3 ms·

As I understand, what's exciting is that tofacitinib isn't a corticosteroid that we're used to seeing, but a JAK inhibitor -- a class of potential drugs that ha

As I understand, what's exciting is that tofacitinib isn't a corticosteroid that we're used to seeing, but a JAK inhibitor -- a class of potential drugs that have a very different approach towards suppressing immune function (specifically targeting cytokine signaling.) Tofacitinib was the first JAK inhibitor to be approved by the FDA. This was a super-interesting paper from 2012 that goes into more detail on JAK inhibitors and why they're interesting: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419278/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419278/ I completely understand your concern about your daughters. I'm lucky that baldness is culturally accepted for adult men (and even encouraged), so I don't feel too self-conscious about alopecia. Hopefully we'll get a better handle on autoimmune conditions with this new class of drugs. Until then, organizations like NAAF (http://www.naaf.org/ http://www.naaf.org/) are wonderful in helping people with alopecia cope with its medical, emotional, and psychological impact.

taeric 12y ago
Makes some sense. Same for me on the cultural acceptance. Though, I was very hesitant to bite the bullet and shave my head completely. I just know that even for me, it was somewhat stressful to have random parts of my hair go missing. Doesn't help that I rarely look at myself in a mirror, so I wouldn't even always know when I was missing more hair. Would just get the occasional, "why did you shave right above your ear?" Nowdays, though, it is just funny. My legs have spots where I have lost a lot of hair. Some folks assume it is because I bike. Explaining that I will likely lose all of my hair is one that I don't think most folks believe. At any rate, if it were stressful for me, I can only imagine it would be worse for my daughters. Luckily, to date they have had absolutely none of my difficulties growing up. No allergies or anything.

taeric 12y ago

Makes some sense. Same for me on the cultural acceptance. Though, I was very hesitant to bite the bullet and shave my head completely. I just know that even for me, it was somewhat stressful to have random parts of my hair go missing. Doesn't help that I rarely look at myself in a mirror, so I wouldn't even always know when I was missing more hair. Would just get the occasional, "why did you shave right above your ear?" Nowdays, though, it is just funny. My legs have spots where I have lost a lot of hair. Some folks assume it is because I bike. Explaining that I will likely lose all of my hair is one that I don't think most folks believe. At any rate, if it were stressful for me, I can only imagine it would be worse for my daughters. Luckily, to date they have had absolutely none of my difficulties growing up. No allergies or anything.