What I know about alopecia (technical) and treatment

Well like the majority of us on the website the first thing I did was research. I learnt the alopecia is an autoimmune disease that can be brought about by stress and it is something that has a possible genetic link. If stress alone caused alopecia then the Mcanns looking for their missing child madeline would be going through totalis by now. Stress effects us in different ways and with some of us it can unfortunately cause alopecia.

Obviously, the psychological effects it can have probably don't need to be explained here. We know all too well... I did read that interestingly enough alopecia happens when our white blood cells attack the hair by mistake because it recognises it as foreign. The cells that attack the hair in people without alopecia would have been deleted by the process of negative selection in the thymus (AIRE). Something has gone wrong here for us to get alopecia. The possible reason is that the pigment of our hair has intefered and is one of the reasons why hair can come back in white. Alopecia can occur with a reaction to drugs and if there is a iron or b vitamin deficiency. Iodine also can be a factor (not quite sure). Also read that certain tooth fillings may be a problem. Blood tests rule out alot so I had those, came back without any problems. Not sure why but had a pain in throat when alopecia happened but if it was thyroid problem it would have shown up in blood test i think.

On to treatment. I use minoxidil and trying calosol, take brewers yeast, tyrosine and lysine vit e with selenium also get the electric comb thing on neck by trichloogist.

Views: 21

Comment by Melissa Harris on August 17, 2008 at 11:51am
Curious, where did you do most of your research? I was also told by my hairdresser that I should take Iodine. Why does that play a role in hair loss? How long have you been on the other treatments you mentioned? I have also thought you the technical part of alopecia and I'm shocked that they haven't figured out how to stop this in people. Maybe treating the thymus is an option??? I have also heard that UVB lights may help from others on this site. Keep us updated on your treatments and how it goes! Thanks!
Melissa
Comment by carl on August 17, 2008 at 1:06pm
most of my research was done over websites i found out through search engines usually google, they were quite repetative on alopecia so I just dug deeper and deeper until I started finding more exact scientific answers for this. I got these from researching blood (the thing thats messing us all up :) ) and finding out alopecia is all about our white blood cells attacking our hair. So I did more research on white blood cells from wikipedia and linked it all to that stupid thymus of ours. As far as treating the thymus i'm guessing because of the importance of it not just for its role in hair but also other functions (there are other autoimmune diseases) scientists probably fear giving drugs that could cause other problems. Probably would be very difficult to get a specific drug that focused in on the thymus' negative selection process making it more effective at deleting those pesky autoimmune cells without adverse effects. A drug called cyclosporin exists that is used mainly in transplant patients to stop the body from rejecting but wikipedia it and look at the side effects. Iodine plays a role in hairloss i think because a lack of it effects thyroid functioning which can cause alopecia (underactive thyroid) I do have to sit under this light thing after the comb I have been doing the comb/light thing for about 3 months same with calosol. I have had alopecia for 4yrs when i was 19 and when it first happened I lost most of the sides on each and the neck. Now the sides have grown back and its just the neck which has gotten better. I think just the time element is a factor because alopecia can start to reverse itself or 'burn itself out' as my trichlogist says. Gail Porter has regrown her eyebrows after 3yrs with it. The research I actually found theruputic its much better knowing how all this happened instead of a blank faced doctor staring back at you with no answers. There are people working on a cure but what's taking them so long ! I'd guess the way to prevent it would be by people avoiding having kids with people who have autoimmune diseases so it cant manifest into alopecia but that's just a bit silly :) Hope that helps
Comment by JeffreySF on August 17, 2008 at 2:10pm
I think most of us like yourself have done our research on alopecia.
I did have one Dr suggest I try the anti rejection drugs used for organ transplant recipients. After researching those drugs I was like "No Way"
Guess what? One of the side effects of such treatment listed hairloss. lol
I'll gladly live with my alopecia.

Jeff
Comment by traci on August 18, 2008 at 5:47pm
thanks for the information! it's always helpful to learn more about alopecia =)

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