Vitiligo By Jordan Okuzu

Description Vitiligo is a disease that causes the loss of skin color in blotches The extent and rate of color loss from vitiligo is unpredictable It affects the skin on any body part Vitiligo can change hair, the interior of your mouth and even the eyes The color of these blotches are simply determined by your melanin. So if you’re black with vitiligo, you get blotches of white. If you’re white with vitiligo, you get even whiter blotches of white.

Causes Vitiligo develops when cells called melanocytes die. These are cells that give our skin and hair color. Scientists don’t completely know why the cells die. One type of vitiligo, non-segmental vitiligo, may be an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease develops when the body mistakes of part of itself as foreign. If the body mistakes these cells as foreigners, it’ll attack an kill these cells.

Different kinds of symptoms Premature whitening or graying of the hair on your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, or beard Loss of color in the tissues that line inside of your mouth, in other words, the mucous membranes Loss or change in color of the inner layer of your eye, or on your retina Focal. Depigmentation is limited to one or a few areas of your body. Segmental. Loss of skin color occurs on only one side of your body. Generalized. Pigment loss is widespread across many parts your body.

Spreading of Vitiligo Segmental vitiligo remains localized to one part of the body and does not spread. There is no way to predict if non-segmental vitiligo will spread. For some people, the depigmented patches do not spread. The disorder is usually progressive, however, and over time the white patches will spread to other areas of the body. For some people, vitiligo spreads slowly, over many years. For other people, spreading occurs rapidly. Some people have reported additional depigmentation following periods of physical or emotional stress.

Treatments One treatment is topical therapy. Creams, including corticosteroids, may be helpful in repigmenting the white patches, particularly if they are applied in the initial stages of the disease. Second, we have light treatment. Light therapy or excimer laser treatments are also used to treat vitiligo, although multiple treatments are needed and results may not be permanent. Next is psoralen photochemotherapy. Also known as psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA) therapy, which is an effective treatment for many patients. Psoralen is a drug that contains chemicals that react with ultraviolet light to cause darkening of the skin. The treatment involves taking psoralen by mouth or applying it to the skin. Finally, there’s depigmentation. This treatment involves fading the rest of the skin on the body to match the areas that are already white.

5 interesting facts Michael Jackson had Vitiligo. Winnie Harlow is a well known model with Vitiligo. Animals can get Vitiligo. Vitiligo is more present in people with dark skin. Vitiligo usually first appears between the ages of 10 and 30.

Resources “Diseases and Conditions: Vitiligo”. Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.org, http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/vitiligo/basics/definition/con-20032007. Accessed April 5 2017 “VITILIGO: WHO GETS AND CAUSES”. American Academy of Dermatology, www.aad.org, https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/color-problems/vitiligo#causes . Accessed April 4 2017 “Vitiligo Signs & Symptoms”. AVRF, www.avrf.org, http://www.avrf.org/facts/vitiligo-signs- symptoms.html . Accessed April 7 2017 “Questions and Answers about Vitiligo”. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, www.niams.nih.gov, https://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Vitiligo/default.asp . Accessed April 8 2017. Updated October 2016