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Vitiligo is a skin condition wherein the cells which are responsible for your skin color gets destroyed. These cells known as melanocytes stop producing the skin pigment called as melanin. Further, when these cells doesn’t produce melanin at all, certain areas of your skin start becoming white or they start losing color. These loss of pigmentation may occur anywhere in your body that includes nostrils, back of the eye, genitals, and sun-exposed body parts such as the arms, face, hands, and feet, inside the mouth or other mucus membranes. If such areas involve hair too, they may also turn white or grey.
Vitiligo isn’t contagious, but it may affect many parts of the body and therefore a person who has vitiligo cannot transmit the same to another person.
Vitiligo symptoms include white patches on the skin.
The skin usually doesn't have its characteristic color since it has lost its melanin. But for some reason, melanocytes which are the pigment-forming cells gets destroyed in this condition. Changes in the immune system too are related with the Vitiligo causes.
There is no exact vitiligo cause that is known. But, it is said that an autoimmune condition might be the Vitiligo causes wherein your body's defenses turn on your own cells instead of attacking invading germs.
Vitiligo has a tendency to affect all races equally, however, it's more noticeable in people who are dark-skinned.
There are total two types of vitiligo and three sub-types. However, it depends on the number of patches and its location on the body:
Doctors typically categorize vitiligo as one of the following two types: (4)
These two types of vitiligo is further classified into 3 subtypes:
You should immediately visit a doctor if you start observing symptoms of vitiligo. Your doctor may recommend some treatment based on the diagnosis.
Vitiligo treatments has a motive in restoring the color balance to your skin. Some Vitiligo treatments target to add pigment to your skin whereas some other treatments remove it. Therefore, your Vitiligo treatment options will vary depending on the location of the patches, size of the patches, number of patches as well the severity of your condition. Your Vitiligo treatment will also depend the way you respond to the treatment.
The types of Vitiligo treatments are surgical, medical, or a mixture of both. However, not all treatments will work for everyone and thus some may lead to unwanted side effects.
Therefore, it is advisable to always contact your doctor the moment you start experiencing any side effects due to a Vitiligo treatment. Your doctor may then readjust your dosage or offer alternative solution.
Before you start observing the effects of your Vitiligo treatment, you should take a treatment for at least 3 months Medical treatments include application of topical creams that include corticosteroids that can help in returning back the color to white patches in the beginning. Some other creams help in slowing down the growth. Sometimes these topical creams may result in certain side effects such as thinning, skin shrinkage, excessive hair growth and skin irritation.
Oral medications: Some alternative medications such as steroids and certain antibiotics can also prove as an effective Vitiligo treatment. However, these medications would be available only by prescription.
Psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA) therapy: This Vitiligo treatment is a combination requiring you to take psoralen as a tablet or apply it to your skin as a cream. Your doctor will then expose you to UVA light for the drug activation that will help in restoration of color to your skin. Later, you’ll need to be careful by reducing sun exposure by wearing protective sunglasses. Psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA) therapy also have side effects including nausea, itching, sunburn and hyperpigmentation.
Narrow band UVB light: This is Vitiligi treatment offers a more focused type of light therapy that usually leads to a fewer side effects. This treatment of vitiligo may also be beneficial as part of a home treatment program. However, it should be done under a doctor’s supervision.
Excimer laser treatment: This Vitiligo treatment helps in case of small areas of patches and therefore takes less than four months for curing.
Depigmentation: If your body is more than 50% affected and you wish to balance your skin, your doctor will recommend depigmentation. Depigmentation generally targets to fade away the rest of the skin for matching the areas that have lost color. This treatment can be effective but it may take up to 2 years to see the results, inflammation being the biggest side effect.
Surgical options are available and are effective Vitiligo treatment when light medications and light therapy don’t work. The types of surgery may include skin grafting, melanocyte transplants and micropigmentation.
Results may be slow although you are already undergoing Vitiligo medical treatment. Therefore, alternative therapies such as sunscreen, cosmetics and managing your mental health are some of the options.
You should follow the mentioned self-care tactics that may help you to take care of your skin and improve its overall appearance:
You should visit a doctor in case certain areas of your skin, or hair or eyes have started losing colour. Generally, vitiligo doesn’t have any cure. However, Vitiligo treatment can help you to stop or slow the process of discoloring and then return some color back to your skin.