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Hi Listmates,

 I volunteer in the office of our local celiac chapter. I had visitors from
Italy yesterday, who posed an interesting question  that I couldn't answer,
and thought perhaps someone on the list might have experienced something
similiar and would be in a position to offer some thoughts on the matter.

The question was regarding a 12 year old girl, Alessandra. She was
diagnosed with Celiac disease when she was 5 years of age, and has been on
a strict gluten free diet since that time. At the time of  diagnosis, she
had a circle of hair loss( approximately 1.5 inches in diameter) on her
head.  After  a while, she lost all of her hair. She underwent several
different kinds of treatments, and although these seemed like they may work
at first, they eventually failed, and she is still without any hair on her
head. Alessandra started menstration 3 months ago. Already she has some
hair growth under the arms and in the groin area.

The question that her family has is, " what could they do about hair loss
on the head, and what could they expect?"

I have promised to pass on any thoughts or suggestions to the family. Does
this sound like it may be connected to celiac disease, or is the hair loss
something completely unrelated?

Esther, Calgary, Canada