Alopecia areata and the SCD diet???

amother

Tue, Feb 18 2020, 10:08 pm

my daughter has Crohns for the past 3 years, managed by Remicade. Now she's been diagnosed with alopecia areata, another autoimmune disease. Her dermatologist says the autoimmune diseases often pop up together, theres a connection....great.

People have always recommended the SCD diet for her crohns, but I pushed it off because she's young and the meds have been helping...but if by any chance it also helps with a different autoimmune condition of alopecia, I may be pushed to try it...

anyone know anything?

TIA

amother

Lime

Tue, Feb 18 2020, 10:42 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

My husband has Crohn's and BH has been in remission off medication with SCD. I don't know for sure but I imagine that SCD or any sugar and grain free diet would be helpful for alopecia or any other autoimmune disease. Personally, I would look into AIP diet because SCD is targeted for Crohn's and Colitis.

amother

Tue, Feb 18 2020, 10:52 pm

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

Thanks...yes ive seen the aip diet in my research, but im not sure if that will take care of the crohns....

amother

Aqua

Wed, Feb 19 2020, 10:44 pm

I believe that any oneof these "ancestral" type diets can be a piece in healing autoimmunity, the specifics are probably individual to each person. It just might not be enough on its own for alopecia, because autoimmunity is notoriously hard to "turn off". I would look into other alternative treatments as well, but diet is definitely a piece.

amother

Lime

Wed, Feb 19 2020, 10:54 pm

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

Agree!

I'm curious what other alternative treatments you would recommend researching to help with autoimmunity. Can you please share?

amother

Aqua

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 8:53 am

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

Agree!

I'm curious what other alternative treatments you would recommend researching to help with autoimmunity. Can you please share?

I would look for a functional medical dr to help me look for root causes. Generally, to address root causes for all chronic conditions one would look at and try to treat heavy metal toxicity, nutritional deficiencies, pathogens and chronic infections including fungus, molds, parasites, chronic viruses and bacterial infections, heal the gut, address methylation, work on immunomodulation via ivig, ldn, herbals, homeopathics, etc.

amother

Lime

Mon, Feb 24 2020, 10:51 pm

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

Just came back to say that from a functional approach, thyroid and adrenals are very important to look at when dealing with hair loss. In addition to the other stuff.

Yes, but they are not usually the root cause. Something else is causing antibodies to attack thyroid and adrenals.

amother

Mistyrose

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 12:21 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Dietary changes are 100% worth it to make to help the body start healing from autoimmune diseases.

It’s not that autoimmune diseases just “pop up together” like the dr said... the same factors that are causing the body to have an autoimmune response to one system of the body ads causing the autoimmune response to another organ. This can keep happening until the body can heal to the point where it stops attacking itself.

The medications that she’s currently taking are managing symptoms...that’s all. They’re not helping body, or working on healing the body or reversing the conditions which are causing the body to have this autoimmune response over and over again.

These types of medications “manage” symptoms with bandaids, while diet and lifestyle changes HEAL the root of the problem.

Instead of going all into the SCD, why not just start with the basics -

Eliminate processed foods and foods that are known to be inflammatory (gluten, casein/dairy, refined sugars, refined carbs, vegetable oils/canola oil, GMOs) and replace with real, Whole Foods. Packaged foods should only have ingredients that you can understand and could potentially have in your own pantry.

amother

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 7:50 am

So, I started doing a lot of research and lo and behold, I found a few studies exploring the connection between autoimmune diseases, including alopecia areata, and increased intestinal permeability aka leaky gut.
The theory being that leaky gut syndrome allows toxins and other unwanteds to slip out of the colon and into the bloodstream, causing the body to launch an autoimmune response...this is all very new thinking and many doctors wont agree, but I did find enough MDs who are on board with this idea...they say that to stop the autoimmhne response (whether its alopecia, psoriasis, crohns(which came first the chicken or the egg-did crohns cause leaky gut or did leaky gut cause crohns as autoimmune response) lupus etc etc) you need to heal the leaky gut. There are a few diets that do this and the SCD diet is one of them....we will very likely be trying it soon....

amother

Beige

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 7:58 am

About Medicine’s not healing the body - my daughter is on humira and her intestines and esophogous are now bH clear. Medicine’s like humira and remicade do heal by reducing inflammation. It is not about controlling symptoms but healing the body. It blocks what is attacking the body.
An scd diet would not have healed her intestines. It would only be maintenance once they were clear. There were diet options to heal - like a liquid diet for a few months followed by a diet more restrictive then scd. It’s not really a way to live for a child.
But scd diet alone will not help a child recover - and with children it’s so important cause can affect puberty and growth for life.

If you want to look into diet CHOP has a great program with liquid diets for children. It really helps. But it is hard. My dr actually tried to convince us to do this but my daughter didn’t want.

amother

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 8:34 am

amother [ Beige ] wrote:

An scd diet would not have healed her intestines. It would only be maintenance once they were clear.
..............
But scd diet alone will not help a child recover .
.

Im going to respectfully disagree. Thats exactly what the SCD diet does. It allows the intestines to heal. Yes, it is absolutely brutal on a child, but thats a seperate story. The SCD diet, if it works for you, completely heals the intestines to the point where they look like any other healthy persons'. It works by starving the overgrowth of harmful bacteria that have been destroying the intestinal lining. The bacteria die out, they longer attack the intetine, it heals. Some people need to remain on it, others can come off it after a few years with no problems, others do fine after the diet for years, then start seeing symptoms again, and go back on it for another cycle.

ETA you can look up the research study done a few years ago by Seattle Childrens Hospital, led by Dr David Susskind.
At the end of a 12 week trial, eight out of the 10 patients who completed the SCD diet study were in clinical remission

amother

Orange

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 8:43 am

I would do SCD in conjunction with meds. There are milder biologics out there, might be worth a try.
Also, there is another diet from the University of Massachusetts. I haven't looked into it since we're out of the parsha but it seems easier to me, I think cocoa and oats are allowed. refuah shleima!

amother

Aqua

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:31 am

amother [ Beige ] wrote:

Is your daughter on those meds for life or can she come off them?

amother

Aqua

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:32 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Good luck OP! Putting a child on a restrictive diet is incredibly difficult, but so so worth it.

amother

Aqua

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:42 am

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

Yes, but they are not usually the root cause. Something else is causing antibodies to attack thyroid and adrenals.

I wonder if OP's diagnosis of alopecia was made clinically, or by testing for antibodies. We don't really know for sure whether antibodies are attacking anything. Except maybe her gut, because for a crohns diagnosis they're going to biopsy and look for specific biomarkers. For all we know, malabsorption from the compromised gut is causing the thyroid and adrenal glands to under-function due to lack of nutrients, leading to hair loss... Not saying for sure either way, but it pays to look at this from all angles. Not everything that looks like autoimmunity really is autoimmunity. And sometimes it's autoimmunity, PLUS other stuff going on.

amother

Beige

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:43 am

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

Is your daughter on those meds for life or can she come off them?

I’m guessing for life.
But I daven that Hashem should help us figure out the root cause - similar to how celiac was solved.

(It’s interesting because I have a nephew with celiac and he davens to take medicine so he can eat gluten. So those who have a proven restrictive diet sometimes prefer meds over diet)

amother

Beige

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:48 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I was told by a few drs that SCD could not heal her severe inflammation. My daughter had not grown in 2 years. Only removing all food completely could do that.

The statistics about not having flare ups on SCD are not great. It works but not always.
When dealing with a child and growth and puberty it just isn’t worth it to play games.

(Do you know anyone on SCD fully healed for years. I know many but everyone had had flare-ups and set backs - or still spends an hour every morning on the toilet but say their better because more under control. Many still take remicade on top of scd diet. )