Mitochondrial failure could be the root cause of vitiligo

Last Updated on 15th June 2022 by Caroline Haye

Mitochondria research could be the key to a leucoderma cure

The internet is teeming with information about vitiligo. Clinical papers, research updates, support groups, blogs and authority websites are all rich sources of fascinating facts and figures, comments and opinions. This is a good thing if, like me, you enjoy reading up on the topic. And, if you do, then you will not be put off by the subject of this this post… How mitochondrial failure might be the cause of vitiligo.

Ever since discovering, by chance, that nutrition was the key to getting rid of my own vitiligo, I have read all I can on the wider subject. And I have amassed a fair amount of knowledge as a result. Of course, I am happy to have found an effective therapy myself. This has been a wonderful and totally unexpected thing. But I would also love to understand more about the process. In particular, I’d love to read that the root cause has been discovered…Not least because, once that is known, a universal cure is bound to follow. 

Having managed to reverse my pigment loss almost 100% using nutritional supplements, my assumption is that the main trigger for my vitiligo was poor digestion. And that this had led to certain nutritional deficiencies. This seems all the more likely when you take into account that I have suffered from intestinal problems all my life. However, it still doesn’t reveal a true root. I mean, something must have caused the intestinal problems in the first place. (My thought process here is a familiar one in the context of vitiligo… As soon as you start to investigate possible causes it feels like peeling away a layer of an onion. Only to find the next layer underneath. Not just that, but who’s to say there might not be more than one onion!) 

Hydrogen peroxide and ROS in vitiligo

For example, scientists know that vitiligo sufferers have abnormally high levels of hydrogen peroxide in their skin. So, is this oxidative stress the cause of pigment loss? Well, yes – it probably is. But what is causing these abnormal levels of oxidative stress in the first place? One theory is this oxidative stress is caused by something called mitochondrial failure.

If you have a background in biology or medicine you will know what mitochondria are. But, for the rest of us, they are the tiny structures present in most of the cells in our body that convert the energy from our food into a form that the cells can use. Each mitochondrion is made up of roughly 3000 genes and they perform a host of different biological tasks. But, put very simply, mitochondria are responsible for creating more than 90% of the energy needed by the human body to sustain life and support growth. They are the batteries that power our cells. Unfortunately, like batteries, mitochondria sometimes fail. And, when they do, the vital energy supply shuts down and cells die. Which can lead to a variety of mitochondrial diseases. 

One of the perfectly normal effects of mitochondrial activity is the production of ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species). These are chemically reactive molecules that are a natural by-product of normal metabolism. However, research has shown that mitochondrial ROS production in subjects with active vitiligo is out of control, causing abnormally high levels of oxidative stress. So, it seems that the answer to the question “what causes the oxidative stress that, in turn, causes vitiligo?” could be mitochondrial failure. Of course this then poses the next question, which is what causes the mitochondrial failure? And so we come to another layer of the “vitiligo onion”!