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Permalink Reply by S Uy on November 13, 2011 at 8:27am

I stumbled on this conversation and had to say something jumped out at me. The comment by EmmettBrown on eliminating dairy and gluten struck me - because of the comment ("..slip up and eat these, I immediately feel itching in the areas of my scalp and eyebrows where the hair fell out"). I have had severe itching on my scalp, eyebrows and groin area. I totally lost all my hair - everywhere - but then started itching on certain spots. Oddly, some of those severe itch sites led to a return of some hair - like my left eyebrow and the groin area. But the other spots that still itch (it comes and goes) haven't - like my other eyebrow and the entire scalp.

So - is it because 1) hair is growing back - like in some instances or 2) allergic reaction? I feel like I'm close to an answer for me....I was GF for a time but not dairy...I may give that a whirl for a month (try to be real dedicated) and see if the bouts of itching diminish but the growth continues. Anyone else have the severe itch? How do you know it's impending growth or just allergy? The areas that do have some hair still itch by the way...soooo....

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Permalink Reply by emmettbrown on November 13, 2011 at 8:48am

Hi S Uy, I would definitely ditch the dairy for awhile and see how you do. That seems to be a common trigger for many with autoimmune disorders. Might also want to add a good fish oil supplement to your regimen - it helps calm the inflammation - probably would help the itching as well. Also might want to try taking Folic acid - it helps the hair grow faster. A friend of mine with eczema had success with fish oil and folic acid (eczema and AA have a lot in common). Best of luck!

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Permalink Reply by S Uy on November 13, 2011 at 10:26am

thanks EmmettB. - started today with coconut milk and coffee (also keeping caffeine down since there's a correlation with cortisol - stress - caffeine and thus AA disorders (caffeine can artificially increase cortisol by up to 30% (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&...). My coffee is always half caf and I watch my chocolate and tea consumption (and chocolate now has to be DF). Anyway - will keep up with the fish oil and B vitamins...fingers crossed that other issues like joint swelling and mood swings will also get addressed. They always improve on GF and watching caffeine...so with DF - who knows?! I am my own guinea pig with this...but do I miss donuts and pizza!!! Ugh!! :-)

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Permalink Reply by emmettbrown on November 13, 2011 at 12:36pm

LOL - hang in there. Totally understand where you're coming from. We're all guinea pigs at this point because autoimmune conditions are still such a mystery to the medical community. Coconut milk is a good substitute - plus, it has some other great energy boosting properties - I just can't drink it too often because it can actually crank up your metabolism and i'm already too lean! Re: the pizza - have you tried Bob's Red Mill's gluten-free pizza dough mix. It's actually not bad and fairly easy to make. Unfortunately, i don't think they have a donut mix :) Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by laura on November 14, 2011 at 3:08am

hi andrea,i read the link and think it was very interesting.i think ill try some probiotics and watch my diet and see what happens.......nothing to loose right??? x

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Permalink Reply by Nick on November 15, 2011 at 6:23am

there may also be a link to h.pylori infection. (google it) might get myself tested.. seems that a man with 8 month AA who wasn't responding to the usual treatments went into remission after this infection was treated.

something else i found interesting that was shown on tv recently was a girl inducing regrowth by taking bifidobacterium infantis 35624

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