Some thyroid patients lose hair due to an underlying autoimmune disease known as alopecia. In the case of alopecia, the body is having an autoimmune reaction against its own hair follicles.
The primary symptom of alopecia is hair loss in round or oval hairless patches. This type of alopecia is known as alopecia areata. Typically, in 80% of cases, alopecia will affect only 1 patch, usually around the size of a quarter. Approximately 12% will have 2 patches, and 8% will have a number of patches of hair loss. The most frequent location is the scalp, which affects from two-thirds to almost all alopecia patients. In men, around 33% lose hair in the beard. Rarely, hair is lost from eyebrows and extremities. In only 7% of cases, alopecia is extensive, and involves loss of more than half of the body's hair. The loss of all facial and scalp hair is known as alopecia totalis. Only a very small percentage of those cases will have total hair loss throughout the body, known as alopecia universalis. Less common alopecia symptoms include pitting in nails, a burning sensation and itching of the skin.
Hair loss is common in many autoimmune conditions, and both hair loss as a symptom and alopecia as a condition are discussed at length in the chapter on "Hair and Skin Conditions" in my book, Living Well With Autoimmune Disease: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You...That You Need to Know, which was published in 2002 by HarperCollins. Here is an excerpt:
Treatment
Some practitioners do not believe in even treating alopecia, because the condition is not considered medically "dangerous," and because remission and hair regrowth can be expected in the majority of cases.
In alopecia patients with extensive disease, as many as 8 to 45% have some positive regrowth with use of the 5% solution of minoxidil (Rogaine), but the treatment needs to be continuous in order to promote and maintain regrowth.
Drug treatments that are sometimes used include injected corticosteroids into the affected area. While this treatment hasn't been extensively studied, one study found that 92% of patients with small amounts of hair loss had some regrowth, and 61% of patients with total alopecia had some regrowth.
Topical steroids are also used in some patients, and fluocinolone acetonide cream 0.2% (Synalar) and betamethasone dipropionate cream 0.05% (Diprosone) had some regrowth results in studies.
Occasionally, in cases where alopecia comes on suddenly and extensively, oral corticosteroids may be used, in order to attempt to slow or stop the alopecia. Some practitioners, however, have found no results with this treatment, and even when success has been reported, patients relapse after stopping the therapy. The doses needed to obtain results are high enough that adverse side effects can also be experienced.
Oral cyclosporine is used in some patients, and all patients experienced some regrowth taking this drug, with half having cosmetically acceptable regrowth. Stopping the drug almost always triggers a relapse, however, and there's no evidence that oral cyclosporine can slow or prevent hair loss.
