Your overall health has a profound impact on the health of your hair. Even common illnesses like the flu or simple infections can disrupt your hair’s growth cycle, resulting in excess shedding or slow regrowth.
Serious (or potentially serious) illnesses like cancer or COVID-19 can cause significant hair loss, and chronic illnesses – especially autoimmune diseases – can wreak havoc on your hair and scalp. Autoimmune illnesses can cause chronic telogen effluvium or lead to permanent baldness.
Is My Immune System Attacking My Hair?
If you have a known autoimmune condition and are experiencing unusual or excessive hair loss, your immune system may be responsible. It’s also possible that your hair loss may be due to side effects from biologic medications used to treat autoimmune disorders, from the stress of dealing with an autoimmune condition, or some combination of these factors.
It you haven’t been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and are experiencing excessive hair loss that can’t be attributed to age, genetics, or stress… it may be time to consult your physician. Many people with autoimmune diseases have mild symptoms (or are asymptomatic) and are unaware of their condition, especially in its early stages.
What Autoimmune Disease Can Cause Hair Loss?
Some of the autoimmune illnesses that can cause hair loss include:
- Alopecia areata: Alopecia areata is an autoimmune illness where the body attacks the hair follicles. Alopecia areata usually results in patchy hair loss, but it can lead to alopecia totalis (the loss of all the hair on the scalp) or alopecia universalis (which is full body hair loss).
- Celiac Disease: Along with other disorders of the digestive tract like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, celiac disease (a genetic intolerance to gluten) can inhibit proper absorption of the nutrients required for healthy hair.
- Chronic Kidney Disease: Hair is made up of proteins and individuals who have kidney disease lose unusually large quantities of protein in their urine. A shortage of properly distributed proteins in the body leads to hair loss or breakage.
- Lupus: Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune response that attacks healthy body tissues, including the hair follicles. It can cause brittle, easily broken hair shafts as well as patchy hair loss.
- Psoriasis: Psoriasis is when an overactive immune system causes scaly plaques to form on the skin. When it affects the scalp, this scaling can cause hair breakage and changes to the shaft’s diameter – leading to overall hair thinning and poor regrowth.
- Thyroid Problems: Hair loss can be caused by autoimmune conditions of the thyroid like Hashimoto’s or Grave’s disease. In the former, an underactive thyroid slows down the hair’s growth cycle and leads to less growth. In the latter, an overactive thyroid speeds the cycle – causing excess shedding.
How Do I Treat Autoimmune Hair Loss? Contact Reef Hair Today
Autoimmune hair loss can be treated in many cases and even reversed in some individuals whose illnesses are well controlled. If autoimmune issues are affecting your hairline, the team at Reef Hair can help. We offer a full spectrum of treatments that create optimal conditions to slow hair loss, regrow shedding hair, or reverse permanent hair loss associated with a variety of conditions. Among our specialties are device assisted ARTAS® and NeoGraft® transplantation procedures, as well as classic manual FUE and FUT transplants. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
