Health Articles

There are two main groups of alopecia: scarring alopecia and non-scarring alopecia.

Non-scarring alopecia

Non-scarring alopecia often involves alopecia variants where the hair falls off without inflammation or scarring. When a doctor tugs at some hair and the hairs come off effortlessly, a person mostly likely has non-scarring alopecia.

Non-scarring alopecia often heals on its own. Hair reproduction usually continues when a pre-existing condition has already been taken care of.

Cicatricial Alopecia

Cicatricial alopecia or scarring alopecia doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have ugly welts and scars on top of your head when the hair loss ceases. It simply means that a significant amount of alternation or injury is taking place inside the scalp. When the scalp is harmed from within (not the surface), scar tissue will emerge.

When scar tissue emerges, the membranes responsible for reproducing hair cells to replace fallen hair shafts are damaged permanently. The scarring from within causes the skin outside to appear shinier than usual. Therefore, the next time you see someone with a shiny pate, remember that the shininess might have been caused by scarring.

Characteristics Of Scarring Alopecia

Scarring alopecias have very similar physical properties. This is how a routine scalp examination at your general practitioner’s can yield accurate results regarding the state of your hair and your scalp. Doctors follow certain ‘clues’ to find out whether someone is suffering from the scarring variant of alopecia.

1. Skin’s physical appearance - normal skin is supple and regularly traversed by hair shafts. When the skin exhibits inverse characteristics, something is wrong.

2. Hair’s behavior – scarring alopecias almost always affect only the hair located at the very scalp. The rest of the body might not exhibit any symptoms of alopecia.

3. Blistering – if for no particular reason at all the scalp shows signs of blistering and extensive inflammation, coupled with hair loss, this may be a strong sign that active scarring alopecia is already present.

4. Evolution of the disease- a dermatologist would be able to identify scarring alopecias in any of its stages of development as a disease. You may find out that your disease may already be in an advanced stage, or it may still be in its ‘infancy’.

5. Genetic predisposition – a doctor may compare medical histories in your family to trace whether similar occurrences occurred years or decades before you were born. This might give the dermatologist a clue of what exactly you’re afflicted with.

What It Does

Take note that some alopecia may cause just the stoppage of hair reproduction. The roots and follicles may still be intact; it’s just that the genes of a person inhibit the further normal growth of hair.

Scarring alopecias are another thing altogether. They’re destructive at the level of the hair follicles. If the hair follicles are the main target of your particular disease, doctors will categorize this as primary cicatricial alopecia. When the follicles are not completely harmed, the condition is called secondary scarring alopecia.

Secondary scarring alopecia often occurs in cancer patients that have to undergo regular treatments. Chemotherapy destroys cancer cells and inhibits the normal reproduction of the body cells. In some cases, radiation destroys the sensitive membranes in the scalp.

Alopecia or hair loss is the medical description of the loss of hair from the head or body, sometimes to the extent of baldness.

ALOPECIA

The study of genetics will improve hair baldness therapy. Preventing baldness is possible. Treatment pharmacological minoxidil and finasteride has opened the way for others medications to treat hair loss. The future, according to experts, is gene therapy for hair loss. If until recently the treatment of baldness and hair loss was a breeding ground for false promises, at present, the scientific way towards solving the alopecia and hair loss has just begun. New derivatives of finasteride as episteride, the turusteride, MK-963, the RU-58841 or the local palicación receptor antagonists of male hormones are being of various tests to treat hair loss.
Hair loss process
GENE THERAPY

According to a review published in August in New England Journal of Medicine , there are now many fronts in the search fo find a remedy for hair loss. On the one hand, the Boston magazine refers to the need to know all key pathophysiological different kinds of alopecia and well design drugs that protect the follicles which causes deterioration stop producing hair. But without a doubt, scholars have put almost all its hope in the possibilities offered by gene therapy. We have already identified one of the genes associated with alopecia universalis, a type baldness very rare in which a mutation in a gene on chromosome 8 causes the affected person has no hair on any part of your body.

According Authors of this review, identify and explain the operation of all the genes involved in androgenetic hair loss will be critical to develop treatments. For Ralf Paus and George Cotsarelis, a dermatologist in Hamburg University and Pennsylvania, “the hair follicle is the way of access more feasible to implement them. For now, being tested on mice local laboratory introduction of liposomes containing DNA capable of regenerate the damaged follicle. If some of these expectations come to fruition, it will mean a step giant in the eradication of what for many is a very serious problem.

The Two Sigma Research Institute, presented last week a study on the psychological impact of mild to moderate hair loss in 403 males between 25 and 45. 63% of respondents feel less attractive and 28% believed that most hair could find mates more easily. More than half of those who said they felt anxious about hair loss, and 14% of those who say not to worry about the problem, have tried some kind of remedy for hairloss. All who are in these circumstances must know that, for now, only two medications have proven effective to treat baldness.

One is minoxidil, a vasodilator of smooth muscle (whose mechanism of action is still unknown) that triggers the hair follicles and get hair loss improved by over 80% of patients, with little effect side. The second is finasteride, released on 1998. This drug inhibits an enzyme that promotes male baldness genetically predisposed. It has been shown that finasteride slows alopecia in 80% of cases, with a good safety profile and few contraindications.