Thousands of men and women throughout the world suffer from hair loss problems without any apparent or clear reasons. Hair loss , in most cases , is not classified as a disease; it is , rather ,  a cosmetic problem. However, hair loss may be an indication of internal or skin diseases, or related to other health disorders, or occurs as a side effect of  certain medications.

There are at least thirty diseases that can cause hair loss or hair loss is one of its symptoms. I t is therefore so important for the patient and the doctor to pay an attention to the hair loss problem and not always assume it’s a minor symptom and not related to more serous diseases. 

It is an autoimmune disease that may affect the scalp partially or completely or may affect any hairy area in the body. It is a chronic disease that may respond to some local treatments, but the degree of response varies from one case to another.

Mostly they are fungal infections and very often affect young people with poor hygiene and hair care. It is an infectious disease and normally handed down among school children. This disease can be treated easily, and the diagnosis depends on local examination and doing culture of a sample taken from the infected area.

It is a common disorder that affects men after the age of 40. Hair loss starts from the front of the head and increases with time until it may cause total hair loss. The only useful treatment currently is hair transplant, but this method can be very costly and practically not possible to cover the whole scalp.

It is a type of anxiety disorder that causes an irresistible urge to pull out hair from the scalp repeatedly and continuously until it leaves patchy bald spots. It can be treated by medication , behavioral and cognitive therapy under the supervision of a psychiatrist.

Eating Disorders

It is a psychiatric illness that often affects girls and results from an abnormal desire to lose weight and the obsession with being so thin; this pushes the patient to become anorexic or bulimic. The patient doesn’t eat efficiently or eats little amounts of food or eats normal amount but then lead to extreme reactions such as purging (deliberately vomiting).

Eating disorders are always accompanied by many implications that affect the girls’ physical and psychological status and needs to be diagnosed and treated very early. 

Many girls with eating disorders often try to hide this from those who are close to them, but it will be very apparent from the way of eating and the changing physical appearance such as tremendous weight loss, excessive hair loss, being so pale, mood swings and depression.

Hair loss occurs in women with eating disorders as a result of acute shortage of protein and calories because of the lack of eating. What happens is that the body in order to preserve energy for important biological processes, it intentionally stop some of the less important biological processes such as hair growth. This results in stunted growth of hair in the middle stage, and this affects the whole scalp evenly.  However, significant hair loss starts to show in a very advanced stage when almost half of the hair is gone. The hair loss increases when combing the hair or when showering.

Hair loss stops when the eating disorder is treated, and when the patient returns to eat healthy diets rich in calories and proteins.

It’s worth mentioning that even men and women who follow a certain weight loss diet suffer from hair loss after losing a bit of weight up to 8 kg; but this symptom will quickly stop and the hair will grow back again.

When a deficiency occurs in some of those elements; the body is exposed to a number of diseases, such as: hair loss , anemia, and others. Malnutrition is  common in Arab countries more than others: iron and vitamins deficiency in particular. Statistics show that anemia caused by iron deficiency affects 50% of young people in Arab countries, and for this, iron pills and vitamins are better be prescribed on a daily basis to control some symptoms like hair loss as well as the treatment of other diseases resulting from nutrient deficiency.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease which affects many organs of the body such as joints, kidneys and skin. Hair loss is one of the distinctive symptoms of SLE. It affects women who are middle aged, it is also a chronic disease that may pass through periods of activity and inactivity, but generally responds good to treatment.


Thyroid disorders

The Increase or decrease of the thyroid gland activity can both cause hair loss. Thyroid diseases are common and affect women than men; however, thyroid disorders can cause the thyroid gland to become overactive or underactive which is more common.

In the case of overactive thyroid gland, elevated thyroid hormone thyroxin makes the hair becomes thin and weak in different areas of the scalp. However, in case of underactive thyroid gland the low levels of the hormone makes the hair thick and hair loss becomes partial.

Most of hypothyroidism cases are accidentally discovered due to the absence of symptoms foreseen by the patient. The most prominent symptoms are weight gain, disruption of the menstrual cycle, reproductive problems, laziness, fatigue and hair loss.

On the other hand, hyperthyroidism gives a sharp and distinct symptoms including: weight loss, anxiety and tension, menstrual cycle disturbance, eye exophthalmos, overeating, lack of sleep and excessive hyper physical activity. There are medical and surgical treatments for both diseases.

Other reasons

Other than we have mentioned above, there are many causes that in fact lead to hair loss such as physical or psychological stress, after giving birth or after major surgeries, or when exposed to physical or psychological shocks or having long-term high fever (as in malaria) or severe chronic diseases.