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Comment by Susan McAdams on December 20, 2015 at 6:09pm

I talked in detail with my doctors at Stanford, and what Jim wrote, above, is exactly what they told me. Alopecia is an attack by the immune system on the amino acids that are at the base of the hair follicle. Without those critical components, proteins cannot be created which are essential for hair growth. No supplement or vitamin or diet has been shown to cure that process. Can a strick diet improve digestive problems? That is certainly a good possibility. It helped me when I was having problems with that last year. All autoimmune disorders are not the same. There may be temporary relief to hair loss with diet, but it there has been no medical evidence to support the idea that diet will reverse what is going on at the cellular level. The reason a drug like Xeljanz grew back my hair 95% after having been in AU for almost a year is because the drug suppresses the immune system and keeps the attacks at bay. If I stop the drug, my hair will likely fall out again. I don't plan on doing so for the forseeable future because Xeljanz is working, and I am not experiencing any negative side effects. Going on a very strict diet is really tough to do. It is also downright frustrating when lasting improvements are not seen. Sometimes alopecia can go into remission. It did for me back from 2009-2012. With no change in my diet. But it came back with a vengeance after a long, intense period of stress.

I would never tell someone what to do, nor would I discredit the health benefits of a healthy diet. But please, review the medical research and talk to your doctors. Your MD's. The people who write these nutritional books make really grand claims. Of course they do--that is money in their pockets. But until one sees solid medical evidence that diet can cure alopecia, please keep a critical eye on what you read.

Comment by MJ on December 20, 2015 at 5:59pm

Hi, I think you are on the right path. My daughter had AU couple of years ago when she was 9 years old. We stopped all the conventional medicine, had done the steroids for a week only. I started her on dr.Ohhira's Probiotics, Nordic Naturals Omega with D3 and doing juicing 3 to 4 times a week with all organic ingredients. She has a dairy allergy,so does not have any dairy in her diet. She is mostly vegetarian, but does eat Chicken and Turkey once in a while. We cut down most of her sugar intake and also all processed food; Changed all her cereals to organic as well. I also started massaging organic coconut oil on her head once a week and she would keep it overnight and wash it off next day. After about a year she had got hair back on her eyebrows, eye lashes, hands & legs. By spring of Spring of 2014, few months before her 10th birthday she had a full head of hair and stopped wearing a wig. She got her natural color of hair back. Now she is 12 and hair is very beautiful. I am still continuing with everything I mentioned above, since we are not sure what specific things actually helped her but very firm believer that diet played a big role in regrow the of her hair. The main thing is you have to very disciplined about it and keep at it. I hope this information will help you.

Comment by Jim In Cali on December 20, 2015 at 5:20pm

Alopecia is an Autoimmune disease and as such diet has very little direct impact. Supplements, especially multivitamins have been proven by numerous studies to have no impact on nutritional levels within the body. Individual vitamins supplements show at least some impact on levels in your body but vary on effectiveness.

Whenever you start a new regiment of something it takes about six weeks to see any results. When alopecia attacks your hair follicles and switches it to shed mode their is nothing that can save the hair it will fall out in 3-4 weeks. New hair takes about six weeks to grow through the scalp where you can see.

Comment by Tuesday on December 20, 2015 at 5:10pm

I will present my case only to give some perspective.  I am in same viewpoint and Susan McAdams. When I was 19 , moved out of house and promptly developed a mostly vegan (ate meat a few times a year) for most of my adult years.  I ate healthfully and have always tried to avoid processed foods, junk, etc. and exercised daily. Still at age 30, my alopecia started.  I went to naturopath who guaranteed my hair would come back if I followed diet such as you suggested and took her expensive supplements. Sigh.  I was meticulous in following her regime and a few weeks later had lost ALL my hair.  I've had alopecia universalis ever since. I still eat diet that remains free of unprocessed foods, I take supplements such as the ones you list. I have been gluten free and dairy free since the summer as my son was dx'd with a severe immune condition (not autoimmune) triggered by food allergies including wheat.  I notice the absence of gluten makes a difference in terms of the inflammation I suffered in my joints. My arthritic joints are not swelling and aching. But has my hair , brows, eyelashes returned? No.    It might happen to someone else.  But not to me.  That said, this sort of diet is a good thing no matter what the hair loss outcome.   I just don't think it's a magical solution for all people with hair loss.    What bothers me is the media, the cookbooks out there ... that promise it will end alopecia. There's even a Canadian cookbook out there right now called "Scared Wheatless". Well, the diet is what I eat and like I  said - no hair regrowth there.  Who knows.  If ever I do have regrowth, this will be the first place I Report it.

Comment by AnnS on December 20, 2015 at 4:37pm

So I had something called LEAP MRT testing done - you can look it up - and I found out that I tolerate wheat and gluten - but there are a ton of other things I can't have, including soy, dairy and tyramine (any aged/smoked or fermented foods.) This really helped my second round of Alopecia universalis  in 2013. But it returned - and I'll say this, I believe it returned because of some pretty high stress. I also developed psoriasis - which is a family thing - during this same time. My 3rd round of alopecia universalis is much worse than the previous two. I am now trying methotrexate on a low dose, which is supposed to be effective. It's quite inexpensive as well.  My hair has stopped falling out after about two months (I have some patchy hair on my scalp and body, mostly gone on my scalp, and I'm missing random parts of eyebrow and eyelashes.) So if you're going to eliminate, you should probably get tested, or you may never find out. The thing with tyramine was so random I would never have guessed it. And, I can have wheat ;D 

Comment by Robin on December 20, 2015 at 4:01pm

Want to say I love reading all of these positive comments. Autoimmune issues did not start for me until I was 60! Yet, I have had inflammation for many years and in my 40's had so much pain, ibuprophen was a main part of my diet. Now I understand this all so much better. I am so encouraged that food sensitivities and a leaky gut interfere with our immune system. My new style of eating is delicious and it feels so right for my body. I know it will get tricky at times as we live in a culture that eats other ways......but now that I understand that I must do this for my health I can.......I am hopeful that my hair loss will stop and even though they say my hair loss is a forever type......who knows.....maybe I will get a regrowth........I am committed to the paleo autoimmune approach.......I believe it truly has a healing effect for me. I look forward to more positive and hopeful stories on this web site.......and good luck to all of you who choose to try this....it does take discipline and support from the people in your life.

Comment by Mayo on December 20, 2015 at 3:38pm

We have a similar story. We went Gaps/ paleo with our DD who had 60% of her hair missing and it took almost 2 months for her hair to start growing back however as soon as we did the diet change change her hair stopped falling out. This was two and a half yrs ago. All her hair grew back within 6-12 months. We reintroduced corn a few months ago and bam another patch came out!! Taken corn out again and I can see new hairs growing through (it's taken 3 months to get some regrowth this time. The process is slow but it shows you how inflamed you are. Don't give up hope. It may take 12 months or more to see an improvement but on the inside so much good is happening that you wouldn't even be aware of. Good luck.

Comment by StephaniePA-C on December 20, 2015 at 2:23pm

We went Gluten and dairy free with our little girl. She had about 40% scalp hair loss at that time. We started the diet in August 2013 and she confine to lose hair until mid December. She started to get re growth in March 2014. It was rapid and she has a full head of hair. We tried dairy this summer July 2015 and within two weeks she developed a new patch in her hairline. We removed dairy again and the patch grew back in pretty quickly. My aunt however, has been following the same strict diet. Her loss slowed for a while but then came back. All her patches filled with downy hair pretty quickly......much quicker than when she had her first hair loss several years ago. Good Luck!

Comment by Val on December 20, 2015 at 2:15pm

Great post!

Comment by hoofpick on December 20, 2015 at 1:28pm

My journey with this pterese is a long one, so I apologize if its long.  I lost 85% of my hair on my head and my hair on my legs, underarms, arms was completely lost also.  This all started for me late in life, i was 56 when it happened. 2014 of Jan. by April of 2014 my hair on head was pretty much gone, except for long strands here and there.  Along with this came some severe food allergies.  I went to my Dermatologist first off, she did a biopsy that came back AA, Alopecia Areata. Then it was on to my conventional Dr., who did a battery of tests I can post if interested, but all came back normal.  Because we did not have health insurance they pretty much did not give me any health care, not that there is much for AA.  So I started reading and reading blogs a lot.  I indentified with the Celiac Disease symptoms, I read Jennifers Way by Jennifer Esposito, I also read Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Autoimmune Approach, that Robin above has.  I started going to a clinic for natural care, that they took the tests my conventional Dr. did and they did more, I can post those also.  But this time there was something there, they started me on a cleanse that should have only lasted a few weeks, mine lasted months, because my digestive system was so damaged.  They did a food allergy test, that came back so surprising, I was highly allergic to foods that are good for you, but I am gluten free, dairy free, soy free are the main ones, I stay away from pepper which is a given to set me off with a reaction.  Slowly, very slowly it started to work, I could work some chicken in ,a little beef back in diet.  I have learned to totally change my way of eating, believe me it is the hardest thing to do it takes alot of willpower (i had a lot of fear with the reactions I was getting also).  I am on supplements also.  I buy organic,this last summer I started buying from a CSA.   Eating out is a challenge but I know what to stay away from. It is true, with one autoimmune  disease there is another and quite possibly another.   I am reading a great book by Mee Tracy McCormick “My Kitchen Cure” (How I Cooked My Way Out Of Chronic Autoimmune Disease With Whole Foods and Healing Recipes)".  I am lucky she has a restaurant near me and she also teaches cooking classes.   I am excited to start as I just found her.  I continue to go to my natural dr. who has been a lifeline for helping me stay on track also has many solutions for natural healing.  I feel so much better!  Yes it takes the inflammation, soreness, pain too away and I haven’t had but one headache since I started this and there is a natural way for it also, before I got headaches daily, congestion also, always sore and achy.  But the best of all, April of 2015, slowly but slowly my hair started growing back, little white downy fuzz.  It took awhile to fill in, as it didn’t grow much til it filled in.  Natural hair color was brown, thick hair.  I was going gray, I thought, as I colored it to keep my color.  This hair was white, I had a grandmother who had soft wavy beautiful white hair, this was like hers.   It stayed white as it grew in.   This is Dec. 2015, it has grown and filled all in, the thick hair i remember, it is short but sweet.   I am coloring it again.   Had it cut quite a few times already, to style.  Do I know that the diet grew my hair back? NO, but I don’t ever think that it would have grown back with my digestive system the horrilbe mess it was.  Now that I look back, all the excuses I made for my digestive health, that was my body crying out for help.  I had many excuses for years.   I have started to get hair back on legs but only in a long oblong area in the front of my lower leg,same place on both legs, go figure.  But not on underarms.  But some has started to grow back on my arms.  So keep with the diet you are doing, it will help your body heal and you will feel great.   Maybe just maybe that will let your hair come back.   But you will FEEL amazing while you wait for it to grow.......If I can help or you have questions I am here.

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