ALOPECIA AREATA

The term alopecia means hair loss or baldness. Hair loss occurring in patches is known as alopecia areata. It is usually seen in the scalp but may affect any part of the body including eyebrows, eyelashes, beard and any other body areas. It can occur in any age in both men and women. Alopecia areata is not contagious and is not caused by any food. Like many other health problems, it sometimes starts after a stressful event, or may be related to long standing stresses due to wrong life style.

The cause of Alopecia areata (AA) is autoimmunity. The body’s healthy immune system consisting of white blood cells called lymphocytes bestowed with a capacity to safe guard its own tissues and fight against only the foreign dangerous cells such as bacteria or viruses and destroy them. In AA the lymphocytes perceive the specialized cells in the root of the hair as foreign and try to destroy them. This is accomplished by the release of local chemical messengers called cytokines. These are released by wrong  messages from the nervous system which is overworked and tired .It seems to be that the stressed  and overworked nervous system has lost the discriminative capacity and misjudges some of its own body cells as foreign and promotes the release of these cytokines. Here comes the understanding about the role of mind body interaction in the cause of AA.

AA is often discovered by a hairdresser, as there are usually no symptoms. AA has three stages. First there is sudden loss of hair, then enlargement of the patches of hair loss. Followed by regrowth. One patch can be falling out while another is regrowing. AA does not result in physical disability, but it can be emotionally very distressing.

Unfortunately there is not yet any reliable cure for AA in modern medical science.. Luckily the hair usually grows back slowly by itself. Sometimes the new hair that grows may be grey or white, but after a while the original color usually returns. Some lotions applied to the scalp do seem to result in temporary improvement in some people, but the hair falls out again as soon as they are stopped. Medicines which are often tried include steroids.

What is the role of yoga?
The integrated approach of yoga therapy is useful in removing the root cause of the disease (stressed and overworked nervous system) and hence it provides the right approach to management of AA. A healthy vegetarian diet cooked and served fresh with minimal spices and also consisting of plenty of raw vegetables,non-citrous fruits and sprouts are valuable.

a)Kriyas-Kapalabhati to be repeated at the rate of 60 per minute , one to two minute per session three times a day. Weekly practice of Laghushankhaprakshalana and Vamanadhouti are valuable components in the basic correction that is essential part of the yoga program.

b)The component of physical practices constitutes about 50%  (half an hour) of the time spent for the daily practices. The special techniques designed for AA should bring about activation followed by reduction of the Prana activity in the patch of the skin. Hence selection of asana depends on the area affected. For example if the area is the top of the head , many inverted postures which stretch the skin of the scalp such as Sarvangasana, Halasana, Matsyasana, Sirsasana and their modified versions are selected by the expert yoga therapist. As we have seen earlier, we need to stop the unnecessary fighting or inflammation in the hair root area. Yoga uses the power of the mind to achieve this through the technique of focusing and defocusing  on the stretched zone (called Dharana and dhyana by Sage Patanjali ) during and immediately after the asana. Hence while maintaining in the final posture of the selected  asana full  attention on the stretched  part is maintained for a while .The  important component of the local correction (reduction of the inflammation) comes up only during the next phase of defocusing (Anantha samapatti) of the stretched area that follows  immediately after releasing the posture. This is the principle of self correction through mind body interaction. The deep local rest to the fighting cells is the way to stop the unnecessary inflammation, by reducing the local abnormal cytokine concentration.

c)Pranayama has been found to be the most powerful tool of yoga that corrects all the internal imbalances very effectively. At least 20 minutes of selected pranaymas follows the asana practices.