Sunday, October 23, 2011

Diagnosis For Hair Loss

By Owen Jones


Alopecia is the medical term for excessive hair loss, but there are quite a number of varieties as there are quite a few causes of hair loss. Most individuals think that alopecia refers to a virus, but in truth it merely means baldness. Therefore, typical male pattern baldness can be called pattern alopecia or androgenic alopecia.

Excessive hair loss is defined as more than 100 hairs falling out every day and may be caused by heredity, sickness, disease, poor nutrition, pregnancy, poor immune system, bad hairdressing, medication, iron deficiency, scalp disease, chemotherapy, lupus and venereal disease.

So, if you start losing an abnormal amount of hair suddenly, it is a sign that you ought to visit the GP for a couple of check ups. The visit to a medical doctor may involve a lengthy questionnaire. Presumably, your medical doctor has a record of your medical history, but he or she might want to know of your lifestyle and your ancestry too.

If you are paying the physician by the hour, or your time is limited, you can save time spent at the surgery by jotting down some notes. These notes might be a record of the food that you have consumed in the previous week or two in order to supply a snapshot of your normal diet; a list of the medications you take and a little about your lifestyle, such as working hours, socializing hours, drinking habits etc.

Stress can also be a factor, so be prepared to talk about your family life and your job or lack of one. Be willing to answer any questions honestly or there is no point going in the first place.

The GP will examine the health of your hair and your scalp and will almost certainly pull your hair to see how easily it comes out. This is usually carried out on 50-60 hairs at a time and it called the pull test. If the hair comes out too easily, it may be an indication of drug abuse.

The pluck test is intended to pull hairs out by the roots in order to check them. Inspection of the roots under a microscope will disclose what stage of development the hair is in. Basically, hairs have three stages of growth and the stage can be determined by the root.

If the reason for the hair loss cannot be found by these ways, the medical doctor may want to take samples of the upper layer of skin and possibly even a sample of deeper skin, which can be acquired with a small tool there and then in the doctor's surgery.

As a last resort, the physician might like to take a sample of your blood, but it is unusual to have carried out all the above tests without coming to a conclusion about the reason for your sudden hair loss.




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