Unfortunately, hair loss is a side effect that many people who are suffering from an illness or disease have to endure. Many of us know that chemotherapy treatment, used to battle various forms of cancer, often causes severe hair loss in a large proportion of patients. When a patient has chemotherapy treatment the drugs work by forming an attack on cancer cells that are present in the body.
An unfortunate side effect of this is that the drugs cannot distinguish between cancer cells and the cells that produce hair follicles, and due to this the hair is damaged and falls out.
Not everyone who has chemotherapy will suffer with hair loss, and it can affect people with varying degrees from bald patches to the entire loss of hair on the body. In most cases, the hair does grow back after chemotherapy has completely stopped; many cancer patients have reported that the hair grows back very finely to begin with, returning to normal after a period of time.
Not Just Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is not the only medical treatment that can potentially cause hair loss; there are other illnesses that can often come with an increased risk of bald patches. People who have a thyroid disorder, whether it is hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, often suffer with hair loss, which will persist until the thyroid problem is being treated.
Hair loss can also be a common concern for people who suffer from bipolar disorder or other forms of behavioural or psychological problems; this hair loss is not usually caused by the illness itself, but is a side effect of many treatments and oral medicines that are used to regulate the bipolar disorder.
Diabetes sufferers often report a thinning of the hair in the early stages of the disease; this is usually because the body is not getting enough nutrients to adequately take maintain skin and hair. Once a person is on a prescribed course of treatment to regulate the diabetes then they normally find that the hair loss is reversed. If they cannot get a proper solution hair transplants can be a lasting option but not eveyone is a good candidate and it is a costly procedure.