Or you may not have anything to smile about One of the first areas of my face to lose its pigment when I was a child was the corners of my mouth – a common site for vitiligo lesions. Once I started to spend my time looking ito possible causes, […]
Causes & Triggers
64 posts
What causes vitiligo skin to turn white? It seems that press rumours of a cure for age-related greying of the hair were somewhat exaggerated. However, the research that triggered them is still good news for anyone with vitiligo… The skin disorder that causes areas of skin (and hair) to turn […]
Or is it the other way round? The subject of my previous post was the theory that a possible cause of vitiligo is so-called mitochondrial failure. And I will be returning to this subject later in this post. But first, I want to ask you a question: does your vitiligo […]
Is our perspiration bleaching our skin? There is a school of thought that says degenerative diseases are the result of an accumulation of toxic, acid waste in the body. In the case of vitiligo, this theory suggests the loss of skin colour may be caused partly by the destruction of […]
How checking for low stomach acid could save your skin I used to be slightly sceptical about vitiligo being an autoimmune disease. Mainly because no doctor had ever mentioned this to me (and still hasn’t to this day!). When I was first diagnosed, as a child, it was the 1960s. […]
If you are anything like me, you will have read and heard a lot about vitiligo and autoimmunity (As well as links between vitiligo and other autoimmune diseases like diabetes mellitus, thyroiditis, pernicious anaemia, alopecia areata, Addison disease and multiple endocrinopathy syndrome.) But you may be a bit unclear as […]
Will sun make me gain skin pigment or lose it? We Brits have a reputation for going a bit bonkers with our sunbathing whenever we get good weather. With the result that each mini “heatwave” we have leaves a percentage of the population a tender shade of beetroot. Despite all […]
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. […]
Moving on with my series of blogs about diseases that are sometimes associated with vitiligo, I’d like to turn the spotlight on diabetes. Both diabetes and vitiligo share an association with autoimmunity. And, whilst the two conditions certainly don’t always occur together, having one increases your likelihood of developing the other. So it […]
Psoriasis and vitiligo share a number of characteristics in common. Both are chronic skin disorders with a genetic component and no cure. (Although various helpful therapies do exist for them.) They are both categorised as inflammatory autoimmune conditions. And research points to a close relationship between the two. To suggest […]
I came across this fascinating article by James J Nordlund today. It was 3 years old (at the time of publishing this post). But the information is certainly not out of date. I find that a lot of vitiligo information that can be accessed online is repetitive and too superficial […]
Virtually every website and medical leaflet on the subject recommends to vitiligo sufferers that they use sunscreen to prevent their un-pigmented skin from burning. What most of them don’t say is that we may make matters worse by following this advice indiscriminately. Most sunscreens are full of synthetic chemical ingredients […]
How did I get these white spots? Vitiligo seems like such a mysterious and unexpected disorder when it first starts to develop that that most sufferers, understandably, wonder: how did I get these white spots on my skin? Where on earth did they come from and why has this happened […]
Continuing this series about the links between vitiligo and other diseases, this post is about the adrenal glands. Although it is common knowledge that stress can be a trigger for vitiligo, the possible role of the adrenals in pigment loss is not something we often hear about. So most vitiligo […]
A short history of perfume Humans have used perfume since the very earliest civilisations. Historians tell us that in ancient times burning resins, spices and sweet herbs was the sole preserve of priests. It was this ceremonial creation of fragrances that eventually gave perfume its name, courtesy of the ancient […]
Vitiligo has been associated with numerous endocrine disorders. (That is, disorders relating to the hormones and the glands that make and secrete them into the bloodstream.) One of the most common associations is with thyroid disease. This association is quite well established. But the exact reason for it is still not […]
Just spotted this interesting article on the link between the digestive system and skin disorders – a fact which has been quite obvious to me for some time in the case of my own vitiligo. Unfortunately, most doctors seem to be oblivious to any possible link. Most dermatologists focus totally […]
I’ve chatted with a lot of vitiligo sufferers over the years since telling my story on this site. And so many of them have digestive problems that I’m convinced malabsorption of nutrients is a key trigger of vitiligo… If not the root cause of it. I have suffered with Irritable […]
I have long suspected that the cause of my vitiligo was a compromised digestive system and, sure enough, when I started supplementing my diet my IBS symptoms improved along with my dramatic re-pigmentation. I knew that candida yeast overgrowth was a problem and found that taking a good probiotic […]
Like most vitiligo people out there who read a lot on the subject, I’ve been aware for some time that oxidative stress is one of the likely causes of this skin condition – which is why I take green superfoods containing huge doses of antioxidants. Most of us know that […]
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 […]