Rheumatoid Arthritis - can it cause hair loss?

[PunishmentRoundupWithJoon]

I am experiencing hair loss at the moment, not for the first time. Supposedly I have AGA, but it has been stable for quite some time so decided to get checked out. The GP has ordered some blood tests, including one for rheumatoid arthritis. She asked me early on if I had this. No doctor has ever asked me this before regarding my hair.

Inflammation has shown up a couple of times on scans of ankles, elbows and more recently, shoulder.

Does anyone have RA and has it affected your hair?

Obviously I should wait for results but am curious!

I googled and found this on 'Healthline':

Rheumatoid arthritis and hair loss
If you have RA, your immune system may start to attack tissues in your skin, where your hair follicles are located. This can cause some of your hair to fall out. RA flare-ups may also trigger hair loss. On the whole, hair loss in RA is rare.

@LBFseBrom - thanks for that. I had a quick google yesterday and it didn't look like hair loss was a common thing in RA. Which is reassuring if I do turn out to have it. I can't see the test coming back positive as I'm pretty sure there'd be more symptoms.

My immune system is pretty crap though!

I have RA and take a high dose folic acid which among other things helps with my hair loss. However I think I'm given in as one of the drugs I take causes the hair loss.rather than the actual RA.

I developed RA many years ago,and 3 months after,I started losing quite a lot of hair. I thought it was the RA causing it,but it turned out that because I'd totally lost my appetite due to feeling so ill for 3 months and was struggling to eat,it was caused by vitamin and mineral deficiency. Once I had an effective treatment sorted out and I'd regained my appetite,my hair started to grow back.

I posted yesterday about my alopecia and lots of people suggested RA so may be linked! I have no idea, but investigating everything atm.

@ALongHardWinter - It's good to hear your hair started to grow back once you were having treatment. I don't know if I'm deficient in anything but my appetite is fine (am a tad overweight...)

@JacquiDaytona - that's interesting! I'll have a look for your post. Yes, investigate everything. It's really hard with hair loss, as it can be caused by so many different things. Hope you manage to locate your particular trigger and are able to address it.

Well, no RA factor so am in the clear for that at least. Thyroid looks ok too. Iron has dropped again so will try get that up. Quite relieved it's not rheuamatoid arthritis at least!