Last Updated on 21st June 2023 by Caroline Haye
Lessons in vitiligo nutrition
My story has been one of trial and error, serendipity and good fortune. Widespread vitiligo and generally suboptimal health had become my accepted norm by the time I reached adulthood. And this continued to be my lot in life until the age of 50. Only then did a fairly random set of circumstances lead to a dramatic improvement in my general health… And almost total re-pigmentation of my vitiligo. Yet it has taken me the past eight years since that turn-around in my fortunes to figure out some of the science behind my recovery. And I don’t suppose I shall ever stop figuring. In this post I want to discuss the possible benefits of supplementing with collagen for re-pigmentation of vitiligo.
A brief background to my recovery
Back in 2010 I had been working in the beauty industry for several decades. And, in the course of my work, I had trade accounts with a number of skin care and cosmetics companies. This also gave me the opportunity to try out some of their high quality nutritional supplements at trade prices. So I began taking a number of them as an experiment… Just to see if they might help my various chronic health issues.
For example, I started taking Boost capsules in the (not very serious) hope that they might help my vitiligo. I thought there was a chance they might, given that they optimise the body’s ability to acquire a natural sun tan. (The idea seemed logical but I really only held out a faint hope.) I also started taking Five a Day (a green food formula) hoping it might provide me with a base level of good nutrition. My thinking was that it might compensate for my less than perfect diet… And possibly improve my IBS symptoms and vitiligo by increasing antioxidant levels. And I began taking collagen supplements too. This was mainly because I had read about their therapeutic value for arthritis (and for wrinkles!).
Collagen for re-pigmentation… really?
Of course, the fact that I began taking multiple supplements all at the same time made the task of correlating cause and effect more difficult. It was impossible to be sure which supplements were producing which results… Or whether it was the synergistic effect of two or more products that did the trick. But at least the advantage of plunging straight in, all nutritional guns blazing, was that I was able to enjoy all of the benefits sooner than if I had introduced each product more scientifically, one at a time. So, if I had to do it all over again I really don’t think I would have done anything different.
Well, all of this nutritional experimentation did indeed produce the intended results – more than I ever could have hoped. For one thing, virtually all of my extensive vitiligo re-pigmented over a period of 18 months or so. But also, my IBS symptoms and arthritis went from seriously debilitating to barely noticeable on good days… And just moderately annoying on the dwindling number of bad ones.
It wasn’t until much later that I began to understand a little bit more about the respective roles these various supplements played in my improvement. Even now, I am still discovering new insights into which ingredients may, in fact, have been responsible for which effects. And I am gradually discovering more of the science behind these ingredients and their effects on my body.
Digestive benefits of collagen supplementation
Possibly the most surprising of these discoveries was the fact that the therapeutic effects of #collagen-supplementation are many. They are not limited to helping with arthritis. Nor even to reducing wrinkles and strengthening hair and nails. I have realised that, whilst I have always recognised Boost and Five a Day as having had the most direct impact on my re-pigmentation, collagen almost certainly played its part too.
From what I have gleaned from various research papers and scientific documents, there are some significant links between collagen status and vitiligo. (I blogged previously on these in Collagen and Vitiligo.) And, if what I have read on a number of health-related websites is correct, then collagen hydrolysate (the form used for supplementation) apparently also improves digestion. It seems it does this by helping to heal Leaky-Gut-Syndrome… A condition which many believe to be a cause of some autoimmune conditions.
This site, in particular, has some helpful insights on the subject. Evidently, the digestive benefits of collagen supplementation include the following:
- Helps regulate inflammation
- Protects the mucosal barrier of the gut and of the entire body
- Improves enterocyte function (intestinal absorption)
- Optimises stomach acid production
- Aids the digestive process and the movement of food through the gut
- Aids detoxification and bile acid production
- Helps protect the liver
- Improves fructose malabsorption
- Acts as a prebiotic to aid the growth of healthy intestinal flora
My conclusions on using collagen for re-pigmentation
The results of my nutrtional experimentation, plus everything I have read on the subject, makes me think that taking collagen supplements contributed more to my recovery than just improving my arthritic hip and making my skin look and feel smoother. It seems that it may also have helped my Irritable Bowel… and the re-pigmentation process itself. Possibly, by improving my poor nutritional absorption and, in turn, maximising the effects of the nutrients in my diet and in the supplements I took.
Obviously, there is nothing very scientific about my experiences or my amateur conclusions. But, as the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And, as far as I’m concerned, my collagen supplementation turned out to be a tremendously successful experiment.
At the very least, it is (highly nutritious) food for thought!
