April 2011

Rhonda Jespersen had an enviable collection of baseball hats, but what was under them wasn't so nice. Jespersen (not her real name) has been struggling with hair loss for the last 15 years. Like many women who experience hair loss, Jespersen's story is typical: "I told my hairdresser that I was sure I was losing hair, and he would dismiss it. 'We all lose hair daily - and then it grows back,' he would say. But eventually I saw the emergence of a bald spot and even he couldn't deny it anymore."

The 47-year-old sales manager discovered a name for her hair loss: Alopecia areata, a disorder which dermatologists say may be triggered by stress, metabolic or endocrine problems. Only two percent of the population has a lifetime risk of developing the disorder, but those who have it (and that includes over five million North Americans) can be devastated by it.

Jespersen panicked when she got her diagnosis: "For a woman, especially, healthy-looking hair is a symbol of beauty," she says. "With alopecia, the hair loss is obvious and, no matter how fabulous your body or how pretty your face, your hair is what people's eyes first see."

But Jespersen's panic subsided when her dermatologist assured her that, while cosmetically a challenge, her hair loss was not a symptom of a serious disease. Plus less than half of her scalp was affected. And fortunately she did not have a subtype in which hair is lost all over the body.

What causes alopecia is not really known, but it's believed to be an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own hair follicles; some people with alopecia also have conditions such as multiple sclerosis or thyroid disease. Sometimes, alopecia is caused by habitual hair-pulling.

It can also be inherited. Last summer, Angela Christiano, an associate professor of dermatology and genetics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and someone who has had alopecia for ten years, uncovered eight genes that underpin the disease. Her research also showed that alopecia shares no genes with the autoimmune skin diseases (with which it was previously connected) and is actually linked to rheumatoid arthritis and celiac disease. She is currently working on how these genes may predict the course of the disease.

"It's a very emotional subject," Dr. Sandy Skotnicki writes. The Toronto dermatologist's stress-induced symptoms, including the shedding of her hair, sent her to Dr. Xiaolan Zhao who runs a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic in Toronto.

Dr. Skotnicki, who is featured strongly in Dr. Zhao's new book, Inner Beauty, writes that as a dermatologist she educates her own patients about why their hair loss may be happening. "Is it stress? Is it thyroid issues? The reason will determine the treatment."

In severe cases of alopecia, dermatologists may resort to suppressing the immune system through oral medication. Typically, treatment plans include topical steroidal or non-steroidal drugs; minoxodil, a lotion applied to the scalp, is popular. But if hair loss is triggered by a thyroid malfunction, then the thyroid hormones (once tested and found to be out of whack) need balancing.

TCM is what Dr. Zhao relies upon. TCM, she told me, associates hair with the Blood which also represents the energetic quality that circulates throughout our bodies: "Excessive hair loss after pregnancy is a sign that the Blood needs replenishing after so much has gone into making and delivering the baby." Hair is known as Qi in TCM, she adds; it's a vital energy or life force. "So if people lose hair it means their Qi is low."

Dr. Zhao also sees a connection between kidney health and energy and hair loss. "The kidney is connected with the thyroid, and when the kidney Jing (or energy) is low then the thyroid may be low. When you have low-functioning thyroid, you can have low iodine and lose your hair." TCM can help restore the energy and balance, she says. Her new book includes dozens of TCM recipes to help women restore their health.

Until now, Rhonda Jespersen has tried and rejected steroids; she has investigated hair transplants and hair extensions and bought a couple of wigs which she wears to fancy dinners. She has never tried TCM, but she likes what Dr. Zhao has to say about inner beauty: "The pursuit of inner beauty, health and balance is endlessly rewarding. Health is beauty and without health there is no beauty." Hair or no hair, it's as simple as that.

Hardly Hair There?

There are various kinds of hair loss and their causes, just as varied, include:

- thyroid disease

- major surgery/chronic illness

- inadequate protein

- low iron

- medications, including some birth control pills

- cancer treatments

- fungal infection

- hair pulling

What's Normal?

A zillion hairs on your brush? Not good - but expect to lose 50 to 100 hairs per day. About 90 percent of your hair is growing at any one time. Ten percent of the hair is in a resting phase that lasts two to three months and then sheds itself. When a hair is shed, a new hair from the same follicle replaces it. Scalp hair grows about one-half inch per month. For more on hair loss, check out the American Academy of Dermatology at www.aad.org.

Thicker Quicker

Online products promising thicker hair abound, including several shake-on-your-hair products calling themselves "instant hair thickening fibers." Hokey or not, Instant Hair and Sure Thik are just two of the products that stick to your roots when sprinkled on and claim to be made of the same keratin protein found in hair. They come in various colors, wash out, and cost from $20 to $50. Also cosmetic -- a bevy of thickening shampoos and conditioners found in neighborhood drug stores: For the hot list, check out www.goodhousekeeping.com.

Take One Root

Dr. Xiolan Zhao's new book Inner Beauty provides many traditional Chinese medicine recipes for women's health, including several to enrich hair. "The ingredients can be found in any herb store in Chinatowns across Canada," she says of the following, her recipe for Red Scalp Vigour Tincture:

20 g astragalus

15 g salvia root

15 g root bark of shaggy-fruited dittany

15 g cow cockle or vaccaria

15 g eclipta

10 g Chinese arborvitae twig and leaf

Combine all ingredients and let soak for two weeks before using. When ready, massage vigorously into the scalp.

Source

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