Essay On Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a skin disorder in which white patches of skin appear on different parts of the body. Only about .5-1 percent of the world’s population has vitiligo. I personally have this condition on my knees, ankles, hands, and armpits but vitiligo also can cause depigment in people’s hair and eyes. It can appear on anyone at any age and any sex but has a larger contrast on people with darker skin. This disorder is not contagious by any means and although this disease is not life threatening, experts are still unaware why people are affected and how to cure vitiligo.
Vitiligo is a disorder in which the melanocytes, also known as skin cells, attack each other in certain areas of the body. This issue is called an autoimmune disorder which occurs when the immune system attacks the body's own tissues and organs (Get the Facts on Causes and Treatment). They do this because the white blood cells think that there are foreign objects that shouldn’t be in that part of the body and proceed to attack each
other. You can also have depigment from a place on the body that is rubbed frequently; vitiligo has even been connected to someone who has been through a strong emotional trauma after this has happened vitiligo has appeared
There are different kinds of vitiligo; I am affected by the one that comes up in blotches, mainly on my joint areas also in a butterfly effect meaning that if it comes up on one side of my body it shows on the other side. This type of vitiligo is non-segmental vitiligo which is the autoimmune side of vitiligo. Studies have suggested another type of vitiligo, segmental vitiligo, when something in the body’s nervous system goes awry this form of vitiligo is produced (Genetics Home Reference).
Usually you can tell easily whether a person has vitiligo or not so there is no specific testing that has to be done.
As it was stated earlier there is no threat to the person’s life that has vitiligo; it can be emotionally traumatic. As vitiligo can appear on the face and areas of the body that others that do not have vitiligo can see. Granted, there is no cure for this disorder there are some treatments you can come about. One of these is the one I mainly use, is the tropical gel that you apply directly to the infected section. Another simple way is taking a pill orally; both of these methods are used to help restore the skin's color by reestablishing healthy melanocytes to the skin allowing the skin to repigment. You can also surgically remove the region that is affect and transplant healthy skin to that area. All of these methods only have about a fifteen percent chance of working and take a prolonged time to take effect (American Osteopathic College of
Dermatology).