Clinical Cases

Post-Covid Hair Loss in a Woman of 60

Written by Swapna Honavar

Swapna Honavar shares a case of post-Covid hair loss in a woman of 60. Silent grief, homesickness and hair loss were symptoms leading to the simillimum.

Mrs. M, 60 years old, consulted me three months after having Covid. She said that since she had recovered from Covid, she had been “extremely tired,” but the main reason for consulting me at this point was her severe hair fall. She said she had never experienced such hair loss before and at the rate at which her hair was falling out – on brushing, and in the shower – she was afraid she was going to go bald.

She was taking a plethora of supplements, using special shampoos and products for hair loss, but nothing had helped; in fact, she thought the hair fall was getting worse. She was in a lot of anguish at the prospect of losing all her hair. This is not surprising since severe hair loss is a serious crisis for most women.

Hair fall after Covid is becoming quite common. Hackensack University Medical Center reported that many people have experienced excessive hair loss after contracting the virus and recovering from primary symptoms (Fortune magazine)

Hair loss typically begins after several weeks to three months and typically lasts six to nine months. The medical center notes that among patients who had been hospitalized with Covid, 22% were dealing with hair loss months after being discharged.

The condition is called Telogen Effluvium and many cases of TE have been caused by Covid-19 infection itself. According to healthline.com, people typically lose up to 100 hairs per day. Telogen effluvium can cause around 300 strands to fall out every day for up to 6 months.

This condition has no treatment in allopathic medicine. Doctors have varied recommendations for their patients such as taking vitamins, iron supplements, biotin supplements, reducing stress, improving their diets, etc. and they tell them that the hair will grow back eventually – in approximately six months to a year.

In addition to the hair fall, Mrs. M described her lack of energy as well. She said that since recovering from Covid, she was “so exhausted I just don’t care. I can’t be up and about doing things. I just want to sleep.”

She also spoke about having moved from another part of the state a year ago to where she was currently living, and felt that she had been much happier in her previous home. She was now closer to her family but it was all too much for her to handle. The whole situation made her extremely sad, and her grief was palpable.

However, she was very stoic about it and said she didn’t talk about it with anyone, she just went on with her life.  I treated this case as an acute, taking the current significant symptoms, and the repertorization and remedies were as follows:

I did see her as a very depleted, worn-out Phosphorus, which to me was an added point in favor of Phosphoric Acid. On reading about the remedy, the following reinforced my impression of Phosphoric Acid: Boericke says,

“The common acid “debility” is very marked in this remedy, producing a nervous exhaustion…Whenever the system has been exposed to the ravages of acute disease, we obtain conditions calling for it.” Farrington says, “Phosphoric acid is one of the best remedies we have for the bad effects of grief and depressing emotions.” And finally, Kent says about Phosphoric Acid: “Falling out of the hair is a striking feature.”

In addition to this, I chose the remedy Thallium Met as an intercurrent. Thal-met is in italics, and one of only four remedies in Synthesis in the rubric “Head, hair falling, disease, acute; following exhausting disease.” It is also the only remedy in the rubric “Generals, Hair, falling rapidly.”

I asked her to follow this three week plan:

  1. Phos Ac 200 – one dose only as the main remedy
  2. Phos Ac 6c one dose daily for 3 weeks – as a daily support
  3. Thallium Met 30C one dose per week for 3 weeks

At the end of four weeks, I received this email from her:

“I have finished the course of remedies you prescribed. My hair loss has slowed down to about half of what it was but it has not completely stopped. My energy is better than it was but still not great. How shall I proceed?”

When I spoke to her and reviewed her progress after this email, I asked her to describe her improvement on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst and 1 being the best. She said that at the first consultation, her hair loss was the worst it could be at 10/10, and now she would rate it at 3/10.

Her energy was terrible at 9/10 at the first consultation, and now it was 2 or 3/10. Given that this was significant progress in such a short time, it was clear that the remedies were working well. I asked her to do the following:

  1. Continue with Phos Ac 6c once daily for 2 weeks
  2. Take 2 more doses of Thallium Met 30C (one dose once a week)

After finishing the 2 weeks of remedies (about 6 weeks after the first consult), she sent me this email:

“I have finished the last two weeks of the remedies you last prescribed. I believe that my hair loss is back to a normal amount as there is no longer any in the shower and very little coming out in the brush. My stylist said that she could see baby hairs growing on my scalp so I am feeling good about it.” She also felt she was back to pre-Covid energy levels, and was extremely happy with the outcome of her homeopathic treatment.

RESOURCES

https://fortune.com/2022/01/14/omicron-covid-symptom-hair-loss/

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/covid-19-survivors-are-losing-their-hair-heres-why

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/pandemic-hair-loss-treatment-products/620696/

About the author

Swapna Honavar

Swapna Honavar switched career paths from marketing and advertising, and studied homeopathy after encountering its amazing power in treating herself and her family. She received her homeopathy education from the School of Homeopathy, UK, and practices in California. She uses homeopathy and cell salts to treat adults, children, and pets. She can be contacted through her website www.thehealthypath.net.

2 Comments

  • this is not a way of prescribing remedies only one dose of remedy and watch and wait. it makes no sense of prescribing one dose of 200 and daily 6c. intercurrent means you are deleting the good work of previous remedy if it is working if need of intercurrent it should be related to that remedy.

    • I also don’t understand the logic of Phos-ac. 200C, plus Phos-ac. 6C daily. In fact, giving a 6C is often the way to antidote a high-potency remedy that’s aggravating. So, one might assume that the 200C was possibly antidoted by Phos-ac. 6C, and then, what was working? Phos-ac 6C taken daily or Thallium 30C once a week? We don’t know. Also, were any of these remedies given in water with 2-10 succussions before each dose as it says in the 6th ed. Organon Aph. 246-249? Probably not.

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