OK (((Hotpepper))), when I was losing my hair, I read anything I could get my hands on on treating hair loss. I knew I didn't want to use Rogaine, because minoxidil (the main ingredient) is addictive; addictive in the sense that once you start using it, while it
will grow the hair back, you will have to use it for life or the hair you just grew - which is usually finer than your own - will all fall off.
I considered Surge, coz that was the BT or MTG of that time, but I was afraid of something being in the ingredients that might aggravate the situation. We had not figured out what was causing my hairloss. We'd had a death in the family so stress was considered. But I didn't stop there. In my reading, I had come across an article that mentioned an itchy scalp as a symptom that precedes hairloss in a lot of people. So I started to pay attention to that. To my surprise, I noticed that my scalp itched almost always after I'd had a meal.
Now, anyone that knows me will tell you, I'm a believer that food can be the cause and cure of a lot of ailments. So when things go wrong w/ me, I always look to food to see if something might be disagreeing w/ me. The reason for this is I found out a long time ago that diet can affect your immunity big time.
After years of recurring yeast infections, eczema, hay fever, UTI, etc, I found a book that suggested eliminating some foods from your diet, and I did. A few months later, I was "healed". All those conditions I fought for years with meds were gone. My energy went through the roof and I knew my immunity had hit a new high when flu season hit and I was the only one in my job w/o it, when previously I'd be one of the first to get it. From that point on, I was sold on Nutritional Healing.
So here I was losing hair. I had boosted my immunity all those years ago by using a suggestion from a book. Well, I was still avoiding those foods so why was I losing hair all of a sudden? And why the itches after a meal? Rather than use trial and error to find out what I needed to avoid, I asked my doc (who's a member of ImmunoLabs) to do a food sensitivity test on me. Food sensitivities develop over a long period of time and the symptoms are not immediate when you eat the offending food, so they are not to be confused with allergy tests. In fact, I believe there are doctors who don't believe in them. Just like there are doctors who swear naturopathy or Eastern medicine don't work. Pfft whateva. I needed a test done so I could (1) confirm that I was sensitive to the foods I'd been avoiding all those years and (2) find out if sth else was bothering me. Turned out that the foods I was eating on a daily basis (I'm so lazy that once I find easy-to-make meals, I could live on them for life) were the ones I'd developed sensitivities to. So I changed my diet.
But I didn't stop there. I needed to find a topical treatment that was "safe". I didn't need any chemicals that I might aggravate the situation. And that's when I came across the
Essential Hair Growth Blend described on this page. In my reading, I'd come across an article that pointed out that bald people have very tight scalps, so keeping my scalp flexible/supple was important...and that's where massage came in handy. Not only to keep scalp "alive" but also to encourage blood circulation to bring nutrients and oxygen to the hair follicles that I was trying to revive. And now that we're talking nutrients, I had to make sure I ate well and took my vitamins. Eating right meant, "if it isn't doing my body any good, then it won't be going inside me". So take white sugar for instant, was that important? Did it add any nutritional value to my diet or was it just something taking up the space that could better be taken by sth more valuable to my body cells? I learned not to add salt to my food; to reach for fruit instead of sweets. I mean, when it comes to my hair, I was willing to do EVERYTHING I could to save it. I also mentioned oxygen. This may seem dumb but in my reading, I had come across an article of how important deep breathing is. Heck Yogis can tell you and I used to practice Yoga so I knew it wouldn't hurt. So I made it a habit to breathe properly so that I can get as much oxygen in as is needed into my lungs and therefore my blood and finally my scalp. You've heard people say doing headstands helps? Well, I didn't really do headstands but I'd massage my head while letting it hang off the edge of the bed. Isis once posted a thread on how to do a proper head massage and it came in handy.
Now, I am not suggesting that my solutions will necessarily work for you, coz if you have thyroid disease, you'll need that treated; if it's hormonal, you might need another form of treatment, or just to wait it out like new moms sometimes have to till your hormones go back to normal. I am hoping your doctor pinpoints the cause. But when you mentioned autoimmune - which I didn't realize is used almost interchangeably with alopecia aereta by some people - you reminded me of my former boss who has Lupus and has had a lot of relief from changing her diet (She got the Immunolab test done and found out that her treatment had been making her worse and is now on a treatment that doesn't mess with her body's candida balance - and her anti-candida diet that she is now on, thanks to Immunolabs, is also going a long way in making her feel tons better.) So I honestly believe that no matter what may be causing your condition, it won't hurt to give Immunolabs a go. Food sensitivities will affect your immunity even if they may not be the only thing. So getting that in order will help.
What happens is any doctor who is a member (and you can find out who in your area and on your health plan is a member from their 800 number), takes your blood and sends it to them. They return results in two weeks with a guide on what foods to avoid after testing about 200 foods and what foods you cans substitute the bad ones with. You get a food plan and calendar to track your progress. And this program isn't just for hair loss. Anyone would benefit from this because as you will see from www.betterhealthusa.com, there are many ailments that can be helped by a change of diet, if only people knew - even ailments that seem to have no connection whatsoever to our digestive tract. So it wouldn't hurt just to make sure you're eating food that's contributing positively to your health.
I promised to find some links with more reading for you:
National Alopecia Aereta Foundation
www.add-hair.com
Treating Hairloss Naturally
The Trichological Society's articles on Alopecia Aereta
I shared my hair loss and regrowth story
here in case you're interested.
Sorry to be such a rambler.
