Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease. A disease that causes the loss of skin color on blotches. It occurs when pigment producing cells die or stop functioning.

The discolored areas usually get bigger with time. The condition of the kin can affect any part of body including hair and inside mouth. Vitiligo affects all skin type peoples but well marked in people with dark skin.

It is not contagious and life threatening. People with vitiligo may feel anxious and embarrassed about their skin. People sometimes become rude and it causes person to develop low self –esteem which may lead to anxiety or depression.

The types of vitiligo are:

Generalized: common type when patches appear on various parts of the body.

Segmental: patches develop on one side or one area of the body.

Mucosal:  affects mucous membrane of the body.

Focal: rare type in which patches develop in small area and do not spread in certain areas within one or two years. 

Trichrome: there is white or colorless center, then area of light pigmentation and then normal skin.

Universal: another rare type in which more than 80% the skin of the body lacks pigment.

Symptoms

The symptoms of vitiligo include:

• White Patches, loss of skin color, usually appears first on hands, face, and areas around body openings and genitals.
• Graying or premature whitening of hair on scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, or beard.
• Loss of color in tissue that lies inside mouth and nose.

Vitiligo can appear at any age but generally appears before age of 30.

 Does homeopathy treat vitiligo?

Homeopathy believes in treating the person as a whole not just the disease therefore it corrects the imbalance of the immune system internally rather than any external application.

At the level of immune system by correcting the over activity or dysfunction homeopathy tries to treat the root cause of disease.

It reduces the destruction of skin and helps to regain the normal skin color by stimulating skin pigments melanocytes to generate melanin. It controls the further progression of the disease. The goal of the homeopathy is to make skin uniform.

Duration of homeopathic treatment

As vitiligo is an autoimmune chronic disorder and considered as incurable by many doctors it requires long-term treatment. Patient starts responding to treatment in 4 to 8 weeks, most of the patients shows improvement in the initial 4 to 6 months of homeopathic treatment by slowing the progress or spreading of the disease and by repigmentation.

The time span of the treatment depend on the factors like number of patches, size of patches, mild or severe form, location of vitiligo, age of patient, family history and other illness.

Causes

Vitiligo is mainly caused by the lack of pigment called melanin in the skin, genetic, hormonal and immunological factors play important role

The other causes are:

Autoimmune disorder

Genetic factors and family history

Injury

Neurogenic factors

Self-destruction of melanocyte

Physical or emotional stress

People with hyperthyroidism, diabetes, pernicious anemia, Addison’s disease and alopecia areata are more prone to have vitiligo.

Conventional treatment

Topical and oral immunomodulators

Phototherapy

Oral steroids

Surgery

Homeopathic medicines for vitiligo

• Arsenic sulfuratum flavum
• Hydrocotyle asiatica
• Carcinoscin
• Syphilinum
• Kali carbonica
• Silica
• Calcarea phos
• phosphorous