Most, if not all classic treatments for alopecia areata have some potential side effects and many alternative treatments also carry a risk. If any drug or treatment is powerful enough to regrow hair then it is strong enough to be harmful. You decided to try an alternative treatment I am amazed how naive people can be about alternative treatments. The assumption always seems to be that if it is alternative it must be harmless and it is more likely to work because it is not derived from western medicine. This is a very naive viewpoint.
Alternative treatments have the same potential for side effects as any other product.
Natural herbs are the obvious case in point. Some of the most potent drugs used in western medicine today are plant derived. The drug Digoxin used to treat heart failure patients is derived from the digitalis plant. Although beneficial when care fully administered, it is fatal in larger doses. A recent drug developed in the war against cancer is Tamoxifen.