I wanted to share my experience with others who have taken Arava and experienced hair loss (which is devestating!). I started taking Arava in January 2007 while living in Switzerland. I realized about
4-5 months later that I had lost about
1/4 of my hair and of course I was devasted. Arava worked really well for me so when I went to my Swiss rheumy he told me that he had recently learned that biotin (one of the B vitamins) taken at really high-dosis (10 milligrams daily) was proven to reverse hair-loss. I was skeptical, but since Arava was controlling the RA so well, I wanted to give it a try. Within 1 month I could see new little hair sprouting up all over the place. Within 6-8 months, my hair had filled in enough that I was no longer embarrassed to go in public. Now, nearly 3 years later, I would say the total hair regrowth is 90%. I have since tried to find ''proof'' of the biotin ''miracle'' online and have never found a study. I asked my Swiss rheumy where he had learned of this and he said it was at a conference.
Has anyone else heard of this or tried it? I KNOW it worked for me. It is hard to find the higher dosage of biotin as most of the biotin in drug stores in the US are 500 mcgs (micromilligrams). In Switzerland, my health insurance paid for the high dosage biotin and it can also be found in Germany for a reasonable price (about $10 USD per month). Hope this helps someone who is considering Arava.