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Hair Loss on Remicade?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 11/26/2016 1:18 PM (GMT 0)
I am currently on 20mg of Prednisone for a recent flare, but other than that I have only been on Remicade for about two months (Closer to 4 months total, but in the beginning I was on it in combination with other meds).

I've been noticing a great deal of hair loss lately - especially when I'm in the shower - every time I run my hands through my hair I come out with a huge clump between my fingers.

This morning (it's probably been there longer but I'm just now noticing) I looked in the mirror and noticed a decently sized bald spot front and center on my head. As you can imagine, this is not easy to digest as I am an 18 year old girl who perhaps a bit superficially takes pride in her image.

I spoke to my GI at my last followup about hair loss in general - no actual bald patches at that time - and he told me it wasn't an extremely common side effect of Remicade and more likely was a late response to the trauma of this summer (my first flare and road to diagnosis was horrific).

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with this or any thoughts.

Hard to keep my head up lately :(

Thanks guys
Posted 11/26/2016 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
Hi there, your story is almost an exact copy of what happened to me after my last major flare. I had just started Remicade and was tapering off Prednisone and my hair was falling out in fistfuls. GI told me the same thing about side effect from being so sick. Turns out he was right and the hair loss subsided after a couple of months. I've been on Remicade for over two years and no more hair loss. Hope this helps.
Posted 11/26/2016 3:51 PM (GMT 0)
It's a response to the stress on your body from the UC flare. I had hair fall out and my nails stop growing. Once Remicade started working and got my flare under control then they started growing again.
Posted 11/26/2016 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
Ulcerative colitis itself without any medications can cause hairloss, it's also listed as a possible side effect of every class of uc medication all of which use different mechanisms of action. Most likely, hairloss is a delayed reaction to your flare, which is really hard on our bodies and we loose a lot of nutrients and body weight. Other causes of hair loss (often a consequence of flares) are low iron levels (anemia), low vitamin B, B12, and D levels. You can get a blood test to check your levels. Often we have a MTHFR gene mutation (of several varying degrees of severity) that can make us have issues with folate levels (it's B vitamin).

The good news is hair will grow back in time.
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