Hair-loss claims are unsubstantiated
Re Hair-loss scare inspires gluten-free fare, Oct. 28 As a dermatologist in practice for almost 30 years, and with a great deal of experience treating hair-loss disorders, I was very disappointed to read the comments accompanying a gluten-free recipe taken from a cookbook by Mary Jo Eustace.
It was inappropriate for Star columnist Jennifer Bain to focus on the author’s embrace of a gluten-free diet for the treatment of alopecia areata, an auto-immune hair-loss disorder. I take no issue with her helping to promote a cookbook with gluten-free recipes, but she should not be lending credibility to Eustace’s personal view that a gluten-free diet will improve alopecia areata. To do so is irresponsible as there is absolutely no good evidencebased medicine or clinical experience to recommend this unsound, unsubstantiated anecdotal claim.
Although Bain writes that Eustace is “admittedly neither a doctor nor a nutritionist,” the column clearly implies that a glutenfree diet could be appropriate for hair loss due to alopecia areata, especially when she states, “The gluten-free regime seems to have worked. The alopecia is gone and Lola’s hair is stunning.”
Bain does acknowledge that the author “dove into researching the disease and discovered, anecdotally at least, that ‘avoiding gluten, eating clean and getting rid of the crap in our diet’ can help,” but her lengthy and detailed presentation of the author’s personal story is inappropriate and misleading for the public welfare.
There is certainly no shortage of specious medical and nutritional information, but I did not expect this from what could have been an otherwise very good column about gluten-free recipes.
As public editor Kathy English so aptly put it in her July 31 column, “Certainly in this digital era when information is always and easily available from many questionable sources, the question of where readers turn for credible information is more vital than ever . . . the Star’s core product — however we deliver it to you — is credibility.” Dr. Eric L. Eisenberg, dermatologist, University Health Network, Toronto