Vitiligo is also known as leukoderma and is a disease which affects the pigmentation of the skin.
Doctors and scientists have been working on the affliction for decades, yet little has been resolved regarding an actual cure.
Even though a vitiligo cure hasn't yet been created, that doesn't mean the affliction can't be controlled.
Explaining Vitiligo Vitiligo is the end product of three major factors in your life.
How extreme these factors become and how you live your life can have a bearing on originally contracting the disease and affect your chances of recovery.
The three factors are genetics, lifestyle and environment.
Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease whereby an imbalance manifests itself as dying cells, which causes skin pigmentation alterations.
When cells start to die, the melanin that they produced is lost from an area of tissue and this causes lighter patches on the body.
At present, doctors have been unable to design a cure or medicine that can reverse the process.
Vitiligo can strike at any time and without warning, so even a person with no symptoms can contract the disease generally when one or more body factors step out of balance.
Explaining Autoimmune The human immune system is very complex and when something moves out of synchronization, conditions can arise which are suitable to the onset of vitiligo.
First things first; get yourself checked out with your local physician.
The chances are you have an existing ailment that you're aware of, but the problem can then allow vitiligo to occur.
Once a diagnosis has been confirmed and in the absence of a vitiligo cure, you can look to halt or slow down the effects of the disease by affecting two of the three determining factors - diet and environment.
Genetics you can do little about; if traces of the disease exist in your family history, you'll always be predisposed to future infection, but you can certainly give yourself back control of the disease in your life by changing your diet and environment.
Diet It has been shown that a poor diet or one lacking in major foodstuffs and certain proteins can leave your immune system weak for protection against viruses and allergies.
Your diet should be balanced and include vegetables, fruits and meats.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are prime sources of the type of antioxidants you need, which help protect molecules in your cells from oxidation and thus decay followed by death.
Although oxidation is natural and required in all life, the complex human immune system requires that certain cells remain intact and the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables help remove the free radicals which can otherwise damage cells that cause the pigmentation decay process.
Maintain a diet that would've been more usual 60 or 70 years ago - fresh produce, meats and fish and remove processed meats and junk food from your diet.
A poor diet can lead the body into viral infection and allergies, even ones you wouldn't be aware you have.
Environment Stress is another factor in leaving a way in for vitiligo and stress is most commonly linked to environment.
This can be affected by any number of factors, but by complimenting your new diet with a healthier more active lifestyle, you can remove unnecessary stresses.
Other environmental stresses can be harder to change, such as where you live or what you do for a job.
Even if you can move house or job, is there a way you can make these environments less stressful? A simple, but vastly overlooked de-stress tool is plant-life.
Get a pot plant for your house or apartment and not only will you freshen up the air with the air purifying processes of the plant, you'll also engender a greater calm in the home.
So as you can see, there's no actual vitiligo cure at present, but there's plenty of steps you can take to ease the symptoms and improve your life with vitiligo.