Her Alopecia Womens Hair Loss Forums

ok i'm obsessed and desperate!

Please read this!

guess you weren't too far off the mark - look what I found today.

http://www.ijdvl.com/article.asp?issn=0 ... ast=Thappa

and then look at this success story!!!!

Very interesting. We never were told about Iodine and we saw at least four different dermatologists when my daughter first lost her hair. Well you know the story....it was passed along to us by an acquaintance of my mother's. It worked the first time and has worked for her two other times too.

My daughter also suffers from eczema and for the past two years was really under attack by this problem....finally a dermatologist tried light therapy on her and that worked well and she noticed even further hair return. Fortunately our insurance covered the light therapy treatments, as this was very expensive. They look just like a tanning booth, except a tanning booth is a lot cheaper! She was in there for a maximum of 3 minutes at a time. I think her first exposure was only 30 seconds...hardly worth the trouble of taking all your clothes off!!! LOL.

Anyway...this is her senior year and she finally is in control of both her eczema and alopecia areata. See pic below....that is all her own hair!!!! Some spots around the perimeter still need to fill in but she was thrilled to finally get her hair styled and feel like other kids.

Tara's graduation picture for 2006!

She had a ton of hats!!!
We have very few pictures of her with her hair missing, as she really did not want to have pictures taken....

dang the pictures didn't copy. hmmmmm

I was surfing the net looking for info about iodine and hair loss. Can't remember the sites I went on but some info I found was about how iodine affects the thyroid or defiency (sp) of iodine. I am so desperate I am just about willing to try anything to get my hair back but I try to research the info I find just to be on the safe side before I try anything. It seems though iodine can affect hair loss and hair growth and that is due to a thyroid problem. I suggest precaution when trying anything because there is a chance it can through your body off balance and then make things worse. I also found that you can take a simple test called a iodine patch test to find out if you are defiecient (sp) in iodine. It is easy to do and inexpensive. You just buy a little bottle of tincture of iodine ( the colored kind ) and swab a little of it on you bicep. Then you wait for it to disappear and time how long it takes. If memory serves me right, if it disappears within two hours or so then you have a iodine defiency. If you iodine level is normal it should take 6 hours to disappear from your skin. Like I said, I don't remember the sites I found this info on but you can just type in iodine patch test to look for instructions about the test and iodine and hair loss or hair growth to look up info about that. I took the patch test today and the iodine patch test today and it was just about faded off my skin in about 4 hours but it wasn't completely faded. I am not sure if it has to be completely faded or not. I really do want to try the iodine method on my scalp to see if it stimulates my hair growth. I just don't want to through my thyroid off balance in doing so. I have another concern too. Just to make sure I understand this right. The iodine to try on your scalp is just regular tincture of iodine, right? The colorless kind. The bottle I bought of iodine today to do the patch test has a skull and cross bones on it saying poison danger and you are only suppose to use it up to one week on small areas of the skin for minor cuts, scapes, and burns and it is used to prevent infection. My hair loss is all over the top of my head so I would have to smear the iodine everywhere. By no means, would it be a small amount. I just have a fear of having to use so much I end up poisoning myself. I just wanted to check to make sure I will be using the right kind of iodine and try to ease my worries about using it. Would appreciate anyones input. I am going to try to search the web some more to see if I can find out anymore.

Actually the iodine patch test indicates that if you still see the patch after 24 hours then you're not deficient. Anything less than 24 hours - and really indicative is less than 12 hours - points to iodine deficiency and the need to supplement. Optimox makes a product called "Iodoral" which is an iodine suppment. After doing the patch test several days in a row and seeing the patch GONE in the morning after putting the iodine on my skin at midnight I knew I was deficient. So I'm taking one Iodoral pill a day until the patch test reveals I'm no longer deficient (it's taking about 10 hours to disappear now - an improvement).
My hair has completely stopped falling my the way and I've been able to lower my dose of thyroid meds in HALF.

Thank you ms.libby for the info.. I took that patch test and the iodine disappeared I think within two hours or so. I guess that is a pretty good sign I am difiecient (sp). I am stilll waiting to get an referral authorization from my doctor to see an endo. I was putting iodine on my scalp but I stopped because I want to wait to see an endo first. I will discuss the patch test that I took with the endo once I get in to see one. That would be so great if I just needed iodine to get my hair back. I will post whatever I find out with the endo. Thanks again ms.libby for that great info..