Last Updated on 14th January 2025 by Caroline Haye
By treating the roots or the fruits?
Most of us with first hand experience of living with vitiligo are keen to know what causes it. (And even keener to know if there will ever be a definitive cure). The potential for a single cure seems poor because all evidence points to there being numerous different causes of this skin condition. And each of these would presumably require a different approach. This fact is evident if you consider current treatments. Topical steroids, pseudocatalase, narrowband UVB, PUVA, herbal remedies and Ayurveda medicine, to name a few, have all proven beneficial to a greater or lesser extent. But there is no single treatment that works for everyone… Which must make it very difficult for scientists to decide which direction to take in developing a vitiligo cure.
The majority of these therapies aim to address the symptoms (i.e. the depigmented patches of skin) by tackling one or more of the latter processes involved in their development. For example, doctors may prescribe corticosteroids to reduce the inflammatory response associated with vitiligo. They may also use photosensitising agents and UV light to try to stimulate pigmentation. And, in the absence of any other effective therapy, many vitiligo sufferers resort to purely cosmetic solutions like camouflage, tattooing, skin bleaching, depigmenting or even skin grafting.
Treating symptoms, not causes
It seems to me that all of these approaches have something in common. They all – to one extent or another – focus on the final symptom and its immediate precursors. In other words, if the vitiligo sufferer were a diseased tree, therapies nearly always focus on the fruits instead of at the roots. In an ideal world, the approach would surely be to identify the root cause, or causes, and treat those. Then the white patches would improve as a result.
This topic brings me back, as it usually does, to a thought process that makes the most sense to me in light of my own experience… The likelihood that most chronic conditions are the cumulative effect of a defect or malfunction in one or more of the body’s systems. (As ever, please be aware that my views on this subject are not based on any medical training whatsoever. They are purely the result of my own health experiences, medical documentation I have read over the years and some basic logic.)
The digestive system is key
So, the biological system that would seem to have the most potential to be the root cause of cumulative damage is the digestive system since this is the one responsible for taking in fuel and converting it into energy and into the multitude of chemical substances the body needs to perform all the other physiological functions required for good health. Surely, if a person is not digesting food properly for any reason, the knock-on effect of this over a period of time will inevitably be disease.
A natural consequence of this kind of disease is skin symptoms because the skin, like the gut, is an organ of elimination. So, when the gut consistently fails to deal with food as it should, toxins can build up in the body. This would presumably also affect the lymphatic system, resulting in toxic overload in the body. And that would almost certainly show in the skin. Regardless of the exact mechanisms, there is no doubt that a defective digestive system can cause a host of other health issues, including autoimmune diseases and vitiligo… As the diagram below indicates.
Possible cause and effect of digestive problems and vitiligo
I have had digestive issues ever since I was a young child. Many other vitiligo sufferers also report digestive problems. And many more besides are probably unaware that they even have an underlying digestive abnormality because symptoms are not always easy to identify. I’m guessing that digestive defects play a part in the root cause of vitiligo in at least a proportion of sufferers. So, logic tells me that, in these cases, instead of trying to treat the white patches (i.e. the diseased fruit), a more effective and permanent solution would surely be to deal with the digestive abnormality itself (i.e. the diseased roots).
Assuming an individual’s digestive system isn’t so damaged that it requires surgery, the most natural way to improve poor digestion must surely be to avoid foods that aggravate it… And to eat foods that are easy to digest, high in nutritional value and known for their cleansing, detoxifying and healing properties. Foods that fall into this category include green vegetables. For someone like me, who loves her veggies, this is not such bad news. But for many people, the idea of loading up on large servings of spinach, cabbage and broccoli at every meal is probably enough to turn them… well… green! So it’s just as well there are green food supplements that can top up your levels of these vital sources of essential and therapeutic nutrients.
Feed your roots…
Dietary changes may not, in reality, cure the root cause of vitiligo for everyone with digestive problems. But I am certain that they have the potential to improve digestive function significantly. Maybe to the point where the body can begin to absorb nutrients and eliminate waste much more effectively and start to heal. And this, in itself, can eventually restore normal pigmentation. The logic behind this certainly makes sense to me and it matches with my own experiences of vitiligo recovery. And, as every gardener knows, if you feed the roots well, the fruit will take care of itself.
