Skin Health Care

Archive for the ‘Vitiligo’ Category

Vitiligo is a skin disease that destroys the melanocytes, these are the pigment cells that will give a tone to our skin (which causes white patches in different parts of the body). The definitive cure for vitiligo is not known yet, but there are some traeatments that can help.

The causes of vitiligo are largely hereditary, but research continues to explore other factors that may cause the development of the disease.

Due to the nature and origins of the vitiligo disease treatments that exist today are addressed in terms of development time of illness, severity of symptoms and type of treatment the patient wants to continue.

We can divide the treatments for vitiligo in 3 major fields.

Medical treatments
- Creams: are ointments to be applied directly to the skin, which usually contains steroids to strengthen the pigment .- Drugs: These are taken orally as tablets or capsules (as directed by your doctor.)
- PUVA: this is a therapy that involves taking combination drug therapy with application of ultraviolet (UVA).

Surgical treatments:
- Skin grafts: tissue is removed surgically from healthy areas of the patient to be transplanted to the sectors concerned (when the disease is not very widespread).
- Tattoos: this technique will be used to cover areas where the skin pigment is gone, usually in very mild disease.

Other treatments:
- Using Filters and sunscreens to avoid suffering which changes color and are more noticeable stains.
- Cosmetics: here come all those non-invasive procedures and are not permanent and makeup.

There is currently no treatment that can provide a safe cure for vitiligo, but if you can offer the patient a better quality of life. Are still investigating the causes, symptoms, reactions and solutions for definitive treatment.

The cause of doctor’s visit is mainly to improve aesthetics. However, sometimes the best treatment is not any treatment.

General: Your doctor will explain about its condition and what to expect from the proposed treatment. The white areas affected by vitiligo have no natural protection against the sun and they can very easily be burned by sunlight, so it is recommended to use sunscreen with a protection factor of at least 15 in all areas affected discovered.

Topical treatment. To the affected skin based drugs (natural or synthetic psoralens) is the most effective. Also the use of cosmetic creams, artificial can be a relief to patient dissatisfaction with their spots.

Systemic treatment. Psoralens also be used orally in cases of extensive vitiligo, but please keep in mind that its action is not limited only to skin pigment but also affect normal skin.

There have tried other vitiligo treatments such as corticosteroids, drugs to regulate the immune response and application of autografts tattoos with very inconsistent. Psychotherapy, even if superficial, is of great help.

Sometimes the doctor can also support the use of medications to reduce distress and anxiety that the patient feels about his condition.

Causes
No one knows the origin of vitiligo disease. Several theories have been formulated in this regard such as immunological factors (body’s defense mechanisms), which act against the melanocyte or prevent the formation of melanin. Sometimes you can find a history of significant emotional distress or a sudden emotional shock (accident, death in the family, sexual identity problems, among others.), So we think that vitiligo may be a cutaneous equivalent of anxiety or its consequences. Finally, there is also a hereditary factor involved, since between 20 and 30% of those affected have a family history of the same problem.

Events
The only known manifestation is the appearance of white spots on the skin. The patient gradually lose the color in the affected area, the depigmentation, usually first appears in their hands then slowly affect the face and other body regions. In advanced cases the affected individual has skin discoloration around the body, so it resembles a albino absence of pigment in the skin throughout the body, eyelashes, eyebrows and hair.
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Vitiligo
It is a skin disease that has important implications for health, and that those affected tend to have a preoccupied state variable, sometimes with real anguish and despair, the disease is usually cause especially in children of rejection and ridicule, as significantly altering self-esteem and well being of the sufferer, in addition to any skin changes due to the inability to protect it from solar radiation.

Considerations
Vitiligo is not contagious and deadly disease, is an alteration in the pigmentation of the skin in which melanocytes (cells that produce melanin, which provides the color or our skin’s natural pigment) are destroyed or removed. This disease is the fifth leading cause of consultation in dermatology services, affects two in every 100 people and can occur at any age, yet 50% of cases occur before age 20. Patients present areas with white spots on them, the study is a clear absence of melanocytes. The hair and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and mouth can also become targets in the affected areas.

Complications
This condition does not affect physical health, but it can affect the emotional health of the sufferer to generate anxiety and low self-esteem. In addition, people with vitiligo are more susceptible to skin cancer by sunlight and that their tolerance to UV radiation is much lower.