of hypothesis and theories on the disease. Many suggest that it is an autoimmune disease. They also suggest that its where ones own immune system prevents hair follicles from producing hair fiber. As I was doing my research I came across the autoimmune part and totally lost. Its a breakdown in the immune system. As we know every person produces their own cell types that fight off disease and infection. In order to fight off the bad bacteria our bodies must be able to recognize the bad known as antigens (often proteins) on the surface of the UN wanted invaders. Everyones immune system should be able to recognize the bad, and be able to fight it off. In an autoimmunity this is where the immune system is not able to recognize the invaders and fight them off. This is not known for sure if this is what alopecia areata is. It is a hypothesis, its based on certain antigens in the hair follicle. Many reports and printouts I came across kept saying, the etiology of alopecia areata is entirely unknown"(e.g. Price 1991, Parret 1984, Paus 1993). According to (editorial 1984) evidence hair loss is a result of immune system activity. Which is then classified as an autoimmunity. This evidence is based on observations of an immune cell in and around the hair follicles (Parret 1984) and the knowledge that some people with the disease can re grow hair when under going immunosuppressive therapy. Immunosuppressive therapy is a suppression of the immune response. It is done through drugs and or radiation. They have found out that the immune system is acting normal against abnormal hair follicles. Through all the research that Ive been doing, I keep coming across the line that its still unknown. This disease is still being researched. Its not really safe to say an autoimmunity is what Alopecia areata is for sure, but a good hypothesis. There us no cure that has been found for Alopecia areata yet. It has a course that it runs. Many of the doctors and researc...
