Vitiligo Skin Problem

Skin is a larger component of body and being outer most layer add a  major contribution to the beauty and grace of a person. Normally women are more consciences about skin care. Spots, patches and blotches of  Different types appear on skin which affect your skin hardly. This is a  brief post about the skin condition  which is characterized by white spots on skin; vitiligo.
 
Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder, which occurs due to the abnormal functionality of body own immune system. There are some other skin condition  also exist which causes white spots on skin and normally mistaken to vitiligo. But among all such skin condition which cause white patches on skin vitiligo is the most commonest one.  Other skin conditions which causes white patches in skin like  Tinea Versicolor, Nevus depigmentosus, Pityriasis Alba and  Albinism etc  Vitiligo is the most common skin condition.

It would not be exaggeration we say that vitiligo is two fold skin condition which not only affects your skin but give a hard emotional distress due to its ugly appearance.  It hardly suffer the social interaction of a person.


What are the causes of vitiligo
Pigmentation or discoloration of skin    
Color Producing Cells Melanocytes and Melanin


What are the causes of vitiligo

White patches of vitiligo appear due the destruction of melanocytes skin cells in a  particular part of skin. Upper layer of skin contain  special skin cells melanocytes, these are pigment making cells of skin. These cells produce pigmentation for the skin the pigmentation substance called “melanin”. Melanin is responsible for the specific skin coloration. When a damage of melanocytes cells causes deficiency of the melanin in the skin  as a result, white patches of skin appear on different parts of the body. The hair may also turn white that grows in areas affected by Vitiligo.

So it is clear vitiligo appear due to the deficiency pigmentation in skin parts having vitiligo spots. But it is not  clear,  Why Color producing cells are destroyed, there are many theories in this regards. Most reliable causes about the cells destructions   are auto-immunity, genetics, emotional distress and the severe sunburn.

 

Pigmentation or discoloration of skin and vitiligo

Pigmentation disorder we talk about is normally referred as depigmentation in skin. Depigmentation means lake of pigmentation. Some time it happen that over pigmentation occurs in skin such condition referred as hyper-pigmentation in skin.
Any skin color either white or black look well without the appearance of different type of spots or blotches on skin. So a healthy and smooth pigmentation process is necessary for the healthy skin.

Pigmentation is a regular process of skin in which skin cell produce pigments for skin continuously. Disturbance in this process results in the appearance of different type of spots in the skin.


Melanocytes and Melanin and Vitiligo

As being the pigmentation producing cell of skin melanocytes have important role in skin condition vitiligo occurrence. Melanocytes provide special coloring substance melanin to the skin called melanin. Besides color providing melanin is also important in saving our body form Ultra Violet rays present in sunlight.

Excess of melanin in body causes hyper-pigmentation and lack of melanin causes vitiligo (depigmentation ). If body produce too much melanin it causes hyper-pigmentation and in inverse case if produces low melanin it causes hypo pigmentation in skin.

Depigmentation and White Spots on Skin

Depigmentation occurs when  melanocytes cells produces  a low quantity of  melanin.
Hypo-pigmentation or depigmentation, ratio of such problems is less than that of hyper-pigmentation problems. Normally such skin condition causes  white patches on skin.
In depigmentation the skin becomes lighter as compared to its surrounding.  Example of skin condition causes depigmentation are nevus depigmentosus (quite stable scars may appear any part of body), Pityriasis Alba (a common condition in children), Idiopathic guttate hypomelanosis, vitiligo and  white scars due to injuries.


Hyper Pigmentation  

Basically it is opposite to vitiligo. Hyper pigmentation  occurs due the excess of  melanin in a particular part of the body.
It is Hyper-pigmentation due to which  dark spots appear in skin. These spots may be of reddish, black or brown in color. Severe sunburn is the major cause of such type of pigmentation problems. A common example of hyper pigmentation is melasma in which dark spots appear on the cheeks and top of nose.