Visuals make things a little clear than reading. Therefore here is a quick explanation of what Vitiligo means.
If you ever come across a person that has some kind of white skin patches on their hands, forearms, feet, and face like the one shown in the above image. And if you ever wonder if it can happen to you. Then here is what Vitiligo wants to say to you.
Vitiligo
Now that you have got a visual appearance to identify that the person is suffering from Vitiligo. Let’s talk about if you can become a victim of Vitiligo and How Vitiligo happens.
The change in skin color from the original to making it lifter and litter till it becomes easily recognized to all is because of lack of melanin. It is what gives our skin, hair and eyes color.
There are pigment-producing cells called melanocytes that provide melanin to your skin, hair and eye colors. When these pigment-producing cells fail to produce enough melanin needed for skin to maintain its original color. The results are light white patches on the skin at different locations of the body.
Yet there is no sure evidence of what causes the deficiency of melanin in the skin. But few studies support it may be related to factors such as:
- In some rare cases, the immune system develops antibodies that destroy melanocytes hence causing deficiency of melanin.
- It may be hereditary
- Few toxic substances can also damage melanocytes resulting in skin and hairs losing their original color.
- Physical or emotional stress also plays a vital role in triggering Vitiligo.
These alone or combinations of these factors are some of the common reasons why people suffer from Vitiligo.
What are some common symptoms of Vitiligo?
It can be easy to identify Vitiligo, as the skin turns from its original color to white. Most of the time Vitiligo can appear on either or both hands, on the face, especially by the side of the lips/around and below the nose, changing hair color of scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows or beard from original to gray.
Does Vitiligo consist of different types?
Vitiligo generally can arise before the age of 30 years however in rare cases it can also come after the age of 30.
Let us look down for what are some different types of Vitiligo.
- Universal: In such type of Vitiligo nearly most of the body skin turns pale.
- Generalized: In this, the skin defect appears on different parts of the body.
- Segmental: Only when either side of the skin is infected.
- Acrofacial: When the face, hands and around the body opening parts such as eyes, nose and ears skin is infected
What are some complications that a person needs to undergo when suffering from Vitiligo?
There are numerous challenges that men and women need to suffer from Vitiligo:
- Skin Burn: Due to lack of melanocytes a person may experience skin burn when exposed to direct sunlight.
- Retina and Iris: A person may experience inflammation to Retina and Iris but won’t affect the vision.
- Immune Disorder: An immune disorder is a major cause of Vitiligo. Some other problems that can lead to such skin illness are hypothyroidism, diabetes, pernicious anemia, Addison’s disease, and alopecia areata as all these problems are related to immune disorder.
- Depression: In most cases, this skin disorder appears in areas that are easily visible such as the hands and mouth. This makes most people suffering from this disorder feel awkward in the crowd. Hence normal people should always try to accept the way they look then making fun of them.
What are some various treatments available for Vitiligo?
There is as such no treatment available that can vanish Vitiligo but there are various ways a person may hide Vitiligo or match the skin color to a little normal.
- Sunscreen: Using a sunscreen lotion with an SPF of 30 or higher will limit the sunburn there limiting the contrast between the infected skin and normal skin.
- Makeup: One can camouflage the infected skin and normal skin easily if he or she is good with makeup.
- Hair Dye: One can always over the change in hair color caused by hair dye. Make sure to use a natural hair dye as high chemical hair dye can cause an allergy that can cause swelling to the eyes and can also irritate your eyes resulting in visionary challenges.
- Benoquin Cream: One can buy Benoquin Cream consisting of active ingriedent monobenzone. It is however not a cure but can help decrease the differentiation between the skin that can help build self-confidence.
- Light therapy: Narrowband UVB: This therapy works better on patients who have less spread infected areas.
- Combining oral psoralen and UVA: This therapy works better on patients with large skin infected with Vitiligo. It is one of the best treats to opt for a skin infection on areas like the head, neck, trunk, upper arms and legs.
- Surgery: However there is no such surgery for Vitiligo but skin grafting surgery can be used to cover the infected skin.
- Tattoo: Some people tattoo the portion of the infected skin to cover up.
