Certain medications can have unwanted side effects- like hair loss. Here's the invaluable anti-baldness guide.
All hair bearing animals lose hair in the course of time. This is natural phenomenon that occurs during their hair growth cycle. In fact over 24 hours period, most individuals are estimated to lose about 50-100 scalp hair. The good news though is that, that much is pretty normal.
You would possibly be noticing your hair loss with a few extra hairs in the bathroom or in your comb. But just as little drops can make an ocean, the extra innings happening on your scalp could progress to partial or even complete baldness.
• A strand of hair grows for three to four years, in what is called the anagen phase.
• The hair decides that it has grown enough, and rests for three months, in its telogen phase.
• At the end of telogen phase, the hair falls out- to be replaced by a new hair in its anagen phase.
Drugs cause hair loss by interfering with this normal cycle of scalp hair growth. The severity of drug induced hair loss depends upon the type of drug and dosage, as well as your sensitivity to that drug. The good news is that, in most cases, drug induced hair loss is easily reversible once you stop taking the drug.
Medications can lead to two types of hair loss: Telogen effluvium and Anagen Effluvium.
One of the most common forms of hair loss- Telogen Effluvium (TE)- happens as a result of early entry of hair into the telogen phase, as the name tries to indicate.
The massive hair loss due to TE appears as a diffuse thinning of hair on the scalp, which may not be even all over.
People with TE never completely lose all their scalp hair, but the hair can become noticeably thin in severe cases.
Whatever form of hair loss TE takes, it is fully reversible. The hair follicles are not permanently or irreversibly affected; there are just more hair follicles in a resting phase than there should normally be.
Emotionally or physiologically stressful events may result in an alteration of the normal hair growth cycle.
The massive hair loss of this type may be due to variety of causes other than drugs and medications such as eating disorders, crash diets, fever, child birth, chronic illness, major surgery, anemia, severe emotional disorders and hypothyroidism.
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Cholestrol lowering drugs
Parkinson's medications:
Ulcer drugs
Anti coagulants
Gout drugs
Anti arthritics
Drugs derived from Vitamin A used in acne, psoriasis
Anti convulsants for epilepsy
Anti depressants
Beta blocker drugs for high blood pressure
Anti thyroid agents
Some male hormones
Clofibrate, Gemfibrozil
Levodopa
Cimetidine, Rantidine, Famotidine
Coumarin, Heparin
Allopurinol
Pencillamine, Auranofin, Indomethacin, Naproxen, Sulindac, Methoteraxate
Isotretinoin( Accutane), Etretinate(Tegison)
Dilantin, Trimethadione
Tricyclics, Amphetamines
Atenolol, Metoprolol, Nadolol, Propanolol,Timolol
Carbimazole, Iodine, Thiocyanate, Thiouracil
Anabolic steroids and cortisones
Anagen Effluvium (AE) is a diffuse hair loss like Telogen Effluviu, but it develops much more quickly and can cause individuals to lose all their hair. Anagen Effluvium is most frequently seen in people taking Cytostatic drugs for cancer or those who have ingested toxic products like rat poison.
Anti cancer chemotherapy drugs often lead to AE type of hair loss.
As these drugs kill cancer cells throughout the body, they also can damage healthy cells, including the hair matrix cells.
The hair typically starts to fallout within two weeks of starting chemotherapy.
Hair fall progresses more rapidly after one to two months.
Hair loss is more common and severe in patients taking combination of chemotherapy drugs than those who take just one drug.
Now dear Homoeopaths...
In our daily practice we come across many patients of hair fall. While case taking and making totality of symptoms we need to keep in mind the Causa Occasionalis for hair loss. Consider if the patient is on the above mentioned medications which are causing hair loss/fall. While starting your treatment can you stop those medications or taper them off or those drugs are so important that you just can't stop them, so the patient can be helped.
1. TE after typhoid fever- Acidum Fluor
2. TE after exhaustive diseases- Acidum Phos
3. TE due to anemia- Ferrum Phos
4. TE during pregnancy, after child birth, during nursing of child- Nat. mur., sepia, Carbo.veg.
5. TE after severe diseases with much perspiration on the head- Thallium
6. Helps in re-growth of hair- Thymus serpyllum
7. Helps in growing of hair more rapidly than usual and making them darker. New hair take the place of fallen hair rapidly- Wiesbaden.
But friends don't forget, Along with these therapeutics one should consider constitutional remedy for holistic approach and causa occasionalis should be removed. Also diet & regimen should be taken care of.
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Certain medications can have unwanted side effects- like hair loss. Here's the invaluable anti-baldness guide. All hair bearing animals lose hair...
Read MoreCertain medications can have unwanted side effects- like hair loss. Here’s the invaluable anti-baldness guide. All hair bearing animals lose hair in the course of time. This is natural phenomenon that occurs during their hair growth cycle. In fact over 24 hours period, most individuals are estimated to lose about 50-100 scalp hair.