Alopecia Areata

Alopecia areata is a common hair loss disorder caused by unknown reasons. Alopecia areata is non-scarring hair loss disease which is seen in males, females and children, but it is more frequent in kids. Alopecia areata is characterized by the presence of bald patches on the scalp or on other parts of the body. Alopecia areata is an unpredictable disease and there is no treatment to cure it. Sometimes, hair loss is so severe that entire scalp becomes hairless and the condition is called alopecia totalis. In another drastic condition of alopecia areata, whole body suffers from hair loss and the condition is called alopecia universalis.

Alopecia areata can affect any healthy person and it is not life threatening. Alopecia areata is a cosmetic condition which adversely affects psychological condition which lowers the self-esteem. Researches are going on regularly to find out the best course of treatment for this disease.

Causes of Alopecia Areata:

Alopecia areata is attributed to many reasons. It appears that hair loss occurs due to autoimmune factor in which antibodies attack healthy cells of body in search of faulty cells. In this case, healthy cells are the hair follicles. This condition may be genetic also. According to some studies, mental stress is also a factor causing this disease.

Signs of Alopecia Areata:

 Patch appeared in alopecia areata is usually round or oval in shape. Short, broken hairs are present on the patch. These hairs are tapered at the base which forms an exclamation mark appearance. Just slight pulling may pull out the hair without any pain; person may feel some tingling sensation.

Treatment for Alopecia Areata:

The good news is that, in most of the cases, hairs regrow after sometime without any treatment, usually within one year on bald patches in Alopecia areata. You do not need any treatment for this but in severe cases; you may opt for topical steroid treatment which may take several months for regrowth of hairs. Another treatment is injecting steroid injections in the affected patch. When everything fails, you can resort to PUVA therapy.

But the most important thing is to be noted is that all the treatments are not successful for all the people.