Last Updated on 22nd November 2019 by Caroline Haye
It’s been over 4 years (at the time of writing this post) since my natural skin colour started returning. (Thanks to a nutritional approach that I stumbled on more or less by accident) And, even now, my vitiligo recovery is still continuing.
Since 2010, virtually all of my previously white patches have filled in with wave upon wave of freckles. These have joined up and gradually smoothed out into my original skin tone. A few areas are still quite freckled and mottled. But the depth of skin tone is continuing to increase. And they continue to even out year on year, particularly in the summer months when it’s sunny. (Which, happily has been the case in the UK this year.)
The only remaining areas that don’t look fully pigmented are my hands and feet. These – whilst they have developed quite a few freckles – have remained very pale and patchy. Hand and feet are notoriously slow to respond to any vitiligo treatments. So much so, that most doctors will tell you that they very rarely repigment at all. With this in mind, I had more or less begun to think – after 4 years – that maybe the pigment in these areas really was dead. And I thought I’d have to accept that these would be the only parts of my body that would not achieve full repigmentation. However, much to my delight, I have seen a lot of new freckles appearing this summer (see photos).
So, it just goes to show that it really pays to be patient, especially when it comes to natural treatments. Vitiligo generally develops gradually over an extended period of time. (Mine took the best part of 50 years to get to the point where it covered about 80% of my body.) So it’s not altogether surprising that recovery takes time too.
3 thoughts on “My vitiligo recovery is still continuing after 4 years!”
That’s great to hear and see! What do you think was the turning point from losing pigment for so long, to start re-pigmenting?
I keep hearing that stress plays a huge role in the initial development of vitiligo. And so I wonder if an important part of re-pigmenting is to find ways to alleviate those sources of stress?
Yes – I have often read that stress can be a trigger for vitiligo and I suppose it stands to reason that stress makes most health conditions worse. However, my repigmentation has taken place throughout the most stressful 4 years of my entire life, so it’s certainly not the whole story.
I attribute my recovery entirely to the nutritional supplements I took (and still take) which I believe have compensated for a chronic nutritional deficiency caused by digestive problems. By replenishing the missing nutrients I believe I have supplied what my skin needed to produce pigment and getting regular sun exposure triggered the process.
I stumbled across this old post today and realised that it has been just over 4 years since I wrote it and, in all that time, I have still not had any relapse of my vitiligo and have even continued to see further small improvements on my hands (one of the few areas that did not achieve completely normal re-pigmentation in the first 18 months).
So I thought I would add this note for anyone else who finds this post and wonders what has happened since 2014!