Can Alopecia Areata Be Beaten?

Author: Danny Grant

Author: Danny Grant

Alopecia is a broad term that describes hair loss. Alopecia Areata is the term used to describe a pattern of hair loss in which oval areas of scalp hair are lost. Other forms of hair loss are androgen (male hormone) dependant, however alopecia areata is an immune system malfunction in which the immune system attacks the hair follicles in certain areas of the scalp.
Technically alopecia areata is a broad name for a number of subsets within it. For example alpecia areata of the face is known as alopecia barbae.What causes alopecia areata? Less than 1% of the population suffer with alopecia areata with both males and females being affected. Children as well as adults suffer from the condition. Genetics does seem to play a part. Families that develop atopic allergies like asthma, psoriasis and eczema tend to have a greater incidence of alopecia areata. This would imply an inherited over-sensitive immune reaction. If you have an inherited tendency towards this disease, stress can cause the condition to start.How do you confirm that you have alopecia areata? Due to the fact that the areas under immune attack are localised, it is not possible to confirm a diagnosis by blood tests. It follows that a punch biopsy ( removing a section of the bald spot ) is the only logical way to confirm an immune attack in such a localised area. However for most people this would be too invasive, so it tends to be diagnosed by the pattern of loss alone.What treatments are available? At the initial onset it is common to see a spontaneous regrowth with no treatment. However it is common for it to spread rapidly and can result in total scalp hair loss. At this stage it is known as Alopecia Totalis. Further progression sees it spreading to the eyebrows and eyelashes and eventually affecting all body, scalp and facial hair. At this latter stage it is termed Alopecia Universalis and it is uncommon to see a spontaneous remission at such an advanced stage. The psychological impact can be extreme due to the uncertainty of this disease. Doctors saying "do not worry it will probably grow back on its own", whilst it may have a high probability of being statistically correct, does very little to the alleviate the very real fear the patient has. That fear is based on the knowledge that it is also statistically correct that a lower percentage of sufferers will see it progress. Most people fear that they will be the unlucky ones ! Medical treatments are limited: With less than one percent of the population troubled by this problem, it is difficult from an investment standpoint to make a return on any investment into research work into a cure. However a pure investment return approach sadly misses the fact that the disease is extremely upsetting to the sufferer. In western cultures it is common to see men lose their hair to alopecia androgenetica (male pattern baldness) so it is more socially acceptable to see a bald man. Not that this makes men suffering hair loss feel any better about it. However women and children with hair loss are less common and attract much more unwanted stares and attention. Teasing at school can be very cruel as children tend to find patches of hair loss amusing.Treatment types These tend to fall into broad categories: 1) Immune suppression like steroid creams or injections
2) Irritants like diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP).
3) Holistic approaches
4) Natural products like plant extracts and supplementation.In many cases when a parent first approaches their doctor about alopecia areata, the doctor will refer the patient along to dermatologists. There is often a delay between such appointment that leaves the sufferer very stressed as the hair is often continuing to fall. Therefore many people seek alternative treatments via the web solely because they feel they at least they are being proactive and doing something that may benefit them.
About the Author:

We first became involved in researching alopecia areata because we were trying to solve our own problems. Once the media started to cover our work, the workload increased dramatically. We therefore took the decision that we would transfer our knowledge and case histories to the web and offer a free update service for alopecia areata ( patchy hair loss ) and alopecia barbae -(beard patches)

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