Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder where patches appear on your skin and the skin loses its natural color. The discolored areas get bigger with time. This condition may affect any part of your body, even your hair and inside of the mouth. These days, a patient can choose many vitiligo treatment options to overcome their conditions.
Let us acquaint you with all about vitiligo causes, its symptoms, and treatments in this article.
Potential Causes of Vitiligo
Melanin is a pigment that gives a natural color to your skin. In vitiligo, skin cells that produce this melanin either die or can’t secrete this component. Though vitiligo can be a hereditary disease, some other factors like chemical exposure, stress, sunburn, autoimmune disorders, etc. are responsible for vitiligo.Vitiligo is more prominent among dark-colored people, but it can affect any race.
Who Is More Susceptible to Getting Vitiligo?
Nearly 2 to 5 million of the American population are suffering from this condition. In most cases, it appears early in life between 10-30 years. It is prominent before age 40.You may inherit this disease from your family or when people in your family may get gray hair prematurely.
Autoimmune diseases like autoimmune thyroid (H 0020tashimoto’s thyroiditis) or type-1 diabetes may enhance your chance of getting the disease.
Though vitiligo is not a life-threatening condition it may damage your appearance and self-esteem. Vitiligo treatment will reinstate the color of the damaged skin, but it won’t prevent recurrence or continual loss of the skin color.
Top 7 Symptoms of Vitiligo
Vitiligo signs could be:- Patchy loss of skin color (generally appears on the hands, then gradually spreads to the face, and areas around body openings and the genitals)
- Premature whitening or appearance of gray hair on your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows or beard
- Loss of color in the tissues that are present inside the line of the mouth and nose (mucous membranes)
Nearly All Skin Surfaces: This type is called universal vitiligo where discoloration affects nearly all skin surfaces of your body
Many Parts of the Body: This type of vitiligo is called generalized vitiligo where discolored patches appear symmetrically on various body parts
Only One Side or Part of the Body: This type of vitiligo is known as segmental vitiligo. It appears at your young age and progresses gradually for a year or two, then stops.
One or Only a Few Areas of the Body: This type of vitiligo is called localized (focal) vitiligo and it appears only in some particular parts of your body.
The Face and Hands: This type of vitiligo is called acrofacial vitiligo and it affects the face, hands, and around body openings, such as the eyes, nose and ears.
The underlying causes of the progression of the disease are not known. Many times, the patches stop forming without any treatment. But in most cases, it spreads most of the skin and your skin turns black-colored.
Diagnosis of Vitiligo
Your doctor will perform some blood tests, a skin biopsy test, and a physical examination with a special lamp.Medication for Vitiligo Treatment
Depending on your age and how much skin is damaged, you need to choose the right treatment for you. Medications along with light therapy are useful in restoring skin color.1. Drugs that Control Inflammation:
Your doctor will suggest using a corticosteroid cream on the affected skin to restore the color. This is very useful when the vitiligo is in its nascent stage. These creams are easy-to-use, but you may not notice any changes in the skin color for several months.Milder forms of the drugs are recommended for children and people who have large infected areas (discolored skin).
Corticosteroid pills or injections are useful for people whose conditions are progressing quickly.
