Vitiligo Treatment Options
This post has been written with a perspective to pass on a little knowledge about vitiligo treatment.
We will believe that all our efforts put into this writing about treatment for this condition have not at all gone to vain if you get some advantages from reading it.
However only if you have got interest in learning more about the types of vitiligo treatment you read this article. It offers a lot of information about the various kinds of treatment options
Treatment Options
Treatment involves either pigmenting the specific affected area by use of ultraviolet light or depigmenting your normal skin if the disorder has affected large part of your body. This article is going to focus on the various remedies
What is Vitiligo?
It refers to a disorder resulting from the dysfunction or death of the cells that are normally responsible for melanocytes i.e. skin pigmentation. This condition usually leads to depigmentation of the skin thus resulting in white patches occurring on the skin.
In terms of treating this disorder, it is normally the removal of white patches and not the vitiligo itself. Currently, very many firms are creating natural products that can treat the white patches.
However, there are some effective home remedies as well as other things which can be done for treatment.
UVA and UVB: Exactly what is the difference?
UVA provides a longer wavelength than UVB. UVA is commonly used in commercial tanning salons. For the treatment of vitiligo however, UVA is pretty ineffective unless the sufferer is also cared for with a photosensitizing medication like psoralen.
The actual combination of psoralen as well as UVA light is referred to as PUVA (Psoralen and UVA light).
Physicians now a lot more generally use UVB mainly because it has been shown to be an efficient and effective form of phototherapy and doesn't need psoralen.
Treating vitiligo within a tanning salon could very well be dangerous since attendants will not be medically trained plus the potency of the light equipment may differ significantly.
Evidence is escalating that overuse of UVA leads to initiating some dangerous skin cancers.
Is PUVA a kind of repigmentation therapy?
Absolutely yes, it really is. Psoralen itself does not have any therapeutic benefit. It's a plant extract. Psoralen drugs improve the overall energy from UVA light.
Consumed in pill form or applied topically to the skin, psoralen interacts with UVA and increases its effect. It is just like adding a chemical magnifying lens to the light beam.
Psoralen would make the skin more responsive to UVA light, which in turn penetrates deeper into the skin.
So how is PUVA used?
Whenever vitiligo is limited to few small areas, psoralen could be topically placed on affected areas before UVA treatment.
Nevertheless, psoralen is generally given in pill form. PUVA treatments occur in a doctor's office.
A doctor knows precisely how much time should elapse in between the patient taking the pill or applying psoralen topically and exposing the lesions to UVA light.
PUVA may be put together with other therapies. PUVA therapy combined with epidermal grafting may be used for areas of vitiligo that happen to be unresponsive to PUVA therapy alone.
PUVA care is usually given two or three times weekly. Initially, exposure to UVA may well be very short depending upon the patient's type of skin and also the type of UVA device.
Exposure time will slowly and gradually increase with continued therapy. Acceptable repigmentation typically requires 1?3 years of treatment.
Just How effectiveiis PUVA?
Topical or systemic PUVA therapies are very well established treatments for non segmental vitiligo. Treatment with PUVA has far more than a 50% probability of returning color on the face, trunk, upper arms as well as upper legs. Feet and hands respond very poorly.
So how exactly does PUVA induce repigmentation?
PUVA results in a systemic and local suppression of the body's immune system, which stops melanocyte destruction and growth of vitiligo skin lesions.
PUVA also stimulates and encourages the division of melanocytes, which results in their repopulation in lesions. Additionally, PUVA brings about stimulation of melanin production by way of the melanocytes.