Do patients with alopecia areata have a problem with sweating?
“Dogs sweat, men perspire, women feel the heat, but Southern ladies glow.” As a group, patients with alopecia areata have a decreased number of sweat glands.- Some sweat glands are attached to the hair follicles. When the inflammatory reaction hits the base of the hair follicle it simultaneously affects the sweat glands in a case of mistaken identity.- From what I have read, the degree of sweat gland dysfuntion is not correlated to extent of hair loss, therapy or presence of concurrent diseases. This line of thinking once propelled me into asking the members of our list server whether they had ever experienced heat intolerance or even noticeable lack of perspiration. Oddly enough all members that responded to my query said that they perspired more AFTER the developing AA. Some even pointed out that they had a distinct odor to the sweat that wasn’t there before.
