Pigment and personality From the moment we are born, life’s experiences start to mould us. We inherit certain character traits from our parents, of course. But, after that, external events and influences begin to have a cumulative effect on the people we become. We are not always conscious of this process at the time. In […] The post Vitiligo changed me appeared first on The Vit Pro (A Vitiligo Blog ..read more

If, like me, you are always keen to learn as much about vitiligo as you possibly can, you will have done a lot of research and collected a wealth of medical, personal and general information on the subject. And, in the course of your reading, you may have come across the word poliosis. But, unless you have a medical background or first-hand experience of it yourself, you may not know what it means. If, on the other hand, you do already know, you may still be wondering is poliosis the same as vitiligo? Well, I’m guessing you have a good understanding of what vitiligo is. But what do you know a ..read more

Pigment loss and vision I was just a toddler when my vitiligo started. My parents had no idea what the small white patches were that appeared on my skin for no apparent reason. The tiny areas of discolouration on my spine and ankle bone were mysterious, to be sure. But no great cause for concern. However, when one eyelid became inflamed, lost its normal colour and several lashes turned white, my mother became anxious and took me to the doctor. The diagnosis was one she had never heard of before… Vitiligo, a supposedly harmless condition that removed pigment from the skin. It was untreatable bu ..read more

Spoiler alert: NO, but here’s why some people might ask Some bloggers like to pose intriguing questions in their titles, then take their readers on an exhaustive tour of the subject, only revealing the answer in the closing paragraph waaaayyy down the bottom of the page. I know I have done this more than a few times myself. But, as I write this, I find myself wanting to answer the question Can you catch vitiligo? simply and clearly right at the outset, rather than risk losing anyone’s attention along the way. For one thing, I would not want anyone who didn’t already know the answer (a resoundi ..read more

Why are extremities so prone to depigmentation and so hard to repigment? Vitiligo can occur absolutely anywhere on the body. (Even on the inside.) No area of skin is off limits as far as this pigmentary disorder is concerned, two of the most common sites being the face and the extremities. (Well, that makes three sites really, since extremities comprise both hands and feet.) But, whereas facial vitiligo responds relatively well to currently available therapies, hands and feet are notoriously resistant. Meaning that these are often among the last areas to improve. And sometimes they never impro ..read more

Marketing products AND awareness Advertising is all around us all the time. Each new year – and 2024 will be no exception – advertisers bombard us with hundreds of thousands of advertising messages. They start with the January sales. Then come spring breaks, summer vacations and every imaginable activity and event connected to outdoor sports. Before we know what happened, it’s back-to-school gear and tempting holiday ads, not just for the winter season but the following summer too. Then, as we approach Halloween and Bonfire Night, it steps up a gear. Next comes the build-up to Thanksgiving, wh ..read more

Don’t let anxiety spoil the celebrations From one new year to the next life is full of celebrations. Whether it’s Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan or Hanukkah, there are always wonderful reasons for people to get together. And that’s before you even factor in birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, retirements, and all manner of other great excuses for a party. On top of which, who said we even have to have a reason to celebrate? Every sociable group activity, from pub quizzes to choir practice, yoga class to football matches, can turn into a celebration. These are all occasions tha ..read more

How long is a piece of string? For most of my life vitiligo felt like a problem with no solution. A mystery without an explanation. A question without an answer. Eventually, I was lucky enough to find some answers for myself. And, even if I didn’t succeed in explaining the mystery behind it, I did at least manage to reverse my own vitiligo. Meanwhile, science and society at large were beginning to come up with bigger answers. Research, awareness campaigning and online access to information all played a part in an ongoing demystification of vitiligo. And yet, there is one common question that n ..read more

Ironies and contradictions In part 1 of this article I referred to some of the mysteries and complexities that still surround vitiligo, even after a decade or more of increased awareness and scientific progress. Finding answers to these can feel a lot like searching for one particular pebble on a very large beach. But the search iteself can be illuminating, whether you stumble upon that one elusive pebble or not. So, to round off my thoughts on the subject, Why vitiligo is so confusing, part 2 will focus on some of the ironies and contradictions that continue to fascinate and infuriate me abou ..read more

Part 1: mysteries and complexities Assuming you landed on this page intentionally, you are probably looking for information about vitiligo. And, unless you are completely new to the topic, you will have discovered that any search containing the word vitiligo returns a lot of results. (Well in excess of 60 million at my last count.) That’s a lot of information. So it’s not surprising that some of it is helpful and some is not. Articles and websites on the subject range from scientific to social, factual to frivolous, informative to inaccurate. (Which is probably a pretty good description of the ..read more