By Dr. Francesco Candeloro

Alopecia, the partial or total loss of hair and hair, can be genetic in nature or depend on external factors such as stress, vitamin and iron deficiencies, or hormonal factors. Let's find out better.

Causes and symptoms of alopecia

This is the total or partial absence of hair and / or hair, which may be transient or permanent, and of genetic or acquired origin. Only the acquired forms are useful for the therapies, as it is possible to identify a triggering cause that is at the origin.

Very often these disorders are associated with an overall fragility of all the skin appendages, including therefore also the nails, and they are linked to a certain incapacity of the organism to absorb important and fundamental elements for the robustness of the annexes, such as zinc, iron and silicon.

It is therefore not surprising that disorders of this type are frequently observed in some essentially long-limbed anatomical constitutions, which are characterized, at different degrees, by a reduced capacity to absorb those trace elements contained above all in plant foods.

In addition to anemia, numerous other conditions may be associated, in an ancillary way, with alterations in the scalp, including hypothyroidism, some infections of fungal origin, radiotherapy and anticancer therapies.

But we remember that, in homeopathy, as emotional triggers will also be considered emotional traumas as strong scares, important affective disappointments, states of affliction and resentment and more generally of moral suffering of the person, as well as excessive psychophysical commitment.

Finally, the acquired forms can have two different clinical presentations: the ventilated and seborrhoeic forms : the latter preferably affects the male sex, it starts at an early age - around 18-20 years - with fat scaling of the scalp, which follows then a progressive loss of hair in the frontal area and at the top of the head, together with an annoying itchy symptomatology.

You can learn more about the properties of minerals and the foods that contain them

Homeopathic remedies for alopecia

As we have said, a certain anatomical constitution is often associated, and from a young age, with a predisposition to hair loss and, more generally, to the fragility of all skin appendages.

In particular, the murestial constitution, the sulfuric ones tending to weight loss and demineralization, and all the phosphoric properly so called, the subjects in which this tendency will be more easily observed from age not particularly advanced. It is therefore not surprising that remedies frequently used in these stages of life, to cure progressively worsening forms of alopecia, will be Natrum Muriaticum and some characteristic remedies of the phosphoric series, including Kali Phosphoricum and Phosporic acidum, as well as, in the more advanced phase of organic decompensation, a frequently indicated remedy, always in subjects of these constitutions, will be Silicea .

Obviously to these cases, which therefore need a more generalized approach - precisely because hair loss recognizes a complex mechanism that involves, among other things, the function of digestion and absorption of food - we add all those in which the disorder is secondary to contingent situations, which determine emotional traumas of which we have previously mentioned.

And so for the shapes resulting from strong scares, for example, depending on the reaction of the person we could consider Aconitum or Gelsemium ; for those secondary to intense affective traumas and to sentimental disappointments we will be able respectively to use Arnica or Ignatia, while for moral sufferings, unexpressed states of frustration and for useless useful retention will be Staphysagria .

Finally, a remedy indicated in all forms of exacerbation of seborrheic alopecia, which we have described above, will be Selenium : people who will benefit from it, often fatigued by excessive psychophysical surmenage, have an oily seborrhea associated with acne and blackheads, hair loss, eyelashes, beard hair and even genitals, and typical vesicular formations between the fingers.

A similar oily and greasy skin, with a whitish border on the upper lip and worm-eaten edges of the eyebrows, presents a useful remedy in more florid constitutions, namely Thuja, which in turn may evolve to Graphites, a remedy for alopecia proper to these constitutions, characterized by the progressive slowing down of the organic metabolism due to food overload.