Why are extremities so prone to depigmentation and so hard to repigment? Vitiligo can occur absolutely anywhere on the body. (Even on the inside.) No area of skin is off limits as far as this pigmentary disorder is concerned, two of the most common sites being the face and the […]
Science & Research
22 posts
Is pigment loss really so hard to treat? The first blog post of a new year deserves a meaty topic. So today I am going to try tackling a question that has frustrated millions of people around the world for generations. Namely, why is there no cure for vitiligo yet? […]
3 front-runners and an outsider Before you get too excited, there is no cure for vitiligo quite yet. But I am confident that a day will come pretty soon when we will read headlines like this one… “Scientists finally discover a cure for vitiligo”. (So I do think it’s OK […]
The role of melanocytes in creating skin colour is well known. But these cells are present throughout the entire body and perform a host of different tasks. It is therefore possible that melanocyte damage in vitiligo may cause other health problems too.
What a shot in the arm that would be! As things stand, there is no outright cure for the appearance-altering pigmentary disorder we call vitiligo. The best that any of us can hope to achieve is a reversal of pigment loss and long-term remission, if we are lucky. A cure […]
But new treatment could make it forget to create white patches Recent findings have revealed that our skin has a vitiligo “memory”. This explains why patches often return in exactly the same places some time after successful treatments end. It is because of so-called “skin memory cells”. This discovery is […]
Perifollicular, diffuse and marginal repigmentation patterns There is a fair amount of literature on the causes, treatments and possible cures of vitiligo. (See my post Vitiligo Science Is Progressing for a round-up.) The internet is awash with articles, research papers, forums, support groups and blogs exploring these topics. There is, […]
Research highlights from WVD 2018 Conference I only managed to join the live stream of the #WorldVitiligoDay 2018 Conference last month for part of it. (The conference, organised by Dr John Harris at the University of Massachusetts, was entitled Children, Research, and Hope for the Future.) So I have been […]
Will vitiligo cure be a magic bullet? Last month I wrote about the exciting progress Dr John Harris and his team at the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center (University of Massachusetts Medical School) are making towards an effective treatment for vitiligo. In particular, I celebrated Dr Harris’ unequivocal assertion that […]
The rather beautiful image above shows human melanocyte cells glowing after exposure to ultraviolet light… Part of an experiment that has, quite literally, shed new light on how our skin produces the melanin that gives it its colour. A research team at Brown University have discovered that a light-sensitive protein […]
Damage to pigment cells is not permanent How would it make you feel to know that vitiligo is fully reversible? Thrilled, indifferent or disappointed? The condition is something none of us asks for and most of us would rather live without. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. I […]
Could new cancer research hold the key to a cure? One of this week’s most exciting media stories was the spectacular success scientists are experiencing with engineering immune T-cells to target a particular type of blood cancer. Life-threatening diseases are a clear priority for this kind of research. But there are […]
Creating Real Pigment without the Sun Summer is now in full swing, a fact that may or may not be cause for celebration if you have #vitiligo. Whether this season fills you with joy or with frustration, I hope that you will feel encouraged by some news I shall be […]
Is a cure coming closer? I was recently asked by a vitiligo friend on Facebook if I had heard of the drug #Tofacitinib and what did I know about it. I told him that what I had heard made me optimistic that research into definitive vitiligo cures was making significant […]
So many variables, so little money! I sometimes wonder whether those of us with vitiligo (an estimated one in 100 of the world’s population) are justified in feeling frustrated about the lack of progress towards a permanent cure. As far as anyone knows, vitiligo has been around for as long […]
There is still no satisfactory cure for vitiligo. But there are certainly enough re-pigmentation stories to show that it’s a condition that does respond to therapy. There are a number of different treatments that can be effective to one degree or another. It’s just that no single one works for […]
A vitiligo friend pointed out a news item to me today which I somehow missed back in May of this year and which sounds to me like the closest thing to a potential real cure for vitiligo yet. The article, as reported in the Telegraph on 6 May 2013, confirms what […]
A real vitiligo cure is the holy grail As far as mainstream medicine is concerned, current vitiligo treatments focus on the symptoms rather than the causes of the condition. This approach is fine, as far as it goes. After all, white patches – the obvious symptom of vitiligo – are the main […]
… or for your vitiligo Following my recent post about the effects of #phenols on vitiligo, in which I was reminded that a little learning can be a dangerous thing, I found myself googling around a subject that I thought I already understood pretty well: #antioxidants. And, as it turns out, these […]
I only realised when I read this article on the subject that leukoderma is not just another name for vitiligo. (Contrary to popular belief .) Vitiligo is, in fact, just one type of leukoderma. Leukoderma (or leucoderma, as it is sometimes spelled) is just an umbrella term. It applies […]
Recent research suggests that people who – like me – have brown eyes are more likely to have vitiligo than those with blue or grey eyes, which is quite intriguing. The same study also found that vitiligo sufferers are less likely to develop skin cancer. This is at least some […]