You Have Very Little Knowledge, Dr Rassman!

Hello Dr. Rassman,

I was reading your responses to people and was in horror! How can you say that iron related hair loss can become permanent? Iron deficiency is the easiest cause to treat, and hair WILL grow back within a year after problem has been corrected. You have a very little knowledge in hairloss, and you only confuse people. It makes me wonder– ARE YOU A DOCTOR? LOL

Yes, to put your mind at ease, I am a doctor. So, can I ask what your medical qualifications are?

What is generally not understood is that there are two scenarios for a person who had a known cause of hair loss and gets it corrected. This should be obvious:

1. The hair loss reverses with correction of the defect that caused the hair loss.
2. The hair loss does not reverse with correction of the defect.

In circumstance #2, if this happens, it could be a case where a genetic predisposition to hair loss exists and then the actual loss (the ‘expression’ of the gene) is precipitated by the defect (in this case the iron deficiency). Doctors really do not fully understand this situation when it occurs. You seem to think that you understand it even from your limited view of the process (as the illustration shows), which apparently makes you more of an expert than I am.