Continuing where I left off at Part-I of this article, it would be important to understand how vitiligo mentally affects our daily lives. The best way to discuss about it then would be to logically divide our lives in stages and see what sort of challenges vitiligo poses at each such stage. The article also presents ways of dealing with this problem at different stages.

Infancy stage : It is not clear if vitiligo can be present in an infant. This is hugely possible perhaps only due to heredetical reasons. If the problem does occur, as an infant the kid itself is in a stage where it cannot understand the problem and understand others’ reactions to this problem. Grooming such kids as they grow older to grow with a better understanding of this problem is a very important step for the parents at this stage. There is no way in which parents can afford to be grief stricken over the occurance of this problem on their kids. Take it with your stride, enlist way to start combatting the prevalent social menace.

Schooling stage : Any problem surfacing with students has profound impact on their lives at this age. Vitiligo is no different in this case. The social discrimination begins to descend on to the kid and the nature of the situation is compounded, as the impact of this skin problem is also felt by kids of this age. There are all chances that such kids may not perform well at school due to the social pressures, and may even earn low grades. Some even turn into a mental wreck. The only way to get over this problem is to keep the kid occupied in other pastimes which diverts the mind away from the problem the kid is facing. For example a regular gym workout schedule or perhaps games schedules involving just the kid and the parent would help to a large extent. That way we can ensure that the kid atleast has some time in the day where he does not worry about the problem. What happens at school during socializing is something not in control of the parents, but it helps if the parents allow the kid to discuss it out with them if he is feeling low on any given day. The best way probably is to not keep asking the kid about his day at school, to avoid any more tormenting and compounding the stress.

In both stages above, a regular diet with less of sour/citric stuff is helpful in combatting the problem. A dose of psoralen and good exposure to sunlight every morning for about 10-15 minutes will do a world of good. If your country does not provide good sunlight, you might even want to compromise and think of moving to a place that does! Diet and stress situation control are the two key things that can keep the problem stable and prevent the patches from spreading all over the body (in case of partial vitiligo situations)

Adoloscence : This is the age where the individual will be in his early 20s and the seeds of knowledge are sown into his mind. This is the time when the person would be gearing up for making big decisions in life. Vitiligo can strike a nasty blow to this process, stumping the person completely. It could lead to a very depressive situation if not attended to with utmost importance. This is the right time to fill in the individual with knowledge and above all hope, that the problem is not something that is going to take his life away from him. The general immediate concerns would be that of a job and marriage. The former is NOT at all a concern as no organization discriminates you for an opportunity based on a skin condition. The latter however, can be a concern for sometime and would be solved in many different ways. In an ever modernized society its only natural that there would be a person who understands your problem in a tec

hnical sense and is willing to support you. You could still be married with people having the same vitiligo. Always remember that there is a certain give and take in any marriage. You say “YES” because you find something profitable in a relationship with your would-be spouse. The feeling is reciprocal as well from the other side. Having said this then, there would always be a person in this world who you would eventually find one day, and who wants solace from you as an answer to their own problems. The understaning of life and in general the relationships gets only better for people having Vitiligo and they learn to appreciate the small good things which bring cheer in life, rather than money, materialistic comforts and flashy lifestyles!

Having kids: If you are married to a partner without vitiligo, there are less chances your kid will have it too. If no one in your family has had the problem as a heredity, your kid is unlikely to have it too. Even if your kid would probably get this problem down the line sometime in his life, its very immportant that couples with vitiligo, provide a stress free life to their kids and conform to certain specific (non citric) diets, and provide good exercise and sunlight exposure to their kids. If this is done religiously, history wont repeat again.

By this stage any individual would be happy and content with his life that he no more needs to bother about the problem itself! Remember that excessive medication or treatment could be harmful in the longer run, and its always best to use natural sources of Vitamin D such as sunlight and maintain a regular healthy diet and exercise schedule.

VITILIGO IS NOT THE END OF YOUR LIFE. ITS THE BEGINNING — OF A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT LIFE.

For personal support on this issue, you can contact me via the comments form and I shall help you deal with your stress.

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This blog entry is particularly provided to help people understand the problem of vitiligo or leucoderma and deal with both the physica and social impact it causes in one’s life. Vitiligo or Leucoderma is in layman’s terms the appearances of white patches on the skin of the individual. Both terms mean the same thing, and in a more technical perspective, your skin has cells called melanocytes which produce a colouration called melanin. When these cells lose the ability to produce the colour, pigmentation occurs causing white patches. There are three types of Vitiligo, one which is minimal and only on some parts of the body, one which is lateral which occurs either on the front or back side of the body and one which is total, ie., the pathces are many and sporadic all over the body from head to foot.

The most immediate impact is a social stigma caused by this problem becuase of which we feel inferior to move around with normal looking people. This behaviour stems from the concern of what people would be discussing about you and your problem behind your back. This very concern increases the stress which increases Vitiligo. It is important to understand what causes Vitiligo and how to control the spread and impact caused by the problem. The most common cause of vitiligo is supposedly said to be Stress. Partly it is also caused due to heredity. Stress can be better defined as a state of affair involving demand on physical or mental energy. It is any condition that exhausts either of these energies. Having said that, the common examples of stress could be a fight you pick up with a friend or relative, or a nasty situation at office where you and your boss dont agree, or even situations where you are worried because you think too much about an uncertaintity and compound the worries in you. When such situations occur it is understood that all the blood flow in the body is provided to more important organs, but not the skin cells. These cells are of least priority and are not cared for in these situations. This kills the melanin cells rendering the skin area white and patchy.

Coming to the issue of social stigma, the effects are a bit disastrous. You dont feel like talking to people about your problem, you dont want anyone in the public to see you or stare at you. You dont feel like attending public functions or parties for the scare of people finding out your problem and enquiring about it with you. You are threatened about the impossibility of your marriage or having kids and in general about the way you lead your normal life. In short you even head towards a depression of some sort. Its not uncommon for people to act panicky about each and every small problem you face about your health during the appearance of Vitiligo. You also tend to associate each and every change in your skin and attribute it to the spread of your problem.

Having said this much on this well known problems, its important you also know what are the treatment options available. The most common is standing in sunlight. Of course you would need to take tablets containing Psoralen, a chemical that would that react with ultraviolet (UV) light to cause darkening of the skin. If sunlight every morning does not seem to work, you go to the next stage of treatment which includes PUVA and PUVB (Psoralen ultra violet) light therapy for about 3 times a week for 10-15 minutes per session. Be advised that this treatment can cause side effects of skin cancer and cataract, the latter being more prominent if you dont safeguard your eyes while getting treated. The next option avaialble for a possible improvement of the spots, would be to undergo a cosmetic surgery of sorts. This surgery is of three types, progressively becoming more modern. The first
is to make a skin graft, that is take skin from good sections and graft them to the patched areas. The second is to do a punch graft, that is to take skin from a good section, divide it into many little pieces and punch them onto the patchy areas after which they start multiplying in that region. The last and perhaps the most modern is the melanocyte transplant procedure. In this procedure, the skin from good regions is removed, and put into a centrifuge machine, where after some time, the cells are seperated out of the skins. The solution containing the cells are then applied on the patchy areas after they are sufficently prepared to receive these live melanocytes (skin cells). These cells then thrive on the patchy regions and produce the necessary colour, reducing patches on the skin.

All these procedures always dont produce results. The results largely depend on the individual’s body constitution and his stress levels. Yes they are a good try, but not always sucessful to the extent of 100%. The next part of this article will explain how to deal with the social stigma caused due to vitiligo.

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