A couple of days ago, a friend shared with me a post from Quora (1) - Do click on the link to read and know more from the young man himself. The author, a youngster named Koushik MK shares his very heartening story.
His story here in brief - At the age of 10, Koushik noticed that he was losing hair and getting bald in patches. In order to avoid an embarrassing appearance, he begun tonsuring his head regularly. His bald head made him a butt of jokes from his peers at school.
Undaunted, Koushik took up football and from the photographs which he has shared, it seems that he has indeed done well in the game.
During this time, he also visited various doctors and even tried Ayurveda and Homeopathy. He was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata (AA) and underwent various treatments, many of them quite painful. But even after seven years of silent suffering, nothing seemed to work.
When Koushik visited Chennai, as part of his school football team, a spectator there suggested to Koushik that his diet perhaps was the culprit of his issues. This led to Koushik looking up the internet to learn more about the possibility of a diet alteration and, after days of research, he decided to go off Gluten.
Within two to three months of going off gluten, his hair started to grow again and he found an overall improvement in the way he felt..
Presently, he is pursuing engineering and his photographs reflect a happy youngster with a thick crop of hair!
So, did gluten cause all of this to Koushik? AA is an autoimmune disease, where the body's own immune system attacks the hair follicles causing hair loss. In a study published in the 'Indian Journal of Dermetology' in May 2014, 12 children diagnosed with AA were tested for Gluten Intolerance, of which, only 5 children tested positive for Celiac disease. However, all the children recovered when put on a gluten free diet. (2)
When I asked Koushik, if he had ever tested for Celiac disease, he said that he had. He underwent three tests and tested negeative in all of them.
Very often, it is heard that one should go off gluten only if tested positive - It makes me wonder - what about those like Koushik who test negative but still get better going off wheat! Couldn't their stories be our stories too?
1. Kousik's Story
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4037977/
His story here in brief - At the age of 10, Koushik noticed that he was losing hair and getting bald in patches. In order to avoid an embarrassing appearance, he begun tonsuring his head regularly. His bald head made him a butt of jokes from his peers at school.
Undaunted, Koushik took up football and from the photographs which he has shared, it seems that he has indeed done well in the game.
During this time, he also visited various doctors and even tried Ayurveda and Homeopathy. He was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata (AA) and underwent various treatments, many of them quite painful. But even after seven years of silent suffering, nothing seemed to work.
When Koushik visited Chennai, as part of his school football team, a spectator there suggested to Koushik that his diet perhaps was the culprit of his issues. This led to Koushik looking up the internet to learn more about the possibility of a diet alteration and, after days of research, he decided to go off Gluten.
Within two to three months of going off gluten, his hair started to grow again and he found an overall improvement in the way he felt..
Presently, he is pursuing engineering and his photographs reflect a happy youngster with a thick crop of hair!
So, did gluten cause all of this to Koushik? AA is an autoimmune disease, where the body's own immune system attacks the hair follicles causing hair loss. In a study published in the 'Indian Journal of Dermetology' in May 2014, 12 children diagnosed with AA were tested for Gluten Intolerance, of which, only 5 children tested positive for Celiac disease. However, all the children recovered when put on a gluten free diet. (2)
When I asked Koushik, if he had ever tested for Celiac disease, he said that he had. He underwent three tests and tested negeative in all of them.
Very often, it is heard that one should go off gluten only if tested positive - It makes me wonder - what about those like Koushik who test negative but still get better going off wheat! Couldn't their stories be our stories too?
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| Image source : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allopecia_areata.JPG |
1. Kousik's Story
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4037977/
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