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Acupunture, Chinese Medicine, Internal Herbal Remedies..
In the last few months, I've researched Alopecia and treatments...
I was currently looking through a pamphlet at the Chiropractor's Office that discussed Acupuncture and a mixture of Internal Herbal remedies that have been taken and performed on Alopecia Patients. Although, the results are minimal has anyone ever seeked Homeopathy as a form of treatment rather then the Cortisone Injections... I just thought it was rather interesting, any thoughts???
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kayla DeMarini on
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i read on the Msn group this one lady that said she cured her alopecia with something called kwan loong oil so i ordered it and it burns like hell but i definitely noticed a lot of regrowth...not enough to cure my 15 years of alopecia universalis though. they sell it on amazon.com and ebay and stuff. im thinking it works similarly to topical sensitization because it irritated my skin a lot.
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Permalink Reply by maria marks on
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Hi Kayla, I am 46 years old & have had this condition since I was five. I have had burning solutions on my head 18 years ago & was told by the experimental dermatologist it was a decoy for the immune system to create a diversion so the immune response can leave the hair follicle alone. It does not work long term. I don't know of this kwan oil yet can't remember what was applied to my scalp. I only remember the burning pain. I have tried a lot of things in my life time. Maria
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Permalink Reply by Bri on
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Thanks Kayla, it's really interesting to hear about herbal remedies and such..
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Permalink Reply by Prayer on
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I am glad you mentioned this topic, the most successfully stories I have read have come from those who have used the Chinese Medicine, one website I checked out was MerryClinic.com, I would be curious to know if others have had success with the herbal remedies as well.
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Hi
When my daughter was first diagnosed I took her to a lady that practised homeopathy.
What I found was that the treatment seemed to calm my daughters worries. I don't know if it was the treatment or this lovely ladies kindness and care with her. But it did calm her and we were able to work through her hairloss in a fairly positive way. It did nothing to change her hairloss and she went on to become AU at that time.
Chinese remedies do often work because they will have quite high dosages of natural steroids in them. If you are using other steroid treatments it is advised that you let your conventional medical doctor know that you are trying chinese herbal remedies as well.
The problem with steroids of any type is that when the treatment or medication has stopped your hair will fall out once again unless it has moved into a spontaneous remission.
When I attended the Naaf conference they said that if you were having a regrowth period steroids and I suppose herbal remedies containing steroids are able to kickstart regrowth so it happens a little faster.
Hope that helps.
Rosy
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Permalink Reply by Zoey on
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I have had accupunture before too.. But, they were focusing on my back. It did work a little bit for the pain.. one day I went and my allergies were so bad, the doctor asked if I wanted him to fix it. I asked, "How?" Then he told me how he could put the needles in my face and cure the allergies.. Well, the needles in the face thing didnt really appeal to me, so I declined. But, I always wonder if that would really work...
Anyways, I ended up having to have surgery, due to pinched nerves and losing the feeling in one of my feet :(
I would love to go back and try it for my AU. Its very relaxing and calming indeed. (Only if they do not put the needles in my head)
Zoey
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Permalink Reply by Vanessa on
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Hello,
I have developed Alopecia Universalis over the past year or so and I just saw a doctor of traditional chinese medicine today - I am lucky live in a small town that happens to have a school of tcm... I had acupuncture and the doctor(?) also 'tapped' my head with a 'seven star' needle, which made it bleed a little bit (sounds worse than it is) in order to "promote circulation". I wonder how this relates at all to the idea that my immune system is supressing hair growth. Will increasing circulation address this issue? In any case I've decided to suspend my skepticism and give it a good try for a a few months. I'm supposed to 'tap' my own head every day and rub ginger juice on it - and I've also been given some very earthy looking herbs that I will use to make a tea each day. Recently I was 'invited' by the medical specialists I was seeing to be involved in a study that would have me taking some pretty serious medications (methotrexate and prednisone) for six months (since other 'conventional' treatments have not worked)... I've decided not to participate but rather to try this more groovy/less risky 'treatment'
I'm also going to try a few other 'alternative' health approaches. Again, it's convenient that I live in an alternative health mecca (Nelson, BC), though sometimes irritating when everyone seems to have an opinion on why I developed alopecia and how I can heal myself. While I want to remain open-minded, I try not to buy into the idea that I brought alopecia upon myself because of poor diet, repressed emotions, etc.
I think that if these alternative treatments could offer significant help for alopecia, we'd probably know about it. But I need to feel like I've tried everything, to go through the process, and to balance hope with growing acceptance for now...
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I want to Thank you all for posting some great ideas and insights on Chinese Medicine. It has been roughly two months since I changed from Kenalog injections to Acupuncture and Laser Therapy as well as, some homeopathy remedies.
It was extremely interesting listening to all your comments, and thoughts. Although, there's been some great results with the chinese medicine, I waited to long for the Acupuncture and seemed to have lost more hair.
I agree with you Vanessa and I need to in my mind try everything to balance myself. I just finished reading a great book called You can Heal Yourself, perfect novel for those yucky days.
Thanks again everyone for your support. xo
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I like the way you put it.. 'balance hope with growing acceptance'.. tough job balancing these emotions. lets stay hopeful though!
update me if you see any improvement with these treatments :)
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Our daughter started losing her hair last June right before a Cancun trip. A week or two later, the initial balding on one side of her quickly expanded. As parents, it was incredibly hard to see as many of you know. She was only 7 at the time, so she was sad but not distraught. We quickly visited Stanford Hospital and UCSF (two top hospitals in California Bay Area), and all doctors conducted a barrage a tests and diagnosed her with auto-immune disorder - likely AT and AU given the rapid expansion. Within 2 weeks of discovery, she was down to 50% hair loss, and 90% around 6 week timeframe with eyebrow loss on one side. This happened after we diligently applied the topical steroid treatments that were prescribed. Grandparents conducted their own research, and recommended that we try traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Through their China university network, they learned that these symptoms existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years in Chinese history and have been researched extensively at TCM universities and practiced by TCM doctors for much longer.
We pretty much had given up much hope at that point and had already ordered custom wigs and other head dresses in preparation for summer and next school year. Parents flew into town and randomly approached random Chinese elders on street in SF Chinatown to get recommendations on best TCM doctor in town. We took our daughter in to get evaluated and the doctor told us not to worry because he can help. We have always been skeptical of TCM, despite grandparents who swear by it, and relied on western medicine. In TCM, they explain the hairloss as a symptom of liver/kidney dysfunction and/or blood circulation issue and not as an auto-immune disease. It treats the "source" vs. steroids that address the "symptom." TCM supports often explain that treating symptoms isn't enough once you stop taking the medicine, so make sure doctors diagnose and treat the sources. Sounded like a bit of a far fetched snake oil story to us at that time.
Long story short, we stopped the steroids and biotin shampoo treatments last July/August, and changed to the herbal tea concoction that we had to brew daily. It tasted pretty bad so daughter toughed it out. We also got a little hammer prick (same as the reply above) to tap her bald spots, and rubbed fresh ginger slices daily. We continued to apply ginger juice until she got all her hair back (FYI). Within a week, her hair stopped falling, and a week or two after, we saw hair growth on top and back. Within 2 months, we saw hair growth 50% around head, except frontal sides. My parents continued to communicate with their network in China and made a trip there to one of the most respected TCM hospitals and spoke to a specialist there. They brought pictures of our daughter before and after hairloss. Normally the doctors won't treat based off of pictures, but he took interest in my parents commitment and daughter's story and prescribed a few treatments: (1) two different herbal pills to take in morning and night. (2) a glass vial of herbal extract (3) 1 topical steroid. He mentioned that daughters skin was not healthy looking and hair color was too light, which are signs of liver/kidney weakness and blood circulation. The doctor recommended we stop the other TCM treatment after reviewing the herbal recipe, since it was a bit too strong for a 7 year old. We were surprised that the steroid was included but apparently the combination of all was found to work. And it did. Within a week (this was around Thanksgiving), the growth expanded further to 90% and her skin tone improved and hair turned really dark brown. I was already darker with the initial treatment, but now her hair color almost black. She still was missing small patches on left and right side in front. We had already booked a trip to Beijing (Feb) to meet doctor a few months after starting this treatment. Once we saw him, he only made a small tweak - take one of the herbal pills 2x a day instead of 1x. Literally a week later, the remaining bald spots disappeared.
I don't know if we were just lucky that it was a recoverable event, or if it's because our daughter went on the treatment before she had loss her hair for a long duration, but we are super thankful that her hair has continued to grow for past 5 months without new signs of loss. 2 months later (April 2016), we decided to stop taking any of the herbal medicine and keep a month supply on reserve. It's been about 2 months now and her hair continues to grow longer. Initially we thought it was luck or chance based off of an external factor to our daughters diet or life experiences. However, we definitely saw increased hair growth with each TCM treatment so we are believers now. The doctor prescribed wife a tea to help with her cramps and that actually worked too for 4 months after just a week of teas. We continue to want to stay involved in our local Alopecia community as the friendships and support we received has really meant alot to us. We will continue paying it forward.
Interestingly enough, this experience has helped us grow so much more as individuals and as a family.
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Thank you ever so much for sharing your story.
My 10 year son has been diagnosed with Alopecia and we he is currently receiving acupuncture and TCM in Melbourne Australia. I would love to know your contacts in Beijing and if you don't mind sharing what the ingredients are in the treatment that your daughter has been receiving so that I can chat to our TCM consultant.
Your story is very encouraging and although we have a wonderful Alopecia support network the treatment options when it comes to 'non western' treatments can be very isolating.
With many thanks
Diana
PS I have sent you a DM with my email address.
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