What causes the hair loss?

Hi Everyone: When I am having a flare-up of symptoms, one of the first things I notice is the hair loss. I am talking about alot of hair. What exactly causes the hair loss in Lyme? Thanks-

Hi Dowa,

Are you on antibiotics?

I never had hair loss as a symptom of lyme and I have been sick for 11 years. I'm telling you this because hair loss is listed as a lyme symptom, but not all of us get that particular symptom.

I went on mycobutin/azithromycin last May to treat bartonella and my white blood cell count dropped to dangerous levels twice. I was taken off the mycobutin because of that. Two months later my hair began to fall out rapidly. I lost about 30 - 40% of my hair.

My dermatologist and lyme doctor both said that the antibiotic is what caused it. When my doctor took me off mycobutin/azithromycin she put me on Biaxin. The hair loss was slower on Biaxin but still continued. My doctor has taken me off all antibiotics for now to give my body a chance to recooperate from it.

Once I got off antibiotics the shedding slowed down to "normal" shedding for me but it will take me at least a year for my scalp to heal up and for the hair to grow back. It has been a horrible experience.

 

 

Thank you both. I am not on antibiotics and my thyroid and adrenal function are normal. I do have low IGg and maybe that is contributing. I thought I had read somewhere that hair loss was lyme related. Yes, stress could certainly be a possibility as that is one thing that is hard to fix. (: