Alopecia Areata Explained | Treatments, Causes, Signs & Symptoms,

well hey guys today we're going to talk about alipa Arata a pretty common form of hair loss hair loss is very distressing to go through on this channel I have a whole playlist dedicated to hair loss where we talk about all the different types of hair loss different hair loss treatments that actually work but one I haven't given enough attention to that's relatively common is well alopecia Arata what is it it is autoimmune hair loss basically the immune system gets a little confused and decides to attack your hair follicle and it results in well hair loss this mostly will affect the scalp the beard but truthfully alipa Arata can affect hair follicles on any part of your body leg hair underarm hair pubic hair eyebrows eyelashes it typically starts as a small round to oval completely bald patch that may be unnoticeable depending on where it is or it may be quite obvious the patch is completely smooth alip area usually begins in kids or young adults but it can happen at any age it's actually the most common hair loss disorder in children alipa just means hair loss Arata means patchy so this is a patchy form of hair loss alipa Arata affects everyone differently the way it happens for one person can be totally different for another and the way it happens may be described in a certain way for example alapa Barb refers to alopecia in the beard area Oasis type or alopecia Oasis refers to alopecia Arata where you have a strip or a band of hair loss on the scalp alopecia totalis means you have completely lost all hair on your scalp whereas alopecia universalis means you have lost hair everywhere scalp eyebrows eyelashes body hair if you're dealing with this what you probably want to know is is my hair ever going to grow back it can alipa Arata the good news is is while it's an autoimmune attack of your hair follicles it doesn't completely destroy them it doesn't result in the formation of a scar so you can get hair regrowth the hair can even go back to completely normal a thing of the past some people will regrow their hair in those bald patches and never ever experience another episode of alopecia Arata again whereas for other people they'll experience the bald patch of alipa Arata they'll get it to regrow completely and then later on they'll have another of alipa Arata they may develop a bald patch in the same place or a different location on their scalp they may even develop multiple bald patches a lot of people go through this cycle throughout their life of getting a bald patch losing their hair then it regrows then it stays calm for a while then they experience a relapse of the alipa Arata this is often the case for a lot of people many people will experience a relapse within a year of regrowing most relapses occurring within at least 5 years this can be really distressing for patients to cope with experiencing these bouts of hair loss regrowth and then hair loss again hair loss is super distressing it feels like you're out of control it's emotionally distressing and then people of course make unwanted comments about your appearance and it it's it's a lot to go through it's it's very stressful when the hair starts to regrow it can come back in a slightly different color often white or blonde and maybe even has a slightly different texture however with time your hair will go back to its normal color and texture because alopecia Arata affects everyone differently how long a given relapse last also varies from person to person the hair May regrow on its own within a year whereas for other people hair regrowth requires medications because the hair regrowth process can take time some people want to have treatment to hasten the onset of hair regrowth make sure you stay tuned to the end of the video because I'm going to be talking about the treatments for alpia Arata with treatment however most people will start to see some signs of hair regrowth within about 6 weeks if the treatment is effective however of course it's going to take more time for the hair to completely regrow how long until you get another relapse the time in between relapses again varies from person to person I want you to keep that in mind because a lot of times you will see people singing the Praises of a particular treatment topical something they bought in the store diet AR supplement claiming that it just completely reversed their hair loss if they're dealing with alopecia Arata it could totally be guilty by association du due to the natural course of how alopecia arot can go your hair will spontaneously start growing again and it's like oh wow and for some people once it starts growing again they never experience the bout of alipa Arata again whereas for other people it's totally different so anything someone says that they tried and worked for them andless unless it's an evidence-based treatment you really have to strongly side eye it because for a lot of patients their hair will just start regrowing again and it'll be a thing of the past especially kids teenagers young adults how do you cure alopecia Arata there is no cure for it as it stands now there is no cure we have treatments that can control it that can get the hair to regrow in cases where it's not spontaneously growing back but there is no cure the root cause of alopecia Arata is autoimmune disease it's an autoimmune process what that means is that the immune system gets confused thinks a part of your body is foreign starts to attack it this can be related to your genetics some people inherit genes from their parents that make them predisposed to have an immune system that gets confused a lot of times Wellness accounts various influencers will badmouth Physicians and say we don't treat the root cause this is the root cause you can't necessarily go in and re-engineer your genetics your immune system to stop doing this not to say there will never be a cure we have so many new amazing Therapeutics which I'm going to talk about in today's video and old amazing Therapeutics that we still use and we are constantly learning about this disease but it takes a long time and the mechanisms are complex so it's not going to be as simple as taking a supplement tweaking your diet going on some sort of restrictive diet where you only eat these categories of food or you eliminate X Y and Z that can just lead to more hair loss because you may develop a micronutrient deficiency develop a telogen of fluvium so don't fall for those things what are the signs and symptoms that you need to be on the lookout for when it comes to alopecia Arata i' I've talked about a lot of different types of hair loss on here and I've pointed out before that it's possible to have more than one type of hair loss process going on for example you may have alope Arata but you may also have androgenetic alopecia so two things going on at one time so what are the signs and symptoms of alopecia Arata well like I said all of a sudden you notice a bald patch mostly going to be in the scalp the beard area for men completely bald usually oval to round in shape you can have some itch some tingle some burning sensation you also May develop some irritation especially in the eyebrow area remember this is an autoimmune process the immune systems coming in around the hair follicle can generate some inflammation preceding the hair loss the hair loss is hair loss that all of a sudden comes out all at once with alopecia Arata the immune system also likes to play around with your nails so it's not uncommon to also have nail changes with alopecia Arata the nails can become brittle thin feel like sandpaper if you look very carefully at them you can see these little pits what are the risk factors for getting alopecia Arata a lot of the risk factors are correlation not necessarily proof of causation extreme stress uh when you are stressed out your brain releases signals to the body you know peripherally that impact how your immune system functions so it's not uncommon to have alopecia Arata come out after a stressful life event emotional stress physical stress uh maybe you were in the hospital had a fever it's not uncommon because it's an autoimmune attack against the hair follicles patients who have alpia Arata not uncommon for them to have other autoimmune diseases especially autoimmune thyroid disease if you have autoimmune thyroid disease more likely to have alip Arata also Vitiligo I have a whole video All About Vitiligo check it out if you have psoriasis an inflammatory condition with skin and nail findings usually well circumscribed scaly plaques often on the elbows the knees the rear end the scalp Nails can be very crumbly those patients also can go on to develop alopecia Arata then you have folks who have what we call atopy uh which includes hay fever asthma and atopic dermatitis commonly referred to as eczema if you have this or the the family of these atopic conditions you are at a greater risk for Alopecia Arata some cancer patients are treated with a medication to treat their cancer called noolab and this drug can trigger alopecia Arata it does so in about 1 to 2% of patients who get this drug to treat their cancer while hair loss is very distressing to go through developing alipa Arata on nomap is actually a good thing it's kind of a clue that the drug is working to Target your cancer one big uh Association and again Association doesn't prove causation but one one strong Association is in people who smoke specifically people who smoke for 10 or more years five or more cigarettes a day they have a really you know a much greater association with alopecia Arata probably because when you smoke it messes around with your immune system and so don't smoke how do we go about treating it well one of the things we do when patients have alip Arata is make sure their thyroid is okay and if you have alopecia arot your thyroid Labs may be screened more routinely the treatment path depends a lot on how extensive your your alopecia Arata is and your age you know children as I said this is the most common type of hair loss that children experience the treatments we use in children slightly different the first treatment is to do nothing the wait and see approach as I said a lot of people their hair will regrow and the treatments may make the hair regrowth happen a little bit faster so in some so so if you have one or two patches especially a young child a young adult the wait and see approach is a reasonable thing to do because oftentimes it regrows especially in young kids and why expose yourself to medications treatment interventions only to possibly have it regrow a little bit faster treatment um as a side note does not guarantee that you won't have a relapse treatment does not necessarily prevent relapse per se some treatments May reduce a risk but for kids 10 years of age and younger typically what we would do is a topical steroid to the bald spot twice a day then once the child starts getting regrowth also you can add on minoxidil minoxidil will help to keep the hair in the growing phase a little bit longer and may ensure that the hair you know gets gets a good Fighting Chance of regrowing kids T and up depending on the extent of hair loss we we may offer um something called Contact immunotherapy which I'll explain what that entails in a moment or a new class of medications called Jack Inhibitors which are approved for kids 12 years and older one of them is and I'll explain that in a moment if you're an adult with patches multiple patches one thing that might be offered to you most likely is intal lesional steroids basically taking a steroid medicine injecting it directly into the scalp down to the follicle to silence and quiet that autoimmune attack and this involves you coming in every four to 6 weeks interlesional steroid injections are one of the most effective treatments um at at getting regrowth um usually about 80% of people respond to to to these usually every four to 6 weeks you get the injections you can usually start to get regrowth within about 3 months so the other option is the topical steroids topical steroids need to be applied twice a day to the area they don't work as well in adults but they can definitely help in kids then there is something you can put on called anolin and the way you do this is you apply the anolin to the bald patches you leave it on uh and then you wash it off a short contact therapy approach causes a lot of irritation a lot and that irritation is hopefully kind of helping to redirect your immune system to start ignoring the hair hair follicle so your hair can regrow this is often coupled with Minoxidil to get the hair in the growing phase of the hair cycle and get better results now when you have extensive alopecia Arata many many patches or you have Al alopecia totalis meaning all of your scalp hair this is a time where contact immunotherapy may be may be recommended um and again I pointed out that this might be something that is offered for kids um with extensive alp Chariot so what this involves is you go in and we put something on the skin that causes a lot of irritation a reaction the first visit is something you have to have applied in office the first visit we apply it to a small area to get your body to react to it once you have that reaction to it then you come in weekly and have it applied in office it's not something you can do at home you have to come in weekly and what happens is you go home and you cover the the the area of the scalp for 48 hours you're going to develop a rash that's the goal to develop a rash and that rash will usually resolve within about 36 hours you do this weekly so it's kind of involved actually it's not right for everybody it's involved and you know it's uncomfortable but this can actually get pretty good regrowth so the treatment is continued weekly until your hair completely regrows if you don't respond to it however after 6 months then we call it quits then I want to talk about Jack Inhibitors this is a newer class of medications we have two of them that are FDA approved for Alopecia Arata Jack Inhibitors help to Target specific aspects of your immune system to calm down that autoimmune attack not only are they used for alpia Arata but they're used for other autoimmune diseases including aligo not only is this helpful for hair loss on the scalp also for anywhere including the eyebrows and the eyelashes you have barit nib which is approved for adults with alip Arata it's a pill you take once a day and you have riddle C nib which is approved for adults as well as for kids 12 years of age and older who have extensive alopecia Arata and this also is a pill that would be taken once a day so Jack Inhibitors like I said they target the immune system system in a very specific way to kind of calm down the autoimmune attack but there are also several other medications that have been more commonly over decades used to treat alopecia Arata as well as other um inflammatory skin conditions well first of all prazone prazone can actually be pretty effective um but it's not something you can be on in definitely long term because it has a lot of side effects it's it's an immune it suppresses the immune system pretty strongly then you also have Methotrexate um Methotrexate is something we use to treat psoriasis um and it also can be used to treat Alp Arata as well as a drug called cyclosporin um so these are additional options pills that you take by mouth not going to be right for everyone they have certain side effects but maybe something that's offered to you they've been these are drugs that we've been using for many many many many many many years so there's that all right when it comes to the Lash loss you also have in addition to the Jack Inhibitors which can help you also have well false eyelashes and you know when we think about eyelashes and false eyelashes you're probably just thinking oh yeah whatever Cosmetics but when you lose your eyelashes it really can have adverse effects to your eyes lashes are really important for keeping stuff out of your eyes so when you lose your lashes as well as brows you can develop a lot of my irritation so false eyelashes can help replace that temporarily risk there is you can develop an allergy to the glue but certainly an option suggest wearing glasses to protect your eyes make sure you wear sunglasses as well when you are out during daylight hours to protect your eyes from the Sun um Bata Prost or Le can also be used to regrow the lashes as well as the Brows now letis does have side effects of irritation hyperpigmentation but it can be really useful for the lashes now for the Brows I already mentioned bamat Proco latis um also with the brow area you can get injections directly into the brow area and get regrowth similar to the scalp injections injections of the steroid medicine you can also get artificial eyebrows that you just tape on there and you can do microblading microblading is a semi-permanent tattoo involv deposition of these pigments um lasts anywhere from 6 months to a year a lot of people though are not necessarily super happy with the way it looks after a year once those pigments start fading um you know the skill set of the person doing it is Paramount but that's definitely something that a lot of people end up pursuing and then of course makeup you know you can paint your eyebrows on with eyebrow Cosmetics all right guys so that's what alpia Arata is the root cause autoimmune disease things that may be associated with it trigger it how to recognize it and the treatments if you're dealing with any type of hair loss make sure you see a dermatologist you get the right diagnosis before you go trying things because the earlier things are intervened on the better the likelihood you have of regrowing your hair of of success alpia Arata is not scarring but other types of hair losss are and so you don't want to miss out on an opportunity to treat those early and prevent that scar that way you guarantee a chance at least of getting hair regrowth because once those those hair loss disorders once they form a scar you can't get regrowth in that area um so make sure you have the right diagnosis you stay consistent with your dermatologist with treatments that they recommend you come in regularly like for example if you were getting contact sensitization therapy immunotherapy where they apply it to your scalp once a week it's pain to come in but you've got to stay consistent with those appointments in order for the process to work to generate that irritation that kind of retrains your immune system to go away from your hair follicle anyways guys I hope this video was informative on the Insight I'm going to put my recent video All About frontal fibrosing alopecia in other words if you have noticed that your hairline is receding you are definitely going to want to watch that video next because we talk about a commonly missed hair lost Disorder so watch that one next but if you like this video give it a thumbs up share it with your friends and as always don't forget sunscreen And subscribe I'll talk to you guys tomorrow [Music] bye

Channel: Dr Dray

Views: 16,642

Keywords: alopecia areata, alopecia areata treatment, alopecia treatment, alopecia areata injection treatment, dr dray alopecia, dr dray alopecia areata, alopecia areata dermatologist, dermatologist alopecia treatment, alopecia dermatologist, alopecia areata cure, what is alopecia areata, alopecia areata causes, alopecia areata symptoms, how to treat alopecia hair loss, treatment for alopecia, alopecia areata medicine, alopecia areata treatment injection, alopecia areata treatment cream

Id: NhHezc3awTc

Length: 20min 59sec (1259 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2024