Anon, I agree with Alysia, it's so thoughtful of you to put your knowledge as an RN, your determination and the internet together to try to get some answers for her.
As far as whether her daughters will be affected, while there does seem to be a genetic component to alopecia, it is hard to pin down just what the rate of occurence is. Here is one study on the National Institutes for Health site that identified four chromosomes that seem to be involved:
As far as why Jaime's hair grew in during her pregnancies, I didn't find anything substantial or scientific on it (yet!). However, I did find several instances of others who had experienced this. You have to wonder whether pregnancy hormones (or even prenatal vitamins) have an effect. I did find this old, old article on alopecia receding during pregnancy and recurring when menstruation began again (just click on the page number and the pdf file will appear so that you can read it):
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Anon, I agree with Alysia, it's so thoughtful of you to put your knowledge as an RN, your determination and the internet together to try to get some answers for her.
As far as whether her daughters will be affected, while there does seem to be a genetic component to alopecia, it is hard to pin down just what the rate of occurence is. Here is one study on the National Institutes for Health site that identified four chromosomes that seem to be involved:
http://www.niams.nih.gov/News_and_Events/Spotlight_on_Research/2007/alopecia_areata.asp
There also seems to be an autoimmune factor to the condition. This article speaks a little to that:
http://dermatology.about.com/cs/hairloss/a/alopeciaareata.htm
As far as why Jaime's hair grew in during her pregnancies, I didn't find anything substantial or scientific on it (yet!). However, I did find several instances of others who had experienced this. You have to wonder whether pregnancy hormones (or even prenatal vitamins) have an effect. I did find this old, old article on alopecia receding during pregnancy and recurring when menstruation began again (just click on the page number and the pdf file will appear so that you can read it):
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2005903
That last story is mostly just for reference, but it is interesting to know that this happened as far back as the early 1900s.
May 29, 2009 - 8:41amThis Comment
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