Vitiligo - Causes Symptoms and Treatment

Vitiligo is a special type of skin disease that comes under leukoderma. Depigmentation is the major characteristic of this skin disease. It is said that at least one in every hundred people will be facing this skin disorder. It affects people irrespective of sex and race. Although in most of the cases, people are seen to develop this skin disease after crossing twenty-five years, even younger people have been witnessed suffering with this disease. On the other hand, people with dark skin are said to be easily exposable to this disease. The skin disease Vitiligo is also associated with some dangerous inflammatory and autoimmune diseases as well. In most of the cases, it is associated with diseases like thyroid underexpression and overexpression.

Causes of Vitiligo

Vitiligo will also have a huge effect on the hair scalp. Usually, when it comes to hair scalp, this disease will leave white streaks or patches on hair. It will also affect the body and facial hair as well. Heredity could also be the reason for suffering this disease. In fact, over thirty percent of people suffering from this skin disorder have acquired it from their family members. Nearly 7% percent of people suffering with this disease are due to the hereditary characteristics transferred by their parents. The skin of some people with this disease is seen to have some sort of patches. Stress is also one of the major causes of Vitiligo. Some other common causes of this skin disease are like immune hypothesis, neural hypothesis, self-destruction hypothesis, genetic hypothesis etc.

Symptoms of Vitiligo

White patches are one of the most common symptoms of Vitiligo skin disease. Obviously, it is occurred due to the depigmentation of the skin. In some cases, the people with vitiligo would have witnessed gray scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes. Some people have also witnessed the change in color on retina, which is nothing but the inner layer of an eye. Changes in color of the mucous membranes, which form the lining of the tissue, are some other common symptoms as well.

Treatment of Vitiligo

The good news for people suffering with vitiligo skin disease is that there is a wide array of treatment available for treating this disorder. Speaking about the major treatments, nobody can ignore the fact that PUVA treatment will be the first name suggested for treating vitiligo skin disease. The treatment method PUVA involves employment of some special compounds like trimethylpsoralen, 5-methoxypsoralen, 8-methoxypsolaren and UVA. PUVA is used for treating all patients including those who have developed this condition seriously. On the other hand, surgical transplants are also carried out for people who have stable activity and small vitiligo areas.

Topical steroid therapy, which will make use of some steroid creams, will be another good way to treat this skin disease. This therapy is actually to bring up re-pigmentation and thereby, to eliminate the white patches. Psoralen photochemotherapy is also one of the most popular methods for treating vitiligo, which is especially employed in USA. UV rays are also employed in this type of therapy.