Last Updated on 29th November 2023 by Caroline Haye
Is vitiligo also on the rise?
Evidently, autoimmune disease is on the increase in the western world. Which begs the question, are all autoimmune diseases on the rise? And, in particular, what about vitiligo?
Scientists have sometimes quibbled over the question of whether or not vitiligo is an autoimmune disease. But the general consensus now is that it is. (Or at least that there is an autoimmune element involved.) I am not a scientist and so I am not remotely qualified to agree or disagree. From what I have read, people with autoimmune diseases are more likely to develop vitiligo than those without. But whether or not autoimmunity is the root cause of vitiligo seems to me to be less certain. Maybe autoimmunity is not the root cause of any of the conditions that we refer to as autoimmune. It may just be a consequence of some other underlying cause. And that underlying cause could be linked to modern day life.
The role of autoimmunity in vitiligo
My understanding of the way vitiligo develops is that the fundamental cause is a genetic one. The autoimmune aspect of the condition only comes into play as part of a chain reaction. And this chain reaction requires a trigger (like a burn, injury or stress) to set it off. Some sort of physical or mental trauma kick starts a domino effect in those of us who carry the “vitiligo gene”. And part of that domino effect is this… That our immune system thinks our pigment cells are foreign invaders and unleashes an attack on them. Following this theory, autoimmunity could be called one of the symptoms of vitiligo, not the original cause of it. Not that this makes a huge difference in the scheme of things. You would still classify it as an autoimmune condition because it has an autoimmune dimension to it.
One possibility is that, in some cases at least, the digestive tract may be where this chain reaction begins. It is, after all, where so many of the body’s processes start. And it plays such an important role in the immune system. One theory involving the digestive system is that “leaky gut” can cause the body’s immune system to attack its own cells.
Why are the industrialised nations so sick?
What is clear is that the better known autoimmune diseases are spreading significantly in the western world. (E.g. type 1 diabetes, Graves’ disease, vasculitis, myasthenia gravis, connective tissue diseases, autoimmune Addison’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, hemolytic anemia, celiac disease, and scleroderma.) Interestingly, I cannot find any references anywhere to a similar rise in the incidence of vitiligo cases. This may just be because no one has yet compiled the relevant data. Or it may be that I haven’t looked in the right places. So please let me know in the comments below if you are aware of any such research.
In any case, the research that has been done into the rise of autoimmune diseases generally clearly shows that this increase is occurring specifically in the developed world… To the extent that it has been dubbed “the Western Disease”. And it is worse in urban areas than in rural ones. This strongly suggests that either the diet and/or the environment in industrialised countries (and in their cities in particular) are playing a part in the proliferation of these conditions.
Diet and environment
Certainly, the nature of our highly processed foods and the presence of potentially toxic chemicals and heavy metals in our environment have increased alarmingly over recent decades in the developed world, especially in urban areas. So the likelihood of there being a direct link between these two phenomena seems obvious. And, whether or not vitiligo is among those autoimmune diseases that are on the rise, the increasing number of toxins and allergens in our environment are bound to have an adverse effect on anyone with either existing vitiligo or a predisposition to it.
According to the author of The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance the incidence of autoimmune disease has tripled in industrialised countries over the last three decades, making them the Number Two cause of chronic illness in America and the third leading cause of Social Security disability behind heart disease and cancer. They are also the eighth leading cause of death among women, shortening the average patient’s lifespan by fifteen years. Even in the twenty-first century, women probably still come into contact more routinely than men with domestic cleaning chemicals. So it seems likely that these may be one environmental trigger. I have no doubt that there are many more triggers in our western environment and lifestyle and will continue to look at these in future posts.
Other posts on environmental vitiligo triggers include…
Can prescription drugs cause vitiligo?
My favourite vitiligo clothes labels
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