Congresswoman ayanna Pressley shining a spotlight on the condition, millions of
women will face its an auto
immune disease that causes hair
loss called out of Pisa.
>> The congresswoman revealed
her struggle just the other day
in a very
powerful video.
>> I am making peace with
having a location. I have not
right there, I’m very early in
the allocation journey.
What are making progress every day.
>> You can feel her emotional struggle. She says she hopes this will start a conversation
about personal struggles.
The people navigate and she
hopes it creates
awareness. How the peace is a
medical term for baldness it’s
an auto immune disease that
causes hair to fall out from
the scout face and other parts
of the body.
Doctor Jonathan Kantor is a
dermatologist with the Florida
Center for dermatology in Saint
Augustine and joins us here in
the morning show to talk about
our patient.
They’re not sure what causes
the immune system to attack
otherwise healthy follicles in
otherwise healthy people This
is one of the really difficult
things and there are a number
of different forms about peace
out there with the
congresswoman. Her situation
sounds a little bit like LP
Sherry out around the Pisa to
tell us where she really saw
complete loss of all the hair
on the scalp.
>> No that’s actually
fortunately one of the less
common forms of allegations so
that is autoimmune your own
body’s immune system is
reacting in some way to it
sort of like rheumatoid
arthritis or diabetes or many
of the conditions. We don’t
really know exactly what
triggers it. Certainly there
are some thoughts are some you
know there’s some genetic a
preponderance so and people
have got a strong family
history for example, it can be
more likely. It’s hard to say
what it is what’s
causing it. And you know the
struggle here is that there are
so many different forms of hair
loss and
when you start to lose a little
bit of hair like the
congressman was talking about
the video the thing to realize
is that does not mean that you
can lose all your hand fact she
is the unusual extreme example
when you’re going to lose all
your hair, typically with hair
loss you can get a small patch
one or 2, not this type
of extreme. Full full
had lost. But there are those
people who you know they they
wrap their heads and a turban
or what have you.
>> And then they wake up in the
morning and all of sudden there
are clumps that fallut
or you know they’re combing
their hair and they look in the
sink and they’re like oh my
gosh.
>> Absolutely and you know it’s
one of the scary things is that
you know hair loss
and we’re always losing here
and that’s the important thing
to understand here goes through
cycles it goes to an engine
phase where it’s growing a
coast with deals in place where
it’s sort of resting over
losing hair. So when
we are every single day you’re
going to be losing hair, you’re
losing hair in the shower, he
wasn’t here when you walk
around the problem is when
somebody has a disorder.
The hair suddenly is increasing
its rate of hair loss
and that is where the trouble
comes in because you know to
see more and more than it was
in the shower lives on the
pillow cases she talked about
her video and that can be so
emotionally harrowing for
patients and it occurs in all
ages, it occurs in children to
in children you’re typically
going to be dealing with one of
uniforms like Alfie Sherry on a
the good news and there is hope
here the good news is that
for most of these types of hair
loss that are things that we
can do whether it is injecting
steroids to kind of reduce that
immune response into the scalp.
Whether it’s other systemic
medications or other even
topical medications that we can
apply. So the message I would
have to people is if you’re
starting to see hair loss first
of all don’t give up hope
don’t suffer in silence and I
think that’s one of the great
services that this type of you
know outreach really performs
don’t suffer
and sounds go see a doctor
because there probably are
options that we can consider to
slow or halt or even
turn around the hair loss of
people sort is encouraging to
know that the therapies
available, but also know that
it’s a lifelong problem that
you’re going to have to deal
with. So that’s true for
something like Al to shut the
talents like the congresswoman
has absolutely it’s a tendency
towards getting at although
there are people who wear that
resolves and they never have to
deal with it again
for the more common forms of
alipay show because out this is
just a broad term
so for the most common forms
for example till agenda flu
where they had to sort this
kind of shed all the
synchronous Lee offense after
surgery or stress
that often as you know self
limited that’s often going to
get better
by itself. For scarring
alopecia is like for traction
alopecia where people are
braiding their hair tightly for
example and that’s causing
torsion on the hair and that is
causing inflammation and
irritation. If you stop the
underlying process that’s
causing it. Often you can get
the problem to turn around.
So there is hope and you know
there is reason to make sure
you reach out when you’re when
you’re going through that and
as you saw with representative,
not only do you deal with the
physical you have to deal with
the emotional as well
absolutely and that’s one of
the big challenges here you
know hair loss is very very
personal to sending you know
what people society early
here is a very it’s a sacred
thing particular to women but
to men as well as all those
broken commercials for 20 years
ago can attest to
so you know we really value our
hair and for many people, it’s
tied up with their identity,
not usually as much as with the
representative, but certainly
you know people it’s tied to
their identity so having
that hair loss is it sort of an
emotional blow.
And so it’s important to make
sure you talk about that with
your family talk about that
with your doctor
because sometimes realize that
their options to treat it can
be helpful and sometimes just
coming to grips with that
understanding listen. This may
be something that is defining
for me, but this does not
define me. This is not who I am
and being able to lift yourself
above that is often a
really really powerful thing
but that’s not something you
can do alone. So it’s important
to reach out
your community your family and
your doctors to really try to
focus on that I think that’s
what the representative really
wanted to do with her message
she wanted to say OK.
I want to create a dialogue
here I want to create an
awareness of the people know
that.
>> Number one they’re not alone
number 2, it’s OK to talk about
it number 3.
>> You’ve got to talk about it
absolutely and you know there’s
precedent for the city well
you look at for example, a
Google trends searches to see
kind of what level of interest
people have in things when
celebrities or public figures
come out
what diseases. There is a surge
of interest that occurs in the
public in a surge of awareness
that occurs
and so that can be very helpful
to really open that dialogue to
continue that dialogue can can
make a real difference for