| ALOPECIA AREATA |
| Since I have had this disease for 25yrs I thought I should bring people up to speed about what it is. My grandma was the one who discovered my hair falling out. Within weeks all my hair on my head was gone and most of my body hair was gone. I was taken to a Dermatologist when I was 3. My parents were told I have Alopecia and said there was nothing they could do. Its sad to say a lot of derms are that way today still. So my parents never did anything about my alopecia. And neither did I until after my divorce when my hair started trying to come back. Now I have shots done every 8-10 weeks. I use rogaine, nizoral, zincon, and keflex. I have a 3 spots of hair on my head that are long and I can tell the hair is a brownish color. The rest of my head has little fuzzies that are slowly turning to a darker color. And I have some spots with no growth. So what is Alopecia? It is now being called an autoimmune disease. My white blood cells are atacking my hair follicles. There are 3 types of Alopecia. Alopecia Areata (AA)- The person developes patches on their head, beard, or body where hair stops growing for a period of time or the hair could never come back. You never know when AA will show up. You could be patch free for 30 yrs and a patch will show up again. Alopecai Totalis (AT)- Total hair loss from the head and face. Alopecia Universalis (AU)- Total loss of all hair on the body. This is what I have There is always hope that your body will start growing hair again. But a lot of Alopecians never get there hair back. There is no cure for Alopecia. Only temperary solutions that can stop working. That is why the National Alopecia Registry was created. They are doing genetic research on people and there familys. They are trying to find the comon gene and what "triggers" the hair to grow or fall out. Then they could start developing mediceans that will help Alopecians. My family and I are part of this Registry. Tretments: Local injections of steroids Oral corticosteroids ( not recomended) topical solutions Minoxidill (Rogaine) and a lot more but not as effective. There are a lot of sites on the internet claming they cure Alopecia. But all are false. Nothing has be sientificaly proven to cure this. ANd not all treatment work on all people. Its a guessing game. If my hair had not started trying to come in on its own, I would still not being doing anything about my AU. Growing up with this was hard. I was made to feel like a freak by everyone including my family. I would not wish this apon anyone. Here are some websites for more info: http://groups.msn.com/alopeciaareatasupportcommunity www.naaf.org |