HEALTH RELATED HAIR LOSS

While hair loss is more harmful to the psyche than anything else, some of the causes of baldness may represent serious health problems. That's why it's important to talk about hair loss with a physician.
One cause, says FDA's Cook, could be a condition called alopecia areata. It's an autoimmune disease of unknown cause in which inflammatory cells attack the bulbs of the follicles under the scalp, leaving hairless patches. In more serious cases, hair may fall out from the entire head--eyebrows and beard included--and the entire body. Many times, though, the hair returns spontaneously.

Childbirth, severe malnutrition, chemotherapy, thyroid problems, and a form of lupus can also cause hair loss.

Something as simple as pigtails or cornrows, if worn too long, can cause hair loss, too, because of the stress they cause to the hair shaft.

The medical opinion concerning the role of emotional stress in balding is mixed. If stress does play a role, however, it's only at times of extreme emotional trauma, according to Kayne at the University of Washington Medical Center.

by Larry Hanover, FDA Consumer Magazine

The following are external links to hair loss and hair replacement information.

Overviews

• Hair Loss (American Academy of Dermatology)
• Hair Loss (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Hair Loss and Its Causes (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also available in Spanish
  

Diagnosis/Symptoms

• Hair Loss (American Academy of Family Physicians)

Treatment

• Hair Replacement (American Society of Plastic Surgeons)
• Hair Transplantation (American Society for Dermatologic Surgery)
  

Specific Conditions

• Alopecia Interactive Tutorial (Patient Education Institute) - Requires Flash Player, Also available in Spanish
• Alopecia Areata (American Academy of Dermatology)
• Cancer Treatment and Hair Loss (American Cancer Society)
• Folliculitis (American Osteopathic College of Dermatology)
• Hirsutism (Excess Hair) (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also available in Spanish
• Merkel Cell Cancer (National Cancer Institute)
• Telogen Effluvium Hair Loss (American Osteopathic College of Dermatology)
• Waardenburg Syndrome (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)

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