Beautiful hair are one of the most splendid blessings, on the second hand hair loss is the most common occurrence to happen worldwide, every internal or external imbalance in a human body first effects hair. Alopecia is one of those diseases which directly cause hair loss.

Alopecia areate is a skin disease which effects all hair bearing skin especially the skull, this disease is inherited from ancestors or in other words a person’s genes, this disease is not contagious, instead it is an autoimmune disease like asthma, eczema. It occurs when the immune system attacks hair follicles, which results in hair fall. The patches are formed with mild red skin. This happens with 5% people. This can occur in any age, mostly the first case occurs in teen age.

Alopecia Areate and its Types:

This disease can cause different types of hair loss, these types are;

  • Alopecia areata (hair loss in patches)
  • Alopecia universalis (lose all hair on the body)
  • Alopecia totalis (lose all hair on the scalp)

Signs and Symptoms:

The major sign of this disease is that hair fall will be in patches, your barber would be the first person to notice that, the patch size could be of a coin or larger in some cases. Other symptoms are that your nails can have dents, white spots or roughness.  Often these changes in nails are the first sign of this disease.

alopecia

Image credit: carolyn speranza

 

Diagnosis:

You should inform your dermatologist when you feel you have excessive hair loss, the dermatologists examines that pattern of hair loss, and usually they pick out a few hairs and examine it under a microscope. While in some cases skin biopsy is conducted to make sure the disease is Alopecia Areata, as there are also a variety of other reasons which can cause hair loss.How to treat Alopecia Areate?

Usually there is no medicine or other treatments given for this disease, still medical scientist are working to find cure of this immune reaction, they are working on light and laser based therapies. Keep your hopes high that they will surely find some answers soon.

But fortunately there is high chance of re-growth of hair, so for quick re-growth dermatologists give different treatments. Best of them are;

Anthralin:

This is a tar like substance which is given to apply on skin for 20-60 minutes and then washed off, this helps in quick growth of hair.

Corticosteroids:

These steroids suppress the immune system; it is given in form of injections, ointment and pills. The shots are given to patients on bare skin with gap of 3-6 weeks.

Other immune therapies are avoided in these cases as they can cause activation of other immune disease. This disease can be reduced by covering your hairs from harsh sunlight and other chemicals, reduced stress can help in quick re-growth.

Psychological Effects:

It is very hard for people to roam around with baldness, hair is the sign of beauty for many individuals and they go through psychological disorders during their hair loss, for them there are many support groups now which help them in fighting against their fears and mental disturbance, as National Alopecia Aerate foundation (NAAF), Alopecia world, and Children Alopecia project they have initiated various programs which are helping people worldwide.

I hope you found this article useful! Be strong and Stay healthy.