Alopecia
how my life changed and things now have turned to the better
June 2023
It started mid-August 2022 when my wife told me that there was a small bald spot on my head. My first response was “oh it’s probably nothing”. The months thereafter were a roller-coaster and in December I had almost lost all my hair; incl. my eyebrows, eyelashes and beard growth were impacted negatively.
I first went to my doctor in August who referred to me a dermatologist. It took various weeks to schedule for the first appointment and in the 2nd half of September I had my first session. In the meantime, I had 2 other small bald spots, so 3 in total. The appointment with the dermatologist was quite disappointing. It was a session of around 10 minutes and I received a prescription for a shampoo. The route cause was difficult to determine. People that are sensitive to asthma, allergies, hay fever etc. seem to be more chance to get Alopecia – and I had/ have them all.
In November the dermatologist proposed to start with the medication Methotrexaat (while the original treatment was not showing any progress and I even started to lose more and more of my hair). Originally, it’s a medicine for treatment of rheumatism, however good results were experienced for patients with alopecia as well. After various blood tests I could finally start with the medication in mid-December. In the first months after I started with Methotrexaat the side-effects (e.g. nausea and feeling tired) were so negative that I decided to stop with the medication. Friends of us advised me to consider an alternative therapy, such as acupuncture. To be honest I have always been rather skeptical for alternative medical treatments. However, the traditional treatment was apparently not working. So, in the start of 2023 I decided to contact Susan Liu at MasterChi TCM Clinic.
Now, 3 months further in mid-May the treatment is more or less finished. I must say it was a great experience and I’m doing and feeling so much better than towards the end of 2022. My hair is growing again and as a positive side effect I feel so much better overall. My energy levels are up significantly, which results in that I feel myself much better during the day (less tired and almost no more pain in my backache). Additionally, the hay fever I always had during the first half of the year is as good as gone and for the first time in many year’s I’ve almost no hay fever symptoms.
To summarize after quite a shocking experience that started in August I’m now doing much better. Susan has contributed to this in a significant way with het acupuncture treatments. Sometimes things are still difficult, but in general things have turned to the positive. I completely changed my mind about acupuncture and I’m planning to continue with these sessions going forward, also to check if my body is in balance and to improve physical weaknesses.
Ron Remmers
Amsterdam, 14 May 2023