Vitiligo, also known as vitiligo, white epidermis, and white bruises in Chinese medicine, is a skin persistent disease characterized by skin pigment loss due to some unknown causes of endocrine and immune dysfunction of the body, resulting in damage to autologous melanocytes and loss of melanocytes from the epidermis to form white spots. It can occur on any part of the skin of the whole body, especially on the head, face, neck, buttocks, back of hands, etc. It does not affect the health of patients, but mostly occurs on exposed parts, so it brings great distress to patients. Usually, the initial appearance is a limited white spot or patch on one part of the body, ranging from the size of a grain of rice to a fingernail, single or disseminated. The majority of patients find white spots on their skin by chance without feeling anything, but some patients have clear triggering factors, such as drug and cosmetic allergies, too long exposure to sunlight at the beach or during travel, after trauma and infection, mental trauma, etc. The white spots develop slowly and gradually after the onset of the disease, initially gradually increasing in size at the primary site, about 2 to 5 months can be found in other parts of the new white spots, there are a few patients white spots are limited to local, not spreading, that is, stable type. The reason why the skin has pigment is because there are melanocytes in the human skin, black, white, yellow, brown and other different skin color is because of the different content of melanin, recent research shows that the occurrence of vitiligo, is due to various factors caused by the local skin and hair follicles within the melanin synthesis disorder. The synthesis of melanin is inseparable from tyrosine and tyrosinase, of which tyrosine is taken from food, tyrosinase is synthesized by the body, and its activity is closely related to certain metal elements such as copper, zinc, iron, when the tyrosine-tyrosinase system in melanocytes is reduced or damaged, it will affect melanin metabolism, and thus vitiligo occurs.
At present, the incidence of vitiligo in our country is about 1% to 2%, just according to the director of the Department of Dermatology of the Air Force General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, Cai Ruikang, the number of incidence is now increasing, and to the low age development, the youngest only a few months old. It is also difficult to prevent because the cause of the disease is different for each person. But there have been some new breakthroughs in the treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the kidney is the master of blackness, so the method of kidney supplementation is adopted and has some efficacy. In recent years, photochemotherapy is more commonly used, i.e. applying tonic glutelin to the affected area and then irradiating it with ultraviolet light, thus controlling the development of the affected skin and further darkening it to reach the same color as the surrounding skin. In addition, you can also use the autologous epidermal transplantation treatment method, which is to move your own normal epidermis to the white spot, so that the melanocytes it carries can produce melanin in the affected area, so that the affected skin is restored to normal.
It is important to note that the treatment of vitiligo, like other diseases, the earlier the better, but such as Xiaojuan patients, but should maintain optimistic mood, modern advanced medical technology has made this “immortal terminal disease” can be cured, the tube has the possibility of recurrence, but the cure rate is also improving. Not to mention the optimism and mood is also conducive to the treatment of the disease. Of course, it should be noted that the treatment of the disease is still a rather long process, and only perseverance can restore the health of the past earlier.