Everything You Wanted to Know About Treating Vitiligo

What is vitiligo and Is treating vitiligo Achievable?

Do you have white patches on your skin and wonder what it is , what is causing it, and what you can do to treat it?  This skin condition is known as vitiligo. It is a skin condition which is long term and it usually charactrized by several skin patches that have lost their pigmentation.

These patches of the affected area usually become white with sharp margins because melanin production by melanocytes (cells which produce melanin) is stopped by different factors such as exposing the skin to chemicals, stress, sunburn and other factors such as autoimmunity i.e. your own immune cells attacking your melanocytes or condition .

Even the hair from the affected area can also become white. Vitiligo pigmentation occures in lower extrmities and with small patches that tend to be small and then spread out and chane their shape. They are very prominent on the hands, face and wrist

What causes vitiligo?

The cause of this disease is not known but it can be inherited as its risk factor includes some family history of the disease, and might also be as a result of other autoimmune diseases like alopecia areata, pernicious anemia, and hyperthyroidism.

There are two types of vitiligo. Segmental and non-segmented (NSV) The non-segmental vitiligo is the most common type and can either be generalized or localized in most parts of the body.

What causes vitiligo to spread?

Not all forms of vitiligo spread rapidly.When it comes to spreading, the segmental vitiligo is the one that spreads.This form differs from NSV in the sense that it is unilateral and is associated with the spinal cord’s dorsal roots, and spreads more rapidly than NSV.

The good new about this form of vitiligo (segmental) is  that since it is more static or stable in its course, and  is generally weaker in its association with autoimmune diseases, it receives a very good response from topical treatment.

This Vitiligo disease most at times is very difficult to treat or may take a longtime to treat, however patients suffering from this disease have several different ways of treatment to choose from.

And these different treatments are mostly aimed at bringing back color to the white patches or compromising the immune system to spare these melanocytes which produce melanin responsible for the coloration of our skin.

In this article you are going to see some of the conventional methods used in treating this disease condition and how other treatments such as homoeopathy is used to treat this disease.

Conventional Methods for  treating Vitiligo

These conventional medicines act either by suppressing the immune system or to bring back the normal skin coloration. Creams such as corticosteroid creams with active drugs called tacrolimus and pimercrolimus act by compromising the immune system there by stopping it from acting and killing melanocytes which produce melanin.

Another method of approach to treat Vitiligo is by applying U.V rays to the skin, this can be used alongside other medications to increase the effectiveness of the treatment.

The above mentioned methods are aimed at suppressing the immune system, however treatment methods such as tattooing the affected area or grafting a patch of normal skin over the affected area will in some way restore color in the affected area of the skin. Let us now look at Homoeopathy which treats Vitiligo from the perspective of a disease.

What is Homoeopathy when it comes to the treatment of Vitiligo?

Another approach in the treatment of Vitiligo is consider the fact that it progresses into a disease with time. Thus it is preferable to not only treat a single patch and forget about the underlying immunity because it will not do any good to prevent the spread of the disease to other parts of the body.

Homoeopathic treatment works by trying to regulate the body’s immunity to prevent it from attacking skin cells and stimulate these cells to produce melanin. This procedure also corrects the after effects of factors which cause Vitiligo such as stress, exposure to chemicals and thyroid gland hormonal disorders.

How can Homoeopathy be of Help in Vitiligo Treatment?

If you are looking for safe solution to your Vitiligo condition without side effects then you are heading in the right direction because unlike other long conventional techniques to treat Vitiligo, Homoeopathy has no side effects.

There are however different factors which count in determining the extent to which this technique can help in the treating  Vitiligo, which include; the location, extent and size of patches and also if you have a family history of auto-immunity to melanocytes