary genetics play a huge role in who get's alopecia and who doesn't,

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Permalink Reply by Hawthorne on December 31, 2014 at 2:22pm

My completely non-scientific & experience based opinion is that there is a heridtary and a trigger component. My fraternal twins, now 16, have been virtually hairless since shortly after their 9 month Hep B shots. First one, then, within a month, the other lost all their hair. No one in the family had ever had alopecia. However, as my father in law aged, he developed myasthenia gravis and later, alopecia. His alopecia was years after my boys lost their hair.

My thought has always been that the boys inherited a pre-disposition to one or more autoimmune disorders that, for them, was triggered by the Hep B shots and was fortunately only alopecia. After they lost their hair I found the Hep B insert carried an alopecia warning. However, I don't think this or other vaccine suspected outcomes are causal, rather I see them as a trigger which makes it even more difficult to manage or avoid. After the alopecia I slowed down their vaccines, spread them out and waited until they were older as I was extremely concerned that something else like autism could be triggered. I know that a vaccine/autism link been "disproven" but again only as a causal factor. I don't believe enough is known about autoimmune diseases and how & why they develop to discount factors that act as triggers in certain people.

There are lots of scientific and notso  scientific articles on the interplay between genetics and environmental triggers for autoimmune diseases. However, I doubt you will find most of them "helpful" in a practical sense. I know we try to avoid toxinsa s much as possible, eat organic, that sort of thing. I'm just always grateful that my boys are just bald. They are healthy, active and atheletically and academically gifted teens, completely uninterested in their alopecia so far.

A Potential Link between Environmental Triggers and Autoimmunity

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