Vitiligo is a skin disease, which manifests itself in the form of disappearance of the pigment in certain areas of the skin. The causes of this disease have not yet been accurately established, and treatment is usually lengthy, complex and not always successful.
Most often, the appearance of white spots is observed on the hands, elbows, knees, face. Vitiligo does not cause physical harm, but often causes psychological discomfort due to a pronounced cosmetic defect. That is why most of the victims are primarily concerned with the question: how to get rid of the external manifestations of vitiligo?
Causes and Symptoms of Vitiligo
Vitiligo is manifested only by symptoms in the form of whitening of individual skin areas. In rare cases, before the appearance of new spots, there may be slight peeling or itching on the affected areas, which are of short duration.
White spots appear due to the destruction of the skin pigment - melanin, which causes discoloration of the skin and hair on the affected areas. One of the possible causes of this disease is considered disruption of the endocrine system. Also, the factors that provoke vitiligo include various stresses and poisoning with certain chemicals. But in the latter case, after removing these substances from the body, the spots disappear.
How to cure vitiligo?
More recently, it was thought that this disease does not respond to treatment, but at the moment a number of techniques are used that help to return the skin normal color. There is no single medicine for vitiligo, so treatment should be comprehensive.
- Treatment with ultraviolet . The method consists in taking special preparations (psoralens), which increase the susceptibility to ultraviolet rays, and simultaneous irradiation of the affected areas with ultraviolet light.
- The use of external, usually hormonal, agents that prevent the destruction of melanocytes. The most common ointments from vitiligo include Protopic, Elidel.
- The use of agents that stimulate the production of melanin . These drugs include melagenin, as well as various curative creams from vitiligo (for example, Vitasan).
- Laser treatment . A relatively new method of treating vitiligo, highly effective, but costly. In addition, with it, relapse of the disease is not uncommon.
- Skin whitening . It is used in cases when more than 70% of the skin is affected. In fact, the treatment is not and is aimed exclusively at masking the skin defect.
- Vitamins for vitiligo . This method is not fully curative, but it is usually included in the course of maintenance therapy, as vitiligo often has a deficiency of vitamins C , B1, B2 and PP, which is replenished by injection.
Folk methods of treatment of vitiligo
- Treatment of vitiligo with aspirin. External application of aspirin is considered to be a rather effective method. For this it is recommended to dilute 2.5 grams of aspirin (5 regular tablets) per 200 milliliters of apple cider vinegar and lubricate the affected
sites twice a day until the spots disappear. - There are a number of products that are recommended to rub into the skin with vitiligo: tincture of red pepper (for 5-20 minutes, then wash off), the juice of the roots of parsnip, fresh strawberry juice.
- To mask light spots in the skin rub the tincture from walnut leaves or rhubarb juice (1-2 times a day). These drugs do not have a pronounced curative effect, but they stain the skin and mask the spots.
In the end I would like to draw your attention to the fact that patients with vitiligo need to be cautious about prolonged exposure to the sun and use sunscreens , since pigmented areas quickly burn out.