Alopecia: noun, loss of hair, esp on the head; baldness
Everyone's trigger for alopecia is different.
It could be caused by a hormonal imbalance, an autoimmune disease, trauma or a combination of these triggers.
Most will start with alopecia areata, which sometimes progresses to alopecia totalis (loss of facial and scalp hair) or alopecia universalis ( loss of body hair in addition to face and scalp ).
In the UK you will likely be referred to a dermatologist. This is a problem. Alopecia is an autoimmune disease that happens to cause hair loss, and you’ve just been sent to a skin specialist.
Equally if your hair loss is triggered by the hormonal imbalances caused by perimenopause seeing a skin specialist is of limited benefit.
You will be told that there is no cure, which is more than a little depressing as we've come to expect that our doctors can prescribe a pill or a lotion to fix just about anything.
All of these people have alopecia and that’s really the only thing that they have in common. Like the woman who woke up one morning and found a mysterious bald spot, there might not even have been an explicit trigger for you.
As a Health Coach my role is to partner with you and support you to find out the root cause of your hair loss. Using functional medicine as a base we will explore together the best method for you to find optimum health. I’m not selling shampoos or weird lotions and potions. We’re going to start on the inside and work our way out using a structured process. Between 70 and 80% of your immune system can be found in your gut.
