Last Updated on 23rd November 2019 by Caroline Haye
I have suffered with digestive problems ever since I was a baby and started developing vitiligo from toddler age onwards. From early adulthood I also developed arthritis. Either I’m unlucky or there is a link! Interestingly, the nutritional supplements I have been taking for the past two and a half years have not only improved my vitiligo by about 98% but my digestion is better than it ever was. And I have less arthritic pain too. Again, I doubt that this is coincidence. It makes me wonder how many vitiligo sufferers have a leaky gut and don’t even know it.
I am certainly not the only person to have effectively treated their vitiligo using nutritional supplementation and UV light.
Swedish vitiligo researchers Lennart Juhlin, M.D. and colleagues at the University of Uppsala conducted a two year study find out if oral supplementation of vitamin B12 and folic acid, plus sun exposure would help to repigment vitiligo. Significant repigmentation occurred in 52 out of 100 patients. Six of the patients achieved total repigmentation and vitiligo stopped spreading in 64% of the patients following treatment. The combination of folic acid and vitamin B12 combined with UV exposure produced better re-pigmentation than sun exposure or the vitamins alone.
Vitamin B12 and folic acid are both key ingredients in the Xenca Boost supplement that I used for my repigmentation. And, in accordance with the research I mentioned above, I found it worked best in conjunction with sun exposure or phototherapy.
As far as I can tell, this study did not look at the possible reasons for the success of nutritional therapy for vitiligo. But one explanation might be that a significant proportion of vitiligo sufferers have nutritional deficiencies (B12 and folic acid in particular). This seems to have been true in my particular case. And digestive problems (specifically, leaky gut) may have been the reason for this. Given the results of this study, I’d be interested to know how many of the patients who responded to nutritional therapy also had digestive problems.
3 thoughts on “How many vitiligo sufferers have a leaky gut?”
i have been taking vit b12 injections montly for the past 10 years..and folic acid for the past one year..havent seen any difference and in fact the white spots are appearing in huge sizes
Can I ask what nutritional supplements you have been taking for the last 2 1/2 years that have resulted in an improvement of 98 % in your vitiligo. In relation to the digestion side I have read that vitiligo sufferers have a lack of hydrochloric stomach acid and have been taking Betaine Hydrochloric Acid tablets after meals. May I also ask if you have been following the raw food diet
I too have been wondering about the link between digestion and vitiligo. I chanced upon the folic acid link a couple of years ago, when I started to eat more folic acid rich fruit and was surprised to find my skin repigmenting. I’m now on 400mcg of folic acid and progress is still being made albeit slowly during the winter months. I was also interested to read your experiences with the mystery Chinese herbal concoction. I’ll be writing a blog piece on Chinese herbal medicines and vitiligo in the next month or so as part of a series on alternative treatments. Enjoyed your blog very much and look forward to your next post.