What is alopecia areata?
Alopecia means hair loss in medical language. In alopecia areata, it is the sudden shedding of the hair to form round bald areas.
What is the cause of alopecia areata?
Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, for an unknown reason, the immune system sees its own cells as foreign and starts to fight these cells. In this case, cells called lymphocytes around the hair follicles secrete chemicals called cytokines and this causes hair loss.
Is the disease familial?
Alopecia areata may be seen in more than one member of the family, or others in the family may have other immune diseases such as pernicious anemia and vitiligo.
Is the disease contagious?
Alopecia areata is not contagious.
What is the cause of alopecia areata?
The disease has nothing to do with edible food. As with other health problems, the disease may begin after a stressful event, but not in all cases.
How is the disease seen?
Since alopecia areata does not cause significant discomfort, it is usually detected by barbers. Hair stops growing and separates from its root. Alpopesis areata shows three stages. First, the hair falls out suddenly, then there is an enlargement in the spilled area. Finally, the hair starts to appear as white or gray in the beginning. This can take months or even years. As new hairs grow, others may fall out.
Can all the hair fall out?
In up to 5% of affected patients, all hair may fall out. to this situation alopecia totalis called and it can take a very long time. In less than 1% of patients, body hair is completely shed, which is alopecia universalisknown as.
Is there any other harm from the disease?
Alopecia areata does not cause any physical discomfort, but affects the patient psychologically.
How is the treatment done?
Unfortunately, there is no treatment that can provide a definitive solution for the disease. The disease may recover slowly on its own. Sometimes the newly arrived hair is white or gray, after which they return to their original color.
Injecting cortisone into the balding area can accelerate hair growth. This treatment is known as intralesional cortisone injection. Hair regrowth occurs only at the injection site. This treatment does not prevent hair loss in new areas. However, if the hair starts to grow, additional injections will help the hair to come out. Many different alternative methods are used in the treatment of the disease. But the results of these treatments are variable. Using certain lotions
It causes hair growth in some people. For this purpose, cortisone drugs or minoxidil and dithranol, an irritating agent, can be used.
In the treatment called immunotherapy, a low concentration of a substance that can cause an allergic reaction is applied to the spilled area and an allergic contact dermatitis is formed. Diphenylcyclopropenone (diphencyprone) is often used for this purpose. Unfortunately, this treatment is irritating and uncomfortable, often causing enlarged lymph nodes.
There is no reliable treatment method in case of widespread hair loss. Pills containing cortisone, a light therapy called PUVA can be applied. But these treatments have some side effects.
